The neobank doubled its membership to five million consumers and hired 200 people last year. Founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche explains how it fared during a time when many fintechs struggled.

Mike Abbott, global banking lead at Accenture, shared some of his predictions and opinions for the year ahead.

The fintech revolution has been more successful at working with banks than at trying to replace them, points out Gene Ludwig, former Comptroller of the Currency, chair of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, and co-founder of Canapi Ventures. Those with “must have” products will fare far better in 2024 than those with “nice to have” tools, he says.

It's been a rough year for fintechs and for the venture capital firms that fund them. Venture capital flows into financial technology companies dropped by 36% year over year to $6 billion in the third quarter of 2023. But Amy Nauiokas, founder and CEO of Anthemis Group, is optimistic about 2024.

Over the past year, the national bank regulators’ oversight of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Silvergate Capital and other banks that failed has been criticized. Reports of a toxic workplace at the FDIC have come to light. And the OCC hired a Deputy Comptroller and overseer of fintech who had easily discoverable falsehoods on his resume. Michele Alt, cofounder and managing director at Klaros Group, explains what this might mean for banks in the coming year.

Penny Lee, president and CEO of the Financial Technology Association and Steve Boms, executive director of FDATA NA, explain what their members like about the proposed regulation and what they would change.

Community banks sometimes feel that they lack the budget and staff to compete with larger banks and fintechs on things like mobile and online banking, virtual assistants and most recently generative AI. Jim Perry, senior strategist at Market Insights, suggests steps they can and should take to stay relevant technology wise.

The case is not really about cryptocurrency but about fraud, points out Seoyoung Kim, department chair and associate professor of finance and business analytics at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. But regulators and lawmakers are watching and the outcome of the trial will have repercussions throughout finance.

Johnson, chief experience officer at Citizens Financial Group, shares some of her concerns about advanced AI and plans to use it for purposes including contact center support and coding.

Bell, an attorney, founded Ready Life to help reduce the racial wealth and homeownership gaps by showing lenders that credit-score-less consumers have been responsible with their money, based on their daily transactions. Now he and Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, are buying a community bank just outside of Salt Lake City.

What are the best options out there for people living on the edge financially who have an emergency expense? The Global Black Economic Forum and the Center for Business and Economic Research recently completed a study called the 2023 Cash Poor Report that dives into this question.

Financial institutions can trade billions of dollars per day and handle sensitive data for millions of customers across the globe, which make them enormously attractive targets for cybercriminals. Their defenses must be top notch and ever evolving to keep up with this threat, but FIs' infrastructures are usually vast and complex, straddling old, legacy mainframes and cutting-edge, cloud-based applications that can create security gaps. Moreover, regulations mandate that some divisions within institutions are siloed from each other, which complicates communication and a coordinated defense against cyber criminals. In this difficult security environment, a hyper focus on integration is critical. FIs should look to consolidate tools to fewer vendors so they have less to manage. Many are grappling to understand their security posture and vulnerabilities, how to efficiently manage cloud-based applications, and whether they should buy or build their own security solutions. In this podcast, experts in the field will tell stories from the trenches – the good, the bad, and the ugly when protecting some of the largest, most complex networks in banking.

Though generative AI has limitations and risks, there is a cost to ignoring it, according to Ryan Favro, a managing principal at Capco.

Immersive technologies and automation are also on the list of technologies that are here, employees want them and companies like banks need to deal with them, says Phil Simon, author of a new book called The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace.

Marisa Calderon, executive director of a nonprofit community development financial institution, explains why the wealth gap persists, for instance systemic bias in the appraisal process, and what lenders could do to reduce it.

Leaders of many of the biggest tech companies recently signed an open letter calling on all AI labs to immediately pause the training of advanced artificial intelligence systems. Seth Dobrin, advisor to the Responsible AI Institute and former chief AI officer at IBM, shares his thoughts on where banks should be careful about using AI.

Dr. Aniket Bera, associate professor at the department of computer science at Purdue University, explains how AI can be used in the financial services industry to detect when a customer is angry or depressed or even when an employee is upset or about to commit fraud.

Sumeet Chabria, founder and CEO of advisory firm Thoughtlinks and a former tech executive at Bank of America, explains some of the technology changes every bank should be making to ensure it’s not the next victim of a bank run.

Brian Graham, partner and co-founder of advisory and investment firm Klaros Group, breaks down what went wrong with Silvergate Capital, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and what banks can do to avoid the problems that brought these banks down.

