Archive
Everything published by Fintech Takes.
January 2025
- JAN 27Why Doesn’t Ramp Reach Higher?3 Fintech News Stories #1: Why Doesn’t Ramp Reach Higher? What happened?
- JAN 24GAI Agents, Deposit Stability, and Bank RunsToday’s essay was written by my bank nerd friend Todd Phillips.
- JAN 19Is Fractional Reserve Banking a UDAAP Violation?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Boom! What happened?
- JAN 17Things That Are True About Small Business LendingI sometimes feel like I’m the fintech equivalent of a therapist.
- JAN 13The CFPB Finally Does Something On Crypto3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: The CFPB Finally Does Something On Crypto What happened?
- JAN 10How to Think About StablecoinsStablecoins are the topic du jour in fintech (or the topic du semestre, to be more precise).
- JAN 6Benched!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Benched! What happened?
December 2024
- DEC 19Fintech Takes WrappedThe Fintech Takes podcast is one of the things I am most proud of.
- DEC 16Brazenly Bad At Cheating3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Fintech Investment Bankers Earning Their Fees What happened? A couple of unexpected acquisitions!
- DEC 13One Last Shot At Data BrokersThe CFPB recently released a new proposed rule — Protecting Americans from Harmful Data Broker Practices — which would modernize the…
- DEC 10Digital Account Opening Today. Digital Identity Tomorrow.Let’s start with a pattern, which I see constantly: It looks roughly like this: A good example is the emergence of cloud computing over the…
- DEC 9The FDIC Gets Its Own Ledger3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Why Don’t We Have a National LISA in the U.S.? What happened?
- DEC 6The Trouble With StablecoinsI like stablecoins. As someone who has a pathological hatred of financial speculation, especially when it is packaged as a product feature…
- DEC 2The Debanking Debate3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: The Debanking Debate What happened?
November 2024
- NOV 29Black FridayDid you know Black Friday wasn’t always about doorbuster deals?
- NOV 25A Few New Companies to Supervise3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Better Infrastructure for Private Credit What happened?
- NOV 22A Fintech Call Report (and other ideas from D.C.)Allow me to empty my notebook of all the good ideas, interesting observations, and whispered rumors I heard during my week in Washington…
- NOV 18Should We Eliminate Deposit Insurance Limits?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: OOPS! What happened?
- NOV 14Back To The CasinoAt a press conference last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell was asked if he would step down if President-elect Donald Trump (who has been…
- NOV 13Preparing For The Next Era of Open BankingUp to this point, open banking in the U.S. has been a game that anyone could play, but that no one had to play.
- NOV 11BNPL For Divorce Lawyers3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Marqeta Overreactions and Underreactions What happened?
- NOV 8The Fights Over Bank-Fintech ArrangementsBack in July, the OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC released a request for information on bank-fintech arrangements.
- NOV 4So. Many. Acquisitions.3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Array + Payitoff What happened?
October 2024
- OCT 31Live From Las Vegas65,000 steps. 20 in-person meetings. 4 live podcast recordings. 3 Off-the-record group dinners. 2 speaking sessions (both on open banking).
- OCT 28Finally!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Finally! What happened?
- OCT 25Early Thoughts On The Final Open Banking RuleOne of the things I enjoyed about taking AP English in high school was learning about the relationship between reading speed and reading…
- OCT 23Building Sustainable Bank-Fintech PartnershipsOne of the most challenging things about working in fintech is trying to figure out which lessons to take from the world of financial…
- OCT 21PayPal Jumps Into Advertising3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: PayPal Jumps Into Advertising What happened?
- OCT 18Fintech BacklogI always thought the term “backlog” meant a messy accumulation of something that had gotten into its current state through neglect or…
- OCT 14Tally Was a Feature3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Tally Was a Feature What happened?
- OCT 11Fintech Player CompsOne of my favorite reporters, podcasters, and analysts was laid off from his job a few weeks ago.
- OCT 7Who is responsible for scams?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Who is responsible for scams? What happened?
- OCT 4Is It Still Hip To Be Square?Despite Block beating analysts’ earnings estimates for Q2, 2024 has been a rough year for the fintech company: Interestingly, the picture…
September 2024
- SEP 29I Will Not Lose My Cool3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Take Your Medicine What happened?
