Podcast appearances and mentions of harish natarajan

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Best podcasts about harish natarajan

Latest podcast episodes about harish natarajan

PayPod: The Payments Industry Podcast
Fast Payments and Financial Inclusion with The World Bank's Harish Natarajan

PayPod: The Payments Industry Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2024 27:34


Episode Topic This episode features Harish Natarajan, Practice Manager of Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure at the World Bank, exploring the transformative potential of digital financial services in addressing financial exclusion. Harish highlights the critical role of fast payment systems in modernizing financial infrastructure, fostering interoperability, and reducing barriers to financial access. The discussion also delves into how developing nations are leveraging fintech innovation and regulatory modernization to create inclusive financial systems that empower underserved populations. Lessons You'll Learn Digital payments hold the power to improve accessibility and reduce costs for unserved and underserved communities, breaking down significant barriers to financial inclusion. Harish sheds light on how fast payment systems provide the backbone for modern financial infrastructure, enabling innovations that promote efficiency and competition. He also explores the role of fintech in bridging gender inclusion gaps, tailoring financial services to diverse needs, and harnessing emerging technologies like AI and blockchain to balance innovation with risk management. About Our Guest Harish Natarajan is a distinguished leader in the global financial inclusion space and currently serves as the Practice Manager at the World Bank. With years of experience in developing cross-border payment frameworks, Harish has been instrumental in promoting equitable access to finance in emerging markets. His work focuses on advancing digital financial services, fostering gender inclusion, and implementing sustainable financial infrastructure that aligns with global economic development goals. Topics Covered Harish discusses the evolution and importance of fast payment systems, emphasizing their role in enabling interoperability and enhancing competition within financial markets. He also examines the challenges of financial exclusion and the strategies needed to address them through targeted fintech innovations. The conversation extends to the modernization of regulatory frameworks, the use of digital tools to close gender gaps in finance, and the transformative impact of AI and blockchain on the future of the financial sector.  

The Nonlinear Library: EA Forum Top Posts
EA Debate Championship & Lecture Series by Dan Lahav, sella

The Nonlinear Library: EA Forum Top Posts

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2021 20:50


Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EA Debate Championship & Lecture Series, published by Dan Lahav, sella on the Effective Altruism Forum. Executive Summary On October 23-25 2020, we hosted the inaugural online EA Debate Championship - a three-day debate championship with EA-themed topics. The championship had 150+ participants, from roughly 25 countries, that span 6 continents. The championship was supported by the World Universities Debating Championship, aka WUDC - one of the largest international student-driven events in the world. There were a total of 7 debate rounds - 5 preliminary rounds and 2 knockout rounds. The knockout rounds were held in 2 different language proficiency categories to promote inclusivity. In total over the course of that weekend over 500 EA-related speeches were delivered. The championship featured a Distinguished Lecture Series as non-mandatory preparation material - 9 lectures, 3 debate exercises and 1 Q&A session containing introductory EA materials (totalling ~10 hours), with top EA speakers including Ishaan Guptasarma, Joey Savoie, Karolina Sarek, Kat Woods, Lewis Bollard, Olivia Larsen, Nick Beckstead, and Will MacAskill. The debate exercises were filmed by world-renowned debate teams. The championship included a research component to examine if debating on EA topics changes the stance of debaters towards EA values. Most of the participants were not familiar with EA prior to the competition, or had limited exposure to core EA ideas. However, when asked after the tournament many were highly positive on the prospect of attending a future EA debating championship, and reported a strong willingness to continue their engagement with the EA community. During the tournament, over $2,000 were donated to effective charities by the participants (with most of the funds going to the Against Malaria Foundation). The funds were doubled via donation matching provided by Open Philanthropy. The competition was initiated and organized by members of EA Israel who are also debaters; with the support of several highly influential international debaters and the World Championship. This collaboration was possible due to the strong ties that exist between the debating community and the EA community in Israel. We think that there is room to building similar ties on a more global scale. In the rest of the post we will explain our motivation to run the event, describe the program and its outcomes in detail, share what we have learned from the process, and discuss our next steps. Organizing the tournament was an effort of a great many. We thank them all, and would like to stress that any mistakes or inaccuracies in the description are our own. In particular we would like to thank Adel Ahmed, Ameera Moore, Barbara Batycka, Bosung Baik, Chaerin Lee, Connor O'Brien, Dana Green, Emily Frizell, Enting Lee, Harish Natarajan, Ishaan Guptasarma, Jaeyoung Choi, Jessica Musulin, Joey Savoie, Kallina Basli, Karolina Sarek, Kat Woods, Lewis Bollard, Milos Marajanovic, Mubarrat Wassey, Nick Beckstead, Olivia Larsen, Omer Nevo, Sally Kwon, Salwaa Khan, Seoyoun, Seungyoun Lee, Sharmila Parmanand, Tricia Park, Will MacAskill and Yeaeun Shin for their contributions in running the tournament, filming lectures or creating exercises; to David Moss, David Reinstein and Stefan Schubert for their advice on running the tournament survey; and to the many incredibly qualified debate adjudicators & speakers that made the event possible Motivation We initiated this effort due to the impression that themed debating tournaments (along with matching preparation materials) can be a relatively broad yet high-fidelity outreach opportunity. We believe this is the case for several reasons: The international debating community mostly consists of undergraduate students from around 50 countries (elite universities are represented ac...

Opinion Science
#51: Debate with Harish Natarajan, Dan Zafrir, & Noa Ovadia

Opinion Science

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2021 37:44


This episode follows up on the previous episode of Opinion Science about IBM's Project Debater. If you haven't already, be sure to check out that episode.But this week we hear more from Harish Natarajan, Dan Zafrir, and Noa Ovadia--three accomplished debaters. They'll share how they got into debate, what debate means to them, and why the exercise of debate is so important.In the opening section of the episode, we hear a quick clip from social psychologist Richard Petty. And the study I summarize is from a working paper by Peter Schwardmann, Egon Tripodi, and Joël J. van der Weele.Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).For a transcript of this episode, visit: http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/episode/debate-with-harish-natarajan-dan-zafrir-noa-ovadia/Check out my new audio course on Knowable: "The Science of Persuasion."Learn more about Opinion Science at http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/ and follow @OpinionSciPod on Twitter.

Opinion Science
#50: To Persuade is Human?