Penny Lee, president and CEO of the Financial Technology Association, is pushing back on some claims banks and their trade groups have recently made about financial technology companies, for instance that fintechs don’t meet consumer financial protection standards.

More than 50 million people are caught up in modern slavery, according to the U.N. Hidden crimes like human trafficking and elder abuse are more common than most people think. Ian Mitchell at The Knoble, who led crime detection at several financial institutions, works with banks to find signs of abuse and help law enforcement to help victims and catch perpetrators, including among Super Bowl crowds.

Matthew Pincoski, director of engagement systems at Ent Credit Union in Colorado Springs, describes some of the ways he and his team have been using low-code and no-code software to do things like create next-best-offer messages for customers.

Enlightenment can be found in everyday activities like work, says Thane Lawrie, author of the book, The Buddhist CEO. Lawrie explains some of the Buddhist ideas that, when practiced, can make people better leaders, colleagues and family members.  

Mike Abbott, global banking lead at Accenture, predicts the trends that will change the way banks operate in the coming year, including a rate environment that hasn't been seen in more than a decade, a comeback for branches and soaring credit delinquencies.

About half of small businesses nationwide are now classified as financially unhealthy: They have difficulty paying bills on time, inadequate cash reserves or insufficient insurance. Eytan Bensoussan, founder and CEO of NorthOne, a neobank for small businesses, shares his thoughts on how banks and fintechs can help these customers survive.

It’s likely that laws and regulation will be enacted in 2023 that will rein in cryptocurrency-related companies and banks’ involvement with such companies. Georgia Quinn, general counsel, and Rachel Anderika, chief risk officer at Anchorage Digital, share the rules they think should apply.

The founder and CEO of the fintech Tomo Credit says the popular form of credit helps consumers perpetuate bad habits.

A panel of experts discuss the midterm elections, the FTX blowup and the legislative and regulatory policy implications that both will have in Washington.  

Theo Lau and Brad Leimer, who run the consultancy  Unconventional Ventures, have come up with three predictions for banks’ future. They also have advice on what financial institutions need to do to make the best-case scenario a reality.  

If Web3 is real, where do banks fit in — if they do? Alex Tapscott, managing director of the digital asset group at Ninepoint Partners and co-author of the book Blockchain Revolution, explains how the internet has evolved and how banks might take advantage of the latest iteration of it.

About 75% of military recruits arrive at a training base with no bank account and have to be bussed to a local bank to open one, says Jill Castilla, CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond. The bank’s team is building a platform that will help service members save and build credit.

Technology has turned the art of deposit pricing into a science, say Betty Cowell and Rohan Shah, experts at Simon Kucher & Partners. They also predict when the large banks will raise their rates.

Half of Americans haven’t saved enough to cover three months of expenses. Personal finance expert Orman says everyone should have 12 months of emergency savings, and she’s working with a fintech, SecureSave, to help workers build a nest egg.

“Animal welfare scores low in priority at many financial institutions” in the U.S., says Merel van der Mark, animal welfare and finance program manager for Sinergia Animal, an organization based in Brazil that has been maintaining a ranking of how banks around the world perform on several measures of ethics with regard to animals.

Consumer Bankers Association president and CEO Richard Hunt is retiring from the organization this summer, and in a wide-ranging interview he offers his thoughts on the future of the banking industry, the direction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and what how banks can compete against less-regulated fintechs.

DJ DiDonna, founder of The Sabbatical Project, says the breaks help companies avoid staff burnout and recruit and retain high-performing employees. That may be why double the number of Best Fintechs to Work For offer sabbaticals this year.

Ian Khan, futurist and author of the forthcoming book "Metaverse for Dummies," shares a vision of virtual workplaces where young developers, designers and other talented staffers will want to meet.

One reason: lack of digital IDs, say Mary Ellen Iskenderian of Women’s World Banking and Janet Truncale of EY.

The acquisition of the small-business lending marketplace Boefly and partnerships with the loan software company nCino and the construction lending fintech Built are among the efforts helping the New Jersey bank compete with fintechs that have gotten good at serving niche markets, says Frank Sorrentino, its CEO.

The bank was one of the 11 that collaborated with Google in 2020 on a plan to introduce checking accounts through Google Pay. Josh Williams, chief banking officer and head of partnerships at Seattle Bank, talks about what the company gained from that experience and what he looks for in potential fintech partnerships.

TomoCredit's Kristy Kim watched while VCs wrote checks faster to her male counterparts with similar metrics, but bypassed her startup. Now she has the growth to show they were wrong.

Meghji only made it a year as chief innovation officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. before leaving in recent weeks. He describes the obstacles to new ideas within federal banking agencies and banking itself.

