Fintech One-On-One

Small business lending is still not a solved problem in this country, or anywhere around the world for that matter, despite a decade or more attacking the problem. But today, we are seeing some new business models and new go-to-market approaches that have the potential to make a huge difference. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Luke Voiles, the CEO of Pipe . Luke has been around...

Embedded finance is a term that has only been around for a relatively short time. But some fintech companies have created services that could be embedded in non-financial firms for many years. It really began in the payments space and became a part of lending and we often called it lending-as-a-service before embedded lending was a thing. One of the pioneers of embedded lending is LiftForward . My...

Even though banks have been going through digital transformation now for a decade or more there is obviously so much work still to be done. Big banks need help with this process, particularly when it comes to personalization as banks have historically provided products that were more in the one-size-fits-all category. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Amalia Avramov, she is the pr...

When you think of cutting edge fintech you probably don't think about the Caribbean. But some interesting developments are happening there that we should all be paying attention to. On this episode of the Fintech One-on-One podcast, I talk with Curt Persaud, the Co-founder and CTO of Fintech Islands and Andrew B. Morris, the Chief Content Officer at Fintech Islands. This is the biggest fintec...

The small business lending space has seen a lot of innovation over the last decade with fintech leading the way. But there is still much more work to do as many small business still lack the access to capital that they deserve. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Steve Allocca, the head of Funding Circle USA . He has worked at some of the biggest names in fintech (PayPal, LendingClu...

When we think about embedded finance one of the biggest opportunities is bringing financial services to vertical software companies. These software companies already have the relationship within their vertical and it often makes logical sense for them to add financial services as an add-on offering, as long as it is simple and easy to implement. My first guest of 2024 on the Fintech One-on-One pod...

Around the world, several digital banks have achieved impressive scale. But most of these fintech companies have been focused just on their home market. It is difficult to scale a global digital bank because regulations and compliance requirements differ so much between countries. But we have seen some traditional banks achieve scale in multiple countries so there is no reason why we shouldn'...

The Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) have been part of the financial landscape in this country since 1932. They were created (before the New Deal) in response to the housing crisis during the Great Depression. But their role has changed from a focus on housing to becoming a liquidity provider for large banks. And this has had a major impact on our financial system, including the fintech space. My n...

While most of us would agree that we have seen significant innovation in fintech and banking over the last decade, we still don't really have a new framework for how we look at banking. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One is someone who has thought deeply about innovation in banking and he has lived it as a co-founder of some of the biggest names in fintech. Jason Bates is currently the c...

There are many options for raising growth capital for established startups. With all the attention paid to venture capital, we sometimes forget that the vast majority of companies are not funded that way. Revenue-based financing has been around for more than a decade and it is a good alternative for certain types of companies. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Melissa Widner, the...

The use of machine learning models in underwriting for consumer loans has been around for more than a decade. While fintech clearly took the lead here it has really only been the last couple of years where traditional lenders are engaging with this technology. While these AI/ML models are different from the Generative AI craze that has embraced the business world in the past year, this phenomenon...

There has been endless talk in fintech over the past year and a half about the pullback from equity investors and how difficult it is to raise money in this environment. Less is being talked about the debt investment landscape. So, I wanted to bring Jacob Haar, Founder and Managing Partner of Community Investment Management (CIM), back on the show (he was previously a guest in 2015 and 2020 ). He...

Trillions of dollars is spent on credit and debit cards every year in the US. These payments are all processed on one of the most expensive card processing networks in the world, costing merchants tens of billions of dollars. Account-to-account payments, otherwise known as pay-by-bank, is yet to take off in this country but it does have the potential to put some of these card processing dollars ba...

There is no technology that has generated more buzz this year than generative AI. We have all played around with ChatGPT and marveled at its capabilities. But what is really happening with this technology in financial services? Or more importantly, what is going to happen? My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Anu Sachdeva, Global Business and Service Line Leader at  Genpact . She has...

There are tens of millions of Americans who have limited access to credit. Those with thin files or FICO scores below 650 often have difficulty accessing credit. Many have to resort to payday loans or pawn shops when they incur an unexpected expense. But there are fintech companies whose sole focus is serving this population with affordable credit access. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One po...

Medical debt is the number one reason people go bankrupt in the United States. So, you would think there would be a plethora of fintech companies attacking this problem from many angles. And while there are certainly lenders willing to finance medical procedures there are few companies taking a holistic approach to patient financial health. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Itzik...

The people who lead the national banking regulatory agencies typically come from long careers in banking and law with a traditional view of the banking world. But there has been one exception to this rule. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Brian Brooks , the former acting head of the OCC and a current partner at O'Melveny & Myers . Now, don't get me wrong, Brian has...

As recently as six or seven years ago modern payments infrastructure in Latin America didn't really exist. Most countries had a monopoly when it came to payments processing and these monopolies sit on old technology that is difficult and expensive to maintain. A lot has changed today. Digital payments infrastructure has been built and while those old monopoly companies still exist there is no...

In the consumer lending space, fintech lenders have been using AI in their underwriting models for many years. But there are still many consumers who slip through the cracks and get declined for credit when they should have been approved. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Gal Krubiner, the CEO and Co-Founder of Pagaya . They work with a large number of both traditional and fintech...

When you stop and think about it, it is kind of crazy that we don't have a global network for moving money instantly and cheaply. The internet is more than 30 years old now and it seems to me that this should be a solved problem by now. But it isn't, at least not yet. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is David Marcus, the CEO and Co-Founder of Lightspark . If David's n...

One of the richest areas of fintech innovation right now is in instant payments. The launch over the summer of FedNow has brought heightened awareness to instant payments but there have been other offerings available in this country for some time. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is David Watson, the President and CEO of The Clearing House . They are the creator of the first instant...

Much has been written about the student loan challenges for domestic students in this country. But what about international students, those people coming to the U.S. to study for a Master's or Bachelor's program? There are few good loan alternatives for international students as they are ineligible for federal student loan programs. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Manu...

Why is it that, in 2023, we are still getting paid on a fixed schedule? It seems crazy to me that payroll systems that were built for batch processing on mainframe computers still maintain this batch mindset in a world where everything can be instant. We should be able to choose the exact cadence of when and how we want to be paid. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Kevin Coop, the...

The first wave of fintech focused on helping those people who already had money. The bottom half of the population was mostly ignored, and those companies that did try failed to get traction. But in recent years, there has been a new breed of fintech company emerging squarely focused on helping those people who are living on the financial edge. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Ro...

It seems like every day there is a story coming out of Washington that can have a major impact on fintech. Whether it is the CFPB, OCC, SEC, the Fed or new legislation being proposed, fintech companies can be profoundly impacted by what happens in our nation’s capital. That is why it is important to have an independent trade association making our ideas and opinions known. My next guest on the Fin...