Financial Forward: The Future of Consumer Finance & Banking

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of Financial Forward , Jim McCarthy sits down with Kobby Osei-Kusi, founder and CEO of Pirl Technology , to discuss the future of electric vehicle infrastructure, entrepreneurship, and solving real-world problems through innovation. Kobby shares his journey from growing up in Ghana to working on Wall Street at Credit Suisse, earning an MBA from Harvard Business Sch...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Overview In this episode of Financial Forward, Jim McCarthy sits down with Dave Esra, founder of Bobi Health AI, to explore how artificial intelligence and real-time data can transform maternal health outcomes. Drawing from his experience in vaccine safety studies and large-scale AI deployments, Dave identified a critical gap: despite widespread access to smartphones and w...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Overview In this episode of Financial Forward , Jim McCarthy sits down with Zav Zavolian, a serial entrepreneur and venture investor, to explore the intersection of human capability and emerging technology. The discussion centers on the evolution of wearable systems, the growing integration of AI into the physical world, and a provocative concept: the human body as “legacy...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary: In this episode of Financial Forward, Jim McCarthy sits down with George Kailas , CEO of Prospero.ai , to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way markets are understood and navigated. Prospero is building a new category of market intelligence—one that moves beyond traditional data analysis into real-time signal detection and predictive insight. Ge...

Send us Fan Mail Financial Forward – Season 4, Episode 3 Guest: Tanya Puri Host: Jim McCarthy In this episode, Jim McCarthy speaks with Tanya Puri , a finance and operations leader turned entrepreneur, about her career journey and her transition into building a consulting practice as a fractional executive . Tanya shares how her background in investment banking, investment management, and strategy...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Title: Breaking Bottlenecks: Culture, Agile, and the Hidden Risks Inside Your Organization Guest: Robin Sims Allen Founder & CEO, Phoenix Marcus Creator of Total Her ________________________________________ Episode Summary: In this episode of Financial Forward, Jim McCarthy sits down with Robin Sims Allen to explore a critical but often overlooked dimension of fintech...

Send us Fan Mail Financial Forward – Season 4, Episode 1 Featuring Betsy Kauffman Episode Overview Season 4 opens with a leadership-focused conversation on navigating complexity in modern financial services. Jim McCarthy sits down with Betsy Kauffman to explore what it takes to lead institutions through regulatory uncertainty, shifting consumer expectations, and rapid technological change. This ep...

Send us Fan Mail Episode summary Community banks and credit unions face growing pressure to digitize—but many are underserved (or boxed in) by the current fintech market. Adam Turmakhan explains what institutions stand to gain with modern data and AI, what they risk by delaying, and how vendor models that take control of customer data can undermine long-term competitiveness. American Bankers Assoc...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Description In this episode of Financial Forward , host Jim McCarthy sits down with John McNamara , former Principal Assistant Director for Markets at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) . Together, they pull back the curtain on how complaint data actually powered markets, supervision, and enforcement inside the Bureau—and what that means for state regulators t...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Levi — Founder/Builder at Nav Topic: Making business credit visible, useful, and fundable. Key Takeaways Business credit ≠ consumer credit. The ecosystem is opaque; owners often don’t know what’s being scored—or why. Nav makes it legible and actionable. Visibility first, capital second. You can’t optimize what you can’t see. Pull your business credit data, fix errors, and u...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Amy — a retired Texas teacher living on a fixed income — whose protected retirement funds were swept from her bank account to satisfy an old, likely time-barred credit-card judgment. By filing a detailed complaint with the CFPB and notifying both the collector and the bank that the funds were protected under Texas law, Amy triggered a reversal and got her money bac...

Send us Fan Mail Title: Insuring Fraud at Signup: Sunil Madhu on AI Underwriting, Faster Approvals, and Claims in 30 Days Guest: Sunil Madhu , Founder & CEO, Instnt (previously Founder & CEO, Socure ) Length: ~41 minutes What This Episode Is About Most fraud tools try to detect risk. Instnt goes a step further: it underwrites onboarding fraud risk in real time and transfers residual loss t...

