Archive
Everything published by Fintech Takes.
February 2025
- FEB 10Who You Gonna Call?3 Fintech News Stories #1: Who You Gonna Call? What happened? It has been a dramatic week for the CFPB. First, President Trump fired Rohit Chopra and designated Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent as the Acting Director of the CFPB. After taking the reins, Secretary Bessent told everyone at the CFPB to take a […]
- FEB 7Financial Inclusion NotesI have spent the last few days at an event in Washington, D.C., with some of my favorite fintech and financial services policy friends, discussing inclusive finance. In keeping with our tradition around here, I would like to empty my notebook of all the random observations, insights, and questions from this event. More coherent analysis […]
- FEB 55: Fintech Recap: The Fallout from Synapse, the Ramp Revolution, and the CFPB’s Latest PlayWelcome to a special live edition of Fintech Recap! For the first time in 2025, your host Alex Johnson is joined IRL by Jason Mikula (Fintech Business Weekly) and Jason Henrichs (CEO of Alloy Labs and host of Breaking Banks). One Alex, two Jasons, diving into the latest fintech stories from the past month, without…
- FEB 3Bad Fiduciary!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Bad Fiduciary! What happened? PNC got sued by some of its customers: PNC Financial is facing a class action lawsuit after one of its customers alleged in court documents that the banker profited at clients’ expense. The claim is that PNC placed invested cash from clients’ investment accounts into affiliated […]
January 2025
- JAN 31Is BNPL Better for Consumers Than Credit Cards?I am obsessed with this question. The reason I am obsessed is because, despite what the proponents and detractors would have you believe, this is not an easy question to answer! Pay-in-4 BNPL (which is the flavor of BNPL that most folks, including me, focus on) enables consumers to finance small purchases (usually between $100 […]
- JAN 294: Navigating the Shifting Currents of Cash Flow UnderwritingIn this episode, Alex chats with Tim Bates, Principal at Efficient Frontier Risk Strategies, about his groundbreaking (forthcoming) report on cash flow underwriting—“Credit Risk Underwriting: A Practical Credit Risk Implementation Guide for Lenders”—which Alex is excited to announce is the first episode in a new Fintech Takes series featuring research reports by experts in the…
- JAN 29Why Doesn’t Every Small Business Have a Credit Card?Seemingly simple questions will often have surprisingly complex and interesting answers. Here’s one that I’ve been obsessing over recently — Why doesn’t every small business have a credit card? Let’s level set with some data. The first thing that we should note is that while not every small business has a credit card (only about […]
- JAN 27Why Doesn’t Ramp Reach Higher?3 Fintech News Stories #1: Why Doesn’t Ramp Reach Higher? What happened? Ramp launched a new product — Ramp Treasury: In a nutshell, Ramp aims to give its customers a way to earn money and not just save cash, explains CEO and co-founder Eric Glyman, in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch. “We looked at checking […]
- JAN 24GAI Agents, Deposit Stability, and Bank RunsToday’s essay was written by my bank nerd friend Todd Phillips. Todd is an Assistant Professor at the Georgia State University Robinson College of Business. Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) agents — so-called because they can execute their users’ natural-language commands, just like human agents — appear to be the next big thing, with Citigroup declaring […]
- JAN 223: Not Fintech Investment Advice: Dakota, ampersand, Auquan, & TymeBank (Digging into Supervisory Tech)Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I bounce through fintech companies that have recently caught our eye.
- JAN 19Is Fractional Reserve Banking a UDAAP Violation?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Boom! What happened? Boom, a financial services platform for renters and property managers, launched a new product: Built to tackle the complexities of modern tenant screening, BoomScreen features unparalleled configurability for your portfolio. We built BoomScreen because property managers, like you, told us they needed more than a one-size-fits-all approach […]
- JAN 17Things That Are True About Small Business LendingI sometimes feel like I’m the fintech equivalent of a therapist. Founders, operators, and investors will tell me what they’re working on, what’s going well, and what’s not going well. And then, individually or through the newsletter, I will carefully try to reflect what I’m hearing back to them, subtly trying to reframe certain concepts […]
- JAN 13The CFPB Finally Does Something On Crypto3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: The CFPB Finally Does Something On Crypto What happened? The CFPB, which has been frantically trying to get as much done as possible before its Director is fired, proposed an interpretive rule stating that the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) applies to a much broader set of accounts than just […]
- JAN 10How to Think About StablecoinsStablecoins are the topic du jour in fintech (or the topic du semestre, to be more precise). I usually try not to follow the crowd when it comes to topic selection for the newsletter. However, as I wrote about a month ago, crypto enthusiasts are starting to use the reputation of stablecoins (safe! low cost!) […]
- JAN 8Fintech Recap: The Future of BaaS, IPOs, and Employer-Fintech Overlaps: A 2025 PreviewWelcome to the first Fintech Recap of 2025. As always, I’m joined by Jason Mikula, publisher of Fintech Business Weekly and author of the shiny new book Banking as a Service (which I’m loving, by the way), as we catch up post-holiday to dive into the fintech buzz.
