Podcasts about fintech takes

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

Welcome to the finale of Collections Conversations, a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software. The series digs into how generative AI is reshaping debt collections; what it enables, what it complicates, and why it might finally force the industry to retire the word “collections” altogether. In Episode 4, I sit down with Dave Wasik, Partner at 2nd Order Solutions, a lending advisory firm that works across the lending lifecycle, helping lenders originate loans, manage credit on existing customers, and handle fraud, collections, and recoveries (in the U.S. and overseas).  We start with the macro context Dave sees in his quarterly credit work. Delinquencies look stable across most lenders and asset classes, which is wild to believe given rising home rents, auto prices, restarting student loan payments, and consumer confidence reaching its 10-year low. Dave flags two yellow-orange areas: subprime federal student loan delinquencies that remain stubbornly high, and credit cards originated in early 2025 already showing early signs of performing as poorly as cards from 2022 (which was a rough year for just about every lender). From there, Dave explains why collections breaks the usual testing playbook, before we get to AI. Dave breaks it into two buckets, collector-facing copilots and consumer-facing bots. Collector-facing copilots are farther along (in both tech and lender comfort) whereas consumer-facing bots sit in an awkward middle between self-service and human empathy, though Dave argues the shame of debt might actually make a bot preferable.  Plus, he shares a mind-bending glimpse of the near future: bot-to-bot conversations negotiating collections outcomes. It's a finale you won't want to miss! This episode is brought to you by C&R Software.  More than just debt collection, C&R sets the global standard for AI-native, humanized credit management. They simplify the complex with end-to-end credit-risk lifecycle support, powered by automated workflows, AI-native intelligence, and real-time, data-driven decisioning. Learn more at https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Dave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davewasik/ Learn more about C&R Software here: https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I do what we do best: talk about fintech startups we're absolutely not giving investment advice on. First up is Kairos, a multi-prediction market trading platform giving traders a single terminal to buy and sell event contracts across Kalshi, Polymarket, and all the other emerging platforms. Their pitch: what the Bloomberg terminal did for Wall Street, Kairos does for prediction market traders. That tees up our bigger idea: as prediction markets expand, how they get liquidity (especially through sports betting) shapes what these markets can become. Next is Vault, which takes a different angle on crypto-collateralized lending. Instead of the usual over-collateralized “borrow to buy more crypto” model, Vault's idea is infrastructure that lets lenders use crypto as collateral to improve pricing or unlock access for other loans. Banks may want this, but they have no ability to take custody of that crypto asset as a part of the collateral process, and monitor the value of it – all of the infrastructure is missing there. Then there's Vennre, a wealth platform for high earners (HENRYs), offering private market exposure across real estate, credit, private equity, and venture through a mobile app with 1:1 financial coaches working with AI. Simon points out they're registered in the UK and Saudi Arabia, Sharia-compliant, and targeting a growing cross-border audience tied to migration and real estate purchases. Finally, we close with Buy Now Pay Maybe, an on-chain “buy now pay later” send-up (more product idea than actual company), where you can pay more for higher odds of getting the item for free, or lose and overpay. Simon frames it as performance art that points at something ugly, which we explore. 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 Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://kairos.trade/ https://www.collateralvault.com/ https://vennre.com/ https://merch.smallbrain.xyz/

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast, where I'm welcoming back Jane Barratt, Chief Advocacy Officer at MX, to  talk about Super Bowl commercials and advertising ( and how it overlaps with data privacy, data ownership, open banking, and AI). Fun fact: Jane had a previous career in advertising. What I didn't know is that Jane used to go on live television and review ads from the Super Bowl the day after. In this episode, recorded the day after Super Bowl LIX (déjà vu vu for Jane), we hand out the inaugural Fintech Takes Super Bowl Ad Awards. Then we pivot to what the commercials (including those that were conspicuously absent) reveal about consumer sentiment, what happens when ads start showing up inside AI tools, and more. We also dig into where U.S. open banking stands after a year of regulatory turbulence around the CFPB's Section 1033 rule. Highlights include: Why Levi's won Best Use of Money and Coinbase won Biggest Waste of Money Why almost no major banks and fintech companies, or consumer financial brands showed up (and what that missing marketing spend signals about the economy) Why ads inside AI tools are fundamentally different from ads on Instagram or Google Why the biggest banks keep investing in open banking even with the CFPB's Section 1033 rule still unresolved, and why smaller banks that don't invest in data-sharing risk asset flight to trillion-dollar institutions 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 Jane: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janebarratt/   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 to Collections Conversations, a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software. The series digs into how generative AI is reshaping debt collections; what it enables, what it complicates, and why it might finally force the industry to retire the word “collections” altogether. In Episode 3, I sit down with John McNamara, Chief Growth Officer at Avtal. John's career spans the private sector and the CFPB, where he worked on Regulation F, dragging debt collection out of an era when the law literally referenced telegrams. That makes him perfect for unpacking the biggest misconception industry has about regulators, dubious credit repair organizations, and AI fluffery.  We start inside the CFPB itself. John explains what industry constantly got wrong: they didn't understand the voices shaping policy. His benchmark for whether a rule landed? A symmetry of outrage and vitriol. If both sides are pissed, that's probably right. From there, we dig into what John calls the credit reporting mess — why the credit reporting system creates inaccurate data, and how credit repair organizations exploit that through endless dispute loops Plus, John's first principles when it comes to AI: data governance and permissible purpose matter more than models, and better digital engagement usually beats new forms of automation (if someone's on your payment portal, they don't want to talk to you). Subscribe now to catch what's next. This episode is brought to you by C&R Software.  More than just debt collection, C&R sets the global standard for AI-native, humanized credit management. They simplify the complex with end-to-end credit-risk lifecycle support, powered by automated workflows, AI-native intelligence, and real-time, data-driven decisioning. Learn more at https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow John: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mcnamara-75a2982/ Learn more about C&R Software here: https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0