Yasaman Hadjibashi, who formerly worked at Citi and Barclays, and Keith Armstrong, a co-founder of Abe.ai, have created a fintech startup that helps people coming home from prison find work, obtain a bank account and re-enter society.

The digital-only bank, which is due to launch March 1, is trying to develop an Amazon-like banking experience for the most finicky of clients: tech startup founders, says CEO Mike Butler.

In her last week in office, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chair discusses why she worries about the dwindling number of community banks and minority-owned banks, why she has made serving low-income communities a priority during her tenure, and what she might do next.

Traditional banks could be forced to add cryptocurrency product offerings in 2022 to compete with fintechs that are taking advantage of blockchain innovations, according to Diogo Mónica, co-founder and president of Anchorage.

Banks and credit unions need to do more for (and assume less about) customers who are over 50, says Theo Lau, founder of the advisory firm Unconventional Ventures.  

Regulators have joined the call for banks to change their approach to overdraft. But simply getting rid of the fees is impractical for many banks, according to Leo D'Acierno and Betty Cowell, senior advisors at the strategy and marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners.

Startups focused on embedded banking, small-business finance and health care insurance will prosper in the year ahead, predicts Alex Lazarow, partner at the San Francisco global venture capital fund Cathay Innovation.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire argues that Gary Gensler’s association of stablecoins with gambling doesn’t match how they're used, the way they're regulated or their potential benefit to the financial system.

Brett King, founder of Moven, host of the radio show “Breaking Banks” and co-author of the forthcoming book “The Rise of Technosocialism,” has strong opinions about how technology is changing finance and the world. His forecast includes more automation, fewer jobs and the emergence of central bank digital currencies.

Environmental, social and governance issues have become more important to investors and customers. Kathryn Rock, a partner in financial services practice at the consulting firm Guidehouse, has advice on what banks can do to step up their efforts.

Talwar, who is leaving his job as chairman of Goldman's consumer bank this month, explains his philosophy on innovating within a large organization, making a digital-only unit work within a 150-year-old institution, and how he deals with skeptics.

CEO Christopher Maher explains how the New Jersey bank selected the 20 branches it plans to shut down by year-end and details the types of apps, video banking capabilities and "super branches" into which it will plow the cost savings.

Robert Le, an analyst at Pitchbook, explains where banks could get cut out of transactions and where they still could play a role.

Vast Bank in Oklahoma now has an app that allows customers to do their banking and buy and sell eight digital currencies. CEO Brad Scrivner explains his motivations, his comfort level with cryptocurrency volatility and what else the app can do.

The Los Angeles credit union started out by creating a self-service bot it named Royce. CEO David Tuyo discusses Royce's contributions and other ways artificial intelligence is improving efficiency.

Theo Lau and Brad Leimer, authors of "Beyond Good: How Technology Is Leading a Purpose-Driven Business Revolution," discuss financial companies like Sunrise Banks and Tabb Bank that are working toward dual aims of making a better world and turning a profit.

The Birmingham, Alabama, bank has developed artificial intelligence-based systems that can flag suspicious activity and guide customer service representatives. Amala Duggirala, the bank’s chief operations and technology officer, describes the AI work she and her team have been doing.

Pressure is mounting on banks to rein in overdraft fees. The behavioral psychologist Wei Ke says there are programs they can put in place that would be fairer to account holders and still generate income.

Distributed ledger projects in banking are few and far between — many have stalled and others remain experiments. Robert Townsend, who has worked with banks around the world and written a book about blockchain technology, explains some of the ways financial institutions could be using it, for instance in small-business lending and supply chain finance.

The average American’s financial picture is bleaker than government data suggests, according to the former comptroller of the currency. Research from his new organization, the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, has found that unemployment is higher and household wages are lower than reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Vanessa Colella taught earth science and biology to middle schoolers through Teach for America before becoming Citigroup's new chief innovation officer. Her experience in the classroom still sticks with her today.  

Many big companies have made pledges to diversify their workforces, treat minority communities more fairly and clean up the environment to burnish their images, says Meredith Benton, CEO of the consultancy Whistle Stop Capital. But few are willing to share data to prove it's all more than a PR campaign, she says.

Like many banks, TD had to move swiftly to spin up new self-service tools tied to chat channels, e-signatures and PPP lending. Innovation chief Michael Rhodes will continue the faster financial approval and development cycles that COVID necessitated.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican, leads a new congressional caucus aimed at educating members about fintech issues. She believes her state could serve as a model for regulating digital assets.