- JAN 6Benched!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Benched! What happened? Bench, a Canadian fintech firm focused on accounting for small businesses, shut down abruptly and then, in a New Year miracle, was acquired: Bench Accounting, a Canada-based fintech firm providing bookkeeping services and financial solutions tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has been acquired by San […]
December 2024
- DEC 19Fintech Takes WrappedThe Fintech Takes podcast is one of the things I am most proud of. It doesn’t get as much attention as the newsletter, but I put a ton of work into it every week, and I think some of the smartest ideas that have come out of Fintech Takes started as conversations on the podcast. […]
- DEC 18The Future of Financial Advice: Can AI Replace Humans (Without the Guilt Trip)?Financial advice: is it a human job or a tech problem?
- DEC 16Brazenly Bad At Cheating3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Fintech Investment Bankers Earning Their Fees What happened? A couple of unexpected acquisitions! First, Gen acquired MoneyLion: MoneyLion is a leading digital ecosystem for consumer finance. Through this acquisition, MoneyLion extends Gen’s identity solutions into offering comprehensive financial wellness through MoneyLion’s full-featured personal finance platform that includes credit building and […]
- 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 implementing regulations for the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and significantly reshape the financial data economy. As an unapologetic FCRA nerd, this is a very exciting development for me, so I am going to […]
- DEC 11Digital 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 last 30 years: The emergence of the modern e-commerce industry, which began in earnest in the late 2000s and early 2010s, appears to be following a similar path. Innovations from […]
- DEC 9Fintech in 2025: Where the Industry Goes Next – Bold Fintech Ideas and Predictions for 2025Hello and welcome back to our limited series podcast, Fintech in 2025, recorded live in Las Vegas during Money 20/20.
- 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? A UK fintech company focused on mortgage lending raised some money: London-based fintech Tembo has raised £14m as it looks to scale its savings app and introduce new schemes in its mortgage product offering. The Aviva-backed Southwark startup […]
- 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, stablecoins — a type of cryptocurrency that is designed to maintain a fixed value over time — have always been one of my favorite product categories within crypto. As I have written previously, […]
- DEC 410: Fintech Recap: Trump’s Return, BaaS Island Mysteries, and the CFPB’s New FlexIn this week’s episode of Fintech Recap, Jason Mikula and Alex Johnson unpack the latest in banking, fintech, and regulation after a trip to the American Fintech Council’s policy forum in D.C.
- DEC 2Fintech in 2025: Where the Industry Goes Next – BNPL 2.0Welcome to a live recording of the Fintech Takes podcast, coming to you from Money20/20. In this limited series with Marqeta, we’re diving into the aspects of fintech and financial services that we’re most optimistic about heading into 2025.
- DEC 2The Debanking Debate3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: The Debanking Debate What happened? Marc Andreessen, in an attempt (I believe) to ruin my weekend, went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and said a bunch of stuff about banking, fintech, and regulation: This thing called the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), which is Elizabeth Warren’s personal agency that she gets […]
November 2024
- NOV 29Black FridayDid you know Black Friday wasn’t always about doorbuster deals? The earliest use of the term “Black Friday” traces back to a financial crisis on September 24, 1869, in which speculators tried to corner the US gold market, triggering a massive market crash. Since then, “Black” has marked financial disasters, which we’ve experienced on other […]
- NOV 279: S9 E9: Not Fintech Investment Advice: Paydock, Bluespine, Astrada, and RiseWelcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where we spotlight new and exciting fintechs.
- NOV 25Fintech in 2025: Where the Industry Goes Next – The State of Credit in 2025Welcome to the Fintech Takes Podcast, live from Money 2020.