Welcome to Collections Conversations, a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software. The series digs into how generative AI is reshaping debt collections; what it enables, what it complicates, and why it might finally force the industry to retire the word “collections” altogether. In Episode 2, I sit down with Ed Wallen, CEO of C&R Software. We kick things off with a hard truth about fintech companies that pride themselves on being customer-centric: that promise most often breaks at the exact moment customers need the most empathy and the most options.  As Ed puts it, you get the Apple experience of onboarding, where everything is sunshine and rainbows, and then suddenly you get the Mad Max experience in debt collections.  Our conversation unpacks why that shift happens. One day early and one day late feel the same to the customer, but on the inside, they trigger an entirely different playbook. If replacing a customer can cost hundreds of dollars, why treat hardship as a liability instead of protecting lifetime value? What if the real choice was between a churn machine and a loyalty engine? This episode is a blueprint for anyone reimagining collections, servicing, and customer trust. Subscribe to catch more about how generative AI might finally make collections more human. This episode is brought to you by C&R Software.  More than just debt collection, C&R sets the global standard for AI-native, humanized credit management. They simplify the complex with end-to-end credit-risk lifecycle support, powered by automated workflows, AI-native intelligence, and real-time, data-driven decisioning. Learn more at https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Ed: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwallen/ Learn more about C&R Software here: https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0

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

Welcome to Collections Conversations, a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software. The series digs into how generative AI is reshaping debt collections; what it enables, what it complicates, and why it might finally force the industry to retire the word “collections” altogether. In Episode 1, I sit down with Naeem Abraham, Senior Director of Product Strategy at C&R Software. We kick things off with what I call the Collections Abundance Moment, tracing debt collection's operational powerhouse roots (where empathy was sacrificed at the altar of efficiency) to a world where the old resource constraints no longer apply. The episode dives into the mechanics of building safe, value-adding AI systems. Naeem outlines the “triangular dance floor” of competing pressures (risk, cost, and customer experience) and explains why the winners will be those who treat AI not as a system, but as intelligence.  What if every customer had a personal banker in their pocket?  What if cost no longer forced us to be adversarial?  What if the prize wasn't collections at all, but financial well-being? This episode is a blueprint for anyone reimagining collections, credit, or customer care in the age of AI. Subscribe now to catch what's next. This episode is brought to you by C&R Software.  More than just debt collections, C&R sets the global standard for AI-native, humanized credit management. They simplify the complex with end-to-end credit-risk lifecycle support, powered by automated workflows, AI-native intelligence, and real-time, data-driven decisioning. Learn more at https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Naeem: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naeem-abraham-b8a0ab10 Learn more about C&R Software here: https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0

Welcome back to Fintech Takes for a special bonus episode of Fintech Recap with Jason Mikula; Latin American sanctions evasion expert and author of a splendid ~5,500 word investigation on Kontigo that demands its own episode. If you haven't yet read Jason's piece, “Kontigo: Y Combinator's Venezuelan Sanctions Evasion Startup” in Fintech Business News Weekly – the spine of this episode – you should (full link below). This episode is a deep dive into Kontigo, a crypto‑fintech startup operating in Venezuela that marketed USDC off‑ramps and debit cards, raised money from Coinbase (among others!), and leveraged U.S. financial infrastructure (like JPMorgan Chase, Checkbook, Rain, Bridge, Lead Bank, and Stripe) … while operating in a heavily sanctioned environment. The rise and fall of Kontigo raises urgent questions about accountability, compliance, and the risks embedded in stablecoin rails.  We get into: The foreign exchange arbitrage that made the model profitable Why stablecoins are “speed-running BaaS” (but worse) How product market fit in stablecoins can be code for money laundering, sanctions evasion, or financial crime And the surreal online behavior of the CEO (shirtless hype videos included) Plus, in our Can't Let It Go corner: agave spirit startups, Kontigo's logo that obviously nods at the Petro (Venezuela's failed oil backed cryptocurrency), and our favorite quote of 2026 so far! 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. Read Jason's “Kontigo: Y Combinator's Venezuelan Sanctions Evasion Startup” here:  https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/p/kontigo-ycombinators-venezuela-sanctions 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

Hello, and welcome back to Cash Flow Conversations, a miniseries sponsored by our friends at Nova Credit. If you've followed my work, you'll know that I'm obsessed with cash flow data (and underwriting more specifically) because it has enormous potential to positively reshape consumer lending in the U.S.  Cash Flow Conversations tracks that shift, from theory to practical use across the lending lifecycle. In Episode 5, recorded live at Money20/20, I sit down with Doug Swift (Navy Federal Credit Union) and Chris Hansen (Nova Credit) to talk about how cash flow underwriting has evolved over the past 18–24 months. Cash flow data has gone from lenders' best-kept secret to an infrastructure-supported tool with real traction. The vintages have matured; the use cases have expanded (second look underwriting, line assignment, portfolio management, delinquency support, loan rewrites, extensions, settlements, and credit line changes, to name a few).  And Doug brings it to life with examples from Navy Federal's collections workflows, which you won't want to miss.  Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I enjoyed facilitating it!  This episode is brought to you by Nova Credit.  Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing consumer credit data. Learn more at novacredit.com. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishansen10/ Follow Doug: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-s-5794036/ Learn more about Nova Credit here.

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 Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I do what we do best: talk about fintech startups we're absolutely not giving investment advice on. First up is stablecoin banking startup Kontigo, whose founder declared: “Kontigo is not a bank. Banking services are provided by the freaking blockchain.” We unpack the very fast arc that followed: getting deplatformed through its partner stack, the Venezuela and sanctions questions that can come with being “global by default,” and then the hack (Kontigo promised to reimburse affected users). Next up is Givefront, corporate card and spend management software built for nonprofits. We get specific about what “built for nonprofits” means in practice: IRS 990 reporting, grant restrictions, donor policies, and the go-to-market riddle of reaching over 1.5 million organizations that rarely rip and replace systems.  Then there's Beycome, which promises an AI-assisted home buying journey. They charge sellers a flat fee to list their home and close (including a $399 package, marketed as saving sellers an average of $13,185 in fees). We talk about why real estate fees are such a durable profit pool, and why distribution's the hardest part of this business. Finally, we close with Cash App. Okay, not quite a startup at the same level, but there's been a real vibe shift – as evidenced by a slew of new feature releases and capabilities inside Cash App (which we run through!).  Plus,closing manifestations (manifesting some good outcomes for Cash App, and more episodes of Not Fintech Investment Advice for 2026). 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 Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://www.kontigo.com/en https://www.givefront.com/ https://www.beycome.com/ https://cash.app/

