Podcast appearances and mentions of Alex Johnson

Alex Johnson, founder of Fintech Takes, details why many banks are thinking about AI the wrong way. He updates his views on stablecoins vs. tokenized deposits, discusses why fintech competition remains a potent threat to banks and talks about why the bigger issue may be how customers use AI to make financial decisions.

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I'm Alex Johnson, and today's episode is a little different. Before I wrote a newsletter for a living, I spent the beginning of my career working in B2B marketing in fintech and financial services. So this episode is built around the provocation that B2B marketing sucks, but it doesn't have to.  First up, Cokie Hasiotis (Head of Vertical Marketing at Socure and author of the For the Plot newsletter) and Julie VerHage Greenberg (founder of Quinnovation and formerly a co-founder and writer of Fintech Today and reporter at Bloomberg) join me to diagnose B2B marketing's boring problem. It's an industry where 80% of decisions are made emotionally, and yet it runs on copy that makes you feel nothing. We get into why the head of content is a job designed to fail, and why founders are so bad at telling their own stories. Then, Jessica Kendall (Head of Content and Communications at Spinwheel) joins me to talk about messaging. We also get into the two AI problems every marketing team now has to own (tune in to find out!). And last but not least, Adam Ryan (co-founder and CEO of Workweek) joins me to talk about why B2B marketers can rarely prove the value of decisions they know were right. Blame the hidden sales cycle, and the tenure problem (the average executive B2B marketer lasts 18 months, often not even a full sales cycle). We dig into: What would B2B marketing look like if it remembered that buyers are humans? Can you measure a changed mind? If AI can produce infinite “good enough” content, what's left that buyers will trust? And so much more! Tune in for a curious tour through the discipline that decides what our entire industry reads, watches, and believes. As discussed, learn more about the Workweek Partner Platform: https://advertising.workweek.com/insights/future-of-b2b-runs-on-trust/ Apply for Workweek Upfronts in Austin (August 26 & 27) here: https://workweekupfronts.com/ This episode is brought to you by Persona.  The best fintechs expand what's possible for users. Persona does that for fraud prevention. Their recently upgraded link analysis tool surfaces connections in real time, letting you spot deepfakes, identity farms, and fraud rings during onboarding and investigations.  They just published their Fraud Leader's Guide to Link Analysis, a practical look at today's top risk signals, automating decisions, and scaling link analysis for fraud prevention. Download it now: http://withpersona.com/ftt-fraud  Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Cokie: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cokie-hasiotis-9b666363/  Newsletter: For The Plot at https://cokiehasiotis.substack.com/  Follow Julie: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-verhage-greenberg-1748801b/ Follow Jessica: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesslkendall/  Follow Adam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamtryan/  Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Our second batch of interviews stemming from the Financial Health Network's EMERGE conference, both with founders of compelling fintech startups: ROX CEO Lara Hodgson (breaking down barriers to SMB credit/liquidity) and Poncho CEO John Brown (financial wellness for military families). Also- the sudden twist in Fiserv's turnaround story. Links related to this episode: ROX: https://www.roxwrite.com/   Poncho:  https://www.poncho.us/ Poncho CEO John Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnprestonbrown/ The Financial Health Network: https://finhealthnetwork.org/ Glen's blog on a VERY eventful month in interchange: https://www.big-fintech.com/a-remarkable-month-for-interchange-but-what-has-really-changed/ A replay of Glen's favorite EMERGE session, featuring Alex Johnson posing "lightning round" questions to a panel including former OCC head Michael Hsu: https://finhealthnetwork.org/event-session/hard-questions-for-the-future-of-finance Sister publications Banking Dive and Payments Dive publish differing perspectives on Fiserv CEO Mike Lyon's surprise departure: https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/fiserv-ceo-exits-after-rocky-year/822882/ https://www.bankingdive.com/news/truist-ceo-lyons-rogers-fiserv/822878/  Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/best-innovation-group/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbfintech/  https://www.linkedin.com/n/glensarvady/

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Dave Wasik, Partner at 2nd Order Solutions, for another episode of Facing Credit, our series on everything credit and lending. Dave comes armed with 2nd Order Solutions' new credit trends report, and the headline is: things are surprisingly OK, albeit there are yellow flags. Bankruptcies are up 14% year over year. New credit card vintages from Q1 and Q2 2025 are already delinquent at higher rates than prior cohorts. The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment is at an all-time low in its recorded history. The squeeze is getting tighter.  Dave and I dig into: Why consumer sentiment and economic performance have diverged, and what the 1970s can and can't tell us about this moment The K-shaped economy and whose vibes are actually driving consumer spending Why the models aren't broken, the borrowers are just under more strain than they've been in years What happens when you eliminate disparate impact enforcement at the federal level and hand the states a vacuum to fill We close with a format we're calling the non-AI draft. Dave and I each pick two trends in credit and lending that would be dominating every conversation if AI weren't the only thing anyone can talk about. Tune in for our picks! This episode is brought to you by Persona.  The best fintechs expand what's possible for users. Persona does that for fraud prevention. Their recently upgraded link analysis tool surfaces connections in real time, letting you spot deepfakes, identity farms, and fraud rings during onboarding and investigations.  They just published their Fraud Leader's Guide to Link Analysis, a practical look at today's top risk signals, automating decisions, and scaling link analysis for fraud prevention. Download it now: http://withpersona.com/ftt-fraud  Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Dave: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davewasik/ Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Fintech Recap. I'm Alex Johnson, joined as always by my partner in recapping, Jason Mikula. We kick things off with the accelerating trend of fintech companies becoming banks. Chime's CEO confirmed it's a matter of when, not if — reversing their "we're a software company" stance. Mercury got conditional OCC approval for a national bank charter the same week it raised $200M at a $5.2B valuation. We explore what the fintech-to-bank stampede does to your valuation (our case studies are Chime, SoFi, and LendingClub), and why some companies chartering today might wish they hadn't. Then, BaaS Island calls us back (I'm a sucker for the sirens' song). The OCC issued a consent order against Community Federal Savings Bank, a single-branch institution in Queens that grew from $140M to $900M in assets by running fintech partner programs for Airwallex, Wise, Payoneer, among others. We discuss why the OCC acted, and why the order is unusually narrow. From there, we walk through two executive orders from the White House on fintech and bank regulation and the Federal Reserve's convoluted master account situationship. Finally, in our Can't Let It Gos: Jason can't let go of SpaceX dumping on retail investors as exit liquidity for their VCs, and I can't let go of PayPal's settlement with the DOJ over a fair lending investigation into a program that never made a single loan. Truly, this will haunt me forever! This episode is brought to you by Persona.  The best fintechs expand what's possible for users. Persona does that for fraud prevention. Their recently upgraded link analysis tool surfaces connections in real time, letting you spot deepfakes, identity farms, and fraud rings during onboarding and investigations.  They just published their Fraud Leader's Guide to Link Analysis, a practical look at today's top risk signals, automating decisions, and scaling link analysis for fraud prevention. Download it now: http://withpersona.com/ftt-fraud  Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Rafe Mazer, researcher and author of the excellent report "Who Pays for What? Pricing and Monetization Options in Open Finance." This episode is a deliberate step back from the U.S. open banking soap opera I've been living inside for the past year or so.  The question of who pays for open finance isn't one the U.S. gets to answer in isolation. Other markets have been wrestling with it for years, and at some point I needed someone to make me look up. That person is Rafe. Rafe works across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and beyond, and his new report surveys the global landscape of how open finance systems get built and funded.  It's the closest thing to a first principles analysis that exists, and you should read it (link below). We cover the four distinct cost stages of open finance (most countries only plan for one), plus the five pricing archetypes that exist globally, from Brazil's threshold pricing that was never actually collected to South Korea's voluntary, self-governing open banking exchange that works without a single regulatory mandate requiring it. The U.S., despite having one of the most competitive financial markets in the world, may be poorly positioned to get this right. We also get into reciprocity, the word that never appears in the U.S. open banking debate but probably should, and what a federal data protection law would actually change. Check out Rafe's report here: https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/brief/who-pays-for-what-pricing-and-monetization-options-in-open-finance/ This episode is brought to you by Persona.  The best fintechs expand what's possible for users. Persona does that for fraud prevention. Their recently upgraded link analysis tool surfaces connections in real time, letting you spot deepfakes, identity farms, and fraud rings during onboarding and investigations.  They just published their Fraud Leader's Guide to Link Analysis, a practical look at today's top risk signals, automating decisions, and scaling link analysis for fraud prevention. Download it now: http://withpersona.com/ftt-fraud  Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Rafe: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafael-rafe-mazer-13531b/   Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Jonathan Cohen, Policy Lead at the American Institute for Boys and Men and author of Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling. In keeping with a theme that we've been building on around here, today's episode is about sports betting, gambling, prediction markets, and the infiltration of all of these activities into financial services apps.  We cover the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that had almost nothing to do with gambling and everything to do with states' rights; the frictionless mobile nature of betting today and what that unlocked; the research on young men, loneliness, and financial nihilism that explains why this landed where it did; and the CFTC's decision to classify sports prediction market contracts as swaps, which handed the industry a green light that may not survive the next Supreme Court term. We also get into Robinhood's role as backend infrastructure for Trump accounts, and what it means that young men may soon inherit a government-seeded investment account from the same company that's pushing them toward sports betting. Check out Jonathan's book here: https://a.co/d/0bbrz0IR  This episode is brought to you by Persona.  The best fintechs expand what's possible for users. Persona does that for fraud prevention. Their recently upgraded link analysis tool surfaces connections in real time, letting you spot deepfakes, identity farms, and fraud rings during onboarding and investigations.  They just published their Fraud Leader's Guide to Link Analysis, a practical look at today's top risk signals, automating decisions, and scaling link analysis for fraud prevention. Download it now: http://withpersona.com/ftt-fraud  Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jonathan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-cohen-6219b989/    Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