- NOV 25A Few New Companies to Supervise3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Better Infrastructure for Private Credit What happened? Arc, a neobank and capital management platform for fast-growing businesses, launched an AI tool for the private credit industry: Arc … today announced the launch of Arc Intelligence, the first AI platform designed to automate complex financial tasks for private credit. Arc Intelligence’s […]
- 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, D.C. A Fintech Call Report On Wednesday, I participated in a mini TechSprint hosted by the Alliance for Innovative Regulation. The participants were split into teams and given a couple of hours […]
- NOV 208: S9 E8: Special Solo Recap on Deregulation, Marqeta, and Crypto’s ParadoxWelcome to Fintech Takes, the podcast breaking down the latest in fintech news and trends. I’m Alex Johnson, your self-proclaimed Fintech nerd and creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter.
- NOV 18Should We Eliminate Deposit Insurance Limits?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: OOPS! What happened? The CFPB busted Navy Federal Credit Union for illegally charging members surprise overdraft fees: Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against Navy Federal Credit Union for charging illegal overdraft fees. From 2017 to 2022, Navy Federal charged customers surprise overdraft fees on certain ATM […]
- NOV 18Fintech in 2025: Where the Industry Goes Next – The Optimists’ Case for Fintech in 2025In this episode, recorded live from Money 2020 with the CEO of Marqeta, Simon Khalaf, we’re breaking down why there’s actually plenty to be optimistic about in the world of fintech as we head into 2025.
- NOV 15Back 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 critical of Powell and the Fed in the past) asked him to. Here was Powell’s response: This was heartening for those of us who believe in the importance of the Federal […]
- 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. This is what I have generally referred to as the “market-driven era of open banking.” And I use that terminology because, at the end of the day, open banking in the […]
- NOV 11BNPL For Divorce Lawyers3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Marqeta Overreactions and Underreactions What happened? Marqeta’s stock price plunged: Marqeta shares tumbled more than 30% in extended trading on Monday after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter. While third-quarter results showed a slight disappointment on the top and bottom lines, Marqeta’s forecast for the current period […]
- NOV 8The Fights Over Bank-Fintech ArrangementsBack in July, the OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC released a request for information on bank-fintech arrangements. The purpose of the RFI, coming in the wake of the Synapse mess, was to help shape future rulemaking and guidance from the prudential bank regulators regarding banking-as-a-service and bank-fintech arrangements. I wrote about some of the key […]
- NOV 66: S9 E6: Money20/20, 2024: BaaS and Open Banking and AI (Oh My!)I’m Alex Johnson, just back from four intense days at Money20/20 in Las Vegas, and here to unpack it all with me is my friend Jason Henrichs, CEO of Alloy Labs and co-host of the Breaking Banks podcast.
- NOV 4So. Many. Acquisitions.3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Array + Payitoff What happened? Array is acquiring Payitoff: Array … announced the acquisition of Payitoff, a pioneer in embedded debt guidance solutions. This acquisition fortifies Array’s position as the industry leader in intelligent debt management solutions, empowering financial institutions, fintechs, and digital brands with seamless, no-code debt management tools […]
- NOV 1Live 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). 1 3×3 basketball tournament. It was a very busy and productive Money20/20, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Navan, Marqeta, FIS, Prism Data, MX, Sardine, LoanPro, Visa, and, of course, my […]
October 2024
- OCT 305: S9 E5: The CFPB, Cash + Culture Party Podcast (Live from MX’s Money Experience Summit)Welcome to a special edition of Fintech Takes, recorded live from MX’s Money Experience Summit in beautiful Park City, Utah.
- OCT 28Finally!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Finally! What happened? The credit bureaus have reportedly cut off TomoCredit from furnishing data: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, the three major credit bureaus, have all ended their data partnerships with TomoCredit, refusing to include credit lines reported by the troubled San Francisco startup, Forbes has learned. TomoCredit claims it can […]
- 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 comprehension. I had never really contemplated that relationship before, and I certainly hadn’t tested my own personal limits for speed and comprehension, but if you’re going to get 4s on the AP […]
- 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 services (the “fin”) and which lessons to take from the world of software (the “tech”). The reason this is challenging is that financial services and software are very different industries. On […]
- OCT 23S9 E4: Trust is a Two-way StreetIn this special guest episode, Alex catches up with founder and CEO of Bloom Money, Nina Mohanty, about a pressing yet overlooked issue: first-party fraud.