The Providence, R.I., bank partners with tech companies like Apple and Microsoft, it has 25 fintech partnerships and it rewards employees for new ideas, says CEO Bruce Van Saun.

Thousands of customers have called OceanFirst Bank with a new set of technical questions: How do you download an app? Make a mobile deposit? Load a debit card into Apple Pay? CEO Chris Maher explains how the New Jersey company is handling the shift to digital banking.

Hood Qaim-Maqami, divisional CIO at the Bank of New York Mellon, has ideas about how technology can be used to make people feel connected.

Cold, hard cash is inevitably going away. Banks have a responsibility to help consumers who don’t have smartphones or even email addresses be prepared, says Shawn Rose, chief digital officer of Scotiabank.

Others, like JPMorgan Chase, have shut down their mobile-only brands. But Rising Bank, Midwest BankCentre's three-year-old neobank, is meeting its deposit goals, adding new products and avoiding cannibalization, says Dale Oberkfell, the bank's president.

Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency hedge fund Polychain Capital, discusses which digital currencies and blockchain technologies are reshaping payments and which are “nonsense projects.”

Todder Moning and Valerie Lancelle, who work in the bank’s innovation group, said they were especially impressed by demos of immersive technology, 5G and ambient computing.

Venture capitalists will shift their focus to fintechs that support financial inclusion, according to Emmalyn Shaw, managing partner of the VC firm Flourish. Meanwhile, challenger banks will continue to grow, she says.

Brian Hamilton, CEO of the challenger bank One, says some have as their spending has slowed during months of economic lockdown. And the rest can be coached to make smarter choices, he argues.

Shawn Rose, chief digital officer, and Holly Pontisso, vice president of customer experience at Scotiabank at Toronto, share how they have adapted their digital offerings for people over 50, including making sure ageist attitudes don’t creep into digital channels or messaging.

Most fintechs entertain the idea of getting a commercial banking license from time to time, but Current is content partnering with banks, says founder and CEO Stuart Sopp.

Ludwig, an ex-banking regulator and CEO of Promontory Financial Group, describes how economic conditions for middle- and low-income Americans have declined and advocates a living wage, investment in infrastructure, smart regulation and other solutions.

The unit as of September had 20% more clients than a year earlier. Liu, who is head of North America for Citi Private Bank, explains the changes she’s made to help her group attract and serve millennials, Gen Z, Asian Americans and families.

Kabbage co-founder Kathryn Petralia, whose company is being sold to American Express, discusses government and financial-sector lifelines she says could help businesses that have been hit hardest by the pandemic.

Fraud of all kinds has been spiking during the pandemic. Krista Tedder, head of payments, Javelin Strategy & Research, says there are many steps banks could be taking to detect and deter it.

Caitlin Long, a former Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse managing director, is starting a special-purpose depository institution that will provide payment and custody services to institutional investors and corporate treasurers.

Anu Rames of BNP Paribas Asset Management talks with Chip Barnett about “digital inequality" and the financing mechanisms available to investors to help close this "have and have not" gap in a post-pandemic world. (14 minutes)

Vanessa Colella, innovation chief at Citi, says remote working has had a democratizing effect. She also touches on the types of technology Citi has been incubating, the startups it’s investing in and her efforts at fostering a culture of generosity.

How is this fintech managing to improve as others struggle? Christine Pierson, president and CEO of the national specialty finance firm Tresl, explains how it has been able to turn challenges into opportunities.

Jamie Warder, head of digital banking at KeyBank, says alliances with companies like HelloWallet have helped him and his team adapt to changing conditions during the coronavirus crisis.

A sneak peek of a new podcast launching on American Banker in our Leaders forum. Arizent CEO Gemma Postlethwaite talks about lessons in leadership with Michal Katz, Head of Investment and Corporate Banking in the Americas at Mizuho.

Wei Ke, partner at Simon-Kucher & Partners, shares research and analysis from a recent consumer survey on branch versus digital banking behaviors after the coronavirus lockdowns are over.

Rather than funnel mortgage and rent payments through consumers, the federal government should instead deal directly with landlords, utilities and banks, suggests Howard Newman, managing partner of Pine Brook Partners.

Sells, American Banker’s Digital Banker of the Year, explains how he encouraged his team to take risks on projects like a three-minute account opening process and a system that analyzes core data in real time to help set deposit prices.

The acting Comptroller of the Currency weighs in on social unrest, the reformed Community Reinvestment Act, fintech charters and how he believes technology can make finance more inclusive.

