Payments Innovation

Consumer products these days are sleek. So, why do business products look like they were all made in preparation for a 19th-century world fair?  Hamed Abbasi , Co-Founder & CEO at Plooto , is on a mission to prove there is no reason business products can’t be just as sleek. In this episode, we discuss: -How Plooto is innovating accounts payable and receivable -Why most business products create a t...

If you want to succeed… You have to always put your customers’ needs first. And partners are a great way to do that.   Just ask Johanna Pugh , MD North America at Mambu , an innovative fintech that has broken into new markets and stayed customer-centric by leveraging their partner ecosystem.  In this episode, we discuss: -How partners help you stay focused on the customer -Why the customer is all...

Falls Fintech almost didn’t happen.  The 12-week accelerator program started on March 9th, 2020.  By March 13th, participants had to pack up and go. But the story doesn’t end there…   What kind of fintech entrepreneurs would let a little thing like a global pandemic stop them from innovating? In today’s Challenger Series episode, I’m excited to be joined by 3 amazing guests involved with the accel...

To partner or not to partner. That’s the question.  As a fintech company, you’ve made the decision to expand your offering through a partnership. What does the partnership look like? How much control are you going to be giving up? What are the things you need to be thinking about when making decisions around partnerships?  It can all be a bit (okay, a lot) confusion, which is why on this episode o...

Open banking seems like it’s been just around the corner for years.  Now it’s here…  But most organizations are still a little scared to move into it.  Why? To find out, I caught up with Phil Peters , EVP/Chief Operating Officer & Head of Institutional Banking at Radius Bank , a company who’ve embraced open banking with open arms.  In this episode, Phil explains: - Why Radius moved into open banki...

Open banking seems like it’s been just around the corner for years.  Now it’s here…  But most organizations are still a little scared to move into it.  Why? To find out, I caught up with Phil Peters , EVP/Chief Operating Officer & Head of Institutional Banking at Radius Bank , a company who’ve embraced open banking with open arms.  In this episode, Phil explains: -Why Radius moved into open bankin...

Debundling has had a huge role in fintech’s rise. But that era is over…  Welcome, everyone, to the era of rebundling. In today’s episode, Ben Soppitt , Founder of Unifimoney , explains why the time has come for fintechs to start rebundling everything they’ve debundled. He goes over: -Why fintechs debundled in the first place -Why it’s time to rebundle -Why Unifimoney caters to the affluent  To ens...

Over the last decade, consumers have embraced the rising quality of personal loans fueled by smaller, more nimble technology. Given the economic uncertainty around the pandemic, will that appetite fizzle out or burn well into the future?  To find out, we spoke with Scott Satov , Chief Executive Officer at Loans Canada .  He went over: -Loan Canada’s part in the rise of personal loans -How technolo...

It took a global pandemic. But I think everyone realizes it now.  Innovation is no longer a choice. It’s a necessity. And that’s why we’re happy to announce the launch of even more Payments Innovation podcast. That’s right, we have 3 new series launching so you can keep up with every aspect of innovation in the fintech world. Rich Arundel , General Manager at Currencycloud, will be hosting #embedd...

Banks have finally caught on to something we’ve known for a while… The future of finance is digital.  As they close ATMs and move online… They’re realizing just how many companies got their first.   Companies like SHiFT Connect , a major player in international FX and payments.  I caught up with Kevin Copping , Institutional Sales and Marketing Manager, to go over how SHiFT is preparing for the co...

The world has changed so much in 50 years…  So why is it credit cards remain almost the same? There must be a better way to do credit.  But how? Nitya Sharma , Co-Founder & CEO at Simpl , has created a buy now, pay later service he is confident will shake us from our out-dated credit-card dependency.  I caught up with Nitya to find out how services like Simpl might just be the final nail in the co...

Once you master something, it’s natural to want to help others master it, too.   It’s a rewarding experience of giving back, whether it’s a game, a musical instrument… Or building a Fintech.  On today’s show, I caught up with Mike Kane , Co-Founder at Hydrogen , the Fintech enablement platform that has made it easier than ever before to build a Fintech from scratch and get to market in record time...