Opinion Science

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2021 50:28


In 2019, IBM introduced the world to Project Debater: an AI system that could go up against humans to debate anything. In this episode, we trace Project Debater's growth from just an idea to a fully fledged piece of technology and the public debates it's engaged in. And it raises a bigger question…is persuasion a fundamentally human ability or is it really something that machines are capable of?We hear from IBM engineer and project leaders Noam Slonim, expert debaters Harish Natarajan, Dan Zafrir, and Noa Ovadia, communication neuroscientist Elisa Baek, and best-selling author Daniel Pink.To learn more about Project Debater, visit IBM's Project Debater website and watch this great mini documentary about the system.  Clips from IBM events were made available by IBM and are licensed creative commons. Check out my new audio course on Knowable: "The Science of Persuasion."Learn more about Opinion Science at http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/ and follow @OpinionSciPod on Twitter.

Tcast
Debating an AI. When Artificial Intelligence Becomes Human

Tcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2021 12:30


Artificial Intelligence is expected by many to be the next great step in evolution. That people are on the verge of giving birth to a higher form of life. Given the massive processing power of computers and how they can solve a number of problems faster, much faster than we possibly can, it's easy to see why. After all, they don't have our emotions, our baggage, our biases, they just process information. They are pure logic and that's it. What could be better than to have AI of the future be an integral part of, or even the sole part of making decisions for society? Other than the obvious jokes about building the Matrix, Skynet, Ultron, and I Robot, are these assumptions even accurate? Are computers and thus AI as perfect as they seem?  In a way, yes they are. They perfectly do whatever they are told however they are told to do it. Any error is an error with their coding. But that also means a computer will often have something of the biases of their designers and programmers hardwired into them. Unless we can somehow get them to really learn, to question what they know, or pursue knowledge outside their programming, they won't be able to self-correct on the scale humans do.  It also seems to be the case that AI lacks something that is present in humans, even in something as logically based (one hopes) as a formal debate. Back in 2019, IBM decided to test its newest AI at the Think 2019 conference. They put Project Debater (the apt if the unimaginative name of the computer) up against debate champion Harish Natarajan with an audience of hundreds. The audience gave the victory to Natarajan, adding to Project Debater's mixed record in competing with humans in the argumentation space. Yes, mixed. It has managed to win a few times. But again, at this point, it seems as if the AI should easily win every time. So why doesn't it? That's the real billion-dollar question. Some would certainly say that we just have to get better at teaching it how to cross-reference information, to find a way for computers to recognize tangents off of primary subjects in order to follow and learn about them, mimicking human curiosity. Yet, it would still be mimicking. There is an alternative theory. It's a fact that the human brain has immense processing capacity. If we could direct it in a controlled and linear fashion as a computer, our brains would always beat the snot out of Project Debater, just based on the raw potential. Yet, for all but a few prodigies, that simply isn't the case. The reason may lie in what comes along with real intelligence – self-awareness, self-consciousness, emotions, the very ability to wonder why, and finally the ability to perceive and realize there are parts of reality that are beyond our grasp. That is, we can deduce the idea of an eleven-dimensional universe but can't actually imagine what it is like. Perhaps all of these marks of human intelligence are what seem to bog down our processing ability. Maybe it really isn't bogging things down, maybe all of these are as essential to navigating reality as solving equations and collating data points. Maybe it is exactly these things that allow us to act with compassion, to be altruistic, rather than weighing everything as a cost-benefit analysis.  In this view, the computer doesn't just become a fast-thinking, more logical human when the intelligence stops being artificial and becomes real. Instead, the AI becomes real intelligence and would suddenly find itself bogged down with all the same burdens we are. In fact, given the complexity of the human brain versus that of a computer, it might actually be slower than us.  That doesn't mean there is no role for AI in our decision-making processes. We can still put data into programs and have them run important simulations, predicting the different effects of policies or inventions on society. Not that the resulting conclusions should be followed blindly. That would be the same as putting them in charge. However, they can be valuable tools, if given the right programming and the right data.  What's your data worth? www.tartle.co   Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.   The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.   What's your data worth?   Find out at: https://tartle.co/   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial   Spread the word!

THE ONE TAKE SHOW: Law, Logic and Life with Kaustubh
A Human Debater who beat IBM AI Robot | Harish Natarajan | Adhipatya Singh | The One Take Show

THE ONE TAKE SHOW: Law, Logic and Life with Kaustubh

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2021 56:29


One Take Show is honoured to host Mr Harish Natarajan. Harish is the Head of Economic Analysis, AKE International. He is a senior economist and geopolitical research professional are known for devising deep analytical insights. Strong ability to deliver impactful insights to drive key business strategies. Exemplary stakeholder management abilities, able to manage, lead and inspire direct teams. He is an award-winning debater, including winning IBM's third Grand Challenge against an artificial intelligence machine and extensively covered in the world press. https://polemix.co/ Code: HN007

re:verb
E55: re:joinder - The Limits of Artificial Persuasion

re:verb

Play Episode Listen Later May 7, 2021 71:06


We live in a world of unbridled technological and argumentative advancement. A.I. has learned to debate Thanksgiving-table politics against humans. People may soon be using “argument checks” as well as “grammar checks” on their smartphones. Cats and dogs have finally put aside their differences and learned to live in peace by forming a coalition against postal workers. Welcome to the future.Whether this sounds like an irenic utopian ideal or an Orwellian dystopia to you, it is the subject of today's episode! In the first installment of our newest re:joinder series, Disciplining Disciplinary Boundaries, we take aim at an article that feels designed to make humanists pull their hair out: Benjamin Wallace-Wells's “The Limits of Political Debate,” published in The New Yorker. This article tells the story of Project Debater, an artificial intelligence designed to compete in political debate competitions against humans using mountains of empirical evidence and “fifty to seventy” prefabricated argument structures. As we read through the dramatic tale of P.D.'s inception to it's first high-profile defeat in public debate by Harish Natarajan in 2019, we discuss the way that science journalists (and scientists themselves) make strange and fascinating assumptions about the humanities.We also frame our reading of the article with two critical pieces of rhetoric scholarship that help illuminate its various rhetorical pitfalls and spurious assumptions. Jeanne Fahnestock's 1986 classic “Accommodating Science” lays the groundwork for studying science journalism by taxonomizing some typical rhetorical appeals and information transformations journalists use to make hard science more appealing for public audiences (e.g. sacrificing technical details at the expense of telling a dramatic narrative of “discovery”). Finally, we end with Carolyn Miller's 2007 article “What can automation teach us about agency,” and reflect upon the ways that A.I. can only have rhetorical agency if an audience attributes it. This article helps us better understand why Project Debater suffered defeat at the hands of a human, and why this article tells us more about the limits of artificial intelligence rather than “rhetorical persuasion.”Works & Concepts Cited in this Episode:Fahnestock, J. (1986). Accommodating science: The rhetorical life of scientific facts. Written communication, 3(3), 330-350.Miller, C. R. (2007). What can automation tell us about agency?. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 37(2), 137-157.Plato. (2008). Gorgias (B. Jowett, Trans.). Project Gutenberg. (Original published c. 380 BCE). Retrieved from: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1672/1672-h/1672-h.htmSlonim, N., Bilu, Y., Alzate, C., Bar-Haim, R., Bogin, B., Bonin, F., ... & Aharonov, R. (2021). An autonomous debating system. Nature, 591(7850), 379-384.Wallace-Wells, B. (2021, Apr. 11). The limits of political debate. The New Yorker. Retrieved from: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-populism/the-limits-of-political-debate