You could have heard this episode 48 hours early by supporting us on Patreon for as low as $1/month, where you'll also gain access to our Discord server & get yourself an Indieheads Podcast sticker: https://www.patreon.com/IndieheadsPodcast On this episode, Matty and Natalie are joined by special guest Alex Johnson (of Stop Hitting Yourself) to talk the best, […]

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Danny Funt, author of the book Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling. This episode isn't really about sports. It's about how sports gambling evolved in the U.S. from a patchwork of legal quirks, a highly coordinated state-by-state lobbying campaign, and a set of product dynamics that, over time, became increasingly adversarial to the customer. Danny and I walk through the key inflection points: from the 1992 PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) federal ban, to the fantasy sports exemption that gave FanDuel and DraftKings their head start, to the widely misunderstood 2018 Supreme Court ruling, to the rise of VIP host programs and affiliate-driven media incentives. And finally, to prediction markets, which in Danny's view look a lot like a compressed replay of the same playbook. For anyone in financial services watching gambling and investing collapse into each other in real time, this conversation has a lot to say about where that's heading. Check out Danny's book here: https://a.co/d/04liSaKI This episode is brought to you by Persona.  The best fintechs expand what's possible for users. Persona does that for fraud prevention. Their recently upgraded link analysis tool surfaces connections in real time, letting you spot deepfakes, identity farms, and fraud rings during onboarding and investigations.  They just published their Fraud Leader's Guide to Link Analysis, a practical look at today's top risk signals, automating decisions, and scaling link analysis for fraud prevention. Download it now: http://withpersona.com/ftt-fraud  Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Danny: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-funt-2695b4a3/   Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

You could have heard this episode 48 hours early by supporting us on Patreon for as low as $1/month, where you'll also gain access to our Discord server & get yourself an Indieheads Podcast sticker: https://www.patreon.com/IndieheadsPodcast On this episode, Matty, Violet and Chris/Barely March are joined by Alex Johnson of Stop Hitting Yourself as we count down […]

If you're an accredited investor interested in our Catalina deal, connect with us at somerscapital.com/investRich sits down live from one of their boutique properties in the Little Italy neighborhood of San Diego with Alex Johnson and Lauren Turpie from Somers Capital. They break down the shift away from large, traditional hotels toward “vibe-driven” boutique stays people actually want to share, and why that demand is accelerating as Airbnb loses its edge.They also go inside Somers Capital's strategy as they acquire two more hotels along the California coast, bringing their total to eight under the Somers Collection brand. The team shares how they're using AI across the business, from dynamic pricing systems making 100–200 daily adjustments to personalized AI concierges like “Brooklyn” that handle guest experiences, drive reviews, and increase revenue. They also touch on leveraging influencers, operational efficiencies, and what's actually making these properties outperform.Join Investor Waitlist: www.somerscapital.com/invest Connect with Rich on Instagram: @rich_somersInterested in investing with Somers Capital? Visit www.somerscapital.com/invest to learn more.Interested in joining The 7 Figure Creator Mastermind? Visit www.the7figurecreator.com to book a free intro call.Interested in joining our Boutique Hotel Mastermind? Visit www.somerscapital.com/mastermind to book a free call.Connect with Rich on Instagram: @rich_somersInterested in joining The 7 Figure Creator Mastermind? Visit www.the7figurecreator.com to book a free intro call.Interested in joining our Boutique Hotel Mastermind? Visit www.somerscapital.com/mastermind to book a free call.