- OCT 21PayPal Jumps Into Advertising3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: PayPal Jumps Into Advertising What happened? Following in the footsteps of JPMorgan Chase, PayPal has officially launched an advertising business: PayPal is formally launching PayPal Ads, its arm that sells digital ads using data about what people buy across its properties within the U.S. PayPal Ads is led by Mark […]
- OCT 18Fintech BacklogI always thought the term “backlog” meant a messy accumulation of something that had gotten into its current state through neglect or disorganization. This was the visual in my head: In reality, a backlog is simply “a reserve supply or an accumulation of a resource to be used later.” The term comes from the word […]
- OCT 16S9 E3: Not Fintech Investment Advice: Kato, FlowX, Mesa, and Cavela—AI is Devouring FintechWelcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I spotlight new and exciting fintechs.
- OCT 14Tally Was a Feature3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Tally Was a Feature What happened? LendingClub teamed up with Pagaya to acquire Tally’s IP: Tally’s innovative technology simplified credit card management, helping users optimize payments, reduce interest, and improve credit health. Tally’s consumer solution allowed users to link credit cards, automate card payments, and adopt strategies to lower interest […]
- OCT 11Fintech Player CompsOne of my favorite reporters, podcasters, and analysts was laid off from his job a few weeks ago. Zach Lowe is widely considered to be the best basketball reporter and one of the best sports reporters working today. And yet, that didn’t save him at ESPN. The news leaves me with a lot of thoughts, […]
- OCT 10What Customers Want: The AI Concierge Revolution & What’s Next for Fintech CXWelcome back to the grand finale of What Customers Want, a limited 4-part series from the Fintech Takes podcast, hosted by me and Corey Besaw, President of APAC and co-founder of Ubiquity.
- OCT 7Who is responsible for scams?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Who is responsible for scams? What happened? Meta teamed up with a couple of UK banks to stop scams: The Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) is a “threat intelligence sharing program” that lets banks share information with Meta directly so the tech giant can use it to stop scammers, according […]
- 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 looks slightly more positive if you extend it to a full 12 months: Why is that? Why was September of 2023 the recent nadir for Block? Well, I think it’s the same reason that […]
- OCT 3What Customers Want: Navigating the Tension Between Innovation and RegulationWelcome back What Customers Want , a limited 4-part series from the Fintech Takes podcast, hosted by me and Corey Besaw, President of APAC and co-founder of Ubiquity.
- OCT 2S9 E1: Fintech Recap: The New FDIC Rule, Visa’s Antitrust Fight, and Open Banking’s Next StepsAlex teams up with Jason Mikula, now Head of Industry Strategy for Banking & Fintech at Taktile (ooh la la!) to unpack the latest in fintech.
September 2024
- SEP 29I Will Not Lose My Cool3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Take Your Medicine What happened? JPMorgan Chase is mad that the CFPB might punish them for failing to adequately protect customers from Zelle-enabled scams: The lender disclosed that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could punish JPMorgan for its role in Zelle, the giant peer-to-peer digital payments network. The bank is […]
- SEP 28Three 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 in the financial services sector. Here’s how they described the purpose of the RFI: The use of AI is rapidly evolving, and Treasury is committed to continuing to monitor technological developments and their application and […]
- SEP 26What Customers Want: Scaling Fintech Customer ServiceWelcome to What Customers Want , a limited 4-part series from the Fintech Takes podcast, hosted by me and Corey Besaw, President of APAC and co-founder of Ubiquity.
- SEP 2512: S8 E12: The Future of Loan Servicing (Live from the Salt Flats)Welcome to a special edition of the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, here with Colton Pond, Chief Marketing Officer at LoanPro.
- SEP 23Can EWA Build Credit?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: We Need Different Incentives in Data Furnishment What happened? TD Bank got in trouble with the CFPB: Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered TD Bank to pay $7.76 million to tens of thousands of victims of the bank’s illegal actions. For years, the bank repeatedly shared inaccurate, negative […]
- 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 entered into a bilateral data access agreement that will enable PNC customers nationwide to more safely and securely connect and share financial data to their chosen financial applications through Plaid. PNC uses […]
- SEP 191: What Customers Want: Fintech’s Complicated Relationship with Customer ServiceWelcome to What Customers Want, a limited series from the Fintech Takes podcast, hosted by yours truly.
- SEP 18S8 E11: Not Fintech Investment Advice: 1: Agree, Revenew, Barq, and in Loving Memory of TallyWelcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I spotlight new and exciting fintechs, minus the stock tips.
