Fintech Takes

Can you tell me how to get to FAFO Street? Jason Henrichs (CEO of Alloy Labs and host of the Breaking Banks podcast) certainly can, and he’s pointing the finger at, well, everyone. He and Alex have a laundry list of juicy questions for bankers, regulators, entrepreneurs, and investors. And even if they are unanswerable, the guys are doing their best to answer them.  Is there a right way to regulat...

Simon Taylor’s back in action and ready to break down some of the hottest up and comers in the fintech world with Alex.   First, he and Alex discuss Niva, the global business identity platform using AI to help lenders and fintech companies onboard business customers through a Know Your Business (KYB) process. Focused primarily on growth in Brazil and Mexico, the platform claims it can bring the on...

What is shadow banking? It sounds nefarious… right? But what does it really mean?  Alex is joined by Kiah Haslett and special guest, Todd Phillips, the assistant professor at the Robinson College of Business at George State University, to break down the topic of shadow banking and to discuss the challenges it poses for bank supervisors, regulators, and consumers alike. They unpack the inherent ris...

He’s been wise. He’s been powerful. But guess what? It’s the first episode we can officially call Jason Mikula an author! Jason chats about his new book, “Banking as a Service: Opportunities, Challenges, and Risks of New Banking Business Models” and reveals what you can expect from his debut book, which is currently available for pre-order. If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, don’t forget to ord...

In this special end-of-season bonus episode, Terry Angelos, former SVP and Global Head of Fintech for Visa joins Alex to break down what Visa’s recent string of announcements might mean for the future of payments. What is Visa Flexible Credential, and how is it shaping up to change the way we view credit and debit cards? Find out how this innovative technology enables multiple credentials on a sin...

Alex is joined by Danielle Sesko, Director of Product Management and Innovation at TruStage, to delve into the crucial role of embedded payment insurance in lending and its potential to enhance consumer financial health. How does payment insurance safeguard borrowers against job loss or disability, lower delinquency rates, and boost lender competitiveness? Danielle and Alex explore the rise of dig...

You should never take fintech investment advice from podcasters— and thankfully, Alex and Simon are definitely not giving out fintech investment advice on this week’s podcast. Speaking of things you should never do, comparing yourself to others certainly tops that list. But what if you knew what normal spending looked like amongst your peers? That’s the philosophy that the wealth benchmarking app,...

Summer’s almost here, and Kiah Haslett is braving the swarms of Tennessee cicadas to join Alex for another session of Bank Nerd Corner. First up on the docket, Alex and Kiah tackle the Supreme Court’s decision on Cantero vs. Bank of America. Bank of America contests that they don’t have to pay interest on escrow accounts in accordance with federal law because hey, the state law says something diff...

We won’t lie— we’re exhausted. Are you exhausted from keeping up with one of the most tiring stories in financial services? Jason Mikula certainly is, and he’s summoning the strength to join Alex to chat about the current drama between Synapse, Evolve, and Tabapay yet again. Things have devolved on BaaS Island from Lord of the Flies to a straight-up Battle Royale. Can anyone manage to make sense o...

Another day, another credit card reward app to unpack. But this time, is it actually possible we’ve found the one reward app to rule them all?  Alex and Simon Taylor discuss the promising rewards optimization app, Kudos, which helps users determine which credit card is optimal for maximizing points on purchases. Will Kudos change the rewards space forever? And if consumers expect points to be opti...

You can’t read anything these days without seeing something about how Chat GPT and large language models are the future of technology.  So if LLMs are the future, what exactly does this mean for fintech? And how is it any different from the AI that’s already been used to make financial decisions for years now?  Alex chats with Rohan Ramanath, the co-founder of Hyperplane, to uncover the applicatio...

We have a lot of questions when it comes to Fed Master Accounts. And thankfully, Julie Hill, Vice Dean and Alton C. and Cecile Cunningham Craig Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, is here to answer them!  In this special edition of Bank Nerd Corner, Julie helps Alex and Kiah unravel the many legal mysteries of the Federal Reserve’s Master Accounts. Julie breaks down the history of the F...

The tulips are blooming and the windmills are churning—so where in the world is Jason Mikula this week? Jason calls into the pod live from the beautiful Netherlands to break down the latest in fintech news with Alex.    First on the plate? The final chapter in the Synapse bankruptcy saga. After Synapse sold all of its assets to TabaPay for $9.7 million and settled its dispute with Evolve, it appea...