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Mike Hsu, former Acting Comptroller of the Currency. I recently crossed paths with Mike at the Bank of North Dakota's fintech and stablecoin event in Fargo, where he led a 90-minute session on stablecoins from a policymaker's perspective. It was so impressive I wanted an interactive version for the podcast. In this episode, we trace the historical lineage of stablecoins from free banking before the Civil War, through the Eurodollar market, money market funds, Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper, and Facebook's Libra announcement … all the way up to the GENIUS Act.  All regulation is path-dependent. To understand why policymakers react the way they do to stablecoins, you have to understand what shaped them. Mike's reading (and listening) recommendations from the episode: Bank Notes and Shinplasters by Joshua R. Greenberg: https://www.pennpress.org/9780812252248/bank-notes-and-shinplasters/ Ways and Means by Roger Lowenstein: https://bookshop.org/p/books/ways-and-means-lincoln-and-his-cabinet-and-the-financing-of-the-civil-war-roger-lowenstein/317ffa9e260a1186 "Are Banks Special?" by E. Gerald Corrigan (Minneapolis Fed, 1982): https://www.bu.edu/econ/files/2012/01/Corrigan-Are-Banks-Special_main-text.pdf Odd Lots, “The Hidden History of Eurodollars, Part 1: Cold War Origins:” https://omny.fm/shows/odd-lots/the-hidden-history-of-eurodollars-part-1-cold-war Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf Facebook's Libra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diem_(digital_currency)  Circle's Arc litepaper: https://arcnetwork.xyz/litepaper Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber: https://press.stripe.com/boom This episode is brought to you by Persona.  Persona is the identity verification platform trusted by fintech's fastest-growing teams, from YC-backed startups to publicly traded companies. Build your identity program with enterprise-grade tools, starting at $0 with Persona's Startup Program. Fintech Takes listeners can get a full free year through Persona's Startup Program at withpersona.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Mike: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hsu-992257347/   Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

On this edition of the Michigan Recruiting Insider, Brice and Steve start with discussion on Kalamazoo (MI) four-star offensive tackle Jakari Lipsey. Lipsey is a top target for Wolverines' offensive line coach Jim Harding. Our second segment discusses Fort Mill (SC) three-star defensive end Alex Johnson, who has burst onto the scene in the last couple of weeks and become a top target for the staff. Can the Wolverines go into SEC country and pull one out? The episode concludes with an extended discussion on notable visitors' for the staff's spring game/practice last Saturday. Among the prospects discussed are top receiver targets Dakota Guerrant and Quentin Burrell along with cornerback target Tavares Harrington. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Rich Franks (a fintech advisor and consultant with 20+ years in credit risk across both the bank and fintech sides), for a new episode of Facing Credit. This one's about credit scoring. And it's about why the market has changed more in the last year than in the prior 30. The FICO monopoly has cracked. Federal regulators opened the mortgage market to competing scores. Cashflow underwriting arrived with roughly 30% predictive lift over traditional bureau data. Block built a proprietary score from Cash App transaction data, and plans to sell it to third-party lenders. Plus, a new generation of cashflow scoring companies (including Prism, Plaid's LendScore, Nova Credit, Pave, and CloutScore) are all competing in the market for a top spot. Rich and I dig into: Why even 80% conversion on the bank account linking step still kills a lending funnel, and what it takes to solve friction Why FICO's cashflow answer had an architectural problem, and why lenders started looking elsewhere The fair lending risks hidden inside merchant-level transaction data What makes Block's Cash App Score innovative, and the game theory question it raises if large depositories start thinking the same way Tune in for Rich's take on where the cashflow scoring market consolidates, what the end of FICO's de facto monopoly means for lenders and consumers, and whether AI resolves or accelerates the fragmentation. This episode is brought to you by Persona.  Persona is the identity verification platform trusted by fintech's fastest-growing teams, from YC-backed startups to publicly traded companies. Build your identity program with enterprise-grade tools, starting at $0 with Persona's Startup Program. Fintech Takes listeners can get a full free year through Persona's Startup Program at withpersona.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Rich: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richfranks/ Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

You could have heard this episode 48 hours early by supporting us on Patreon for as low as $1/month, where you'll also gain access to our Discord server & get yourself an Indieheads Podcast sticker: https://www.patreon.com/IndieheadsPodcast On this episode, Matty and Violet are joined again by Alex Johnson as we talk about the songs of The Beatles… […]

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Jason Henrichs, CEO of Alloy Labs and co-host of the Breaking Banks podcast. This episode is structured in two parts. In part one, Jason and I zoom out on bank-fintech partnerships (once we get a rant out of our system; the Treasury Department announced who'd run Trump accounts as we recorded, and we had feelings). We've spent years talking about bank-fintech partnerships through the lens of BaaS. Jason reframes that with two new models: BPP (Bank Product Partnership), where banks own the customer and fintechs sell into them, and CPaaS (Charter Partnership as a Service), where fintechs rent a bank's charter. Those models look similar on the surface, but the incentives, economics, and regulatory dynamics are completely different. From there, we dig into the wave of charter applications, the real question of who actually knows how to lend, and why the U.S. market has trained itself into giving away its most expensive product. Then, in part two, I'm joined by AJ Clark and Tom Johnson, startup advisors and members of the Fintech Takes Network. We shift to what's actually happening on the ground inside banks and startups, and why deeper, slower conversations are often the prerequisite for real partnership. That also becomes a natural preview to the Fintech Frontier Summit, a small, curated gathering in Montana focused on solving these problems in practice, which AJ and Tom are helping organize (from May 31 through June 3 at Alpine Falls Ranch; applications open at luma.com/fintechfrontiersummit2026). This episode is brought to you by Persona.  Persona is the identity verification platform trusted by fintech's fastest-growing teams, from YC-backed startups to publicly traded companies. Build your identity program with enterprise-grade tools, starting at $0 with Persona's Startup Program. Fintech Takes listeners can get a full free year through Persona's Startup Program at withpersona.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason Henrichs: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhenrichs/ Twitter: https://x.com/jasonhenrichs Breaking Banks podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-banks/id641357669   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Fintech Recap. I'm Alex Johnson, joined as always by my partner in recapping, Jason Mikula. We kick things off with Bilt 2.0. After Wells Fargo pulled the plug on a partnership costing the bank reportedly $10M a month, Bilt rebuilt its stack with Column as the bank partner, Cardless as issuer processor, and Fidem Financial as the capital provider. The transition was not smooth. Picture a free-for-all of declined applications; lower credit limits; missed, failed, or duplicated rent payments; fraud; and an AI customer support bot looping without resolution. My read: Bilt 1.0 worked because Wells Fargo absorbed everything. Bilt 2.0 jerry-rigged a multi-vendor solution and asked customers not to notice. From there, we get into what I'm calling the “graduation problem” in BaaS. As fintech companies like Mercury pursue charters (and deals like Capital One acquiring Brex reshape the landscape), the same partners that fueled growth for sponsor banks are now leaving or vertically integrating. We debate whether BaaS was ever an enduring model or a toll on regulatory scarcity. What happens when that scarcity disappears? From there, we turn to New York's proposed financial data rights law, which mirrors and extends the CFPB's 1033 rule. It's the most ambitious open banking legislation ever introduced in the U.S. It covers consumers and small businesses, applies to every bank serving New Yorkers regardless of charter type, and explicitly bans fees for data access.  We close with two Can't Let It Gos: Elizabeth Warren's letter to MrBeast, which resurfaced deleted Step videos coaching teenagers on how to convince their parents to let them invest in crypto, and the prediction market industry's very aggressive March Madness push from Coinbase and Kalshi. This episode is brought to you by Persona.  Persona is the identity verification platform trusted by fintech's fastest-growing teams, from YC-backed startups to publicly traded companies. Build your identity program with enterprise-grade tools, starting at $0 with Persona's Startup Program. Fintech Takes listeners can get a full free year through Persona's Startup Program at withpersona.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