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. Today's episode kicks off a new long-form interview format I'm calling Diving Deep. And in this episode, that's exactly what we do with Max Levchin, co-founder and former CTO of PayPal and co-founder and the current CEO of Affirm. This is what makes Max one of the most influential people in the history of fintech. We start with Max's early PayPal years, when building encrypted mobile wallets and secure handheld payments for Palm Pilots taught Max a lesson about timing, distribution, and the danger of solving puzzles before the market needs them (being right about the future means very little if you're early in the wrong way). From there, the conversation follows the spine of Affirm's business, underwriting. Max explores how his experience at PayPal pushed him toward lending at the point of sale, which unlocked a different kind of math (and how Affirm built an internal engine that could evolve as machine learning grew smarter, without losing reliability, repeatability, or regulatory discipline). That logic runs straight into product design. No late fees, treated as a constraint, not a revenue stream. Full Truth in Lending disclosures shown at checkout every time, even when advisers warned the extra screen would kill conversion. Credit bureau reporting when most other BNPL players avoided it. The throughline is incentives: design the system so the lender only wins when the customer does, and culture has a fighting chance to scale. We end in the future, with agentic commerce. As machines get better at optimizing decisions, the financial products that survive will be the ones that were honest to begin with (but also what happens when software starts flagging bad financial deals before people do?).  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 Max Levchin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxlevchin/ 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 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

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I do what we do best: talk about fintech startups we're absolutely not giving investment advice on. First up is Trudenty, a fraud intelligence network tackling first-party fraud. It uses federated learning to let issuers, PSPs, and merchants identify repeat abusers without sharing raw data. They're starting with Worldline, JPMorgan Chase, and Mastercard, and keeping the pitch simple: they only sell one thing, and that one thing works. The stat that stuck with us? 80% of chargebacks are fraudulent. Next is TidalWave, agentic AI for mortgage point-of-sale. Instead of replacing loan officers, it works like a 24/7 assistant (one that handles follow-ups, corrects docs, and chases data). They've raised $22M, with the largest homebuilder in the U.S. on the cap table. It's mortgage tech that avoids the loan origination system entirely, steering clear of regulated decisions while cleaning up the messy front-end workflow that still kills conversion.  Then there's Kaaj, which is aimed at the part of small business lending that no software platform has ever fully cracked. Think about a business applying for a government-guaranteed loan or financing a new piece of equipment; lenders have to parse tax returns, bank statements, and identity documents that never look the same twice. The loans are too small for a credit team, but too complex for automation. Kaaj trains AI agents to read those documents and create the first draft of a credit memo that a human can review. The product solves a real problem, but the question is: can they win the category? Finally, FinReach Solutions in India tackles the gap between micro and small business credit. Lenders have money. Credit guarantors are willing to share risk. What's missing is the infrastructure between them. Every guarantee program runs on bespoke rules and manual forms. FinReach standardizes that process, automates the guarantees, and makes collateral-free lending possible at scale. Think of the US SBA, but rebuilt as actual software instead of paperwork. Plus, some closing manifestations: AI for mortgage POS should fix the front-end friction that causes borrowers to drop out; SMB lending needs an actual platform between public money and private lenders; and rising chargebacks might say less about fraud and more about good customers who are tired of being treated like suspects. 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 Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://trudenty.com/ https://www.tidalwave.ai/ https://kaaj.ai/ https://www.finreach.in/

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

Welcome back to our Engineering the SMB Capital Stack, sponsored by our friends at Fundbox. In this four-part series, we're exploring small businesses, small business lending, and the forces shaping how small businesses access capital. I'm joined by Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox, as cohost. In Episode 4 (our finale!), we turn to the role of banks (and how they fit into an increasingly unbundled lending ecosystem), and what collaboration between banks and fintechs really looks like in 2025. To unpack it all, we're joined by Jackie Reses, CEO of Lead Bank (and former Head of Square Capital, a pioneer in embedded capital for SMBs, particularly for B2C SMBs). Highlights include: How Square Capital redefined micro-lending, serving millions of U.S. businesses under traditional bank thresholds Why embedding loans in software (not branches) rewrote the risk model for SMB credit The rise of unbundled lending: fintechs, balance-sheet partners, and the capital markets “maturity curve” How banks like Lead are re-bundling infrastructure to power fintech lending safely and at scale The regulatory horizon (from agentic commerce to stablecoins and the next wave of small-business oversight) From unserved salon owners to national infrastructure shifts, Jackie reminds us why access to capital is still deeply human, and why technology wins when it's built with empathy for the entrepreneur. If you want to understand where banks truly fit in the future of SMB lending, this finale is essential listening. This episode was brought to you by Fundbox.  As a leading capital infrastructure provider behind the digital SMB economy, Fundbox is focused on enabling platforms to embed financial tools directly into their user experiences. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4o1cWVG 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Prashant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fuloria/ Follow Jackie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-reses-938b7850/Learn more about Fundbox here: https://bit.ly/4o1cWVG

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Carlos Caro (author of the Free Toaster newsletter and host of the Free Toaster podcast) for the second episode of Facing Credit, where we unpack what's really happening in lending right now. This one's about marketing; the overlooked starting point of every loan.  Everything in lending sits downstream of how you acquire customers and what it costs to reach them. And right now, that system is in flux. AI has upended the old rules of digital acquisition. Google's “Helpful Content” update triggered what Carlos describes in his writing as the “SEO Apocalypse”, a collapse that's wiping out 50–90% of organic traffic and forcing publishers, affiliates, and lenders to rewrite their playbooks. The rise of AI-generated search results and zero-click answers means the economics of attention have changed for good. Carlos and I dig into: How AI is breaking traditional digital marketing and reshaping lender acquisition costs What Google's updates mean for SEO, SEM, and the affiliate ecosystem How creators like My Rich BFF and MrBeast are becoming the new distribution channels for lenders And what “Generative Engine Optimization” (GEO) might mean for the next phase of search Tune in for Carlos's take on how lenders, publishers, and fintechs can survive the SEO extinction event (and what it'll take to win attention in the AI age). Plus, we reference these three Free Toaster pieces throughout the conversation; consider them required reading: The SEO Apocalypse Has Arrived How New Balance's CMO Turned Around A 15-Year Decline Reddit Isn't an Affiliate Channel 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 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/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to our Engineering the SMB Capital Stack, sponsored by our friends at Fundbox. In this four-part series, we're exploring small businesses, small business lending, and the forces shaping how small businesses access capital. I'm joined by Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox, as cohost. In Episodes 1 and 2, we explored the state of small business lending and how capital actually reaches small businesses.  In Episode 3, we move to the heart of the SMB lending stack: underwriting (the core of how lenders evaluate and manage risk). Joining us is longtime SMB lending leader, Bernardo Martinez, currently at SoFi. Bernardo is the executive leading SoFi's SMB efforts (in addition to other initiatives like SoFi at Work, which is an employer-branded program to help companies support their talent through financial products).   Highlights include: Why analog ops and missing data have always constrained SMB underwriting, and how overdue digitization and vSaaS are finally changing the picture. What a true 360 degree view looks like when you blend bank transactions, payment processing, invoicing, and ledger data all together (and even flavor with non-financial signals like repeat visits, foot traffic, and even satellite imagery). Where machine learning and generative AI actually belong in SMB lending, from stitching together CRM, accounting, banking, and marketing data to delivering CFO-style guidance that saves owners time (and lowers probability of default). The next decade in small business finance isn't about originating loans more quickly. The real unlock will be how well you feed the data back into the business itself (the better that business runs, the safer the loan becomes).  That means translating raw signals into value added services that help owners strategize growth, spot risks early, and above all, save time!  Our data and tools are finally catching up to the needs of SMBs, which makes this an exciting moment for anyone building products for them. Don't forget to subscribe to catch future episodes and insights! This episode was brought to you by Fundbox.  As a leading capital infrastructure provider behind the digital SMB economy, Fundbox is focused on enabling platforms to embed financial tools directly into their user experiences. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4o1cWVG 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Prashant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fuloria/ Follow Bernardo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernardo-martinez-639293/ Learn more about Fundbox here: https://bit.ly/4o1cWVG