- SEP 18The Future of the Financial Data EconomyMoney and data have always been very closely related. The idea that money is simply a number in a ledger rather than a physical thing that you carry around with you has existed in different forms for centuries. However, since the first wire money transfer, conducted over long-distance electronic telegraph machines in 1871, money and […]
- SEP 16Danger, Will Robinson!3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Prism Prioritizing Partnerships What happened? Equifax and Prism Data have partnered up: Equifax has teamed up with Prism Data, the company behind CashScore®, to facilitate cash flow underwriting evaluations, allowing customers to preview the potential of bank transaction data. The Prism platform transforms bank transaction data from various sources —including […]
- SEP 14Fall FintechAfter a busy (and nerdy) week in New York, allow me to empty my notebook (while adhering to the Chatham House Rule, of course). A North Star for Credit Builder Products I have the honor of serving on the Advisory Board for the Credit: Expanding Opportunity Initiative, which is being run by Ideas42 to improve […]
- 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? Paylocity is acquiring Airbase: HR and payroll software company Paylocity has agreed to acquire corporate spend startup Airbase for $325 million, the companies announced Wednesday. Headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois, Paylocity is […]
- 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: Regulators and Consumer Advocates: Earned wage access is a loan. EWA Providers and Fintech Trade Associations: No, it’s not. Regulators and Consumer Advocates: Yes, it is. You’re giving people access […]
- SEP 4S8 E9: Fintech Recap: Klarna’s “Balance” vs. Banking, Affirm’s Resilience, and Niche Neobanks Refuse to DieIn this week’s episode of Fintech Recap, Alex is joined by Jason Mikula to dive into the latest on fintech.
- SEP 2Can I Gamble With Your Money?3 Fintech News Stories #1: Bilt Expands Into Healthcare What happened? Bilt launched a new feature and entered into a partnership with Walgreens: Billions of dollars in Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds go unspent every year. Bilt, the company known for offering points on rent payments, and Walgreens have partnered to address this issue by […]
August 2024
- AUG 30The Future of Credit Risk DecisioningEditor’s Note — Today’s essay is a collaboration with my friend Francisco Javier Arceo. Francisco is a Senior Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat and has previously worked as an engineer and data scientist at numerous fintech companies and banks, including Affirm, Fast, and Goldman Sachs. He is also the author of one of my […]
- 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 Innovator’s Dilemma — in which he introduced his most famous idea, disruptive innovation. In The Innovator’s Solution, Christensen and his co-author, Michael Raynor, attempt to explain how market incumbents can successfully navigate the disruptions […]
- AUG 288: S8 E8: Money Talks: What do Gen Z and Boomers Hear?Alex catches up with fintech storyteller Mary Wisniewski, Editor-at-Large at Cornerstone Advisors and host of the podcast Money Isn’t Everything.
- AUG 26How Autonomous Should AI Agents Really Be?3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Experian Strengthens its Orchestration Capabilities What happened? Experian is acquiring NeuroID: NeuroID’s behavioral analytics solutions are available now through CrossCore on the Experian Ascend Technology Platform as a key fraud-detection capability. … With NeuroID seamlessly integrated into Experian, clients can use one service provider to proactively monitor and analyze a […]
- 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. I am paying a mortgage on what I hope is my forever home. I have a minivan that I am planning to drive into the ground (this is a flex … listen to this podcast for the […]
- AUG 217: S8 E7: Not Fintech Investment Advice: Revenir, Summer, Jeff, and AxleIn this episode of Not Fintech Investment Advice, Alex and Simon spotlight the latest up and comers solving cool problems in fintech.
- AUG 19Apple Opens Up3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Klarna Balance What happened? Klarna announced a couple of new offerings: The two new products, which are being rolled out in 12 markets including the U.S. and across Europe, will show up in the Klarna app as “balance” and “cashback.” Klarna balance lets users store money in a bank-like personal […]
- AUG 16Product Development > Risk ManagementAn oversimplified model of how banking has traditionally worked looks something like this: This model has worked exceptionally well for banks for a very long time. However, it rests on a critical assumption — banks will be able to acquire and (more importantly) retain their assets and liabilities without having to price them competitively. Historically, […]
- AUG 15Examining the Vicious Lifecycle of Fintech (ft. The Consumer Finance Podcast)On this super special bonus ep from The Consumer Finance Podcast, Alex joins Chris Willis and Jesse Silverman at Troutman Pepper to dissect fintech’s volatile lifecycle and its effects on bank-fintech partnerships.