You could have heard this episode 48 hours early by supporting us on Patreon for as low as $1/month, where you'll also gain access to our Discord server & get yourself an Indieheads Podcast sticker: https://www.patreon.com/IndieheadsPodcast On this episode, Matty, Max and Jenna are joined by special guest Alex Johnson as we check in on some of […]

Interview with Alex Johnson - The Culture News

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Kiran Aware (Chief Consumer Credit Officer at LendingClub) and Michelle Young (Credit Product Lead at Plaid) for our new series Facing Credit, where we unpack what's happening in credit and lending right now. Today's conversation explores credit underwriting as a system, and why more lenders are finally starting to treat it that way. First, we zoom out to the macro picture and ask how lenders are navigating a market full of uncertainty and changing consumer behavior. Kiran explains how LendingClub thinks about borrower stability, while Michelle shares what lenders across the market are looking for in a more complete picture of risk. Next, we focus on credit underwriting as a system. Kiran breaks down how LendingClub has built a full decisioning operating system across underwriting, pricing, verification, fraud, servicing, and collections. Michelle explains why alternative data is no longer a useful label, and why user-permissioned cash flow data has become more important across origination, verification, and monitoring. Finally, we tackle AI in credit, near-term and long. Explainability requirements mean LLMs won't land in core underwriting tomorrow, but AI's already changing what's possible in verification and fraud workflows. The longer horizon points toward credit systems that identify new signals autonomously and self-optimize in real time. But what happens when consumers have AI agents making decisions on their behalf, and fraudsters are using the same technology to attack the system? Tune in for a rich conversation about what lenders are really building when they underwrite credit (and why the industry is more open than ever to reimagining the system itself). This episode is brought to you by Plaid.  Plaid helps lenders approve more creditworthy borrowers without taking on more risk, combining real-time cash flow data with behavioral insights. It's a fast, familiar experience people trust, and that actually converts. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Kiran LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiran-aware-6491984/  Follow Michelle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-boros-young-5a586983/ Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Mike "Big Roy" Whitney, "Sugar" Ray Nosti, & Andrew "Dawsey" Dawson present "This Week In Sport"....   Each week the boys share their thoughts on anything sport from around the globe with their own brand of irreverent humour!   This week the boys chat about :   - Chuck Norris - Kids ice hockey fights - Penrith Panthers' Brian To'o's food consumption - Rabbitoh's Alex Johnson's try scoring record - Rugby Union & Rugby League - Mike Whitney's 1992/93 Testimonial Wines - Brad Haddin as the new NSW cricket coach - A New Zealand cricketer's 5 wickets in 5 deliveries - Athletics - Anxiety, depression & drug use among elite athletes - Ray's T-Shirts! - Sugar Ray Nosti's Trivia & much, much more!    

Another crazy week in Georgia politics means we have another crazy podcast. Topics include: Colton Moore is mostly politically dead as CD-14 voters rally around Clay Fuller. The race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination gets spicy. Jackson sues Jones for defamation. The latest polling in the Governor and Senate races. Esteves goes after Duncan. Scot tussles with Alex Johnson. The Catoosa GOP acts foolishly and gets smacked down again.

Alex Johnston didn’t just score a try; he climbed to the top of a mountain that has stood since the 1970s. Passing the legendary Ken Irvine, AJ is now the undisputed, all-time greatest try-scorer in National Rugby League history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I'm Alex Johnson, joined again by Carlos Caro (author of the Free Toaster newsletter and host of the Free Toaster podcast) to continue the conversation we started on Carlos's podcast about MrBeast's acquisition of Step and what it means for the fintech ecosystem. This episode picks up where we left off, by looking to the past.  If you think you've found a new idea in financial services, you probably just haven't done enough research yet. Celebrity fintech, especially fintech built for underserved consumers, is no exception.  In this Part 2 episode, Carlos and I explore three celebrity-backed fintech products from the 2010s era that failed in ways worth understanding for the present: The Kardashian Kard, Justin Bieber's BillMyParents prepaid card, and The Approved Card from Suze Orman. Across all three, similar questions keep popping up:  What happens when a celebrity brand collides with the realities of financial services economics?  How far can a celebrity brand take a product if the product itself doesn't make sense for consumers?  How much does product-market fit matter if the fee structure feels exploitative?  And what can MrBeast learn from the celebrities who tried this before? Tune in for a tour through recent fintech history as we dust off a few forgotten celebrity card experiments from the sands of time, and wonder whether a celebrity brand can succeed in financial services without repeating the same mistakes. This episode is brought to you by Plaid.  Most lenders see the value of cash flow data. The hard part is getting started—and knowing what to do with it once you have it. Plaid makes it easy to access real-time cash flow and behavioral insights in seconds, through a familiar experience borrowers already trust. No heavy lift. No added friction. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Carlos Caro: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-carlos-caro/ Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

The Grahams, Wade and James, are in alongside Charlie White to review Round One of the 2026 NRL season. We look at the impressive showing from South Sydney in Brisbane yesterday – is centre Latrell’s best spot? Is David Fifita back? The Raiders managed to win in golden point thanks to Ethan ‘The Colonel’ Sanders, and Jimmy has praise for Manly. Wadeo suspects big things inbound for his beloved Cronulla Sharks, and we look at what happened to the reigning premiers as Penrith held them to zero in Brisbane. Plus, our new segments ‘Cool Your Jets’, ‘Put A Line Through’ & ‘I’ve Seen Enough’ make their debut on the Monday show, and the boys have contrasting opinions on the Alex Johnson ‘storm the field’ situation. Check out Triple M NRL's Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Grahams, Wade and James, are in alongside Charlie White to review Round One of the 2026 NRL season. We look at the impressive showing from South Sydney in Brisbane yesterday – is centre Latrell’s best spot? Is David Fifita back? The Raiders managed to win in golden point thanks to Ethan ‘The Colonel’ Sanders, and Jimmy has praise for Manly. Wadeo suspects big things inbound for his beloved Cronulla Sharks, and we look at what happened to the reigning premiers as Penrith held them to zero in Brisbane. Plus, our new segments ‘Cool Your Jets’, ‘Put A Line Through’ & ‘I’ve Seen Enough’ make their debut on the Monday show, and the boys have contrasting opinions on the Alex Johnson ‘storm the field’ situation. Check out Triple M NRL's Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In This Episode Which trends are genuinely reshaping and transforming banking? Is fintech hitting its “awkward adolescent phase”—past the hype but not yet fully mature? Today we sort through the signal and the noise. Which trends are actually changing how banks work and which are mostly theater. There are lots of pitches coming at banks, but just like in baseball, you can’t swing at them all. How do financial institutions decide what’s worth pursuing versus what’s just the latest headline? Joining host Jason Henrichs are two people who view the landscape from different vantage points: Alex Johnson, Founder of FinTech Takes who analyzes and challenges the narratives shaping fintech, and Meghan Kober, Head of Fintech Partnerships & Investments at U.S. Bank who sits on the side of who decides which innovations get deployed within one of the most innovative banks. Together, they dig into where fintech stands today and what the next phase might look like once the noise settles. This episode of Breaking Banks is part of the FintechXchange recording series at the University of Utah, powered by U.S. Bank.