Alex is back with the great and powerful Simon Taylor to unpack some of fintech’s most interesting fintech startups. We’re barely beginning the month of May, and it looks like there’s yet another family credit card app to unpack—but this one actually feels different. Can Modak Makers succeed where other family cards have floundered? And how does its unique points rewards system for things like cho...

Elon Musk, Amy Rowe Klement, Peter Thiel, Julie Anderson, Max Levchin, Reid Hoffman.  What do these powerhouse entrepreneurs all have in common?  Hint: They all played a role in the meteoric rise of PayPal. Find out the intricate web behind one of the biggest startups in the world, as Alex chats with the author of "The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley,"...

In this super special edition of Bank Nerd Corner, Alex and Kiah are joined by Steven Kelly, the Associate Director of Research at the Yale Program on Financial Stability. They dive into the Q1 Bank Earnings, debating exactly how much stock prices matter in determining bank health. Is there too much emphasis placed on the connection between stock prices and deposit runs at the bank? Kiah, Alex, an...

Another week, another consent order.   Welcome back to BaaS Island, where regulators keep throwing more bodies at the problem, hoping something will work. Fintech Business Weekly’s Jason Mikula chats with Alex about the latest consent orders for Piermont and Sutton, as the duo debate whether or not “direct” has lost all meaning. Is it possible to really go “direct” from a fintech company to a bank...

This week, Alex is joined by Gabby Cazeau (Partner at Harlem Capital) and Emily Man (Partner at Primary Ventures) to workshop some theories about the future of fintech.  With open banking rules for the U.S. being finalized this year, it’s clear that cashflow underwriting is about to have its time in the sun — do we have the necessary infrastructure in place to fully capitalize on it? Then, Alex, G...

Simon Taylor’s back on the podcast and he’s excited (but oh so exhausted) to be talking about some of fintech’s most promising startups with Alex. First up on the docket, is Chipp.ai the next Shopify for AI? As a platform offering to build custom AI prompts, can Chipp.ai help freelancers productize themselves? Since the rise of AI, freelancers have needed to gain greater leverage over their unique...

Just because Alex is finally leaving Las Vegas, doesn’t mean he’s escaping the banking desert back in Montana. And for that matter, neither are the vast majority of Americans. This week, he and Bank Director Editor Kiah Haslett discuss the growing impact that closing bank branches have had on rural communities— what are these “banking deserts”? And what really happens when online banks are all tha...

On this week’s episode of Fintech Takes, Alex is joined by international man of mystery and publisher of Fintech Business Weekly, Jason Mikula, along with the Ghost of Fintech Future and cruise director of New York Fintech Week, Jon Zanoff.  First up, the guys discuss the latest in the Capital One/Discover deal and debate the nature of mergers and acquisitions. Are M&As inherently bad for fintech?...

Founding a startup is the thing so many fintech entrepreneurs dream about. So what happens when that dream turns into a nightmare?  In this special crossover series with Breaking Bank’s Jason Henrichs, Alex and Jason are joined by Matt Harris, former founder and CEO of Bloom Credit, and founder/executive coach of TwentySeven Nine, to discuss the challenges and emotional roller coaster that founder...

Let’s face it—profitability is in vogue in fintech again.  So this week, Alex is mixing it up by taking a deep dive into the most reliably profitable business models in financial services. Which models can we glean lessons from? And which, if any, have repeatable processes worth considering? Jared Franklin, fintech consultant and the master of waxing poetic about fintech business models, and the a...

What happens when entrepreneurs have to face down the most difficult decision there is — knowing when it’s time to sell, shut down, or exit?  In this special crossover series, Alex joins Breaking Banks’ Jason Henrichs for candid conversations with fintech leaders who have experienced the loss of their company. This week, Alex and Jason talk with Shamir Karkal, CEO of Sila and former Co-Founder of...

Things in life rarely go as planned. But things in fintech? Well…  They almost never go as planned.  So how do you put yourself and your ideas into the fintech world when failure is almost certainly inevitable? What happens when grinding isn’t enough to keep your company afloat? And how do you cope with the potential loss of the idea (and identity) you loved so dearly? In this special crossover se...