- SEP 27Three Big Questions About the Future of AI in Financial ServicesIn June, the Treasury Department released a request for information (RFI) on the uses, opportunities, and risks of artificial intelligence…
- SEP 23Can EWA Build Credit?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: We Need Different Incentives in Data Furnishment What happened?
- SEP 20The Apple of Chase’s Eye#1: Just Play Nice! What happened? PNC is playing nice(r) with the open banking community: The PNC Financial Services Group and Plaid have…
- SEP 18The Future of the Financial Data EconomyMoney and data have always been very closely related.
- SEP 16Danger, Will Robinson!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Prism Prioritizing Partnerships What happened?
- SEP 13Fall FintechAfter a busy (and nerdy) week in New York, allow me to empty my notebook (while adhering to the Chatham House Rule, of course).
- SEP 9Consolidation is Coming to the Office of the CFOWooden Cash Register (1942) by Wilbur M Rice. 3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Consolidation is Coming to the Office of the CFO What happened?
- SEP 6EWA Isn’t a Loan. It’s Data.If you wanted to summarize the debate we’ve been having about earned wage access over the last eight years, it would go something like this…
- SEP 2Can I Gamble With Your Money?3 Fintech News Stories #1: Bilt Expands Into Healthcare What happened?
August 2024
- AUG 30The Future of Credit Risk DecisioningEditor’s Note — Today’s essay is a collaboration with my friend Francisco Javier Arceo.
- AUG 28Unbundling the Financial Services StackLet’s start with a theory. In 2003, Clayton Christensen published The Innovator’s Solution, a follow-up to his seminal work — The…
- AUG 26How Autonomous Should AI Agents Really Be?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Experian Strengthens its Orchestration Capabilities What happened?
- AUG 23Why is it so hard to freeze your credit report?I have reached a stage in my life where I have very little need for my credit reports.
- AUG 19Apple Opens Up3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Klarna Balance What happened?
- AUG 16Product Development > Risk ManagementAn oversimplified model of how banking has traditionally worked looks something like this: This model has worked exceptionally well for…
- AUG 12There’s no money in payments. There’s money in commerce enablement.3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: There’s no money in payments. There’s money in commerce enablement. What happened?
- AUG 9I’m Going to Want All of These Back at Some Point
- AUG 9Block is Trying to Fix Square#1: Block is Trying to Fix Square What happened?
- AUG 5Congress is Actually Trying to Do Something!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Congress is Actually Trying to Do Something! What happened? A group of Senators and Representatives in the U.S.
- AUG 2Acquire or Be Acquired?According to BAI’s 2024 Banking Outlook survey, customer acquisition was the second biggest challenge that financial services organizations…
July 2024
- JUL 29Stripe Ditches Evolve3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Stripe Ditches Evolve What happened?
- JUL 26The Refs Always WinThe first big news story this week was that Mercury, the B2B neobank, offboarded some of its customers: Digital banking startup Mercury is…
- JUL 24The Ideal Small Business LenderAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 5.5 million new business applications were filed in 2023, breaking the 2021 record of 5.4…
- JUL 22I Don’t Understand Mercury3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: I Don’t Understand Mercury What happened?
- JUL 19Whispers in Washington
- JUL 19Regulatory ScuttlebuttThe term scuttlebutt (which is just a fun word to say and to type) refers to a cask (also known as a butt) on a sailing ship that holds…
- JUL 14Aspirations3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Aspirations What happened?
- JUL 12Why Can’t We Have a National Fintech Charter?The fundamental problem with banking as a service (BaaS) is that in order for it to work, every participant in the value chain needs to do…
- JUL 8Nice Free Checking You Have There …3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Nice Free Checking You Have There … What happened?
- JUL 5Fintech Takes Rewind (Q2 2024)What happened in fintech in Q2 of 2024? I wanted to try to answer this question by combing through the last three months of content that I…
- JUL 1The Future of Consumer Lending: Retain Customers with Embedded Payment Insurance“The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet”.
- JUL 1Evolve’s Incompetence Was a Feature, Not a Bug3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Evolve’s Incompetence Was a Feature, Not a Bug What happened? Evolve keeps screwing up.
June 2024
- JUN 28The Biggest Questions in BNPLThe Fintech Takes BNPL Summit happened this week, and it was fantastic.