You’ve created an amazing financial brand.  You have big ideas and so much work to do.  But now you have to worry about everyone’s favorite topic: Compliance.  OK, it’s not the sexiest topic and, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can end up taking over all of your time.  Luckily, on today’s show, we have Matt McGuire , Co-Founder and Practice Leader at The AML Shop . He’s here to explain how...

Philanthropy is not just a hobby of the well-to-do.  You don’t need a monocle, furs or a top hat to give.  Thanks to modern financial technology, everyone can be a philanthropist.  And your company would do well to join in. To explain why, I invited Dale Nirvani Pfeifer , CEO & Founder at Goodworld , onto today’s show.  Goodworld offers a whole ecosystem of modern ways to charitably give — includi...

A lot of businesses are like a Ferrari with wagon wheels. Well-oiled machines held back by one outdated component. And for a lot of businesses, that component is accounts receivable.  On the show today, I’m joined by Garima Shah , President of Biller Genie , a company dedicated to modernizing those janky wooden wheels and bringing them in line with the rest of the car.  What we talked about: -The...

In the US, it’s hard to top the pilgrims for a national identity story. It’s an enduring symbol of a country worth struggling to live in. But those struggles never really went away — they just modernized. Modern problems require modern solutions, which Joaquín Ayuso de Paul , GM at Rayo , and his team are helping to provide with their global bank account.  He came on the show today to explain the...

Do you ever use to think about the journey your $20 bill took to find your wallet? The places it’s been. The things it purchased. The hands it passed through… Well, I guess we’re all thinking about that last one now and opting for contactless payments.  But that’s just one of the ways COVID-19 is ratcheting up existing financial trends. That’s why we invited Jennifer Worley , SVP Product & Marketi...

The pandemic is like an advertisement for the Boy Scout motto: Always be prepared. Yet, financially, few Americans are. Most have less than $500 in savings! They need to follow the Boy Scout credo. And they need Fintech to do it.  And my guest today, Ahmed Siddiqui , Head of Product at Branch , is trying to help get American workers merit badges in financial wellness.  Branch is a challenger bank...

In the wake of the sudden COVID-19 economy, we might forget the small-scale financial crises people face every day.  In the huge segment of the workforce living paycheck-to-paycheck, any sudden expense can become a financial crisis.  And until recently, their only option was to start a cycle of debt through expensive short-term loans.   Our guest today, Frank Dombroski , Founder and CEO of FlexWag...

The COVID-19 crisis has hit everyone — often on multiple fronts. For many, the only thing as scary as the pandemic is the economic side-effects. And, unsurprisingly, this is causing major shakeups in the world of payments.  On the show today, we spoke with Daniel Webber , Founder and CEO of FXC Intelligence to learn more about trends in the industry and get a forecast for what to expect as the cri...

It’s hard to talk about anything these days without it somehow circling back to the pandemic.   But, since this is a show about innovation, it’s not all bad news — innovation thrives in challenging times.   Crises spur new ideas, creative spins on what we do already and demonstrate the value of thinking differently. And Fintech is no exception.   So says my guest today, Erica Dorfman . And when it...

As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds, our socially-distanced world has paradoxically revealed how connected we really are.   A pandemic that knows no borders has everyone realizing the borders our technology can cross just as easily. We’ve learned to work together, apart.   And payments are no exception. Technology has made it easier than ever to work, sell, pay or get paid internationally.     We’re jo...

In the world of transaction technology, we all care about the same things: Security and Risk reduction Customer experience Friction minimization Today commonly these concerns are handled by the use of EMV chips and NFC.  But what if there were a way to send and receive transaction data over a distance of several feet securely? I sat down with Eric Allen, CEO of LISNR to find out if audio is becomi...

Paying bills is nothing new, and it's not likely to change. We will always have to pay bills, but should we be paying them like we did 100 years ago? Today, one in four bills gets paid in check or cash.  It's 2020! Why is it so complicated for people around the world to pay a bill? And how can people who work abroad pay their bills back home instead of sending cash? On today's episode of the Payme...

Who's behind the boom in fintech startups? How are digital-wallet entrepreneurs, for instance, launching their ideas? How much of their products are they building in house?  The front end of fintech garners a lot of attention, but the back end has often gotten ignored. Nevertheless, there's an infrastructure powering everything. What is it? Who is it? How will it change? On today's episode of the...