You could have heard this episode 48 hours early by supporting us on Patreon for as low as $1/month, where you'll also gain access to our Discord server & get yourself an Indieheads Podcast sticker: https://www.patreon.com/IndieheadsPodcast On this episode, Matty and Violet are joined by special guests Alex Johnson and Jay aka Cheddahz as they once again […]

Welcome back to Fintech Recap. I'm Alex Johnson, joined as always by my partner in recapping, Jason Mikula. We kick things off with Block's move into credit scoring. Block stitched together data across Cash App and Afterpay into a proprietary score it's now surfacing to consumers and selling to other lenders, claiming auto lenders could approve 30% more borrowers at identical loss rates using the Cash App score. We dig into adverse selection when consumers choose what to share, where this fits in lender workflows, and the FCRA wrinkle that “transactions and experiences” data can fall outside the definition of a consumer report… Then, we dive into stablecoins. Jason walks through the rebirth of “no KYC” crypto-funded spending cards, including testing several of these services himself (tune in to discover the pattern!). The core mechanic Jason flags is a corporate card loophole: KYB the company, then issue incremental “employee” cards with no legal or regulatory requirement to verify the person behind each card. From there, we zoom out to Bridge, Stripe's stablecoin infrastructure subsidiary. Bridge got conditional OCC approval to form a national trust bank and moved jurisdictions (which include Russia, Belarus, Gaza, South Sudan, and Venezuela) from “controlled” to “prohibited,” while still defining “prohibited” with an “extraordinary situations” carveout. Plus, in our Can't Let It Go corner: prediction markets.  CFTC Chair Mike Sig told the Senate during his nomination hearing that he'd defer to the courts on sports betting and prediction markets. But early this year, he reversed course, asserting the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction and filing amicus briefs against state prohibitions aimed at sports betting. Kalshi and Polymarket loved it, and I'm sure that's unrelated to the fact that Sig's boss's son is an advisor to both. We close with Substack's new partnership with Polymarket to embed prediction markets into journalism, set against a real-world example of the incentive problem: Israeli authorities investigated and arrested military reservists and a civilian for allegedly using classified information to place bets on Polymarket. This episode is brought to you by Plaid.  Most lenders see the value of cash flow data. The hard part is getting started—and knowing what to do with it once you have it. Plaid makes it easy to access real-time cash flow and behavioral insights in seconds, through a familiar experience borrowers already trust. No heavy lift. No added friction. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

What’s more fascinating than reading actual books? Well, it’s the weird and bizarre stories behind the stories themselves! At least, that’s what journalist and author Alex Johnson hopes with his latest book, When Books Go Bad – exploring some of the strangest and most infamous stories about book writing and publishing experiences through the years. In this episode, Alex shares his love of writing these kinds of ‘behind the scenes’ industry books and how he ended up with the publishing relationship that has yielded 20 books to date. He also explains how he chooses the stories to go in his books and some of the more surprising entries. 00:00 Welcome06:11 Writing tip: Associative triggers11:00 WIN!: Diaries of Note by Shaun Usher13:02 Word of the week: ‘Deuteragonist’15:12 Writer in residence: Alex Johnson16:00 Alex explains his latest book, When Books Go Bad16:55 Why he wrote this book19:58 Journalistic not academic21:51 Starting his relationship with the British Library24:00 Compiling the material for the book25:09 Authors and their naughty and odd tendencies28:20 Pitching and publishing books32:57 The editing process36:21 Illustrations and book design38:06 Surprising stories from the book41:34 Publicity and social media43:06 Upcoming projects and tips44:39 A writing tip46:20 Final thoughts Read the show notes Connect with Valerie and listeners in the podcast community on Facebook Visit WritersCentre.com.au | ValerieKhoo.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're back for more stories about the impact the David Eccles School of Business has on the lives and careers of our alumni, and today, host Frances Johnson is joined by Steve Johnson and his sons Mitchell Johnson and Alex Johnson, multi-generational alums of the David Eccles School of Business, for an “All Johnson” episode on our season finale.Steve Johnson is CFO at Parker-Migliorini International, LLCm also known as PMI Foods, where he has been since 2006.. Mitchell Johnson joined Big Four accounting firm KPMG in 2002 and currently works there as a senior audit associate. Alex Johnson works in inbound sales at Weave Communications. Frances talks to the Johnsons about their family's multi-generational ties to the U of U,, the campus's growth and new facilities, and favorite Eccles experiences such as Alex's Business Scholars trips (including visits to Boeing and Amazon), Mitchell's semester abroad in London through Eccles Global and other Business Scholars travel, and Steve's IBM corporate finance internship. They also discuss the value of staying involved as young alumni—especially for in-person networking and forming long-term relationships. Steve shares the reasons why it is so important for his family to give back through scholarships and endowments, influenced by the scholarship support he and his father received and his experience reading scholarship applications on the University of Utah Alumni Board of Governors. They also reflect on how the Eccles School prepared them for different career paths through programs, professional development, and experiential learning, and offer students advice to slow down, broaden their horizons, and take advantage of campus resources and opportunities.Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School of Business and is produced by University.fm.Eccles Business Buzz is proud to be selected by FeedSpot as one of the Top 70 Business School podcasts on the web. Learn more at https://podcast.feedspot.com/us_business_school_podcasts. Episode Quotes:What does Steve hope for his future generations?[31:28] Frances Johnson: Your sons now all three graduates of the Eccles School, and you have just been so deeply involved as a donor, as an alum at the Eccles School level and the university level. What do you hope that they do to stay engaged with the Eccles School? How do you hope they contribute, and what do you hope they're going to gain from that continued connection in your family?[32:02] Steve Johnson: Well, I hope they'll gain the same enjoyment and satisfaction that I did. The ability to feel a belonging, to continue to pass the torch along. The more involved you get and the more involved you get over time, you have a connection to the community. And it's very important. It is part of our community.The power of the alumni network matters more than digital connections[17:38] Mitchell Johnson: In the modern era, things like LinkedIn always are very beneficial to career advancement and building connections. But I think having the alumni network and having all the real in-person tangible connections just goes so, so far. And I think being able to keep, stay in touch with your old classmates, but also meeting people who have been alums for a long time, or who are fresh out of college. It's great just to build those relationships, because you never know how far those could actually take you in life.The career advantage of staying open to new connections[20:16]: Alex Johnson: I think you never know at what point, like, the perfect career opportunity might come up for you. And I think you never want to shy away from those opportunities. And I think just continuing to increase your network is a great opportunity. I think sometimes what might happen is sometimes people, they leave college and they kind of get so focused in one area, they kind of shrink their network. But I think as you continue to build your network and meet new people, like even going to some of these alumni events, I have been able to meet new people who I did not know in college. And that is a great opportunity because you might be able to meet someone who has been in your shoes but was not the exact same age as you.Show Links:Steve Johnson | LinkedInMitchell Johnson | LinkedInAlex Johnson | LinkedInDavid Eccles School of Business (@ubusiness) | InstagramUndergraduate Scholars ProgramsRising Business LeadersEccles Alumni Network (@ecclesalumni) | Instagram Eccles Experience Magazine