- 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? Twitter is getting closer to fulfilling Elon Musk’s original X.com dream: X (formerly Twitter) appears to be making progress on its upcoming payments system, bringing it closer to Elon Musk’s vision of turning X into an “everything app.” […]
- 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? Block reported its quarterly earnings: Block delivered year-over-year improvement across all profitability measures in the second quarter of 2024, with the financial technology firm also raising its earnings outlook for the year. The company’s second quarter gross profit grew 20% year over year to $2.23 billion. […]
- AUG 7S8 E5: Fintech Recap: The BaaS Multiverse of Madness, the CFPB’s New Earned Wage Access Rule, and a Brief Conversation on Brokered DepositsIn this week’s episode of Fintech Recap, Alex is joined by Jason Mikula to discuss the latest news and trends in the fintech industry.
- 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. Congress are proposing a new law: A bipartisan group of members unveiled legislation that would direct federal financial regulators to create “regulatory sandboxes” for financial firms to experiment with artificial intelligence. Led […]
- AUG 2Acquire or Be Acquired?According to BAI’s 2024 Banking Outlook survey, customer acquisition was the second biggest challenge that financial services organizations listed for the coming year (number one was deposit gathering, which is obviously highly related to customer acquisition). In 2023, the biggest challenge that BAI survey respondents listed was … you guessed it — customer acquisition! In […]
July 2024
- JUL 31S8 E4: Fintech F*cks Around and Finds OutCan you tell me how to get to FAFO Street?
- JUL 29Stripe Ditches Evolve3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Stripe Ditches Evolve What happened? Fifth Third, which has made some major investments in BaaS and embedded finance over the last couple of years, announced a big new partnership: Fifth Third Bank is pleased to announce a collaborative agreement between Newline by Fifth Third, a leading embedded payments provider, and […]
- 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 no longer serving U.S.-domiciled customers with passports from certain countries, including Ukraine, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Mercury made headlines earlier this year when it was caught up in federal scrutiny through […]
- 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 million. Since 2012, the submission rate for new business applications has more than doubled. Here’s what the 2023 entrepreneurship growth spurt looks like, broken out geographically: It’s hard to look at those statistics […]
- JUL 24S8 E3: Not Fintech Investment Advice: Niva, OatFi, Tapi, and AvenSimon Taylor’s back in action and ready to break down some of the hottest up and comers in the fintech world with Alex.
- JUL 22I Don’t Understand Mercury3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: I Don’t Understand Mercury What happened? In the wake of the Synapse/Evolve catastrophe, it’s becoming clear that Mercury – the B2B neobank – was an active participant, and often the instigator, of many of the compliance problems that dogged the bank and the BaaS middleware provider. Here’s the latest from […]
- 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 fresh water and that has been scuttled by making a hole in it so the water could be withdrawn. Sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to […]
- JUL 15Aspirations3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Aspirations What happened? Bloomberg published a thoroughly reported deep dive into Aspiration, the green neobank and sustainability-as-a-service provider. The findings from Bloomberg’s reporting are … not good: In late 2020, just as company executives began holding meetings about a potential public offering, Aspiration signed its first deals with corporate clients. […]
- 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 their job with more diligence than they are required to do. For the most part, this hasn’t been an issue. Fintech is filled with founders and operators who care […]
- JUL 10S8 E1: Fintech Recap: Evolve’s Massive Data Breach, Apple’s Bizarre Announcement, and Klarna Replaces Its Staff with AIHe’s been wise. He’s been powerful. But guess what? It’s the first episode we can officially call Jason Mikula an author! Jason chats about his new book, “Banking as a Service: Opportunities, Challenges, and Risks of New Banking Business Models” and reveals what you can expect from his debut book, which is currently available for…
- JUL 8Nice Free Checking You Have There …3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Nice Free Checking You Have There … What happened? JPMorgan Chase issued a high-profile warning about the impact that coming regulatory restrictions will have on consumers: Marianne Lake runs Chase Bank, the sprawling franchise inside JPMorgan Chase that is the country’s biggest bank for consumers and one of its biggest […]
- 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 have produced (newsletters, podcasts, events, etc.) and identifying some of the most frequently recurring topics and ideas. Obviously, this isn’t an unbiased look back at fintech Q2. Rather, […]