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Mike Milotich, CEO of Marqeta (who stepped into the role after serving as CFO,) and now leads a cloud based issuing platform approaching 400B in annual payment volume.  First up, we focus on Marqeta's platform. It's built out of configurable building blocks, and Mike gets specific about what that means in practice; walking us through clear examples, including how delivery platforms used virtual credentials to remove driver fraud, and how early BNPL providers relied on Marqeta to pay merchants behind the scenes (without integrating with every retailer). From there, we shift to agentic commerce and why the issuer's vantage point changes the conversation. Issuers face different constraints. They create the credential, set the controls, and carry the risk when something goes wrong. Mike unpacks how an AI agent could fund and configure a virtual card with narrow parameters so it can only execute the purchase the user intended, and how AI is being applied to fraud, risk, and disputes (plus how dynamic rewards will push cards toward real personalization). We also dig into the insights Marqeta is seeing across its network. BNPL is moving into more everyday categories as a cashflow tool. And SMBs are starting to treat modern payments as real operational leverage (because automated controls and real-time tools replace the manual work that used to eat their time).  For more insights, their 2025 State of Payments Report is linked below. 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 Mike Milotich: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-milotich-7b78402/ Access Marqeta's 2025 State of Payments Report here:  https://www.marqeta.com/asset/state-of-payments-2025 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 Jennifer Tescher, founder and CEO of the Financial Health Network (who's spent the last two decades measuring, defining, and holding the industry accountable for consumers' financial well-being). We dig into the latest FinHealth Spend Report, which found that U.S. households paid $455B in interest and fees last year (a $100B jump in just two years!), and unpack what that says about the fragility of American households. From student loans and BNPL to agentic AI to the design of financial products, this conversation covers the hidden costs of “frictionless” finance … and why real innovation might mean adding friction back in. Highlights include: Why the $455B consumers paid in fees and interest is a canary in the coal mine for the economy (and how credit card debt and student loans are driving the jump) How the uncertainty around student loan forgiveness has frozen households in place, changing decisions about careers, housing, and family Whether BNPL helps or harms consumers (and why frictionless payments may have gone too far) Why agentic commerce risks turning AI into a 24/7 sales engine (and what it would take to build AI that actually improves financial health) How Financial Health Network's new product design standards are nudging banks and fintechs to compete on doing right by customers This episode is a sweeping, candid look at the real state of consumers' financial health (and how design, data, and AI could either fix it or make it worse). 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 Jennifer Tescher: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifertescher/   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 our Engineering the SMB Capital Stack, sponsored by our friends at Fundbox. In this four-part series, we're exploring small businesses, small business lending, and the forces shaping how small businesses access capital. I'm joined by Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox, as cohost. In Episode 1, we explored why small business lending is so distinctly challenging. Now, in Episode 2, we turn to distribution: how capital actually reaches small businesses. To tackle that question, we invited Tanay Jaeel, Head of Product at Stripe Capital, who's spent nearly five years building and scaling Stripe's embedded lending products. Highlights include: How Stripe identified capital access as both a customer pain point and a platform growth opportunity The shift from serving merchants directly to powering embedded financing for vertical SaaS platforms Lessons from expanding lending internationally and balancing build-vs-partner decisions How AI is transforming contextual lending (helping SMBs understand why and when to borrow) Tanay also explains how embedded lending works best when it's invisible, surfacing capital in the exact moment a business owner realizes they need it. From coffee shops buying new equipment to SaaS founders bridging subscription cycles, context is everything. If you want to understand how distribution is becoming the real differentiator in small business lending, this conversation is essential listening. Don't forget to subscribe to catch future episodes and insights! This episode was brought to you by Fundbox.  As a leading capital infrastructure provider behind the digital SMB economy, Fundbox is focused on enabling platforms to embed financial tools directly into their user experiences. Learn more here.  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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Prashant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fuloria/ Follow Tanay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanayjaeel/ Learn more about Fundbox 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.This episode is brought to you by Cross River Bank, the bank behind the bold.In this abbreviated episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:* The 14,000 or so comments on the CFPB's open banking do over* Erebor's conditional charter approval* And, as always, what we just can't let go of 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 Jason Mikula, my partner in recapping, but this time we recorded live from the floor of Money20/20 in Vegas! Expect a shorter and more caffeinated episode where we riff topic to topic, grab bag style.  First up, no surprise that AI was the buzzword, especially agentic AI. Conversations this year felt more grounded (not “we're doing AI,” but which use cases make sense and which don't; folks finally have better language and specificity to describe it). Then it's onto the second buzziest topic: stablecoins (mostly cross-border payments and digital dollars in inflation-hit economies), while our friends at the Fed manned a booth pitching “faster payments,” which felt charmingly out of time. Next, we check in on open banking's 14,000 comment letters, where big banks demand cost recovery, Plaid wants free access, and small banks want help surviving.  From there, we fly past BaaS Island at warp speed (Evolve Bank's latest unwanted headline!) for a deep dive into the newest Silicon Valley-meets-OCC experiment: Erebor Bank. Founded by Palmer Luckey, financed by tech money, and conditionally approved in record time (raising questions about pay-to-play politics in banking charters). Plus, in our Can't Let It Go corner: Jason vents about the corrosive influence of crypto lobbying, and I read a truly cursed news item: Truth Social launching “Truth Gems,” a crypto prediction-market where users can bet on the future of… anything! (Yes, it's as bad as it sounds.) 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 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/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome to our new miniseries, Engineering the SMB Capital Stack, sponsored by our friends at Fundbox. This four-part series digs into small businesses, small business lending, and the forces reshaping how small businesses access capital.  In Episode 1, I sit down with Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox (and my cohost for the episodes that follow). We kick things off with The State of SMB Lending, level-setting with data from the Federal Reserve's 2025 report on small business credit (based on a 2024 survey of 7,600 business owners). For the first time since 2021, small businesses were more likely to report that revenues decreased rather than increased in the year prior to the survey. Translation: SMBs are surviving; not thriving. Then, we zoom out from the data to consider why costs are rising, why some businesses are defaulting instead of declaring bankruptcy, and how embedded finance is changing both borrower behavior and lender economics.  Prashant brings the long view of Fundbox's credit data to the table: how performance differs across industries, why CAC still kills standalone lenders, and how alignment among banks, fintechs, and platforms is the only sustainable model. It's a foundational conversation for anyone tracking the next decade of SMB capital: rich with data and grounded in the here and now (with a clear sense of where the stack's heading!). Subscribe now to catch what's next: candid, can't-miss conversations with leaders from Plaid, Stripe Capital, and Lead Bank! This episode was brought to you by Fundbox.  As a leading capital infrastructure provider behind the digital SMB economy, Fundbox is focused on enabling platforms to embed financial tools directly into their user experiences. Learn more here.  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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Prashant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fuloria/ Learn more about Fundbox here.

