Fintech Business Podcast

This month, we were joined by special guest Matthew Goldman, card expert and author of CardsFTW, to talk about: * A grab bag of banking-as-a-service topics, including the situation at Solid, Stripe and Goldman’s partnership, and where things may be headed in 2024 * Mastercard’s letter clapping back at reporting it plans to hike rates * Varo’s launch of “Varo to Anyone,” a P2P service that enables...

This month, Alex Johnson and I had the chance to talk about: * Current launched a credit-building secured charge card. While it features a neat bit of engineering, it may face some of the same limitations and challenges of other offerings in the space. * Plaid announces (well, sort of?) payroll API partnerships with Pinwheel and Atomic — what to make of the news? * Lineage Bank’s rapid, BaaS-power...

Alex Johnson , creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you this very special episode of Fintech Recap. We had the honor of sitting down with Mark Gould , the Chief Payments Executive for Federal Reserve Financial Services . For context, we recorded this episode in mid-July, on the eve of the launch of FedNow. We had the chance to hear from Mark on: * Mark’s background and...

Alex Johnson , creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you the latest episode of our monthly podcast, Fintech Recap , where we unpack some of the biggest stories in fintech, banking, and crypto. This month, we had the chance to talk about: * FedNow finally launched — now what? * Block sues Visa and Mastercard over interchange rates, Visa CEO bashes merchant surcharges, an...

In this episode, I spoke with one-stop money management platform for small businesses Wave’s CEO, Zahir Khoja. We had the chance to discuss: * Zahir’s fascinating background, including working in Afghanistan and for Grameen Foundation * Wave’s capabilities and target segments * How the company thinks about buy vs. build vs. partner & its pricing and cross-sell strategy * The importance of human ad...

The last several years have seen quite the rollercoaster of investment-related trends: meme stonks, SPACs, crypto, and now… Treasuries? Another emerging trend: generative AI. In this episode, I had the chance to sit down with investing app Public’s co-CEO Leif Abraham to talk about all of that and more, including: * How AI for investing is and isn’t different than previous trends like PFMs and rob...

Hey all, Jason here. Alex Johnson , creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are back! Congrats to Alex on the new addition to his family. We’re happy to bring you the latest episode of our monthly(ish) podcast, Fintech Recap , where we unpack some of the biggest stories in fintech, banking, and crypto. This month, we had the chance to talk about: * Goldman’s shrinking consumer ambitions, am...

Hey all, Jason here. This Sunday’s note is coming to you from Hilvarenbeek, in the south of the Netherlands, where I’m camping and attending a music festival. During last week’s Money2020, I had the chance to sit down with compliance tech startup Cable’s cofounder and CEO Natasha Vernier. If the company sounds familiar, that’s probably because her cofounder and I recently gave a “Masterclass” toge...

I know it’s hard to remember now, but there was a time when BNPL — buy now, pay later — felt like the bleeding edge of consumer fintech (even if point-of-sale financing has been around for literally generations!) It has been a wild ride for market leader Klarna, which is rather unique in the space: it was founded in 2005, it is a bank in Europe, and it has historically been profitable. Klarna’s Ch...

Hey all, Jason here. I recently partnered with Cable’s Chief Product Officer Katie Savitz to present a Masterclass at the Empire Fintech Conference during NY Fintech Week. We profiled six recent developments impacting Banking-as-a-Service and how stakeholders can use technology to respond. If you weren’t able to attend (or just need a refresher!), this podcast/post combo is for you! (And extra gre...

Hey all, Jason here. Weren’t in New York or couldn’t make it to this event at Barclays Rise during New York Fintech Week? You’re in luck! For this panel discussion tackling the question, What Next for BaaS?, I was joined by: * Amanda Swoverland , Chief Compliance Officer at Unit * Walt Cox , Head of Partner Banking at Valley Bank * Neepa Patel , founder/CEO at Themis * and Nick Farrow , Head of Ba...

Hey all, Jason here. Well, there was no shortage of late-breaking news on Friday — like the Fed’s report on SVB’s failure, the FDIC’s report on its supervision of Signature, and what appears to be the collapse of troubled First Republic Bank. Given you’ll have no shortage of content covering those developments (and to give me time to read all of them and develop an informed opinion), I’m bringing...