Competition over virtual currency could alter politics and global power structures, potentially to the detriment of the U.S., the author of "The Currency Cold War" argues.

Dan Geller, behavioral economist and developer of the Money Anxiety Index, describes how the gauge has spiked and what banks can do about it.

Tilman Ehrbeck, managing partner at Flourish Ventures, a mission-driven venture capital firm that spun out of the Omidyar Network last year, explains how startups like Summer, Propel, Steady and Cushion are helping people cope with debt and cash flow problems.

Fraudsters are attempting to intercept stimulus checks, set up bogus charities and defraud applicants for unemployment benefits. Mike Litt, consumer campaign director of U.S. Public Interest Research Group, discusses what can be done to stop them.

Kyum Kim, co-founder of online professional network Blind, describes the impact of the coronavirus pandemic's enforced quarantine on people who work in financial services.

Chris Skinner, the author of "Doing Digital," defends banks' response to the coronavirus crisis and discusses why he thinks the tech giants won't be able to take market share away from traditional financial institutions.

Ben Soccorsy, head of digital payments in Wells Fargo’s virtual channels group, explains how the bank's 15 data-sharing agreements with fintechs and aggregators and tools like Control Tower give customers visibility into and control over their financial information.

Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, explains why consumer protection is so important as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the economy.

Simmons Bank in Arkansas, like many banks dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, has seen traffic soar on its digital channels as branches close. A look at what Alex Carriles is doing to navigate the crisis.

Grainne McNamara, financial services principal at Ernst & Young, explains that bank regulators have already been examining banks' cultures, and that's likely to continue. But banks can still fix culture problems during a pandemic.

Anand Talwar, deposits and consumer strategy executive at Ally Bank, and Jody Bhagat, president of the Americas for Personetics, explain how their technology collaboration has evolved from a virtual assistant to customized, real-time "insights" for customers.

NorthOne founder and CEO Eytan Bensoussan explains how unlocking bank data will help entrepreneurs in the future.

Brendan Coughlin, head of consumer banking, explains how Citizens established its relationships with Apple and Microsoft for point of sale financing and how they've evolved.

From 2010 to 2018 the South Carolina bank was on the FDIC's problem bank list, but in the last two years it has been profitable. Dominik Mjartan, the bank's president and CEO, explains how technology upgrades and relationship building helped it get back on track.

Aaron Klein, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, argues that the setup works well for those with money, but is very expensive for those on the lower end of the spectrum.

Ken Montgomery, who is heading up the Federal Reserve’s faster payments network, says the agency is taking an incremental approach to launching the service.

The bank is working with fintechs like Digit, Simple and Catch to provide new financial products to people with limited access to banking, says Susan French, head of products in the open platform division.

Andy Rachleff, the fintech's CEO, discusses the digital bank it's developing and the concept of "self-driving money."

The custody bank was one of the first users of The Clearing House's Real Time Payments network. Andrew Haskell, who oversees the bank's program, explains how faster payments are helping the bank and its clients.

Doug Nielson at U.S. Bank and Jane Barratt at MX explain how men can be more supportive of their female colleagues.  

"To wake up one day and assume everyone in America is going to be above average at math and above average rational is crazy," says Ethan Bloch, whose app is designed to help people achieve financial health.

Werner Loots, the bank’s first head of transformation, is helping the bank redesign how work is done, then streamlining and digitizing as much as possible. 

Chris Maher, CEO of OceanFirst Financial, shares how employees’ roles have already changed and his bank’s efforts to help them navigate AI and other emerging technologies.

Dennis Nixon and Gerry Schwebel at International Bancshares share their views on immigration policy, a border wall and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Stephen Lange Ranzini, CEO of University Bank in Ann Arbor, Mich., says The Clearing House's RTP and Early Warning's Zelle fail to meet basic requirements for enrollment, encryption of data in transit, and authentication.

In a sit-down interview, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester discusses how the FedNow real-time payment system will work alongside a big-bank one, and threats to financial stability.

Bryce VanDiver and Daniela Hawkins at Capco make the case that offering easy-to-use payment rewards is the way to win the loyalty of digital-only customers.

Doug Clare explains how the organization uses artificial intelligence to spot crime rings and skimmers.

Caitlin Long, member of the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force, explains why the state has enacted 13 blockchain laws and what they mean for fintechs and banks.

American Banker Capitol Hill reporter Neil Haggerty shares how the D.C. community reacted to Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony and how they look at the project now.  

Jeff McMillan, who served in South Korea and is now chief analytics and data officer for wealth management at Morgan Stanley, shares some of the challenges he faced in readjusting to civilian life and how he and his company try to help other veterans.

