Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by two of my favorite Jasons (Jason Mikula of Fintech Business Weekly and Jason Henrichs of Alloy Labs) to go deep on the FDIC’s very early effort to create standards for third-party risk management (particularly for bank-fintech partnerships).
Banking didn’t get here by accident. FIS, Fiserv, and Jack Henry ran the market for decades. Long contracts locked banks into these three providers and left little room for anyone else, which set the stage for fintech’s rise.
Then, we explore what happened when the pendulum swung too far in the other direction.
From there, we consider whether certification can actually reduce risk. Henrichs points to SOC 2 as a cautionary tale, while Mikula questions whether meaningful standards can avoid putting very different banks, partners, and business models into a straitjacket.
Tune in for a conversation on why there may be no magic top-down solution to bank-fintech risk. The bottom-up version: a dedicated cross-agency examiner group with strong expertise, and narrower, more specific rules (like the reconciliation requirement the FDIC floated and then dropped).
—
This episode is brought to you by Ocrolus.
Better lending starts with better intelligence. A borrower’s cash flow only tells half the story, so Ocrolus fills in the rest with behavior signals and industry benchmarking. Visit https://www.ocrolus.com/ for more.
—
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, Wednesday, and Friday: 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
X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
—
Follow Jason Mikula:
Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/
—
Follow Jason Henrichs:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhenrichs/
Twitter: https://x.com/jasonhenrichs