Science Talk
AI Can Now Debate with Humans and Sometimes Convince Them, Too

Science Talk

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 17, 2021 14:23


Today on the Science Talk podcast, Noam Slonim speaks to Scientific American about an impressive feat of computer engineering: an AI-powered autonomous system that can engage in complex debate with humans over issues ranging from subsidizing preschool and the merit of space exploration to the pros and cons of genetic engineering.  In a new Nature paper , Slonim and colleagues show that across 80 debate topics, Project Debater’s computational argument technology has performed very decently—with a human audience being the judge of that. “However, it is still somewhat inferior on average to the results obtained by expert human debaters,” says Slonim.  In a 2019 San Francisco showcase, its first public debut, the system went head to head with expert debater Harish Natarajan.  Beyond gaming, it’s rare to see humans and machines go against each other, let alone in an oratory competition. Not unlike its human counterpart, the AI was given only 15 minutes to research the topic and prepare for the debate—rifling through thousands of gigabytes of information at record speed to form an opening statement and layer counter arguments that were later delivered through a robotic female voice, in fragments, and with near perfect diction.  It couldn’t best Natarajan in San Francisco, but in a different debate, the system—co-led by Slonim and fellow IBM researcher Ranit Aharonov —has managed to change the stance of nine people in a debate on the use of telemedicine, essentially swaying the debate to its side and rebutting the argument of its opponent. In other words, in this realm, humans still prevail. But how do you build the architecture for a complex system like this? Is the AI capable of recognizing meaning or larger contexts in a debate? Can a system descended from Project Debater one day intervene in real-life social media arguments to quell misinformation or stir a debate in one direction or another, for better or worse? We answer these questions and more in the podcast.

The Money Movement
Episode 7: Stablecoins and Global Financial Inclusion

The Money Movement

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2020 2685:54


This week we are joined by several guests who bring a wide range of perspectives on the potential for stablecoins to broaden access to the global financial system for billions of people. We are joined by Harish Natarajan, Lead Financial Sector Specialist on Payments & Market Infrastructures in the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice at World Bank; Danelle Dixon, who is the CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Foundation, one of the preeminent blockchain projects in the world that is focused on global financial inclusion, and by Tristan Cole, Founder and CEO of Sempo, an innovative startup leveraging stablecoins to power digital money distribution in partnership with leading global NGOs. The Money Movement is brought to you by Circle. Our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through programmable internet commerce. Learn more about Circle Business Accounts and Platform APIs at https://hubs.ly/H0rpTP50

The Money Movement
Episode 7: Stablecoins and Global Financial Inclusion

The Money Movement

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2020 44:45


Huge swaths of the global population have mobile devices, but don't participate in the financial system. Stablecoins and the proliferation of digital currencies present an exciting new opportunity for people to connect to a more open and inclusive financial system, creating new economic opportunities for those who have been excluded from the banking sector.  This week we are joined by several guests who bring a wide range of perspectives on the potential for stablecoins to broaden access to the global financial system for billions of people. We are joined by Harish Natarajan, Lead Financial Sector Specialist on Payments & Market Infrastructures in the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice at World Bank; Danelle Dixon, who is the CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Foundation, one of the preeminent blockchain projects in the world that is focused on global financial inclusion, and by Tristan Cole, Founder and CEO of Sempo, an innovative startup leveraging stablecoins to power digital money distribution in partnership with leading global NGOs. We will dig into the big picture challenges, the technical innovations that stablecoins on public blockchains represent, and a hands-on view of the impact these technologies are having today on people everywhere. Tune-in and join us live on YouTube on Thursday, June 11 at 1pm EDT, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. About the Show The global economy is experiencing unprecedented challenges and change.  Business leaders everywhere are grappling with how to transform their companies to become more digital, resilient and efficient. As we face this change, a new global movement is building around the promise of digital currencies and blockchains — forming a new architecture for the global economy and creating new opportunities for companies everywhere. The Money Movement explores and chronicles the issues and ideas driving this brave new world of digital money. The Money Movement is brought to you by Circle. Our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through programmable internet commerce. Learn more about Circle Business Accounts and Platform APIs at https://hubs.ly/H0rpTP50

AI with AI
A Mind Forever Voyaging Part 1

AI with AI

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2019 32:43


OpenAI has trained an unsupervised language model that can perform basic reading comprehension, summarize text, answer questions, and generate coherent paragraphs; as Andy and Dave discuss, the bigger news came from OpenAI’s decision to release a less-capable version of the GPT-2 model, “for the good of humanity,” as one news site claimed. IBM’s Project Debater lost a debate with champion debater Harish Natarajan, but more of the audience said Project Debater better enriched their knowledge on the topic. Princeton and Microsoft announce NAIL, an agent for playing general interactive fiction (such as the Zork series), and consisting of multiple Decision Modules for performing various tasks. Part 2 will be posted next week.

DataBytes
#13: IBM's Debate Machine and Adopting a 'Data Culture' in Companies

DataBytes

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2019 24:55


On February 11, IBM showcased its Project Debater in a face-off against debate champion Harish Natarajan. We talk about how this machine vs. human competition went. Then, we discuss a Harvard Business Review article citing a survey that discovered companies are not becoming data-oriented quickly enough. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/databytes/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/databytes/support

Open to Debate
Special Release: Can AI Change Your Mind?