- JUN 26Innovation on the EdgeThe end goal for financial services companies is to put as much distance between profit and risk as possible.
- JUN 24Devolve3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Devolve What happened?
- JUN 22Why Optionality Might Not Work in FintechI’m a big fan of optionality. Whenever I’m making a big life decision (where to live, which job to take, etc.), I try to choose the path…
- JUN 17Wells Fargo Bilt a Bad Partnership3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Apple Pay Plays Nice What happened?
- JUN 14Aggregating the AggregatorsMy first job in fintech, which I got 20 years ago this month, was with a company that provided credit decisioning software to banks.
- JUN 10Why Issuing Credit Cards is Hard3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: The Difference Between a Bank and a Network What happened?
- JUN 7Regulatory Catch UpAs regular readers of this newsletter know, I spend a lot of my time carefully reading the rules set by regulatory agencies and parsing the…
- JUN 3Comparison is the Thief of Joy3 Fintech News Stories #1: Offering Something Different What happened?
May 2024
- MAY 31The Empire Strikes BackI’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I never would have expected that spend management would become the hottest space in fintech.
- MAY 27Plaid Joins Beacon3 Fintech New Stories #1: Plaid Joins Beacon What happened?
- MAY 24What’s Going On (In Fintech)?Let’s catch up on some news from the last few weeks. #1: Holy Embedded Accounting Batman! What happened?
- MAY 22Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cash Flow Underwriting But Were Afraid to AskIf you were going to loan someone money and you wanted to predict if they were going to pay you back or not, what pieces of information…
- MAY 20Fintech is About to Break Credit Card Rewards3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Fintech is About to Break Credit Card Rewards What happened?
- MAY 16Foolish Fintech Questions: Part IIIThis is the most important lesson I’ve learned writing Fintech Takes: In keeping with this spirit, I’ve made it a habit in this newsletter…
- MAY 13Nukes Detonated Off the Coast of BaaS Island
- MAY 13Ban FBO Accounts in BaaS!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Ban FBO Accounts in BaaS! What happened?
- MAY 11The Servicing ImperativeThe focus of today’s essay is servicing.
- MAY 6Chime Is Who I Thought They Were3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Chime Is Who I Thought They Were What happened?
- MAY 3I Believe The Merchants Are Our FutureAlmost exactly three years ago, I wrote one of my all-time favorite essays – The New Centers of Gravity in Financial Services.
April 2024
- APR 29Tipping in Fintech is Complete Bullshit3 New Fintech Stories #1: Tipping in Fintech is Complete Bullshit What happened?
- APR 26The CFPB’s Vision for the Data EconomyLet’s start with a couple of recent news stories. The first is the story of a man named Romeo Chicco. At the end of last year, Mr.
- APR 22Nubank’s New Move3 Fintech News Stories #1: Nubank’s New Move What happened?
- APR 19The Tortured Fintech Analysts Department#1: My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys What happened?
- APR 17Learning How to Play a New GameImagine that you learned how to play chess at a young age and became good at it — like obsessively good.
- APR 15Credit Cards are a Poor Wedge Product3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Credit Cards Are a Poor Wedge Product What happened?
- APR 13New York Fintech Week ReflectionsLet’s start with a theory – there is an ideal size for everything. A class of 15-20 students works great; a class of 40 is a mess.
- APR 8Chase Jumps Into Advertising3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: The Subscription Problem Is Worse Than We Think What happened?
- APR 5The Fintech Takes Advocacy AwardsA lot of my recent writing and podcasting has been focused on regulation. It’s easy to understand why.
- APR 3Who Is BaaS For?You might have noticed that there’s been a bit of drama in banking-as-a-service (BaaS) lately.
- APR 1The Credit Card for Greedy, Lazy Transactors3 Fintech News Stories #1: The Credit Card for Greedy, Lazy Transactors What happened?
March 2024
- MAR 29The Risky End State for Consumer LendingLet’s talk about the mechanics of how digital consumer lending has evolved over the last couple of decades.
- MAR 25I Can’t Figure Figure Out3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: You Can’t Democratize Private Banking What happened?
- MAR 21Want to be Helpful? Focus on Founders’ Mental Health(Editor’s Note – Today’s essay was written by Matt Harris.
