American Banker Podcast

Cordray is still keeping everyone guessing about whether he is staying or running for governor of Ohio. And Republicans could weaken the agency by putting one of their own in charge and rolling back many of the rules it's set.

Senate Republicans overturned a CFPB rule that would have prevented banks from forcing arbitration on consumers in disputes. American Banker reporter Kate Berry explains what this means and what the CFPB might do next.    

Women are rare in the upper management teams of fintech companies. Amy Nauiokas, co-founder of venture capital and advisory firm Anthemis Group, shares her take on this problem and the steps the industry could take to fix it.

This week's show is the first episode of a new spinoff, Breaking Banks Asia, hosted by Simon Spencer, founder of startup advisory firm Edgelabs.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard explains why community banks feel they were hit with unduly tough regulations after the financial crisis.

Two realistic utopians -- David Orban, founder of the London think tank Network Society Research, and Himi Khan, executive V.P. at the virtual assistant tech startup Clinc – join the show to share how AI is letting people bank with their voice and may eventually give each person a virtual assistant with which they can communicate on any device.

ICOs are relatively new and raise a host of regulatory questions, but fintech and other startups find them so appealing because they draw funding from beyond the venture capital world, explain blockchain providers George Burke and Chandra Duggirala and investors Kenzi Wang and David del Ser.

Yolande Piazza, CEO of Citi Fintech, describes the bank's unique method of gathering feedback and ideas about its apps from customers who are at home, often in their pajamas.

How Ellen Alemany, CIT's CEO, is enforcing a set of core behaviors at the company. One is straight talk.

Dek: Brett King is back on the show, talking about diversity in fintech with Anouska Streets, head of engineering at Finkit, a unit of digital banking software company Monitise, which was recently bought by Fiserv; and Colleen Wilson, founder and CEO of consulting firm Collaborate Chicago.

Forget millennials (for a minute). Theodora Lau, director of market innovation at AARP, shares why financial companies and fintechs should pay more attention to the over-50 crowd in their app designs and how a few fintech startups address this market.

Beneficial Bank in Philadelphia intends to be an early adopter of Apple's Face ID. "We try to stay at the front of the pack," CEO Gerry Cuddy says.  

Newly appointed Editor in Chief of American Banker, who was formerly Washington Bureau chief of the publication, shares his take on current events in the capitol and the prospects for financial regulation reform this fall.

It's only a matter of time before U.S. banks are forced to cede control over payments the way banks in China already have, says Brett King in this week's episode, which was recorded live at the Mobile Payments Conference in Chicago.

Karen Mills, former head of the Small Business Administration, says the glut of online lenders can be a boon for entrepreneurs by helping them obtain funds quickly. But the lenders still need to be more transparent about their rates and fees, and regulations would help.

Banks have started dabbling in virtual reality, such as BNP Paribas' letting French customers tour homes and apartments through VR headsets, says Raja Bose, global retail banking consulting leader at Genpact. Some of the strongest use cases for banks, he says, are in wealth management, trading and mortgages.

Divine, a rapper from Brooklyn, shares how he forged a friendship with billionaire venture capitalist Ben Horowitz and went on to create financial technology company BLAK. Also in this episode: Ramy Serageldin explains how his Honeyfi app helps couples collaborate on their finances and Paul Walker at Q2 shares his company's work with fintech startups.

Some attempts to charge for basic banking services (e.g. Digit and Bank of America) have crashed and burned. Wei Ke, a partner with Simon-Kucher & Partners, explains how banks can help consumers get over their price sensitivity.

As the American working population ages and continues to be disrupted by technology, the U.S. needs to create skills training that will help them navigate the changing jobs landscape, says Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan. "Until we improve this, I think the workforce will not meet its potential," he says in the latest American Banker podcast.

At a time when many banks struggle to win over millennials, Ally Bank appears to be bringing them in: more than 60% of new customers are millennials. President Diane Morais explains how the bank is getting the attention of a younger generation. One popular product: debit controls.

The Faster Payments Task Force of the Federal Reserve  just released its  final report  with proposals to be adopted by 2020.   Today, Ron Shevlin hosts a member of that task force-  Travis Dulaney, Founder and CEO of Push Payments.   James Wester, Research Director of Worldwide Payment Strategies at IDC will also being joining to discuss the 10 different proposals, the future of banking, and the...

Christine Duhaime, an anti-money-laundering attorney in Toronto, lays out the reasons banks should become early experts in and assist in initial coin offerings. She also lays out the risks, especially in the wake of the SEC's report suggesting some ICO tokens are really securities.

Former Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig shares stories from his days as a top regulator during the Clinton Administration, the reasons why bank rules should be reviewed and maybe rewritten, and why he thinks the revolving door between Washington and the private sector is ok.

Nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, Plug and Play is the world's largest tech accelerator. Sometimes called University 165, it has given early homes to some of the greatest tech success stories like Google, Paypal, and Logitech. Known for pairing startups with larger companies needing their solutions, this year, Plug and Play ran 11 "verticals" with 90 participants that all expect to leave the...

Tom Michaud, the president and CEO of Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a top matchmaker for bank mergers, explains why large banks will soon return to dealmaking after a long absence. He also discusses the case for starting a new bank in today's environment, the enduring value of retail branches, and more.