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined in this episode by three guests — Steve Smith (Co-founder and CEO of Invela; former Co-founder of Finicity and Founder of the Financial Data Exchange), Todd Taylor (Co-head of Intellectual Property; Co-head of Commercial & Technology Transactions at Moore & Van Allen), and Dan Murphy (Founder of Sunset Park Advisors; former CFPB Open Banking Program Manager). That's right, a rare four-person episode! And we're digging into a question that's been mostly overlooked in the open banking debate: not how data is shared, but who bears the risk when it is. As banks, fintechs, and regulators sort through liability, accreditation, and third-party risk management, the lack of a shared rulebook has become increasingly clear. The core tension: the U.S. built open banking on top of a fragmented regulatory structure and outdated third-party guidance, and everyone's been improvising ever since. So, what happens when something breaks … and who pays for it? Highlights include: Why banks are still relying on OCC Bulletin 2013-29 and interagency third-party risk management guidance to govern a 2025 data-sharing market How Section 1033's competition mandate at the CFPB often collides with prudential regulators' safety-and-soundness priorities Why the industry may need a standardized accreditation framework and transparent risk registry for third parties How liability insurance and warranty-based risk-sharing could help balance accountability between banks and fintechs This episode unpacks how an open-access ecosystem can evolve toward shared accountability, and why industry-led solutions like accreditation, registries, and risk transfer mechanisms may be the only viable path forward. 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 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 Todd Taylor:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-taylor-37506737/ Follow Dan Murphy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieljmurphy01/ For more about Steve Smith, follow Invela: https://www.linkedin.com/company/invela-network/ 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

In the finale of our new miniseries, Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts (sponsored by our friends at Pipe), we confront the biggest questions yet, like: How can maturing vertical SaaS companies scale without losing the obsessive focus that made them indispensable?  Should they expand into adjacent markets, or double down on their niche? And, as AI transforms oversight from slow, sample-based audits into continuous real-time monitoring, who will own the responsibility for keeping these systems safe? With Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) as cohost, we welcome special guest Darragh Buckey (Founder and CEO of Increase – and, before that, the first employee at Stripe). Along the way, we get candid about the capital “S” Specialization that's making this ecosystem work: Vertical SaaS companies own the workflows, fintech partners like Pipe handle capital and risk, and infrastructure providers take on the tough, regulated money movement no one else wants to touch. Get a front-row seat to how the “lasagna” of financial services is being rebuilt, one specialized layer at a time. And how, if we get it right, it will serve small businesses, developers, and the broader economy far better than the systems it's replacing. Don't miss this closing chapter of our Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts miniseries. Thanks for listening!  This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Luke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/ Follow Darragh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darragh-buckley-56096312/ Learn more about Pipe here.

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Kevin Moss (Senior Advisor at Baselayer, former CRO) to help launch Facing Credit, a new series where we unpack what's happening in lending right now. We start with student loans. Repayment data is finally flowing back to credit bureaus after years of paused reporting (which have inflated credit scores; lenders need to recalibrate how they read risk). Meanwhile, the SAVE program's gone, and borrowers in default could have up to 15% of their wages garnished. Around 2M people are already at risk, with more likely to follow. If federal loans move back to the private market, college access could shrink fast. Next, open banking. Chase and Plaid agreed to a deal for paid API access, while Chase also partnered with Nova Credit to expand cash-flow underwriting. Kevin's view is that cost recovery makes sense (as a former banker for 31 years, who's been in fintech for 10+ years!), and there's precedent for it, but data pricing shouldn't stifle innovation (or become a tool to protect card economics). Finally, big moves in mortgage land. FICO ended its long-time exclusive distribution arrangement with the credit bureaus and began selling scores directly to lenders. Equifax fired back by cutting VantageScore pricing and pledging free scores in 2026 for FICO users. Kevin sees this as the end of FICO's monopoly and the start of real competition. Lenders have gained leverage to rethink data models, and if the bureaus play it right, they'll win the long game. Plus, we'll close each Facing Credit episode with our guest's take on one trend (or observation) shaping the industry. This time: how will a slowing economy hit lending portfolios? Tune in for Kevin's take! 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 Kevin Moss: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moss-b032163/   Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: 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

Welcome back to our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe. In episode 5, hosts Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) sit down with Lacey Ford, CMO at ABC Fitness, to unpack how vertical SaaS companies go to market (through the lens of fitness tech, of course). ABC Fitness is a vSaaS platform focused on serving businesses in the fitness and health industry, from massive, multi-location gyms to independent personal trainers, studios, and boutiques. Given the breadth of different businesses that ABC Fitness serves, across multiple countries, it's easy to see just how important a strong go-to-market strategy is for the company.  (Not to mention, gyms are becoming a third place community – one where Gen Z is driving growth, and wearables, biometrics, and AI are all raising expectations). This is a true B2B2C motion where owners are hands on and tiny moments at the front desk (or a declined payment) are greater than the sum of their parts.  Here's how Lacey maps it across segments: enterprises move through consultative cycles, studios want speed with clear time to value, and coaches live in a PLG flow inside ABC Trainerize.  Big picture, Lacey brings it home to the operating cadence: put the customer at the center, get the right people in early around a shared narrative and shared metrics, and close the loop.  Do that, and go to market and retention become the same muscle (pun intended). And remember to subscribe to catch our LAST episode! Thanks for listening!  This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Luke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/ Follow Lacey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceyaford/ Learn more about Pipe here.