Open to Debate

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2019 54:09


In this special episode of Intelligence Squared U.S., we partner with IBM for a historic debate that brings AI to the stage. IBM Project Debater is the first AI system designed to debate humans on complex topics using a combination of pioneering research developed by IBM researchers. In this debate, Project Debater faces world-class debater Harish Natarajan on the motion, "We Should Subsidize Preschool". Still curious about AI? Dive into more debates: Past Debate - Don’t Trust the Promise of AI: http://smarturl.it/ArtificialIntellMain Upcoming Debate - All Hail Driverless Cars: http://smarturl.it/DriverlessCar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

trust ai ibm change your mind special release project debater harish natarajan
Barefoot Innovation Podcast
Complete Financial Inclusion: The World Bank's Harish Natarajan

Barefoot Innovation Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2018 52:23


My guest today is the World Bank’s Harish Natarajan, a leader of one of the most visionary and ambitious efforts underway in the financial world -- to achieve complete financial inclusion. Throughout history, the idea of reaching full inclusion -- enabling everyone to access the mainstream financial system -- seemed like fantasy. Financial services have always been expensive to produce and deliver, making it unprofitable to serve everyone. In addition, they often involve the need to evaluate and risk-rate customers, and to verify their identity information, all of which has always been costly and complex. Mainstream services were for people who had some means and had traditional identity documents. Other people had to rely on high-cost alternatives, or had no access at all. And then, we got cell phones. Suddenly, here was a new delivery system that could reach nearly everyone, through a channel that was already there, already built, and that could, furthermore, serve them inexpensively. No more need to build and staff high-cost branches. Everyone, today, can have a bank branch in their hand. Recognizing this new opportunity, the World Bank set a transformational goal -- that every adult on earth should have financial access by 2020. They defined inclusion as having a transaction account, since for most people, that’s the easiest and most-needed starting point. Once that exists, other services can be added on top of it, from lending to savings to insurance. As the consumer’s financial information becomes increasingly digitized and consolidated in the phone, it becomes possible for financial providers to evaluate that digital profile to extend more products. It also becomes possible to authenticate identity -- which is critical because the anti-money laundering Know-Your-Customer regulations currently block millions of people from the system because they lack traditional ID documents. Technology is making this shift possible, but of course, it isn’t easy, nor is it a panacea. Some people still don’t have mobile phones -- although that problem is rapidly evaporating -- the UN says more people have had access to mobile phones than to plumbing since 2013. Of those who do, many don’t adopt electronic financial accounts, and many who do so become vulnerable to scams and predatory products, especially since hundreds of millions of these consumers are being exposed to financial services for the first time. Those challenges, in turn, create an urgent need for regulatory modernization. Finance is being digitized, and regulation will have to be digitized too in order for government to protect consumers and assure financial stability. So the World Bank’s work includes a focus on modernizing the regulatory infrastructure itself, building up capacity to understand new technologies and address risk. In this episode, Harish describes this whole transformative landscape. He talks about the Financial Inclusion Global Initiative, or FIGI, a three-year program with three partners, and three global themes -- cybersecurity, e-payments acceptance, and digital ID. He explains why people don’t have access to accounts, how digital ID can satisfy documentation requirements, and the varied regulatory models evolving in different counties. He talks the World Bank’s research on blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) as critical components of a better system. The United States has been a relatively slow adopter of mobile phones, partly because most Americans traditionally had landlines. That means cell phone adoption is much more advanced outside the United States, which in turn means that the US can learn many lessons from countries that are leapfrogging over us in digital transformation of finance and financial regulation. Much of this modernization is being driven by NGOs like the Omidyar Network, where I’m a Senior Advisor, and the Gates Foundation. For example, Omidyar and Gates have financed a Regtech for Regulators Accelerator, or R2A, which is bringing technology solutions to regulatory challenges in multiple countries. More on Harish Harish is Lead Financial Sector Specialist in the World Bank’s Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice, heading a global team working on payments and market infrastructures. He is a core member of the cross-sectoral teams addressing Universal Financial Access 2020, ID for Development, government payments, Digital Economy and FinTech. Harish represents the World Bank in the working groups of the Committee on Payment Market Infrastructures (CPMI) at the Bank for International Settlements and FinTech-related working groups at the Financial Stability Board (FSB). Previously, Harish worked with VISA Inc. in the South Asia region in various senior roles in business development, operations and risk management. Prior to VISA, he served in positions at Citigroup, Infosys and other technology companies in the areas of payment systems and retail banking. Harish holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from IIT-Madras and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management, from IIM-Calcutta, specializing in IT systems and finance. More links Link to Full Transcription World Bank Financial Inclusion World Bank DLT Report Universal Financial Access by 2020 Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion (PAFI) Findex G20 Digital Principles for Financial Inclusion Access For All: CIIE’s Sanjay Jain and The India Stack How to Change the World: The Gates Foundation’s Michael Wiegand Transforming Identity: GlobaliD CEO Greg Kidd More for our listeners We have great podcasts in the queue. From London, we’ll have a talk with P.J. Di Giammarino of JWG and the Regtech Council. We’ll also have a far-ranging conversation with Peter Renton, who leads Lend Academy and the LendIt conference series. As part of our series focused on global developments in fintech and regtech, we’ll talk to Anju Patwardhan of CreditEase and Stanford University, who describes fintech developments in China. And we’ll have a show with the co-founders of EarnUp, and one with Walter Cruttenden, Co-Founder of Acorns and Co-founder and CEO of Blast. A few places I’ll be speaking this fall include: Singapore Fintech Festival, November 12-16, Singapore LendIt Europe, November 19-20, London Consumer Federation of America Financial Services Conference, November 29-30, Washington, DC ABA Financial Crimes Conference, December 2-4, Washington, DC RegTech Rising, December 3-5, London Fintech Connect, December 5-6, London Boston Regtech Meetup, December 10, Boston, MA I also have a number of events coming up where I’ll be speaking directly to groups of regulators. Watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book, Bank 4.0, which you can now buy on Amazon. I co-wrote the regulatory chapter with Brett, and we’ll have a show and events on that as well. Last year, my autumn conference circuit became a  “world tour” designed to speak in seven countries in seven weeks. I chronicled it with mini-videos about what I was learning, and since a lot of people told me they enjoyed joining in those adventures, I’m doing it again this year. My fall travels will be fewer countries but more events, in America, Europe and Asia. Please follow along with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook and come to jsbarefoot.com for more information on it all and to subscribe to my newsletters and get the latest podcasts as soon as they come out. Also, here’s my fall newsletter, titled Whirlwind. Innovation everywhere! support our podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Barefoot Innovation Podcast
Know Your Customer: Alloy CRO Laura Spiekerman

