American Banker Podcast

Yasaman Hadjibashi, who formerly worked at Citi and Barclays, and Keith Armstrong, a co-founder of Abe.ai, have created a fintech startup that helps people coming home from prison find work, obtain a bank account and re-enter society.

The digital-only bank, which is due to launch March 1, is trying to develop an Amazon-like banking experience for the most finicky of clients: tech startup founders, says CEO  Mike Butler .

In her last week in office, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chair discusses why she worries about the dwindling number of community banks and minority-owned banks, why she has made serving low-income communities a priority during her tenure, and what she might do next.

Traditional banks could be forced to add cryptocurrency product offerings in 2022 to compete with fintechs that are taking advantage of blockchain innovations, according to Diogo Mónica , co-founder and president of Anchorage.

Banks and credit unions need to do more for (and assume less about) customers who are over 50, says Theo Lau , founder of the advisory firm Unconventional Ventures.  

Regulators have joined the call for banks to change their approach to overdraft. But simply getting rid of the fees is impractical for many banks, according to Leo D'Acierno and Betty Cowell , senior advisors at the strategy and marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners.

Startups focused on embedded banking, small-business finance and health care insurance will prosper in the year ahead, predicts Alex Lazarow , partner at the San Francisco global venture capital fund Cathay Innovation.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire argues that Gary Gensler's association of stablecoins with gambling doesn't match how they're used, the way they're regulated or their potential benefit to the financial system.

Brett King , founder of Moven, host of the radio show "Breaking Banks" and co-author of the forthcoming book "The Rise of Technosocialism," has strong opinions about how technology is changing finance and the world. His forecast includes more automation, fewer jobs and the emergence of central bank digital currencies.

Environmental, social and governance issues have become more important to investors and customers. Kathryn Rock , a partner in financial services practice at the consulting firm Guidehouse, has advice on what banks can do to step up their efforts.

Talwar , who is leaving his job as chairman of Goldman's consumer bank this month, explains his philosophy on innovating within a large organization, making a digital-only unit work within a 150-year-old institution, and how he deals with skeptics.

CEO Christopher Maher explains how the New Jersey bank selected the 20 branches it plans to shut down by year-end and details the types of apps, video banking capabilities and "super branches" into which it will plow the cost savings.

Robert Le , an analyst at Pitchbook, explains where banks could get cut out of transactions and where they still could play a role.

Vast Bank in Oklahoma now has an app that allows customers to do their banking and buy and sell eight digital currencies. CEO Brad Scrivner explains his motivations, his comfort level with cryptocurrency volatility and what else the app can do.

The Los Angeles credit union started out by creating a self-service bot it named Royce. CEO David Tuyo discusses Royce's contributions and other ways artificial intelligence is improving efficiency.

Theo Lau and Brad Leimer , authors of "Beyond Good: How Technology Is Leading a Purpose-Driven Business Revolution," discuss financial companies like Sunrise Banks and Tabb Bank that are working toward dual aims of making a better world and turning a profit.

The Birmingham, Alabama, bank has developed artificial intelligence-based systems that can flag suspicious activity and guide customer service representatives. Amala Duggirala , the bank's chief operations and technology officer, describes the AI work she and her team have been doing.

Pressure is mounting on banks to rein in overdraft fees. The behavioral psychologist Wei Ke says there are programs they can put in place that would be fairer to account holders and still generate income.

Distributed ledger projects in banking are few and far between — many have stalled and others remain experiments. Robert Townsend , who has worked with banks around the world and written a book about blockchain technology, explains some of the ways financial institutions could be using it, for instance in small-business lending and supply chain finance.

The average American's financial picture is bleaker than government data suggests, according to the former comptroller of the currency. Research from his new organization, the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, has found that unemployment is higher and household wages are lower than reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Vanessa Colella taught earth science and biology to middle schoolers through Teach for America before becoming Citigroup's new chief innovation officer. Her experience in the classroom still sticks with her today.  

Many big companies have made pledges to diversify their workforces, treat minority communities more fairly and clean up the environment to burnish their images, says Meredith Benton , CEO of the consultancy Whistle Stop Capital. But few are willing to share data to prove it's all more than a PR campaign, she says.

Like many banks, TD had to move swiftly to spin up new self-service tools tied to chat channels, e-signatures and PPP lending. Innovation chief Michael Rhodes will continue the faster financial approval and development cycles that COVID necessitated.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis , a Republican, leads a new congressional caucus aimed at educating members about fintech issues. She believes her state could serve as a model for regulating digital assets.

The Providence, R.I., bank partners with tech companies like Apple and Microsoft, it has 25 fintech partnerships and it rewards employees for new ideas, says CEO Bruce Van Saun .