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I do what we do best: talk about fintech startups we're absolutely not giving investment advice on. First up is EtherFi Cash, a DeFi-native credit card (from Ether.fi) that flips banking math. You load stablecoins onto the card as collateral. From there, you can either spend them directly or lock them up to borrow cash against them (earning interest on the coins you park, while borrowing at a lower rate). It's non-custodial, meaning you're fully responsible for your crypto, and the card itself runs on Visa through a partner. It's over-collateralized lending dressed up as a card, and maybe regulators will end up treating it that way. Next up is Lunos AI, an AI agent that collects invoices like a polite but relentless coworker. It reads emails, remembers context, negotiates, and learns. Today it automates AR (accounts receivable); tomorrow, it'll be talking to AP (accounts payable) bots on the other side. Think of it as the first step toward self-driving cash flow. Then, there's the evocatively named Circuit & Chisel. Their XTP protocol lets AI agents pay each other per use instead of signing up for endless subscriptions. Imagine a digital assistant renting a data tool for ten seconds. It's built by ex-Stripe and Chainlink folks who see where this is going: a future where software pays software.  Finally, there's Figure. Mike Cagney (of SoFi fame) successfully took his blockchain lending company public. Figure started with home-equity loans and now runs one of the largest on-chain real-world asset markets (outside of U.S. Treasuries). Its innovation lies in using blockchain to automate the costly back-office work of loan origination and trading. It's faster, cheaper, and fully traceable (and it's rated by the same agencies that review traditional securities). Plus, some closing manifestations: whoever builds the MCP or the protocol that lets AR and AP AI agents talk to each other is sitting on a billion-dollar startup. Banks should treat stablecoin yield as the next interchange moment, and as for anyone touching DeFi lending … remember, the same consumer-protection laws still apply. 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 Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://www.ether.fi/ https://www.lunos.aI https://circuitandchisel.com/ https://www.figure.com/

Welcome back to our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe. In episode 4, we attempt to tackle the age-old question: build, buy, or partner?  Hosts Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) sit down with A.J. Axelrod, VP Payments & Financial Services at Clio) to explore how Clio's uniquely designed to handle the unique complexities that lawyers face every day. Clio is a vSaaS operating system for lawyers, and A.J. (extremely) thoughtfully walks us through how Clio decided what to build, what to buy, and when to partner. Spoiler: legal-specific finance is a different beast —every transfer has to be auditable, or you'll have a compliance failure (and lawyers, famously, read the fine print!). Payments started as integrations and evolved into Clio Payments, now with support for cards, ACH, wallets, QR codes, and text-to-pay, all tied into legal accounting requirements. This episode is a front-row seat to what fintech strategy really looks like when it's built for the people doing the work.  Don't miss out — subscribe to catch future episodes! Thanks for listening!  This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Luke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/ Follow A.J.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaxelrod/ Learn more about Pipe here.

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. Listeners may remember my first audiobook experiment…well, we're back, by popular demand!  In our second ever Fintech Takes audiobook podcast episode, I take on the subject I can't stop writing, thinking, and podcasting about (if you know, you know): gambling. In March, I published my deep dive essay on The Biggest Threat to Consumers' Financial Health, which is gambling. In the piece, I also explored how the rise of what I've previously called Speculation-as-a-Service poses a direct threat to banks, credit unions, and consumer-facing fintechs. By August, the landscape had only accelerated. That's when I wrote The War That Banks Don't Know They're Fighting, a short piece responding to the industry's shoulder-shrugging (even as Robinhood, Coinbase, DraftKings, and others kept doubling down). If you haven't read the essays, you'll hear both, start to finish (featuring stats you can't ignore and fintech CEOs sounding more like bookies than bankers). Plus, fresh updates on what Robinhood, Coinbase, and others are up to now, and what those moves tell us about the future of consumer finance.  Gambling may be “winning” in the moment, but long-term, financial health is the better business to be in. 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 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 our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe. In episode 3,  we dig even deeper into the fintech strategy behind embedded finance within vertical SaaS (platforms that are the IDEAL distribution channel for B2B financial products).  But how does the process of embedding financial products within vertical SaaS platforms actually work?  How should these platforms define their fintech strategy, sequence their roadmap, and be prepared for…what risks and challenges? Hosts Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) sit down with Ethan Senturia, President of Housecall Pro (and former Chief Fintech Officer) — the perfect person to answer these questions. Housecall Pro began with the essentials (pricing, scheduling, dispatch, invoicing) and grew into a full operating system for professionals across trades like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, and more.  Along the way, Ethan discovered that segmentation isn't just about industry or company size; it's about persona. As he learned on day one: “There is no such thing as a pro.”  A roofer, a cleaner, and a 20-person plumbing shop each need different workflows, pricing logic, and financial tools. The fintech roadmap at Housecall Pro was built around one mantra: all money in, all money out. Threaded throughout: the gritty reality of 140° attics, wasp nests in walls, and pros spending 80% of their day “under the sink” but 80% of their worry on spreadsheets.  This episode is a front-row seat to what fintech strategy really looks like when it's built for the people doing the work. Don't miss out — and subscribe to catch future episodes. Thanks for listening!  This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Luke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/ Follow Ethan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansenturia/ Learn more about Pipe here.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Hey 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.This episode is brought to you by Fintech NerdCon, the fintech event by operators, for operators. Use promo code FBW20 to save 20% on your ticket!In this episode, Alex and I discussed:* If open banking is prisoners' dilemma, Plaid defected to JPMorgan Chase. What it means and what comes next.* The FBI is continuing to investigate embattled Evolve Bank & Trust and its bankrupt middleware partner Synapse over as much as $95 million in missing depositor funds.* FICO is an AI company now, I guess.* 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 Fintech Takes. I'm Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner-in-recapping, Jason Mikula.  First up: the uneasy détente in open banking is over. Jason and I haven't had a chance to debrief on Plaid's deal with JPMorgan Chase to pay for API access (so we do). Payments use cases remain the most expensive, Plaid is eating the fees (at least for now), and Chase looks like it's succeeded in hobbling Pay by Bank. We unpack why Plaid did the deal, what it means for other aggregators.  Next up, color us nostalgic; back to BaaS Island we go! The FBI is probing Evolve. The scope reportedly extends to board members (including a16z), and new details suggest international money movement in Southeast Asia (tied to a $15M pig-butchering scheme). As the saying goes, bankers almost never go to jail; will this time be any different? Then, we turn to AI. FICO has announced a new product called a foundation model for financial services. The idea is to build smaller, domain-specific models that are cheaper, faster, and more reliable than generic LLMs, while adding predictive lift on top of existing analytics. The open questions: is this hype dressed up for Wall Street, or a clever way to squeeze extra predictive power out of structured financial datasets? And most of all: who is this really for? Plus, in our Can't Let It Go corner, Jason bristles about being labeled as “partisan” (in response to his response about the “Debanking” Executive Order) while I puzzle over Tether reportedly raising at a $500B valuation (the same as OpenAI, except Tether's core product is…not getting audited and telling everyone to “just trust us.”) 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