Barefoot Innovation Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 9, 2018 42:37


One of the biggest challenges in fighting money laundering is satisfying the KYC, or Know Your Customer, rules. These regulatory requirements make sense in concept -- they require financial companies to verify customers’ identities before letting them connect to the system, in order to screen out high-risk people and entities and as a foundation for meeting the legal mandate to monitor financial activity for potential crime. However, the traditional verification process has always been expensive and time-consuming. In recent years it’s also been creating new problems. My guest today has a company that is setting out to fix those. She is Laura Spiekerman, the Chief Revenue Officer of Alloy.   The new problems are two-fold. One is that millions of people lack traditional identity documents and therefore can’t gain access to the system at all. That isn’t actually a new issue -- it’s always been true -- but it’s becoming more acute because mobile technology is making it possible for more and more people to connect to the financial system through their phones, if they can identify themselves.  In much of the developing world, hundreds of millions of people cannot, because they lack formal ID documents (a factor that tends to disproportionately harm women, members of disfavored minorities and people with low incomes). Having large swaths of the population detached from mainstream finance, in turn, undermines economic growth and opportunity. As a result, many central banks throughout the world view KYC modernization as a top priority. For example, see my episode with Sanjay Jain who was one of the leaders of the India stack on their project that is connecting everyone in India to the financial system and mainstream commerce. Some governments are trying to create customer identity through biometric identification. Global organizations ranging from The World Bank to the Gates Foundation and the Omidyar Network (where I am a Senior Advisor) have all elevated AML as a core goal in their efforts to wide financial inclusion. The KYC barrier also impacts consumers in the United States, including many young people and immigrants or, say, people who have moved frequently. If a financial company cannot verify identity by investing a reasonable level of time and effort, it usually will not open an account. The second problem with the current KYC process hits the US and other developed countries even more directly. We still rely on traditional identity information like name, address and Social Security number that is, quite simply, no longer secure -- it’s widely for sale on the dark web. (Re-listen to our episode with Greg Kidd of globaliD) for more insight on that). The solution to both problems -- both access and insecurity -- is the same: more data and better technology. Alloy is bringing these into KYC. The company enables real-time decisioning through an API that lets a financial institution access the data it needs, in a fully transparent way, and that also provides a rules engine to control how to waterfall the data to put it into a rule. I spoke to Laura at the Comply 2018 conference in New York this year -- you’ll hear some of the conference bustle in the background. In our conversation, Laura describes the impact Alloy can make. In retail banking, they’ve been able to automate about 98% of decisions for onboarding, as opposed to a standard of about 50%. Once the remaining 2% are sent to manual review, they have also been able to reduce manual review times by about 95%, while also seeing reductions in fraud and increases in conversions, seemingly a win-win for all. Laura also shares her advice for other fintechs, including how to overcome the many barriers faced by regtech firms in trying to work with financial institutions. She talks about Alloy’s plans for building AI into their solutions. And she offers advice to regulators. Like me, she’s hopeful that the regulatory landscape is increasingly receptive to new technology. I know you’ll enjoy my conversation with Alloy’s Laura Spiekerman! Links Full Transcript of Episode Alloy on Twitter Innovation at a Small Bank: Radius CEO Mike Butler Access For All: CIIE’s Sanjay Jain and The India Stack More for our listeners We have great podcasts in the queue. We have a series focused on global developments in fintech and regtech. One is with Harish Natarajan of the World Bank, who talks about their remarkable work in global financial inclusion. Another is with Anju Padwardhan of CreditEase and Stanford University, who describes fintech developments in China. From London, we’ll have a talk with P.J. DiGiamarino of JWG and the Regtech Council. We’ll also have a far-ranging conversation with Peter Renton, who leads Lend Academy and the LendIt conference series. And we’ll have a show with the co-founders of Earnup...among many others. Last week I spoke at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling’s NFCC Connect in Dallas, where I was very honored to receive their Making the Difference award. I’m on the NFCC board and want to share that we have a visionary new CEO, Rebecca Steele, who is bringing technology more and more into the work of credit counselors -- the people on the front lines of helping consumers make their financial lives healthier. Keep your eye on the NFCC and try to connect with its work. Other places I’ll be speaking this fall include: Online Lending Policy Institute, October 9, Washington, DC P20 Conference, October 10, Atlanta, GA American Banker RegTech, October 15-16, New York, NY Singapore Fintech Festival, November 12-16, Singapore LendIt Europe, November 19-20, 2018 in London ABA/ABA Financial Crimes Conference, December 2-4, Washington, DC Regtech Rising, December 3-5, London Last but not least, Money 2020, is only two weeks away and it’s going to be amazing. I’m chairing and hosting the regulatory track, which is SUNDAY, October 21, starting at 10AM. The day will include amazing speakers, including a fireside chat I’m doing with Lord Digby-Jones of the House of Lords, and an Oprah-style regulator town hall. On Monday, all ten of the senior regulators and former regulators participating in the conference will join in a mix and mingle with anyone who would like to talk with them. And then Monday afternoon at 3:15, I’ll be on the new Revolution Stage speaking on Regulation Revolution. I’m aiming to make it the most interesting speech I’ve ever given. If you’ll be at the conference, be sure to come, and tell your friends to come too. Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book, Bank 4.0, which you can now buy. I co-wrote the regulatory chapter with Brett, and we’ll have a show and events on that as well. Last year, I ended the fall with what I called my world tour designed as seven countries in seven weeks, ending at the Dutch Central Bank right before Christmas, and I tried to share the main takeaways from each by posting mini-videos from the scene. This year I’ll be in fewer countries but at more events, so I’m going to do the videos again -- a lot of people said they enjoyed coming along on those adventures. So please follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook and come to jsbarefoot.com for more information. And yes, we’re going to revive the newsletter. One of my colleagues recently suggested we call the next post Whirlwind, because that’s what the year has been. Innovation everywhere! Support Our Podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Barefoot Innovation Podcast
Talking Through the Storm with Jan Lynn Owen

