Fintech Nexus

Have you ever stopped to consider the data behind a debit or credit card transaction? I have not given it much thought, but there is a real treasure trove of information that, for the most part, is still not being used effectively. My next guest on the Fintech One on One podcast is Mitch Jacobs, the CEO and founder of Plink. You may recognize Mitch's name as he was the founder, CEO and Chairman of OnDeck for its first seven years. Back to Plink. It may well be the most important fintech company that you have never heard of. The work they are doing around transaction personalization is truly groundbreaking. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Mitch on LinkedIn Connect with Plink AI on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

One of the many challenges for low and middle income (LMI) consumers is building wealth. If you are living paycheck to paycheck with no savings you are more focused on financial survival and likely don't feel you have the capacity to build wealth. This is where Stash comes in. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Liza Landsman, the CEO of Stash, a position she has held for around a year now. They are laser-focused on the LMI consumer and have built a suite of tools to help these people save and build wealth. Their Stock-Back Card is truly innovative and is often the first time their customers have ever owned public equities. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Liza on LinkedIn Connect with Stash on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

The anti-fraud space has really heated up this past 12 months as fraud attempts have been on the rise and bad actors have become more sophisticated. Often, it can feel like an increasingly difficult battle to win, but there is reason for optimism. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Tommy Nicholas, the CEO and Co-Founder of Alloy. Tommy lays out in exceptional detail and with great passion why there is reason for optimism today. He also provides a blueprint for how banks and fintechs should be approaching their anti-fraud efforts. This is the third and final interview in the series I conducted at Fintech Meetup. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Tommy Nicholas on LinkedIn Connect with Alloy on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

I don't think any fintech company has done more for small business than Square. They started with payment acceptance and have since expanded into many different areas of fintech. In fact, their lending business is now the largest in all of fintech. But it was the addition of Square Banking that has allowed this fintech pioneer to bring it all together. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Christina Riechers, the General Manager of Square Banking. She has been at Square nine years and was one of the architects of Square's push into banking. This is the second podcast in the series that I recorded live at Fintech Meetup in early March. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Christina on LinkedIn Connect with Square on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

The area of fintech that has been in the news most so far this year is, without doubt, banking as a service (BaaS). We have seen consent orders, layoffs, banks ending fintech programs, ongoing disputes between BaaS companies and fintechs and there have been pivots from some of the BaaS providers. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Chris Dean, the CEO and Co-Founder of Treasury Prime. They were one of the original BaaS providers and have recently announced a pivot to working directly with banks. This resulted in the layoff of around half of the company. We do a deep dive into this pivot during our conversation, which took place live at the recent Fintech Meetup in Las Vegas. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Chris Dean on LinkedIn Connect with Treasury Prime on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

The secondary loan market has played an important role in the history of fintech lending. It was important for those early loan buyers to know that there was a robust market in place if they needed to sell a loan portfolio. And sometimes platforms would hold the loans on their own balance sheet for a few months before offloading in a secondary loan sale. It was an essential ingredient in the growth of the space. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Dan Arlotta, Senior Vice President at Garnet Capital Advisors. He has been around the fintech lending space almost from the beginning and has been putting together loan portfolio sales across the industry. There are few people who know the ins and outs of the loan buying space better than Dan. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Dan on LinkedIn Connect with Garnet Capital Advisors on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

Until fintech came along, there was a serious catch-22 when it came to establishing credit. There was no easy way to establish your own credit score without first obtaining credit. This became a real problem with Gen-Z and even younger millennials who have avoided credit cards. But for most people, successfully establishing a good credit score opens doors that are otherwise unavailable. Fintech has come up with some creative solutions to help both establish a credit score or reestablish one that has dropped significantly. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Julie Szudarek, the CEO of Self. She has been in this role for almost six months, taking over from founder James Garvey (listen to the episode with James here). Self was the inventor of the credit builder account and the space has grown a lot in the last few years as consumers are more aware than ever of the importance of a good credit score. In this podcast you will learn:

AI is making its way into many areas of banking and fintech but one area where it already has a strong foothold is detecting financial crime. And there are some companies doing new and innovative things with this AI technology here. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Adam Famularo, the CEO of WorkFusion. His company has created these AI digital workers that are integrated into the workforce of a bank or fintech. These are real digital assistants that have been brought to life by WorkFusion. In this podcast you will learn: casestudiesConnect with Adam on LinkedIn Connect with WorkFusion on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

When FedNow launched last July there was a lot of excitement in the financial community about the first new payments rail from the Fed in fifty years. There was also some trepidation. What would the rollout look like? Would banks take a wait-and-see approach? And how would the presence of RTP affect adoption? Now, almost eight months later we have answers to many of these questions. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Mark Gould, the Chief Payments Executive at the Federal Reserve Financial Services. He is the head of FedNow and has steered the Fed through its successful launch and now into its growth stage. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Mark on LinkedIn Connect with Federal Reserve Financial Services on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

When it comes to financial health there is still much work to be done. While fintech has certainly made an impact here the average consumer is no more financially healthy than they were a decade ago. This is a problem that fascinates me and I love it when I talk to companies that are making a real difference in this area. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Ana Mahony, the CEO and founder of Addition Wealth. Their financial health platform is targeted at employers to offer as a benefit to their employees but what makes them unique is the human interaction. While they have a lot of digital tools for employees they also offer free one-on-one sessions with CPA and Certified Financial Planners. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Ana on LinkedIn Connect with Addition Wealth on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