Hello, and welcome back to Cash Flow Conversations, a new miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit. Episode 3 is my conversation with Matt Zalubowski, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Atlanticus, a subprime lender focused on offering credit cards and personal loans.  The challenge in this market is finding more ways to fairly and responsibly say YES. Cash flow data is proving to be a natural fit, driving about a 15% lift on top of traditional bureau data while widening the credit box without adding risk (and giving consumers better terms and pricing that go beyond a simple yes/no decision). We dig into how Atlanticus uses cash flow data to bridge the gap between prime cards and payday-style products, why affiliates like MoneyLion help reduce friction in permissioning, and how cash flow data enables smarter line sizing and pricing. Plus, some early results! I learned a lot in this conversation, and I trust you will, too. Subscribe now to catch the rest of Cash Flow Conversations as it comes. This miniseries is brought to you by Nova Credit. Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data.  The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics.  Deploy cash flow underwriting confidently with Nova Credit's proven platform. Check them out at www.novacredit.com. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzalubowski/ Learn more about Nova Credit here.

Hello, and thanks for joining us for the fourth and final episode of Cash Flow Conversations, a new miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit. In episode 4, I sit down with Chris Hansen, GM, Cash Atlas Solutions at Nova Credit.  Chris has probably thought more than anyone I know about how cash flow data is going to reshape the credit data and analytics ecosystem. Our conversation hinges on a big question: what could a credit bureau built around consumer-permissioned cash flow data look like? We dig into the three pillars of that vision (infrastructure for persistent access to on-us and off-us data, analytics that convert transaction streams into credit attributes and scores, and compliance that bridges FCRA requirements with Section 1033's consumer-permission rules). We also explore how consumer permissioning complicates lender workflows (while empowering consumers), the utility of real-time willingness to pay data across the lending lifecycle, and the opportunities cash flow data opens up far beyond underwriting… That's a wrap for Cash Flow Conversations! Thanks for listening; we hope you've enjoyed the journey as much as we have. This miniseries is brought to you by Nova Credit. Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data.  The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics.  Deploy cash flow underwriting confidently with Nova Credit's proven platform. Check them out at www.novacredit.com. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishansen10/ Learn more about Nova Credit here.

Welcome back to our new miniseries, Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe. Vertical SaaS platforms are experiencing major growth; they've become the operating system for every industry (with financial products and services baked right into workflows that SMBs already live in every day). Vertical SaaS wins because no one knows the customer better—every product decision flows from that insight. That's it. That's the secret. In Episode 2, Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) sit down with Bryan Solar, Chief Product Officer at SpotOn, to talk about what true customer centricity looks like in vertical SaaS. Bryan shares SpotOn's journey from loyalty platform to payments … to an all-in-one operating system for restaurants, and why being loved by a subset beats being liked by many; how obsessing over small details (like the wrong button in a bartender's workflow) can make or break a night, and when to build vs. partner in embedded finance.  Plus, he shares how tools like Day Check (same-day wage access) and Profit Assist (an AI that once caught an $400-a-day cost error) can make a big impact. Restaurants run on thin margins, fragile moments, and thousands of micro-decisions — and software that's built with empathy can literally be the difference between survival and failure. Don't miss this conversation on how customer centricity, done right, becomes a right to win. And subscribe to catch future episodes. Thanks for listening!  This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Luke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/ Follow Bryan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryansolar/ Learn more about Pipe here.

Hello, and welcome back to Cash Flow Conversations, a new podcast miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit. We're exploring how cash flow data moves from theory (“this is intriguing”) to practice (“wow, that worked!”) across the consumer lending lifecycle.  It's risky to try something new; especially when said new thing has the potential to increase credit losses, add friction, or create compliance risk. So, how can we de-risk big change? And how can we design experiments to surface unknowns while keeping credit, compliance, and operational risk in check? That's the focus of episode 2, built around a real case study: PayPal's experiment testing whether cash flow data could strengthen underwriting for its pay-in-4 BNPL product.  (Spoiler: it did.) Joining me to unpack the results are: Anand Bhushan, Global Head of Credit, Pay Later Products at PayPal and Nikki Cross, Senior Director of Data Science Solutions at Nova Credit. We dig into how PayPal built the business case for cash flow underwriting, what they learned from strong consumer uptake, real-time approvals, and scores that beat bureaus – and how Nova Credit helped de-risk the process and scale the data across the credit lifecycle.   Subscribe now to catch more episodes of Cash Flow Conversations, coming soon! This miniseries is brought to you by Nova Credit. Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data.  The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics.  Deploy cash flow underwriting confidently with Nova Credit's proven platform. Check them out at www.novacredit.com. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Anand: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anand-bhushan-60325445/ Follow Nikki: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkicrosspatrick/Learn more about Nova Credit here.