Banks shouldn't let the legal and regulatory hurdles deter them, attorney Felix Shipkevich says.

Futurist Lex Sokolin believes the major tech platforms will keep winning and buying banking products will be like buying generic or branded Aspirin on Amazon.

Adoption of money management instruments offered by banks remains low. One expert explains why.

Andres Wolberg-Stok at Citi and Sam Taussig at Kabbage debate openness, privacy, control, and how much say consumers should have over their banking information.

Melissa Koide, co-founder and CEO of FinRegLab, analyzed loan data from six lenders that use cash-flow data in their underwriting. She shares what she found.

Bank Independent in Alabama was one of the first banks to let customers handle basic tasks through Amazon Alexa and plans to go further with the technology. Its digital chief, Kelly Burdette, shares how and why.

Tina Eide, Amex's senior vice president of global fraud, discusses the card issuer's efforts to strengthen its transaction monitoring.

Sherry Comes, managing director in conversational AI at Deloitte Consulting, says banking in the future will take place through a home, car or phone speaker.

Regulatory efforts to protect consumers from harassment and excessive robocalling are drastically changing how banks and third-parties seek payment from consumers. Attorney Quyen Truong at Stroock & Stroock explains what compliance will look like.

April Rudin, CEO of the Rudin Group, offers advice on tailoring marketing to younger audiences and women.

Banks are right to fear the big tech companies that are eyeing financial services, according to Monish Kumar at Boston Consulting Group, who offers suggestions on how traditional lenders can protect their turf.

Don Cardinal of FDX and Olivier Helleboid of Intuit explain the FDX and OFX standards, how they're turning them into one standard and what that standard will be able to do for banks.

The former head of the Small Business Administration and current Harvard professor says data sharing can be transformational for banks.

Trace Fooshee, senior analyst at Aite Group and former head of fraud strategy at SunTrust, explains fraudsters’ latest tactics and the best methods of self-defense.

Pierre Habis, president of PurePoint Financial, explains how the digital bank and small network of paperless branches are meeting consumers’ needs.

Authentication by selfie is becoming more popular in financial services, but the technology has become controversial for its potential for bias. Notre Dame professor Kevin Bowyer explains what his studies of this issue have found.

Bruce Van Saun, CEO, shares details of the new digital channels the bank is building for consumers and small-business customers.

Jeremy Balkin, head of innovation at HSBC Bank USA, shares how the bank is investing in retail innovation, including a $350 million core system.

Lincoln Parks, director of marketing at Heritage Bank, explains the bank’s cautious yet forward-thinking approach to its new virtual assistant, and how to avoid social media snafus.

Wells began rolling out its online-bank brand in November. Peggy Mangot, senior vice president and head of Greenhouse development, shares what she’s learned so far.

Only 4% of consumers changed banks last year, according to J.D. Power. Behavioral psychologist Wei Ke explains why consumers are so reluctant to move their accounts and what other banks can do to convince them to switch.

Changing demographics and cultural trends are making bank CEOs think beyond profitability and toward addressing what they stand for.

The forces reshaping small-business lending are also leading to “a moment of reckoning” for small banks, says Karen Mills, a senior fellow at the Harvard Business School who led the SBA during the Obama administration.

Mariel Beasley, co-director of Duke University’s Common Cents Lab, who studies consumers’ financial behavior, says savings "nudges" in apps often fall flat. Here's why.

Alex Carriles, executive director of mobile, online and digital accounts at BBVA Compass, describes how updates like account aggregation and expense analysis have helped increase use of its app.

Cathy Bessant, Bank of America’s chief operations and technology officer, offers her takeaways from the first meeting of the Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence. She also discusses some challenges banks are facing with cyberattacks and data encryption.

There are a number of alarming statistics in a new study about the financial health of Americans over 50 with low to moderate income. The Center for Financial Services Innovation's Karen Andres talks about how banks can help.

Jill Castilla, the Oklahoma community bank's CEO, has made branches more high-tech, opened a co-working space, held street festivals and taken other steps to stand out from the crowd.

Customers are starting to reveal more to private bankers when they use GoTo, the bank's strategy chief Rilla Delorier says.

Varo Money might become the first challenger bank to get a national bank charter. CEO and co-founder Colin Walsh explains his company’s mission and how becoming a bank might help.

American Banker reporter Neil Haggerty examines the political implications of CEO Tim Sloan's testimony to the House last week.

Shari Van Cleave, head of digital labs at the bank, discusses some of the customer-facing technology it's testing, including wearables and the so-called internet of things.

