Fintech Takes

Welcome to a live recording of the Fintech Takes podcast, coming to you from Money20/20. In this limited series with Marqeta, we’re diving into the aspects of fintech and financial services that we’re most optimistic about heading into 2025. In episode 3, we tackle one of my favorite topics: Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). Joining me are Rahul Shah, who leads core product at Marqeta, and Ahmed Siddiqui...

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where we spotlight new and exciting fintechs. I’m Alex Johnson, creator of Fintech Takes, joined by Simon Taylor who’s gracing us stateside in Washington, DC.  It’s been a wild week—imagine the former FDIC chair on stage as news broke that the *current* FDIC chair, Marty Gruenberg, had resigned, all in a room packed with regulators and sponsor banks…a...

Welcome to the Fintech Takes Podcast, live from Money 2020. Today, we’re diving into the state of credit—a topic I’m passionate about—but I’ve brought in two experts to lead the way. Joining me are Matthew Goldman, publisher of Cards for the Win and founder of Totavii, a consultancy for building fintech products, and Todd Pollak, CRO at Marqeta. We'll unpack insights from Marqeta’s latest U.S. cre...

Welcome to Fintech Takes, the podcast breaking down the latest in fintech news and trends. I'm Alex Johnson, your self-proclaimed Fintech nerd and creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter. We’re shaking up our regular schedule with a special solo episode of my 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀. What’s that, you ask? It’s my monthly hangout with fellow fintech nerds where we unpack the latest industry news, fiel...

Alright, folks—let’s ditch the doom and gloom.  In this episode, recorded live from Money 2020 with the CEO of Marqeta, Simon Khalaf, we’re breaking down why there’s actually plenty to be optimistic about in the world of fintech as we head into 2025. Regulators catching up to fintech might seem like a buzzkill, but here’s the twist: it’s a sign the industry has finally made it.  We dive deep into...

Recording the day after the election, vibes are strange, and the future’s a question mark—but fintech regulation? Still full steam ahead. This week on Bank Nerd Corner, Kiah and Alex welcome special guest Evan Weinberger, Bloomberg Law’s banking and fintech regulatory correspondent, to break down the latest from the CFPB. Together, they dig into comment letters from banks and fintechs alike (Kiah...

Welcome to another special Fintech Takes episode.  I’m Alex Johnson, just back from four intense days at Money20/20 in Las Vegas, and here to unpack it all with me is my friend Jason Henrichs, CEO of Alloy Labs and co-host of the Breaking Banks podcast.  In this crossover, we’re breaking down the major topics of Money20/20, 2024 edition. This year, it was all about major topics: bank-fintech partn...

Welcome to a special edition of Fintech Takes, recorded live from MX's Money Experience Summit in beautiful Park City, Utah.  Big shout-out to MX for letting me squeeze in some live podcasting–my favorite thing to do! First up, I chat with Ashwin Vasan, senior advisor at FS Vector, and Kelvin Chen, head of policy at the Consumer Bankers Association—two ex-CFPB experts who help untangle the knots o...

In this special guest episode, Alex catches up with founder and CEO of Bloom Money, Nina Mohanty, about a pressing yet overlooked issue: first-party fraud.  They kick off by exploring the viral "infinite money glitch" trend on TikTok—yep, it’s first-party fraud, whether people know it, admit it, or not…and it’s on the rise. During the pandemic, neobanks like Chime, PayPal, and Cash App saw explosi...

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I spotlight new and exciting fintechs.  This time, we're diving into how AI is shaking up customer service, banking, homeownership, and procurement—and where to draw the line. Because knowing when NOT to use AI in financial services? That’s *the* real art. First up: KatoHQ. Their AI-powered voice agents decode customer intent an...

Welcome back to the grand finale of What Customers Want, a limited 4-part series from the Fintech Takes podcast, hosted by me and Corey Besaw, President of APAC and co-founder of Ubiquity. In Episode 4, Corey and I are joined by Aditi Shekar and Mike Forsyth at Zeta, a company that’s building a "multiplayer" financial experience for families, offering adaptable joint banking. Their mission, in oth...

Welcome back to Bank Nerd Corner, featuring yours truly and #1 among all bank nerds, Kiah Haslett, Banking and Fintech Editor at Bank Director. First up, we’re breaking down the FDIC’s latest proposed rule, which tightens the screws on custodial accounts. Spoiler alert: Kiah's got some strong opinions on whether smaller banks should be held to different standards in the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)...