Hello, and welcome to Cash Flow Conversations, a new podcast miniseries sponsored by Nova Credit. If you've followed my work, you'll know that I'm obsessed with cash flow data (and underwriting more specifically). That's because it has enormous potential to positively reshape consumer lending in the U.S. As banks, credit unions, and fintechs move from theory to practice, this series will chronicle how cash flow data is being put to work across the lending lifecycle. Episode 1 sets the tone for the series, featuring a live panel I moderated at Nova Credit's Cash Flow Underwriting Summit earlier this month. Joining me are: Chris McCall, Head of Consumer Credit and Pricing at Citizens Bank Bill Garber, SVP, Credit Policy and Analytics at Navy Federal Credit Union Munish Pahwa, EVP and Chief Risk Officer at Sallie Mae We dig into how cash flow data stacks up against traditional credit data, what it means for lenders' models, how it changes the borrower experience, the guardrails around it — and why getting a clearer view of consumers' financial lives is vital in today's uncertain environment. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I enjoyed facilitating it! Subscribe now to catch the rest of Cash Flow Conversations as it comes. This miniseries is brought to you by Nova Credit. Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data.  The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics.  Deploy cash flow underwriting confidently with Nova Credit's proven platform. Check them out at www.novacredit.com. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-mccall-732b6b Follow Bill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-garber-611234191/ Follow Munish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/munish-pahwa-ph-d-2a563210/ Learn more about Nova Credit here.

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by David Roos, Partner at Core Innovation Capital — an early-stage fintech investor (founded in 2010) that backs scalable businesses built to drive financial inclusion for low- and middle-income consumers. We dig into how Core really sizes up founders and business models, what's shifted since the 2021 boom-and-bust, and how open banking and AI are reshaping incentives. Highlights include: How the venture market split after 2021 (mega-funds tossing out risky option bets vs. specialist funds focused on seed) while the IPO bar climbed to nearly $1B in revenue, keeping exits mostly to M&A Why JPMC's push to charge for data access shows the tug-of-war over who controls customer information, and why over time, closed-door banks may end up losing to those that open up How AI is reshaping startups: small teams can now hit milestones that once took far more people and money, Series A investors expect closer to $3M in revenue, and how trust (earned through workflow integration and human oversight) still rules the day This episode is a reality check on what it takes to build in fintech today. And it's a friendly reminder that alignment between founders, investors, and customers is what separates lasting companies from cautionary tales.  Enjoy!  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 Dan Roos: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-roos-24632457/   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 to our new miniseries, Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe. This six-part miniseries explores how Vertical SaaS (vSaaS) platforms are becoming the operating systems for every industry. They're experiencing tremendous growth because they solve the challenges unique to SMB owners. Increasingly, those challenges are met by embedding financial products and services directly into the workflows SMBs rely on every day. In each episode, hosts Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles sit down with a vSaaS executive to unpack their journey — how they defined strategy, chose partners, launched products, and scaled responsibly. In Episode 1, Alex kicks things off with Luke himself.  From credit investing to building small business lending at Intuit and Square (and to his current role as CEO of Pipe), Luke shares his journey and explains why vertical SaaS is *the* perfect channel for embedded finance: trusted software brands delivering capital at the exact point of need…which makes capital feel like part of the workflow instead of an interruption.  Don't miss the kickoff, and subscribe now to catch future episodes and insights! Thanks for listening!  This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at https://pipe.com/fintechtakes 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Luke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-voiles/ Learn more about Pipe at https://pipe.com/fintechtakes

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I riff about fintech companies we're absolutely not giving investment advice on. (Speaking of Simon, he's got a new day job: he's joining Tempo, a payments-first blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. Will this lead to spicier payment takes? We shall see!) We kick things off with Welcome Tech, an operating system for immigrants. It's US-based, all-in-one: education, job placement, embedded healthcare (telemed, dental, vision, Rx), plus financial services (wallet, debit). After big 2020–21 rounds, a recent $7.5M caught Alex's eye. As for the real wedge? It may be “Help me not only survive but thrive” (that is, paperwork precision, employer integrations, and AI agents as the lawyer you can't afford. In this category, trust and timing decide outcomes… Next up is Bumper, a UK startup bringing BNPL to car repairs. With 5,000 dealerships already on board, they let customers split repair costs interest-free. Niche BNPL providers like this can thrive by embedding in industries big players overlook, giving businesses a way to keep their customer relationships while solving a very real pain point (not to mention, BNPL has rewired Gen Y and Z's expectations). Then there's Scalar Field (which Simon wrote about recently); an AI-powered trading tool that helps traders run strategies on live data and breaking new. By “living in the stream,” its models continuously adapt as it gives traders the ability to backtest in real time (instead of the traditional loop of training, validating, and hoping a model still works once deployed). The real unlock is backtesting against messy, real-world conditions, long an Achilles' heel in model development…that is, until now or soon?! Finally, Structify tackles the messy prep work before decisions get made. Think PDFs, screenshots, and scattered APIs, all cleaned and structured by an AI data assistant. If the last few decades were about faster decision making, the next decade is about fixing the data pipelines that feed… aforementioned decision making. Plus, some closing manifestations: banks and fintechs need to start treating gambling and speculative investing apps as a genuine competitive threat to deposits! U.S. banks should copy the UK's strategy of opt-in gambling blocks with cool-off periods to protect customers (and keep deposits from drifting). We'll be fans of whoever ships it first. 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 Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://www.welcome.tech/ https://www.bumper.co/ https://www.scalarfield.io/ https://www.structify.ai/

We're at the finish line of Source of Truth, the new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO. And much like in a relay race, Eric Woodward (CEO at FinatIQ, who shaped one of the most successful digital payment platforms in the U.S. as the former Group President at Early Warning, the parent of Zelle) is the anchor that's going to bring us home. In this final episode on information asymmetry in financial services, we zoom out to the system level: who controls financial data, who pays for access, and what a healthier network could look like.  If we could wave a magic wand and start with a blank sheet of paper, how would we design data infrastructure (drawing from the lessons learned by credit bureaus, open banking data aggregators, and industry consortiums) to actually work best for the ecosystem? Highlights include: The tradeoffs of three models: credit bureaus, consortiums, and open banking BNPL's reluctance to furnish data (and what that means for consumers) Why a better framework needs consumer control, broader furnishers, value-based pricing, full-file expectations, and clear network rules Anchor leg, final lap: consumers in control. Furnishers compensated. Shared rules. Game on. Enjoy the finale of Source of Truth! This miniseries is brought to you by SOLO. SOLO resolves and connects customer data across silos — so teams stop rekeying the same customer info for the hundredth time and finally move forward. Break the cycle at SOLO.one - That's SOLO dot o-n-e. 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 Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson   Follow Eric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericwoodward Learn more about SOLO here.

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?