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined in this episode by two guests, Steve Boms (Executive Director at FDATA) and Dan Murphy (Founder of Sunset Park Advisors; formerly CFPB). We're talking about Canada, and why a country that has spent the better part of a decade moving at a pace I have occasionally made fun of in the newsletter is now arguably ahead of the U.S. on open banking regulation. Dan and Steve walk through how Canada deliberately corrected what other countries got wrong, and how timing and learning play a role, too. Canada watched the BPI lawsuit play out in the U.S. They saw the gap between banks' stated preferences and revealed preferences once implementation became real. They built voluminous, specific legislation partly because they learned what happens when you leave room for interpretation. The conversation explores the global policy learning ecosystem, the cultural conservatism baked into Canadian financial services (Steve calls it "conservatism with the lowercase c"), and how a Big Five oligopoly holding 90% of consumer deposits accidentally created conditions for comprehensive reform when external pressure finally arrived. Highlights include: Steve's argument that write access might actually solve liability problems by creating traceable ledgers of who changed what and when Dan's observation about the Amazon Perplexity lawsuit and how it echoes every open banking access fight  The distinction between domestic competition policy and international competitiveness policy, and why they usually point in opposite directions This episode is brought to you by Plaid.  Most lenders see the value of cash flow data. The hard part is getting started—and knowing what to do with it once you have it. Plaid makes it easy to access real-time cash flow and behavioral insights in seconds, through a familiar experience borrowers already trust. No heavy lift. No added friction. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenboms/ Follow Dan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieljmurphy01/ Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Episode 182 Monday, January 26, 2026   Check us out on BOOKS ARE MY PEOPLE, releasing February 9   Join us as we try an Olympic-level craft project, cooking and reading during the Olympics February 6 to 22, 2026 On the Needles 4:12 ALL KNITTING LINKS GO TO RAVELRY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.  Please visit our Instagram page @craftcookreadrepeat for non-Rav photos and info     Clapotis ‘24 by Kate Davies, Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock in Ainsley-- DONE!!   Avena by Jennifer Steingass, Yarnaceous Fibers Brontosaurus DK in Starbies and Cup of Cheer minis – DONE!!   Contradict Me MKAL by Maggie Fangmann, Yarnaceous Fibers Brontosaurus DK in Starbies and Cup of Cheer minis – DONE!! On the Easel 13:03 100-Day composition studies Staffordshire stationery set–in progress!! Exploring R&F drawing oils and pigment sticks On the Table 18:03   Palak khichdi (spinach, rice and red lentils) from Hetty Lui McKinnon   broccoli + pork with soy + hot honey - by Julia Turshen   https://yossyarefi.substack.com/p/vanilla-corn-cake-with-blueberry   Citrus Salad from Good Things by Samin Nosrat (allll the citrus!!) Helping my boys figure out leftover ingredient puzzles. On the Nightstand 25:59 We are now a Bookshop.org affiliate!  You can visit our shop to find books we've talked about or click on the links below.  The books are supplied by local independent bookstores and a percentage goes to us at no cost to you!   Maid for Each Other by Lynn Painter History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, trans by Ginny Tapley Takemori Sky Daddy by Kate Folk   The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (my JOYful book for January) The Art Spy by Michelle Young (non-fiction) Art Day by Day ed. Alex Johnson (non-fiction, anthology)  

Welcome back to Fintech Recap. I'm Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner in recapping, Jason Mikula. Even if we aren't sailing to BaaS Island, the news keeps flooding in. We kick off with crypto market structure, which nearly cleared Congress before imploding. The Clarity Act would've locked in broad crypto rules, including limits on stablecoin yield. Banks had momentum to close a key Genius Act loophole (until Coinbase pulled support at the last second). The backlash was swift: other crypto firms were blindsided, lawmakers were furious, and Brian Armstrong ended up in Davos, facing off with Jamie Dimon (who, reportedly, told him to stop lying on TV).  Then it's onto banking charters. NewBank got conditional OCC approval. Ford, GM, and PayPal all made ILC moves. Affirm filed in Nevada, citing "flexibility and diversification," but this is about control. With rising scrutiny on partner banks and consent orders in the air, a charter gives Affirm cleaner economics and regulatory insulation. Like Square and LendingClub before it, the goal is clear: own the balance sheet, shift volume gradually, and keep options open. From there, Capital One's surprise acquisition of Brex for $5B. Most commentary focused on the exit. More interesting is what CapOne wants: startup spend volume and a wedge into high-growth business banking. Integration will take time, and as Ramp scales faster on a leaner model, pressure around ROI will be mounting. Plus, in our Can't Let It Go corner, we look at fintech's dumbest lawsuit: Prism v. TomoCredit. A fake cash flow underwriting product. A stolen trademark. Fabricated and backdated blog posts. An agreed settlement … that Tomo then refused to sign or memorialize. Meanwhile, the site still takes credit card details from consumers who can't unsubscribe. And somehow, it's still going! This episode is brought to you by Plaid.  Plaid helps lenders approve more creditworthy borrowers without taking on more risk, combining real-time cash flow data with behavioral insights. It's a fast, familiar experience people trust, and that actually converts. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | SpotifyHey all, Jason here.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.In this episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:* The HBO drama “Industry” tackles banking and fintech and it gets dark (SPOILER WARNING)* Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong rug pulls crypto market structure legislation* Are proposals for a 10% credit card cap and the re-emergence of the Credit Card Competition Act mere bargaining chips?* Affirm applies for an ILC charter* Capital One to acquire expense management and corp card startup Brex* And, as always, what Alex and I just can't let go of Get full access to Fintech Business Weekly at fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Marc Rubinstein, author of the fantastic Net Interest newsletter.  In this episode, we bounce through some of Marc's most insightful writing from the past year (linked below) to spotlight the structural forces shaping 2026. We explore why the U.S. has thousands of community banks, the idiosyncrasies of our 30-year mortgage product, the growing industry focus on agentic commerce, and why stablecoin infrastructure is coalescing around large, permissioned systems — and what all of that reveals about regulatory incentives, institutional power, and the future of financial infrastructure. Highlights include: Why the U.S. has thousands more banks than any other developed market How agentic commerce is being driven more by investor decks than consumer behavior Why OpenAI might accidentally save small merchants Why stablecoins are moving onto permissioned, institution-backed rails (and will be increasingly shaped by players like Stripe). This episode is brought to you by Plaid.  Plaid helps lenders approve more creditworthy borrowers without taking on more risk, combining real-time cash flow data with behavioral insights. It's a fast, familiar experience people trust, and that actually converts. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Net Interest pieces discussed: Community First: https://www.netinterest.co/p/community-first-ca0 The Policy Triangle: https://www.netinterest.co/p/the-policy-triangle Inside the Affordability Crisis: https://www.netinterest.co/p/inside-the-affordability-crisis Agentic Friday: https://www.netinterest.co/p/agentic-friday Ready Layer One: https://www.netinterest.co/p/ready-layer-one Follow Marc: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-rubinstein/ Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