Consider the humble email address. Most of us don't give this part of our identity a second thought but there is a wealth of information that can be gleaned from this one piece of data. And when it comes to fraud the email address is the most consistent predictor, more than any other data point. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Diarmuid Thoma, the head of fraud and data strategy at AtData. He has spent most of his 23-year career focused on fraud prevention and today he leads a team that has built the most extensive email database in the industry. In this podcast you will learn: white paperConnect with Diarmuid on LinkedIn Connect with AtData on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

Small business lending is still not a solved problem in this country, or anywhere around the world for that matter, despite a decade or more attacking the problem. But today, we are seeing some new business models and new go-to-market approaches that have the potential to make a huge difference. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Luke Voiles, the CEO of Pipe. Luke has been around fintech for many years and he became CEO of Pipe about a year ago now. He has a different perspective on small business lending and how to make it work best for the lender which he goes into in some depth in this episode. In this podcast you will learn: article hereConnect with Luke on LinkedIn Connect with Pipe on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

Embedded finance is a term that has only been around for a relatively short time. But some fintech companies have created services that could be embedded in non-financial firms for many years. It really began in the payments space and became a part of lending and we often called it lending-as-a-service before embedded lending was a thing. One of the pioneers of embedded lending is LiftForward. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Jeffrey Rogers, the CEO and founder of LiftForward, an embedded lending fintech that has been around since 2013. They have a fascinating story and might hold the record for the youngest fintech to partner with one of the tech behemoths. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Jeffrey on LinkedIn Connect with LiftForward on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

Even though banks have been going through digital transformation now for a decade or more there is obviously so much work still to be done. Big banks need help with this process, particularly when it comes to personalization as banks have historically provided products that were more in the one-size-fits-all category. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Amalia Avramov, she is the president of financial services at Amdocs. Now, Amdocs is a large global company that got its start in telecommunications but has expanded into financial services. I have been hearing their name around more and more so I wanted to get Amalia on the show to learn more. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Amalia on LinkedIn Connect with Amdocs on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

When you think of cutting edge fintech you probably don't think about the Caribbean. But some interesting developments are happening there that we should all be paying attention to. On this episode of the Fintech One-on-One podcast, I talk with Curt Persaud, the Co-founder and CTO of Fintech Islands and Andrew B. Morris, the Chief Content Officer at Fintech Islands. This is the biggest fintech event in the Caribbean and it is happening next week (January 24-26) in Barbados. I will be there along with many other U.S. and Caribbean fintech leaders. The Caribbean is an under-appreciated region, it is in our backyard with more people (45 million) than Canada. There is a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a thriving fintech industry there already, that is poised to grow significantly in the near future. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Andrew B. Morris on LinkedIn Connect with Curt Persaud on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech Islands on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

The small business lending space has seen a lot of innovation over the last decade with fintech leading the way. But there is still much more work to do as many small business still lack the access to capital that they deserve. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Steve Allocca, the head of Funding Circle USA. He has worked at some of the biggest names in fintech (PayPal, LendingClub, Bluevine and now Funding Circle) working on this challenge of helping small business access capital. Funding Circle is a pioneer in this space and recently they received the news that they have been approved for a new SBA 7(a) lending license. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Steve on LinkedIn Connect with Funding Circle on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

When we think about embedded finance one of the biggest opportunities is bringing financial services to vertical software companies. These software companies already have the relationship within their vertical and it often makes logical sense for them to add financial services as an add-on offering, as long as it is simple and easy to implement. My first guest of 2024 on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Tom Bell, the CEO and co-founder of Maast (as in Money-as-a-service plus). They are a wholly owned subsidiary of Synovus Bank and have been in business for two years. They are bringing embedded payments acceptance and embedded banking to vertical software companies but doing it with the backing of a 130-year-old regional bank. In this podcast you will learn: hereConnect with Tom on LinkedIn Connect with Maast on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

Around the world, several digital banks have achieved impressive scale. But most of these fintech companies have been focused just on their home market. It is difficult to scale a global digital bank because regulations and compliance requirements differ so much between countries. But we have seen some traditional banks achieve scale in multiple countries so there is no reason why we shouldn't see the same in fintech. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Sid Jajodia, the Chief Banking Officer for Revolut and the CEO of Revolut US. There is no other fintech company that is as focused on becoming a global fintech leader than Revolut. They already have 35 million customers in more than 30 countries around the world and they continue to open operations in new countries multiple times a year. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Sid on LinkedIn Connect with Revolut on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

The Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) have been part of the financial landscape in this country since 1932. They were created (before the New Deal) in response to the housing crisis during the Great Depression. But their role has changed from a focus on housing to becoming a liquidity provider for large banks. And this has had a major impact on our financial system, including the fintech space. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Cornelius (Con) Hurley. He is a professor at the Boston University School of Law and was a founding member of the Online Lending Policy Institute that was folded into the American Fintech Council in 2021. Most importantly for this conversation, Professor Hurley was an independent director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston for 14 years. He has become an outspoken critic of FHLBs in recent years and is a co-founder of the Coalition for FHLB Reform. Professor Hurley provides a detailed history and the current state of play for FHLBs but also focuses on the role fintech companies can play here. In this podcast you will learn: FHLB reportConnect with Cornelius on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes

While most of us would agree that we have seen significant innovation in fintech and banking over the last decade, we still don't really have a new framework for how we look at banking. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One is someone who has thought deeply about innovation in banking and he has lived it as a co-founder of some of the biggest names in fintech. Jason Bates is currently the co-founder and Deputy CEO at consulting firm 11:FS but he is also a co-founder of both Starling Bank and Monzo, two of the big three in UK fintech. His framework of four layers for retail financial services provides an interesting perspective and a possible foundation for future innovation. In this podcast you will learn: Connect with Jason on LinkedIn Connect with 11:FS on LinkedIn Connect with Fintech One-on-One: @PeterRentonLinkedInFintech One-on-One episodes