The slow U.S. adoption of real-time payments hurts half of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, says Aaron Klein, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shares his thoughts on the bureau's evolution, payday lending, fintech regulation and the sweet spots of fintech startups.  

Legalized marijuana is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it desperately needs banking services. Will Congress come to the rescue?

John Asbury, president and CEO Union Bancshares, wants to make Virginia something it hasn't been in decades: Home to a regional bank powerhouse. He discusses how striking the right balance between acquisitions and strategic hiring works toward that goal.

Undercover cops recently arrested a Miami Beach man for trying to sell bitcoin for dollars, accusing him of money laundering. Carlton Fields attorney Matthew Kohen explains the case and what it means to banks.

M&A editor Paul Davis explores the practical and political implications of the proposed merger between BB&T and SunTrust.

Steve Boms, executive director of the Financial Data and Technology Association, says standards should be developed for U.S. banks and fintechs to follow in open banking.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped a provision that would have required payday lenders to assess potential borrowers’ ability to repay. American Banker reporter Kate Berry explains why.

Bankers sometimes object to experimental zones for fintechs, complaining they are shielded from regulations that banks have to follow. But Brian Knight at George Mason University says fintechs will be held accountable for any legal violations that occur in sandboxes — and banks can use sandboxes, too.

Amercans are living longer yet retiring earlier and saving less, explains Matt Fellowes, CEO and founder of United Income, which provides financial apps for people over 50. But there's no need to panic, because people curb their spending as they age. Financial providers can offer a hopeful message.  

Its early days yet, but decentralized apps will democratize finance, says Andrew Keys, cofounder of ConsenSys Capital, the venture capital arm of ConsenSys.

Rich Baich, the chief information security officer at Wells Fargo and newly appointed security advisor to the White House, shares some of the attack types he’s worried about and the security defenses he’s stepping up for the coming year.  

Jason Brown explains how and why his company, Tally, helps consumers by paying their monthly balances, providing automated debt-relief advice and offering a lower-rate credit line.

Michael Hanley, who acted as head of digital for the World Economic Forum the last eight years, and Anthony Thomson, the creator of Atom Bank who is building a new challenger bank, 86400, in Australia, share their thoughts on how banks can shape an agenda for the future.

Schwark Satyovolu, original co-founder of Yodlee and general partner of venture capital firm Trinity Ventures, shares his opinion on how open banking and sharing of consumer data is evolving in the U.S.

Warren Kornfeld, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service, explains why banks’ fear of Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook and other tech giants is legitimate.

Ron Quaranta and Steve Ehrlich with the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance give their take on NYU professor Nouriel Roubini's declaration that "blockchain is the most over-hyped — and least useful — technology in human history" and they share what’s working and what’s not with financial services blockchain projects.

Gartner recently predicted that 80% of banks will become irrelevant by 2030. Peter Redshaw, team manager for the global financial services team at Gartner, explains some strategies the analyst firm thinks banks need to execute to survive.  

With the midterms finally over, we discuss how it will impact regulatory and legislative policy for financial institutions going forward —as well as how it will affect the 2020 race.

Money has been flowing into passive investments such as ETFs in historic amounts. What happens when a bear market inevitably occurs? John Taft, former CEO of RBC Wealth Management and current vice chairman of Baird, sees this as one of several less-obvious risks to the financial system. 

Consumer Financial Protection Agency Acting Director Mick Mulvaney is winding down some of the efforts his predecessor worked hardest on: enforcement of payday and fair lending rules and the Military Lending Act. Reporter Kate Berry shares the latest. 

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, has spent the past six years as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee trying to undo the Dodd-Frank Act. In this episode, he discusses his hard-nosed legislative approach and his more recent willingness to reach across the aisle on regulatory relief and reforming the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance have joined each other’s organizations. Brian Behlendorf, the executive director of Hyperledger, explains what this means for bankers.

At the same time as Brett Kavanaugh's explosive confirmation process, the House Financial Services Committee is examining sexual harassment charges against FHFA director Watt and allegations of gender pay disparity at the agency. American Banker reporter Hannah Lang has been following the case closely and offers her take.

American Banker's Kate Berry discusses recent events at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, including acting Director Mick Mulvaney's efforts to strip the bureau of its ability to enforce fair-lending rules and his replacement of its consumer advisory board.

Brian Roemmele debriefs on Alexa’s new range of voice activated appliances, and Dmitry Malyanov, co-founder of AdHive, shares some of the questionable ICO promotion tactics he’s seen.