You could have heard this episode 48 hours early by supporting us on Patreon for as low as $1/month, where you'll also gain access to our Discord server, get yourself an Indieheads Podcast sticker and be able to watch the video version of this episode exclusively: https://www.patreon.com/IndieheadsPodcast On this episode, Matty and Violet are once again joined […]

You could have heard this episode 48 hours early by supporting us on Patreon for as low as $1/month, where you'll also gain access to our Discord server, get yourself an Indieheads Podcast sticker and be able to watch the video version of this episode exclusively: https://www.patreon.com/IndieheadsPodcast On this episode, Violet and Matty are joined by Alex […]

Alex Johnson of Fintech Takes and I had the chance to discuss the WILD story of Y Combinator- and Coinbase-backed Kontigo:* Some context setting and clarifications on the difference between AML vs. sanctions and the impact of sanctions on the everyday people of the countries they're enforced against* Explaining Kontigo's retail user service and its value proposition* Talking through what also was happening behind the scenes to make Kontigo's service possible* The responsibility of “infrastructure” providers, like Rain, Checkbook, Bridge, and Stripe, as well as underlying bank partners, which include JPMorgan Chase and Lead Bank* The parallels between “stablecoin infrastructure” and banking-as-a-service, including third-party risk management (TPRM)* What lessons industry should learn from the Kontigo situation* And, as always, what Alex and I just can't let go of (about this story)This episode is brought to you by Spade. Leading banks and fintechs use Spade's transaction enrichment API to improve authorization, personalize rewards, and build smarter AI models on clean transaction data. Learn more at spade.com. Get full access to Fintech Business Weekly at fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I'm Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner in Fintech Recapping, Jason Mikula. In our first episode of the new year, we recap all of 2025 — through the big themes that shaped the industry and set the stage for 2026 (you'll want to catch our predictions at the end). First up, Regulation in the Upside Down. We dig into Trump's second-term reshuffle which replaced independence with centralization. Tailoring became code for deregulation, and regulators started talking less about consumer protection and more about “making community banks great again” (their shorthand for rolling back rules under the guise of helping small banks). Next up, stablecoins. With the GENIUS Act signed into law, 2025 was their breakout year. PayPal, Klarna, SoFi, and even Wyoming launched coins. We dig into whether yield-bearing stablecoins will reshape deposit markets or just become the modern equivalent of the free toaster you used to get for opening an account. Then, it's the latest in the open banking saga. And then, it's looking at gambling as our national culture. (Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket became sports betting apps in all but name, monetizing financial nihilism with bets on divorces, political violence, even war.) Finally, the IPO window reopened. Klarna, Chime, Circle, eToro, Figure, and Wealthfront all went public. (And we both agree that staying private isn't always a sign of strength, but some structure is better than none.) We wrap with 2026 predictions (tune in to find out!), and in Can't Let It Go, we offer up a crypto neobank that launched with a WWE-style promo, plus eerily targeted sports betting ads on YouTube… This episode is brought to you by Plaid.  Plaid helps lenders approve more creditworthy borrowers without taking on more risk, combining real-time cash flow data with behavioral insights. It's a fast, familiar experience people trust, and that actually converts. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Kiah Haslett, Jason Mikula, and Jason Henrichs. Four people. Two Jasons. It's been a while! Our group text has been arguing about the same thing for years, so we finally took it to the mic: is Die Hard a Christmas movie?  The plan is simple. We spend an hour talking about Die Hard and pull it apart using ten questions I randomly came up with. We start with how each of us came to the movie. VHS scarcity. Delayed first viewings. Pausing the movie mid-stream to Google financial instruments. From there, we get into Bruce Willis, the accidental invention of the everyman action hero, and why this movie doesn't work with Stallone, Schwarzenegger, or a 70-year-old Frank Sinatra crawling through air vents. Then we talk about villains, specifically, Hans Gruber. Along the way, we touch upon the FBI's truly heroic ability to make everything worse, and just how many people in this movie are objectively bad at their jobs. At the center of it all is the plot device that sends us down the deepest rabbit hole: bearer bonds. Kiah walks us through what they were, why they existed, when they disappeared, and why it's not totally impossible that some are still out there. Yes, it's more educational than anyone intended. We wrap with favorite quotes, questions about workplace behavior in the 1980s, and the annual argument about what qualifies as a Christmas movie and who is allowed to die in one. It's unserious. It's overthought. It's our most festive episode yet. Thanks for listening!  This episode was brought to you by Marqeta. Don't sacrifice agility for stability. With Marqeta, launch payments experiences that perform at scale and flex with your business. Learn more at https://marqeta.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Kiah Haslett: Newsletter: https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett Bank Nerd Corner podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bank-nerd-corner/id1845925869 Follow Jason Henrichs: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhenrichs/ Twitter: https://x.com/jasonhenrichs Breaking Banks podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-banks/id641357669 Follow Jason Mikula: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

These M1s say it wasn’t easy…but it was FUN? You know medical school is hard, but what does that mean? That idea has no emotional connection to anything until you are IN IT, and these M1s definitely were. Jonah Albrecht, Trever Maiers, Alex Johnson, and Chris Ceplecha review the M1 semester and how they survived it. You’ll hear about what habits they had to drop, and which of their experiments in learning were a waste of time. Who did they lean on? What made it possible? What did they trip over, and how did right themselves? Their stories should give hope to future students that while medical school is tough in ways that are unpredictable, by working together–whether teaching each other, admitting when they needed help, and taking advantage of the resources available to them–it’s not only possible, but “fun!” Episode credits: Producer: Jonah Albrecht Co-hosts: Trever Maiers, Alex Johnson, Chris Ceplecha The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions. We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS! We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we'll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com. We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!) The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast! Thanks for listening! We do more things on… Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theshortcoat YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/theshortcoat You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit http://theshortcoat.com/help, and send additions to the resources there to theshortcoats@gmail.com. We love you.

