Archive
Everything published by Fintech Takes.
April 2026
- APR 30The Message and the MoneyMy view on stablecoins has always been this: they’re crypto, stripped of speculation. Remove the trading, the moonshots, the get-rich-quick schemes, and what you’re left with is a genuinely novel form of payments infrastructure: a new primitive for moving value that happens to be fast, programmable, and borderless. However, just because stablecoins have been stripped […]
- APR 30Fintech Takes x C&R presents Collections Conversations Ep 8: The AI Execution GapWelcome back to Collections Conversations , a new miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software.
- APR 29Stablecoins Are 150+ Years Old
- APR 29The Historical Roots of StablecoinsWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Mike Hsu, former Acting Comptroller of the Currency.
- APR 27Keeping PACE
- APR 27What Business Model Do Bank Customers Prefer?As I am fond of saying around here, you are your business model .
- APR 24Quick Takes
- APR 23Fintech Takes x C&R presents Collections Conversations Episode 7: Collections Without BordersWelcome back to Collections Conversations, a miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software.
- APR 22The Tax, Line, & Endgame
- APR 22Facing Credit: The Credit Score After FICOWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Rich Franks (a fintech advisor and consultant with 20+ years in credit risk across both the bank and fintech sides), for a new episode of Facing Credit.
- APR 20The Eventual Agentic Commerce Liability Shift
- APR 17PMF 3.0
- APR 16Fintech Takes x C&R presents Collections Conversations Episode 6: Humans in the Fintech LoopWelcome back to Collections Conversations , a new miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software.
- APR 15Monk, MKIII, Wealth Architect, & CloutScore
- APR 15Not Fintech Investment Advice: monk, MKIII, Wealth Architect, & CloutScoreWelcome 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.
- APR 13P2P BNPL
- APR 10Free Fintech Ideas
- APR 9Fintech Takes x C&R presents Collections Conversations Episode 5: The Missed Payment Is Not the ProblemWelcome back to Collections Conversations , a new miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software – now with a fresh batch of episodes!
- APR 8BaaS Is Dead, Viva BPPaaS & CPaaS
- APR 8The Great Bank-Fintech Partnership ResetWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Jason Henrichs, CEO of Alloy Labs and co-host of the Breaking Banks podcast.
- APR 6What’s Going On with Credit Cards?
- APR 3Meetup Download
- APR 1Bilt, BaaS, & New York Steps on the Gas
- APR 1Fintech Recap: Bilt Breaks, BaaS Unbundles, and NY FlexesWelcome back to Fintech Recap. I’m Alex Johnson, joined as always by my partner in recapping, Jason Mikula.
March 2026
- MAR 31Fintech Takes x Spinwheel presents Credit Without Constraints Episode 4: ContextWelcome to Credit Without Constraints , a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, presented with our friends at Spinwheel.
- MAR 30Supply-Driven Financial Nihilism
- MAR 27No One Knows Anything
- MAR 25Thinking in (Credit) Systems
- MAR 25Facing Credit: Credit Underwriting as a SystemWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Kiran Aware (Chief Consumer Credit Officer at LendingClub) and Michelle Young (Credit Product Lead at Plaid) for our new series Facing Credit, where we unpack what’s happening in credit and lending right now.
- MAR 24Fintech Takes x Spinwheel presents Credit Without Constraints Episode 3: AcquisitionWelcome to Credit Without Constraints , a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, presented with our friends at Spinwheel.
- MAR 23Confidence in the Face of Uncertainty
- MAR 20Prediction Markets
- MAR 18Rhythmic, AgentCard, Rowspace, & Burst
- MAR 18Not Fintech Investment Advice: Rhythmic, AgentCard, Rowspace, & BurstWelcome 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.
- MAR 17Fintech Takes x Spinwheel presents Credit Without Constraints Episode 2: UnderwritingWelcome to Credit Without Constraints , a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, presented with our friends at Spinwheel.
- MAR 16If you don’t own distribution, you don’t own anything.
- MAR 13Five Thoughts on the Future of Fintech
- MAR 11The Celebrity Card Graveyard
- MAR 11Celebrity Fintech, Before MrBeastWelcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined again by Carlos Caro (author of the Free Toaster newsletter and host of the Free Toaster podcast ) to continue the conversation we started on Carlos’s podcast about MrBeast’s acquisition of Step and what it means for the fintech ecosystem.
- MAR 10Fintech Takes x Spinwheel presents Credit Without Constraints Episode 1: The “Yes And” Approach to Credit DataWelcome to Credit Without Constraints , a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, presented with our friends at Spinwheel.
- MAR 9Playing Checkers
- MAR 6Fintech Player Comps (The 90s Edition)
- MAR 4Bureaus, Betting, and Block
- MAR 4Fintech Recap: Block, Crypto Cards, and Prediction Markets Split the RightWelcome back to Fintech Recap. I’m Alex Johnson, joined as always by my partner in recapping, Jason Mikula.