Barefoot Innovation Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2018 36:14


I am especially thrilled about today’s guest -- California DBO Commissioner Jan Owen -- because this episode has been years in the making. I’ve known Jan for a long time, and as anyone who knows her will attest, she’s a breath of fresh air in the regulatory world. She’s candid, she’s outspoken, she’s thought provoking, and she's fearless in tackling thorny issues. We’ve been looking for a good chance to sit down and talk, and we finally found one this summer. As it happens, it turned out to be one of Barefoot Innovation’s most fun settings ever (and we’ve had some great ones, including beachside in Fiji at the AFI conference). Jan and I were both in Santa Fe in July for a conference and we decided to record our talk on an outdoor balcony, as a thunder storm approached. It was extremely windy, and we could smell the ozone and coming rain, and you’ll be able to hear the thunder booming, sometimes startlingly well-timed to punctuate Jan’s more pointed comments. We took our chances with the weather, staying outside as the sky darkened and dozens of lightning strikes forked down out of the clouds onto the mountains behind Jan -- I wish I’d gotten a photo of that.  In the end, we had to run for it as the rain began, first with big drops spattering the deck and then, ten seconds later, deluge! So the episode ends a little abruptly! Jan Lynn Owen is one of the most important financial regulators in the US because she heads the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO). Since California arguably leads the world in financial innovation, the DBO is at the forefront in addressing emerging regulatory issues around fintech. Importantly, state regulators, unlike most of the federal ones, oversee both banks and nonbanks. The US federal regulators dominate financial policy, but they don't directly supervise nonbank startups. That means they’re not in close touch with the cutting edge of innovation, which is not in the banks -- it’s in the nonbank startups. So having a regulator like Jan who understands both banking and fintech is invaluable. In our conversation, she shares her diverse background, including having been a banker and regulator. She describes the scope of the DBO, which is breathtaking -- 368,000 licensees, over 4,000 small business and small dollar lenders, over 300 payday lenders, over 400 nondepository mortgage companies - you get the picture. As you would expect, we had a lively discussion about the proposal by the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to create a fintech charter. Jan is famously opposed to it and I have been an outspoken advocate for it - we’ll link in the show notes to my debate on that topic with John Ryan, CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). Jan is of course a leader in CSBS and in our talk, she describes their efforts to modernize and streamline the state regulatory systems and licensing system in ways that she believes can meet the needs of the fintech sector without the OCC establishing a new type of federal charter. (Note that my discussion with Jan was recorded in mid-July, and so predated the OCC’s July 31 announcement that it is going ahead with the new fintech charter.) Jan points out that the fintech world has transitioned from seeking to avoid regulation to embracing it, in the realization that it helps their business model. She says this shift is putting healthy pressure on government to figure out how to regulate these novel companies, and she’s candid in saying that many of our financial laws and rules are old and out of date. In our talk, she invites input from anyone and everyone on how to fix them. The OCC fintech charter was not the only issue on which Jan and I disagree. If you read the news, you probably already know that she’s been outspoken in her skepticism about regulatory sandboxes -- and our regular listeners know that I think regulators really need them. Much of the issue comes down to how they’re designed, and we had a good conversation about the dos and don'ts of sandboxes, reglabs, and innovation hubs. The key is to give regulators a safe space to do easy experimentation, mainly to accelerate their own learning, while still assuring full consumer protection. (Since Jan and I spoke, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection also announced that it will launch a regulatory sandbox.) Before we fled the rainstorm, I asked Jan to talk about a speech she’s been giving titled “Sex, Drugs, and Skinny Jeans” (a perfect example of her style). The “sex” topic is the #MeToo movement, including Jan’s personal experience with workplace sexual misconduct. The “drugs” issue is, of course, how to regulate the financial issues raised by legal marijuana in states like California, since federal law still bars banks from opening accounts for these cash-rich businesses. And “skinny jeans” is about the culture clash between traditional, suit-and-tie finance and the jeans-and-tee-shirt worldview of Silicon Valley. We’re going to have to bridge that divide, if we want to optimize the technology change coming to the financial world. Enjoy this thunderous episode with Jan Lynn Owen. Links LINK TO FULL TRANSCRIPTION Podcast with John Ryan - Conference of State Bank Bank Supervisors President Recent Speech at Lendit More on Jan Lynn Owen Jan Lynn Owen was appointed the first-ever Commissioner of the California Department of Business Oversight by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. on July 1, 2013, following a merger of the departments of Corporations and Financial Institutions. Previously, Ms. Owen served as Commissioner of Corporations. Prior to becoming Commissioner, Ms. Owen was the principal at The Jan Owen Group; a strategic initiatives manager at Apple Inc.; vice president of government affairs at JP Morgan Chase; state director of government and industry affairs at Washington Mutual Inc.; and executive director of the California Mortgage Bankers Association. From 1999 to 2000, Ms. Owen was acting commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions, following on her role as deputy commissioner from 1996 to 1999. She also served for several years as a consultant to the state Senate Banking Committee. Ms. Owen is an alumna of California State University, Fresno, where she earned her degree in Economics. More for our listeners We have great podcasts in the queue. We have a series focused on global developments in fintech and regtech, including Harish Natarajan of the World Bank and Anju Padwardhan of CreditEase and Stanford University, who talks about fintech developments in China. From London, we’ll have a talk with P.J. DiGiamarino of JWG and the Regtech Council. We’ll also have a really thought-provoking show with Peter Renton, who leads LendAcademy and the LendIt conference series. We have a regtech firm coming up, Alloy, which has high-tech solutions for meeting the Know-Your-Customer rules in AML. And we’ll have a show with the co-founders of Earnup. So, lots to look forward to! The fall conference circuit is exciting. Some of the places I’ll be speaking are: Finovate Fall, September 26, 2018, New York, NY NFCC Connect, October 2, 2018, Dallas, TX Online Lending Policy Institute, October 9, Washington, DC P20 Conference, October 10, Atlanta, GA American Banker RegTech, October 15-16, New York, NY Money 2020, October 21-24, Las Vegas, NV Singapore Fintech Festival, November 12-16, Singapore LendIt Europe, November 19-20, 2018 in London ABA/ABA Financial Crimes Conference, December 2-4, Washington, DC Regtech Rising, December 3-5, London I’ll also be speaking at several events hosted by US regulators this fall. It’s great to see so many of them really digging into the issues surrounding fintech and regtech. Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book on the future of finance -- we’ll have a show and events on that as well. If you listen to Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, please leave a five star rating and also remember to send in your “buck a show” to keep it going. Come to jsbarefoot.com for today’s show notes and to join our email list, so you’ll get the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts. As always, please follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Support our podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Barefoot Innovation Podcast
Machine-Readable Regulation: Compliance.AI CEO Kayvan Alikhani