Welcome back What Customers Want, a limited 4-part series from the Fintech Takes podcast, hosted by me and Corey Besaw, President of APAC and co-founder of Ubiquity. In Episode 3, Corey and I are joined by Ahon Sarkar, SVP & GM at Helix, to dive into the natural tension points between fintechs, banks, and those ever-evolving customer expectations.  Financial services are leaning hard on self-servi...

Alex teams up with Jason Mikula, now Head of Industry Strategy for Banking & Fintech at Taktile (ooh la la!) to unpack the latest in fintech. The FDIC has proposed a new rule on custodial deposits—the "Synapse Rule." It requires banks to meticulously track custodial account owners and transactions, aiming for crisis prevention, but does it truly plug the gaps exposed by past failures? Will regulat...

Welcome to What Customers Want, a limited 4-part series from the Fintech Takes podcast, hosted by me and Corey Besaw, President of APAC and co-founder of Ubiquity. In Episode 2, Corey and I venture back into fintech's overlooked frontier–customer service–as we sit down with Chime’s first full-time fraud manager, Marcus Vinson. Join us behind the scenes to discover how, as an early-stage fintech, C...

Welcome to a special edition of the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, here with Colton Pond, Chief Marketing Officer at LoanPro. We’re recording live from the Salt Flats outside of Salt Lake City during LoanPro's customer advisory board meeting. I’m excited to dive into one of my favorite topics—loan servicing—and co-interview a few attendees with Colton. In this episode, we’ll consider wha...

Welcome to What Customers Want, a limited series from the Fintech Takes podcast, hosted by yours truly. In this 4-part series, I’ll be cracking open one of fintech’s most puzzling topics: customer service. And I’ll be joined by Corey Besaw, President of APAC and one of the founders of Ubiquity, a company that knows a thing or two about scaling up a customer service operation.  While fintechs are f...

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I spotlight new and exciting fintechs, minus the stock tips. First up is Agree. If DocuSign and Stripe had a Gen AI-powered baby, it’d be the e-signature platform Agree.  It blends free agreement software with paid invoicing and payments (merging 2 trends: AI-driven law tech with AI-driven finance workflows). Why juggle invoices...

Welcome back to Bank Nerd Corner, featuring yours truly and the brilliant Kiah Haslett, Banking and Fintech Editor at Bank Director. First up: Kiah breaks down why "FBO" accounts need a rebrand as "Fintech Custody Accounts" (FCA) to better reflect today’s BaaS landscape. Could this shift in lingo actually improve transparency in managing fintech partnerships? Next, they dive into the Federal Open...

In this week’s episode of Fintech Recap, Alex is joined by Jason Mikula to dive into the latest on fintech. With BaaS Island quiet, the guys head over to BNPL for some fresh juice. First up, Klarna’s U.S. launch and its new “Balance” feature — despite the hype, it’s not quite banking. In the U.S., “Balance” is more of a wallet within Klarna's app, far from their European banking model. Klarna’s sh...

Alex catches up with fintech storyteller Mary Wisniewski, Editor-at-Large at Cornerstone Advisors and host of the podcast Money Isn't Everything. In this episode, they dive into Mary’s latest research on Gen Z's financial habits—spoiler alert: Gen Z is more anxious and open about money than any generation before.  From spilling the tea on student loans to salaries on TikTok, Gen Z is reshaping how...

In this episode of Not Fintech Investment Advice, Alex and Simon spotlight the latest up and comers solving cool problems in fintech. First up is Revenir, which helps travelers and businesses recover sales tax on their purchases, making rebates happen "automagically" through its API. As a prime "found money" use case for AI, what's Revenir’s long-term strategy? Could a neo-bank leverage this featu...

On this super special bonus ep from The Consumer Finance Podcast, Alex joins Chris Willis and Jesse Silverman at Troutman Pepper to dissect fintech’s volatile lifecycle and its effects on bank-fintech partnerships.  Have you ever wondered why a new fintech VC seems to magically appear in the spotlight every 4 to 7 years? The guys explain the technological waves that shape entrepreneurs as they’re...

This week on Bank Nerd Corner, special guest and partner at Arnold & Porter, Jim Bergin joins the pod. Having worked for the Federal Reserve for 18 years, Kiah and Alex pry into his legal expertise to get answers to some lingering questions. Jim explains the history and purpose of the Bank Service Company Act, a law enacted in the 1960s in response to the burgeoning technology needs of banks. He e...

In this week’s episode of Fintech Recap, Alex is joined by Jason Mikula to discuss the latest news and trends in the fintech industry. What if BaaS Island wasn’t really an island at all, but the gateway to a multiverse filled by other BaaS Islands? That’s right — BaaS Island is fracturing as Jason and Alex venture into the multiverse. What’s going on with Mercury and the extended Synapse/Evolve mu...