- MAR 2A Home Base for Financial Nihilism
February 2026
- FEB 27New York State of Mind
- FEB 26Embedded Payments: From Product Feature to InfrastructureFor most of modern business history, payments sat outside the product. You sold something, then you figured out how to get paid. Invoices were mailed. Checks were cut. Credit cards were swiped on separate terminals. Even when commerce moved online, payments often remained something you were redirected to: a separate page, a separate provider, a […]
- FEB 25O Canada!
- FEB 25Mapping the Cash Flow Lending Adoption CurveThere was a time, not that long ago, when the idea of leveraging consumer-permissioned bank transaction data to understand prospective borrowers’ cash flow and use that insight to inform lenders’ credit risk decisions was considered novel ; a step that fintech companies and other non-bank lenders might take, when underwriting higher-risk consumer segments, but that…
- FEB 25Canada Leapfrogs on Open BankingWelcome 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).
- FEB 24MVNO is the New BaaS
- FEB 20Bank, Credit Union, or Fintech?
- FEB 19Fintech Takes x C&R presents Collections Conversations Episode 4: Collections at the EdgeWelcome to the finale of Collections Conversations , a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software.
- FEB 18Kairos, Vault, Vennre, & Buy Now Pay Maybe
- FEB 18Not Fintech Investment Advice: Kairos, Vault, Vennre, & Buy Now Pay MaybeWelcome 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.
- FEB 16Is Fintech a Moneymaker for MrBeast?
- FEB 13Tricked by Product-Market Fit
- FEB 11Fintech Takes VS. Super Bowl
- FEB 11Fintech Takes: Super Bowl EditionWelcome 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).
- FEB 9The Party is Almost Over
- FEB 6Ideas Xchange
- FEB 5Fintech Takes x C&R presents Collections Conversations Episode 2: When Customer Centricity BreaksWelcome to Collections Conversations , a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software.
- FEB 5Fintech Takes x C&R presents Collections Conversations Episode 3: The System Behind CollectionsWelcome to Collections Conversations , a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software.
- FEB 4Nuked Bills, Fake Numbers, & Blackmail
- FEB 4Fintech Recap: Clarity Crumbles, Charters Multiply, and Brex Gets BoughtWelcome 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.
- FEB 3Well, it’s Groundhog Day … again.
January 2026
- JAN 31What Do You Do When You Can Do Anything?
- JAN 28Inside Net InterestWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Marc Rubinstein, author of the fantastic Net Interest newsletter.
- JAN 26This isn’t advertising. It’s a tax.
- JAN 26When Uncertainty Becomes the RiskEconomic uncertainty has become a defining feature of the consumer financial landscape.
- JAN 23Capital One Buys Brex
- JAN 222026 PrioritiesJanuary is a time for thinking about the future. And for most people, at this time of year, there are two familiar ways of doing that: predictions and resolutions. Predictions tend to be more of a professional exercise. You look at the broad trends shaping your industry and come up with a set of specific […]
- JAN 22Fintech Takes x C&R presents Collections Conversations Episode 1: Collections in the Age of AIWelcome to Collections Conversations , a new four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software.
- JAN 21Sanctions-Evasion-as-a-Service
- JAN 21Fintech Recap (Bonus): The Rise and Fall of KontigoWelcome 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.
- JAN 20Fintech Takes x Nova Credit Presents Cash Flow Conversations Episode 5: Underwriting Was Just the BeginningHello, and welcome back to Cash Flow Conversations , a miniseries sponsored by our friends at Nova Credit.
- JAN 19Is This Video Game Too Hard?
- JAN 17Who Gets to Give People Money?
- JAN 14Kontigo, Givefront, Beycome, & Cash App
- JAN 14Not Fintech Investment Advice: Kontigo, Givefront, Beycome, & Cash AppWelcome 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.
- JAN 13The Apple Card Has a New Home
- JAN 92026 Predictions
- JAN 7Recapping 2025 (and worrying about 2026)
- JAN 7Fintech Recap: The 2025 Themes That Will Define 2026Welcome 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…
- JAN 5Credit Cards Have Become a Luxury Good
- JAN 2The CFTC regulates hedging, not sports gambling.
December 2025
- DEC 31Diving Deep with Max Levchin, CEO of Affirm
- DEC 31Diving Deep with Max LevchinWelcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. Today’s episode kicks off a new long-form interview format I’m calling Diving Deep.
- DEC 29Big Fintech Bookshelf Energy
- DEC 26Questions That Defined 2025
- DEC 24Fintech Takes Goes Full Die Hard
- DEC 24A Very Die Hard ChristmasWelcome 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!
- DEC 22More Banks!
- DEC 19Fintech Takes Wrapped
- DEC 17Fraud, Mortgages, & the Art of Judgment
- DEC 17Not Fintech Investment Advice: Trudenty, Tidalwave, Kaaj, & FinReach SolutionsWelcome 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.
- DEC 15The OCC Turns in the First Draft of Its Debanking Homework
- DEC 15Closing the Gap Between Trust and ProofWhen Synapse collapsed in 2024, tens of thousands of customers discovered an uncomfortable truth about pooled For-Benefit-Of (FBO) accounts: they weren’t built for the world we live in now.
- DEC 12Hope Is The Strategy