Barefoot Innovation Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 11, 2018 39:43


What if regulations were machine-readable? What if, when regulatory changes come out, financial companies wouldn’t have to download hundreds or thousands of pages of rules and read them all? What if they didn’t have to rely on lawyers -- their own, and also the legions of legal experts and consultants who translate rules for the industry as a whole, to help them understand what to do? What if, instead, they could run new rules through a machine-based review, and get all those answers automatically? For very little money? Banks would be able to update compliance processes much more easily. Startups could easily find out what rules apply to them. The results could feed into other new, high-tech tools, to automate and streamline implementation. A lot of people are working on this concept, both at regulatory agencies and at regtech firms. One leader in that effort is my guest today, Kayvan Alikhani, Co-founder and CEO of Compliance.ai. We both were speakers this year at the Comply 2018 conference in New York, and while we were there we found a chance to sit down and talk. Kayvan and Compliance.ai set out to solve the problem that today’s solutions are aging, rigid, slow, and expensive. Among other things, these systems fall behind the deluge of regulations that hit the financial sector every year. Compliance.ai looked at which industry most needed its new tech and chose finance, in part, based on research findings that compliance teams spend at least 30% of their time just chasing changes. Compliance.ai aims to automate the manual work of collecting, cleaning up, and parsing data and figuring out what is relevant to its customers, using machine-readable technology. Their software can speed up and simplify much of the work done today by traditional GRC -- governance, regulation and compliance -- systems. More basically, they are trying to redesign the whole model of importing data manually, analyzing it in spreadsheets, communicating on it via email, and all the rest. While today’s regtech innovation is mostly point solutions for particular use cases, remember that they’re converging. Machine-readable technology will meet up with other new ways of capturing and using data, from cloud computing to blockchains, and we’ll see big breakthroughs when these connections really take. Kayvan is especially thoughtful about artificial intelligence. AI has incredible power to save massive time and money in compliance processes. I myself have no doubt that AI and machine learning are the future of regulation and compliance. However, getting to that future is a journey, and Kayvan describes how it is likely to go, and especially steps that will be needed to surmount reluctance by both industry and regulators to adopt AI they don’t fully understand, by gradually building up understanding and trust and by assuring that AI meets the standards needed for accuracy and fairness. Significantly, regulators themselves are working on machine-readable regulation too. In particular, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is aiming to “digitize the rulebook” by tagging regulations with machine-readable markers. In the US, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is exploring the same concept. We’ll link in the show notes to our episodes with both agencies.   Regtech firms like to emphasize the time and money they can save the industry, which in turn sometimes leaves compliance professionals worried about robots taking their jobs. One lesson from my talk with Kayvan is that there’s a mountain of human compliance work ahead. The machines are going to do the rote tasks, and the higher math. The people, with their deep expertise in both rules and the complex systems around them, are going to be freed up to do ever-more meaningful work, better than ever before. They will be busy shaping these new tech tools, and they will be using them to tackle the work only they can do -- the deep dive analysis, the hard cases, the systemic reforms. They’ll have less frustration, less boredom, and more traction in achieving the big goals that our laws and regulations were written to further, from protecting consumers to expanding financial inclusion to catching money launderers. At my regtech firm, Hummingbird, we say our mission is to give compliance people superpowers. Compliance leaders are going to emerge as heroes in their companies as they produce better results, cut costs, cut risks, and help lead their organizations, especially banks, into the twenty-first century. I asked Kayvan to help us envision a day in the life of a compliance professional a few years into the future. He paints a fascinating picture, and he says it’s going to be beautiful. That’s not usually a word we associate with regulation and compliance. Links LINK TO FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION A day in the life of a compliance officer - Part 1 A day in the life of a compliance officer - Part 2 A day in the life of a compliance officer - Part 3 Chris Woolard and Nick Cook Podcast Podcast with Nick Cook Podcast with Dan Gorfine, LabCFTC Chief Innovation Officer and Director Podcast with CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo More on Kayvan Alikhani With more than 25 years of experience in hi-tech, Kayvan leads operations, strategy, sales, and marketing for Compliance.ai. Most recently, Kayvan led the identity strategy at RSA, and represented EMC on various industry alliances such as the FIDO board. He is Co-Founder and CEO of PassBan (acquired by RSA), a company focused on mobile identity assurance. Kayvan also led strategy at LiteScape (as CTO and later as CEO), creating security and mobile identity solutions for VOIP-based networks. He was Co-Founder and CTO at BeNotified, a cloud mobile communication service provider. Prior to that, Kayvan co-founded AVIRNEX, a cloud-based enhanced fixed- and mobile-communication service provider. More for our listeners We have great shows coming up. We have a wonderful episode with the California Banking Commissioner, Jan Lynn Owen. We’ll also have another regtech firm, Alloy, which has high-tech solutions for meeting the Know-Your-Customer rules in AML. We have one with the co-founders of Earnup. From the global perspective, we’ll have the World Bank’s Harish Natarajan; one with Anju Padwardhan of CreditEase focused, among other things, on fintech developments in China; and one with P.J. DiGiamarino of JWG and the Regtech Council. We also have a great show in the queue with  Peter Renton of LendAcademy and the LendIt conference, one of the most thoughtful people we’ve talked with. I’ll be speaking this fall at some great events: Finovate Fall, September 26, 2018, New York, NY NFCC Connect, October 2, 2018, Dallas, TX P20 Conference, October 10, Atlanta, GA American Banker RegTech, October 15-16, New York, NY Money 2020, October 21-24, Las Vegas, NV Singapore Fintech Festival, November 12-16, Singapore LendIt Europe, November 19-20, 2018, London ABA/ABA Financial Crimes Conference,  December 2-4, Washington, DC Regtech Rising, December 3-5, London If you listen to Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, please leave a five star rating to help us continue to build the show, and remember to send in your “buck a show” to keep it going. Also come to jsbarefoot.com for today’s show notes and to join our email list to get the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts. As always, please follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I’m so grateful that you listen to Barefoot Innovation. Our audience is growing rapidly all over the world, and hardly a day goes by without someone telling me how much they enjoy the show or how they were helped by an insight shared by one of our wonderful guests. Let’s keep that going -- and let’s all keep innovating! support our podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Barefoot Innovation Podcast
Innovation at a Small Bank: Radius CEO Mike Butler