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Dave Wasik (Partner at 2nd Order Solutions) for our new series, Facing Credit, where we unpack what's happening in lending right now. First, we kick off with the big picture in December 2025, starting with delinquency rates. TL;DR: Things don't appear to be improving, and if you squint, they may be eroding. Next, credit cards and BNPL. Dave explains why cards hold up, thanks to their clear value prop, rewards stickiness, and issuer concentration (the top 10 issuers control 82% of cards). Minimum payments are flexible and low, helping riders through cash-flow crunches. On the other hand, BNPL has shifted from big ticket items to everyday spending like groceries and restaurants (we discuss why the shift raises concerns, especially with limited bureau reporting). Finally, auto, student loans, and the thing at the top of Dave's worry board: private credit. It's enormous, growing rapidly, and hard to manage (there's no data to either corroborate or refute the risks; leverage plus interconnected bets can turn a small shock into a cascade). Plus, we'll close each Facing Credit episode with our guest's take on one trend shaping the industry. This time: what does the breakdown of FICO as the standard mean for credit scoring and underwriting? Tune in for Dave's take! This episode was brought to you by Marqeta. Don't sacrifice agility for stability. With Marqeta, launch payments experiences that perform at scale and flex with your business. Learn more at https://marqeta.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Dave Wasik LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davewasik/   Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I'm Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my Jason Mikula, my partner in recapping — who I've been lucky to see a lot of lately, which makes recording this over the internet feel oddly impersonal? First up, open banking updates. JPMC has updated data-access contracts with Plaid, Yodlee, Morningstar, and Akoya; covering, reportedly, 95% of data pulls on its systems (but is silent on players like Finicity, Stripe, Trustly, and MX). Meanwhile, the CFPB wants to finalize its 1033 rule by year's end, possibly skipping key steps like the small business panel. The rule may allow data fees tied to “cost recovery,” but what counts as cost (and who has the leverage to charge it) is still very much in play. Then it's onto digital IDs. Apple now lets users create an identity credential in Wallet from a passport, using NFC and a liveness check. Jason tested it. It works, but usage is limited to select TSA checkpoints. And adoption faces the same slow climb as Apple Pay, but with higher risks if it fails. Identity credentials aren't like payments: you don't want them glitching at airport security! From there, Green Dot (which some might describe as an OG fintech company) is going private and splitting up. Smith Ventures is buying the non-bank side, while CommerceOne (also backed by Smith) takes over the bank and folds it into a new holding company. It's a move that looks like extraction (pulling the combo out of public markets that never knew how to value it), which raises questions for other banks trying to thread the same needle. Plus, in our Can't Let It Go corner: Jason dives into the latest lawsuit against Meta, where internal docs reveal the company blocked safety features that threatened growth, ran a 17-strike policy before removing sex traffickers (described as a very, very, very high threshold), and drew its own comparisons to Big Tobacco. And I flag a podcast moment so surreal it sounds fake: the CEO of Roblox endorsing prediction markets for kids (as long as they're framed as “educational”). Thanks for listening!  This episode was brought to you by Marqeta. Don't sacrifice agility for stability. With Marqeta, launch payments experiences that perform at scale and flex with your business. Learn more at https://marqeta.com/ftt Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Today, Chris Nichols sits down with Alex Johnson, author of popular newsletter Fintech Takes. They discuss the importance of Stablecoin as it's related to the banking industry and why community banks should pay attention to it.   The views, information, or opinions expressed during this show are solely those of the participants involved and do not necessarily represent those of SouthState Bank and its employees. SouthState Bank, N.A. - Member FDIC

Our second wave of FinovateFall coverage includes interviews with the founders of Gentreo and Wysh- two young firms aiming to preserve member deposits across life cycles- as well as Veep Software, which delivers early wage access alongside financial education through the FI channel. Also- Glen reveals his Best of Show ballot, and touches on the startling plot twists with Plaid, Chase and open banking (spoilers entirely warranted).        Links related to this episode:   Wysh: https://www.wysh.com/    Gentreo: https://www.gentreo.com/    Veep Software: https://veepsoftware.io/    Veep's post-interview announcement of its partnership with financial education content provider nudge: https://www.financialcontent.com/article/getnews-2025-9-17-veep-launches-ewa-20-and-announces-first-global-partnership-with-nudge    Videos of all 63 FinovateFall demos: https://finovate.com//videos/?filtertype=&showtypes=FinovateFall&videostartyear=2025&showletters=A-Z    FinovareFall's Best of Show Winners: https://finovate.com/finovatefall-2025-best-of-show-winners-announced/    Alex Johnson's Fintech Take on the Prisoner's Dilemma aspect of JPMC, Plaid, and open banking: https://fintechtakes.com/      Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/best-innovation-group/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbfintech/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/glensarvady/

The Rowena Fire and Burdoin Fires affected communities along the Oregon and Washington sides of the Columbia River. Many of the structures destroyed were part of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The region has legal protections in place to preserve its natural and recreational resources, although the areas typically have some people already living there.    The Columbia River Gorge Commission helps create and enforce policies that preserve this area. Krystyna Wolniakowski is the executive director of the commission. Alex Johnson is a commissioner. They join us with more on what rebuilding looks like in a region with special protections and how the commission is working with property owners and residents on post-fire recovery.         

Alex Johnson, founder and publisher of FinTech Takes, sorts through what happens now that Congress has passed a new law to regulate stablecoins. Will stablecoins take over finance, and if so, are they a bigger threat to banks or money market mutual funds? What are the use cases for stablecoins vs. tokenized deposits? Can big banks beat stablecoin issuers at their own game?   

In This Episode In June we lost a pillar of our community, Barb MacLean, a brilliant fintech mind and a beloved colleague. A guest turned co-host on Breaking Banks and an invaluable member of Alloy Labs. She was truly special, she never hesitated to pay it forward or to speak truth, albeit in the most polite Canadian way, whether on podcasts or the stages of Finovate. Every week she curated a list of the most impactful things she had read and paired them with a song, publishing the Fintech Playlist. It was an honor to be included. She exposed us to new writers and new songs. For her, music was more than a backdrop — it was a language, a way to connect, to feel, to make fintech more human. This week's episode is a rerun of a favorite episode featuring Barb, JP Nicols and Alex Johnson discussing the invisible heist of business customers as part of our 'Unbreak the Bank' series. We hope to honor her legacy the way she lived it: with meaning, creativity, and community. There's a GoFundMe initiative started by her sister to support her family: https://gofund.me/81a8d4c5 And a Fintech Playlist T-shirt, with 100% of the proceeds going to Barb's family: https://www.bonfire.com/fintech-tribute-t-shirt-her-song-lives-on/ Let's keep her song playing!

Still clinging to a scarcity mindset? That's what's keeping you broke—and stuck.In this episode, Rich links up with Alex Johnson for a Saturday Edition that unpacks one simple truth: competition happens at the bottom, but collaboration is how you get to the top. They share how the real movers are partnering, exchanging ideas, building things together—and why staying siloed is a guaranteed way to lose in business, real estate, and life.They cover:Why trusting the wrong people with your dreams will kill your momentumHow to evaluate potential partners using Rich's 3-rule checklistWhat the best collabs in the mastermind have created (and how to find yours)The exact moment Rich stopped hoarding information—and everything leveled upReal examples of turning podcast guests, meetups, and mentors into wealthIf you're serious about growing, making money, and surrounding yourself with winners—it starts with shifting how you think.Let's build. Together.Connect with Alex on Instagram: @ajohns_Join our investor waitlist and stay in the know about our next investor opportunity with Somers Capital: www.somerscapital.com/invest. Want to join our Boutique Hotel Mastermind Community? Book a free strategy call with our team: www.hotelinvesting.com. If you're committed to scaling your personal brand and achieving 7-figure success, it's time to level up with the 7 Figure Creator Mastermind Community. Book your exclusive intro call today at www.the7figurecreator.com and gain access to the strategies that will accelerate your growth.