Alex Johnson , creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you the latest episode of our monthly podcast, Fintech Recap , where we unpack some of the biggest stories in fintech, banking, and crypto. This month, we had the chance to talk about: * In case you didn’t hear… Apple launched a high-yield savings feature! * Dutch neobank Dutch, profitable in European market, applies...

Welcome back to Fintech Business Podcast. In this episode, I talk to Jesse Silverman , formerly an attorney at the Connecticut Department of Banking and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau , before working in legal roles at fintechs like LendUp, Steady, Nuula, and his present role at payments platform Highline . We had a chance to talk about: * Our time working together at failed startup Lend...

Hey all, Jason here. Alex Johnson , creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you a very special episode of Fintech Recap — live from Fintech Meetup in Las Vegas. We were joined by Jon Lear , President & co-founder of the event. We had the chance to discuss: * Key takeaways & what we heard around the conference * Yes, SVB — I know everyone’s tired of discussing it, but we h...

In this episode, I talk to Shmulik Fishman , the founder and CEO at Argyle . Argyle provides payroll connectivity infrastructure that powers solutions like income & employment verification, deposit switching, payroll-linked lending and earned wage access. We had a chance to talk about: * Top take aways from last week’s Fintech Meetup conference in Las Vegas * Thinking through the fallout from SVB,...

In this episode, I talk to Alex Baydin , founder and CEO of PerformLine , a platform for regulatory and compliance monitoring for brand marketing. We had a chance to talk about: * The complexity of managing marketing compliance in today’s digital advertising ecosystem * Managing workflows and communication in fintech/Banking-as-a-Service relationships * Key takeaways from analyzing millions of CFP...

Alex Johnson , creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you a very special episode of Fintech Recap with special guests Matt Janiga and Reggie Young . This month, we focused on the theme of competition in discussing: * Durbin amendment, interchange, debit routing & neobanks * Account-to-account payments * Fintech infrastructure & the Bank Service Company Act * Our picks fo...

This month, we had the chance to talk about: * It’s quarterly earnings season and it’s been brutal for some companies. Alex and I unpack Affirm’s rough quarterly earnings report. * Apple is getting ready to launch Apple Pay Later. What we know and what we’ll be watching for when it’s live. * Regulators across the banking and securities spectrum have ramped up their attention to crypto. Is this the...

In this episode, I talk to Kurt Lin , cofounder & CEO of Pinwheel , a fintech infrastructure company that enables startups and banks to make sense of real time income and employment data. We had a chance to talk about: * Where the “Plaid for payroll data” analogy breaks down * The greater complexity of the payroll and employment data vs. bank account data * Opportunities and risks for integrating...

In this episode, I talk to Alain Meier , the Head of Identity at Plaid . While I imagine most readers/listeners are pretty familiar with Plaid’s core capabilities, the company moved into the identity verification space through its acquisition of Meier’s startup Cognito about a year ago. We had a chance to talk about: * Alain’s experiencing starting and selling Cognito * Use cases for identity veri...

Alex Johnson , creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you the latest episode of our monthly podcast, Fintech Recap , where we unpack some of the biggest stories in fintech, banking, and crypto. This month, we had the chance to talk about: * Revolut teases a new “Ultra” paid tier — but will people pay for it? * Chime is getting state licenses in a sign it may start lendin...

In this episode, I talk to Michael Sindisitch, EVP & Head of TripActions Liquid, an end-to-end travel, expense, and corporate card solution. We had a chance to talk about: * TripActions recent $300 million equity raise & $400 million credit facility * TripActions unique capabilities vs. others in the travel or expense management spaces * How TripActions thinks about the competitive landscape * Tri...

Alex Johnson , creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you the latest episode of our monthly podcast, Fintech Recap , where we unpack some of the biggest stories in fintech, banking, and crypto. This month, we had the chance to talk about: -Goldman Sachs’ dismantling of Marcus -ZELF & Twig: is this the banking Gen Z wants (or are Alex and Jason just too old to get it?) -F...

In this episode, I talk to Scott Sanborn , CEO of “OG” fintech LendingClub , which made the transition from being a fintech “peer-to-peer” lender to acquiring and becoming a bank. We had a chance to talk about: The factors that drove LendingClub to become a bank; what lessons today’s fintech (and crypto) companies can learn from the challenges LendingClub has navigated; how LendingClub is respondi...