Barefoot Innovation Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 31, 2018 58:14


Today’s guest is Michael Butler, CEO of Radius Bank in Boston. As with our recent show with Bob Rivers of Eastern Bank (which is also based in Boston), Mike belongs to a small, but growing, group of CEOs who are truly transforming their community banks through technology. When conversation turns to the tech future for community institutions, these two banks’ names always come up. We’ll link in the show notes to the Eastern episode and you’ll notice many common themes -- especially that both CEOs focus first and foremost on full embrace of a tech culture. Not a mixed culture, not one that’s hampered by pockets of resistance, but full embrace. We all know it’s hard for smaller banks to keep up with cutting edge technology. I know some community bankers who say they have given up. I know many others -- maybe most -- who hope they are keeping up enough to please their customers, but can’t tell for sure how well they’re doing. And I think many worry that they have no clear idea of what the road ahead looks like. For Radius Bank, Mike explains how they analyzed this challenge. Their conclusion was that in today’s market, in which customers expect Amazon-type technology, their small bank was not going to be able to offer fully competitive full-service retail banking products. As a result, they shifted quite radically to a new strategy. In this show, Mike tells the story of that journey, beginning in 2008 at the height of the Great Recession. He shares their reasoning that a full-service, branch-based, locally-confined strategy would actually be more risky than offering a narrow product set to a wide market, with a very low cost structure. He argues that a small bank like Radius has powerful advantages over larger ones that have more complex and rigid systems that slow them down. And he talks about how they tackled the task of building, as he puts it, a great tech platform, including for attracting deposits from a very specific niche of customers -- those who don’t want a branch, and actually prefer to bank through their phone, if the experience is wonderful. You’ll enjoy listening to Mike describe the internal debates they undertook, including the fears around offering something like, for example, a free ATM. He says they concluded that the whole banking industry’s platform is wrong, if you want to offer a virtual product. They also realized that a key to their future is fintech companies, both as customers and as partners. He says they now think of their “branches” as being located at the “corner of Radius” and the partner company, not on a physical street intersection where they would be competing with other banks’ street. Mike says it’s “a beautiful place to be.” He also talks in depth about making the tech great. For example, he describes getting the deposit account opening process streamlined from fifteen or twenty minutes down to three or four. He says that, behind the scenes, Radius Bank does things like Amazon, and delivers an Amazon-like experience. He also has tips on how to attract tech talent (hint -- it includes empowering young employees). Mike has thoughts on how to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act for the digital age. More broadly, he shares insights on overall regulatory challenges which, as he says, are “not easy.” He describes tasking the bank’s risk people to figure out how to work with new-generation vendors, because, as he puts it, “we can’t just go with the big guys that look good and look safe,” if they have old and inferior technology. He describes the checklist they’ve developed to handle this modernized third-party risk management for partnering with fintechs and regtechs. He says one secret is to have a “rock star compliance person.” Another is to interact constantly with the regulators. Listen especially closely to how he thinks about the risk in these partnerships, and specifically his thought process on how these newer tech partners are able to make any needed course corrections quickly and nimbly, and at low cost, so that even if things don’t work perfectly the first time, the bank is still ahead for having experimented or for trying a new approach. I’m hearing this thinking more and more from innovative banks, including the point that while older technology may look safe, it’s actually high-risk because much of it is too rigid, and changes too slowly, to keep up with the market. I’ve long believed that the two top challenges facing banks, and especially community institutions, are, first, keeping up with technology and second, regulatory burden. The good news, which is sometimes hard to see, is that new technology can be the answer to both. Radius bank is pioneering a new pathway to reaching those solutions. I know you’ll enjoy my conversation with Mike Butler. More Links Link to Full Transcription Radius Bank Website Podcast with Citi Fintech - Citi Fintech Global Head of Policy, Andres Wolberg Stock Podcast with Eastern Bank CEO Bob Rivers More on Michael Butler Michael Butler is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Radius Bank. Since joining Radius Bank in March 2008, he has transformed Radius into an innovative leader in the financial services industry, focused on delivering superior customer service and leading-edge technology to its clients. He is an experienced banking executive with an extensive background in all facets of commercial and consumer banking. Prior to joining the Bank, Mike served as President for National Consumer Finance at KeyCorp in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of Providence College and the ABA's Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Mike serves as a member of the Financial Services Committee for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, on the Board of Trustees for Thompson Island Outward Bound, on the Advisory Board for FinXTech, and has been active with the Habitat for Humanity program. More for our listeners We have many more great podcasts in the queue. They include a number of leading government officials, including Congressman Gregory Meeks and Jan Owen, the banking commissioner of California, as well as World Bank official Harish Natarajan. We’ll have an amazing show with Greg Kidd, Founder of Global ID; a show with the co-founders of EarnUp, and two regtech firms -- Alloy and Compliance.AI. The fall events schedule is filling up. Some of the places I’ll be speaking are: Get Smart On Blockchain, US Chamber of Commerce, August 1 in Washington Finovate Fall, September 26, 2018, New York, NY NFCC Connect, October 2, 2018, Dallas, TX Money 2020, October 21-24. Among other things, I’ll be speaking on the Revolution Stage about the regulation revolution LendIt Europe, November 19-20, 2018 in London. Regtech Rising, December 3-5, London Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book on the future of finance -- we’ll have a show and events on that as well. If you listen to Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, please do leave a five star rating on the show to help us build it. Also please remember to send in your “buck a show” to keep it going, and come to jsbarefoot.com for today’s show notes and to join our email list, so you’ll get the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts. As always, please follow me on Twitter and Facebook. support our podcast And tell me what you’re thinking about digitizing regulation. We want to widen this dialogue. Until next time, keep innovating! Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!