Send us Fan Mail Episode summary Paying U.S. college tuition from abroad can be slow, expensive, and confusing. Crebit says it fixes that by letting families in Brazil and Mexico pay locally (PIX or bank transfer), converting funds to USD, and delivering a check directly to the school—positioning itself as a faster, lower-cost alternative to incumbents like Wise and Flywire. We unpack how the prod...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary: In this special episode of Financial Forward , we present Jim McCarthy’s keynote address from FinovateSpring 2025 , held in San Diego, California. With over three decades in banking and regulatory leadership, including pivotal roles at the FDIC and as a founding member of the CFPB, Jim shares a powerful perspective on the future of financial services under the ret...

Send us Fan Mail “FirstCash, the CFPB, and Military Lending Protections: A Follow-Up to Our Service Member Panel” Release Date: July 2025 🔍 Episode Overview In this special follow-up episode of Financial Forward , host Jim McCarthy revisits the critical topic of military financial protections in the wake of a major enforcement action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) . Since the...

Send us Fan Mail Recorded: Tuesday, July 1 | 1:00 PM CT Presented by: McCarthy Hatch 🎯 Episode Overview: As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sharpens its lens on how financial institutions serve military members and their families, this live panel explores the evolving regulatory landscape and the moral imperative to do better. We go beyond compliance checklists to examine complain...

Send us Fan Mail “AI Governance & Change Management in Financial Services” Guest: Parijat Banerjee, Global Head of Financial Services at LatentView Analytics 🔗 Episode Summary In this episode of Financial Forward , host Jim McCarthy sits down with Parijat Banerjee , a leading expert in financial data analytics and the Global Head of Financial Services at LatentView Analytics . Together, they...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Title: Behind the Credit Curtain: Understanding Consumer Reporting with NCRA’s Eric Ellman Guest: Eric Ellman, President of the National Consumer Reporting Association (NCRA) Host: Jim McCarthy 🎙️ Episode Summary: In this episode of Financial Forward , host Jim McCarthy sits down with Eric Ellman , the newly appointed president of the National Consumer Reporting Associatio...

Send us Fan Mail 🔍 Episode Summary: In this unforgettable episode of Financial Forward , host Jim McCarthy reconnects with Jacob , the breakout analyst from McCarthy Hatch whose debut podcast went viral. But Jacob's talents go far beyond financial risk modeling — turns out, he was hired as Luka Dončić’s body double in the buzzy new Jordan Brand ad, ‘The Trial of Luka Dončić’ . We dive into J...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Ian Moloney, Head of Policy & Regulatory Affairs, American Fintech Council Host: Jim McCarthy, Chairman of McCarthy Hatch and Founding Member of the CFPB Podcast: Financial Forward 🔑 Key Topics: What the American Fintech Council Stands For Ian describes the AFC's role as a bridge between regulators and innovators, ensuring fintechs can grow while protecting consum...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Financial Forward , Jim McCarthy sits down with Steve Bishop , one of the leading voices in Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and founder of Ambassador . If you're in banking, fintech, or regulatory circles—you’ve heard Steve’s name. And if you haven’t yet, you will. From humble beginnings on a gravel road in Missouri to becoming the go-to source for how BaaS sho...

Send us Fan Mail In this special Financial Forward rebroadcast, we’re sharing an essential panel discussion originally produced by The Bates Group , examining how the return of the Trump administration may reshape consumer financial protection , fintech regulation , and compliance strategies across the industry. Recorded live, this expert panel dives into the shifting regulatory landscape and what...

Send us Fan Mail In This Episode: In a departure from our usual finance and regulation discussions, this special episode of Financial Forward focuses on the emotional, financial, and personal challenges of caregiving . Whether you're a parent of a child with special needs, caring for an aging family member, or supporting a loved one through difficult times, today’s conversation is about givin...

Send us Fan Mail Finding Financial Success in the New Regulatory-Mandated Open Banking Episode Description: In this special episode, we rebroadcast a panel discussion from Bank Automation Summit 2025 , where industry leaders explore the evolution of embedded finance, how financial institutions can ensure modern, compliant, and seamless payment processing, and the current state of open banking comp...

Send us Fan Mail  At McCarthy Hatch , we believe in lifting up voices that deserve to be heard. That’s why we’re offering free ad space on our Financial Forward podcast for women-owned and disadvantaged businesses —because supporting diverse entrepreneurs isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do. This month, we’re thrilled to spotlight Boulevard Coffee , a woman-owned small bus...