Bruce Cahan, a lecturer at Stanford University who teaches ethics to software engineers, future bankers and others, explains how adopting principles found in medicine and religion can lead to profitability for financial services firms.

John Nosta, founder of digital health think tank Nostalab, and consultants Faisal Khan and David Gerbino help dissect Apple's new iPhone XS and the Watch Series 4’s new heart-tracking features.

Capco consultants Guido Tamburini and Nic Parmaksizian share ideas for recruiting top developers, designers and other young talent, and how to keep them happy.

Tom Blomfield, founder and CEO of Monzo Bank and Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank share their approaches to challenging the British incumbents and their differing paths to growth.

Consultant and behavioral psychologist Wei Ke shares his view on the bank’s announcement it will soon offer free trading, and why competitors shouldn’t react too quickly to it. At the end of today’s episode, keep listening to hear the trailer for a special American Banker podcast series, Nobody’s Home.

"Uber Influencer" and venture capitalist Spiros Margaris discusses which economies and regions are leading adaptation to fintech and AI. Then, author Byron Reese, CEO of GigaOm, talks his new book, “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of Humanity.”

Several key Democratic authors of the legislation to ease the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act’s regulations on community banks are up for re-election in November in states that President Trump won in 2016. In this episode, American Banker catches up with one of them, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. She discusses the process of passing reg relief, her goals for achieving other legislative goals and trying to hold on to her seat.

Michael Terpin explains how hackers stole $24 million worth of cryptocurrency from his mobile phone and why he’s suing AT&T for $224 million. Luke Lombe of PlayChip describes his new ICO that combines fantasy sports leagues with crypto tokens.

CEOs have faced an enviable challenge over the past year: deciding what to do with the money they used to give Uncle Sam. In this episode, American Banker catches up with community bankers from across the country to discuss the impact of the corporate tax cut.

Financial startups are meeting the needs of an aging population. Jason Henrichs hosts Theodora Lau and Brad Leimer of Unconventional Ventures, who discuss fintech designed to help the pre-digital-native generations. They’re then joined by entrepreneurs Heather Holmes of Genivity and Marci Lobel-Esrig of SilverBills.

CEO Nandita Bakhshi explains how the bank, and its French parent company, BNP Paribas, are investing in renewable energy, female entrepreneurs and underserved consumers as part of a unified strategy.

The online lender’s president, Steve Alloca, shares how the company weathered scandal and how it plans to grow its product set.

The nomination of Kathy Kraninger as CFPB director has sparked fights in Congress. Meanwhile, the agency has taken several notable enforcement actions. American Banker reporter Kate Berry explains what these developments mean for the CFPB’s future.

In a recent survey of 110,000 adults, the two nonbanks ranked highest in customer experience. Forrester principal analyst Alyson Clarke explains what they did to fare so well.

Brad Leimer, venture capitalist and former head of innovation at Santander and Mechanics Bank, shares his top picks in online lending, wealth management and other categories.

Many people had “this crazy idea that regulation is really boring and as a result, it’s been passed over by a lot of the innovation in fintech,” says Jo Ann Barefoot in this week’s episode. Consultants Barefoot and Henri Arslanian share with hosts Brett King and JP Nichols why they think that’s changing.

Former banker John Best, now CEO of Best Innovation Group and author of the new book "Breaking Digital Gridlock," outlines the top obstacles to bank innovation and offers suggestions on how to overcome them.

Brett King queries science fiction writers Kevin J. Anderson and Harry “Doc” Kloor about the practical future for emerging technologies like avatars and voice recognition.

Student loan debt now totals $1.5 trillion, second only to mortgage debt, and it’s a crushing burden for many. J.P. Nichols hosts alongside Jean Donnelly, executive director of FinTech Sandbox. Guests FutureFuel.io CEO Laurel Taylor and Edmit.me CEO Nick Ducoff join to discuss their approaches to helping students repay their loans and make good debt decisions.

Dek: Zach Gipson, chief innovation officer at USAA, acknowledges that chatbot technology today lacks the intelligence to have natural conversations about money. But he doesn’t understand some companies’ hesitancy to try the technology. “Why would you want to wait to start learning from your customers?” he said.

Women with low credit scores tend to work long hours at low pay, care for parents as well as children, and tend to have trouble making ends meet. Jonathan Walker, executive director of the Center for the New Middle Class, and Mark Schwanhausser, director of digital banking at Javelin Strategy & Research, kick around ideas for how banks and fintechs could help women who are caught in a subprime trap.

The last mile of any distribution network is always the least efficient, and it is no different for financial services. This week JP Nicols and Jason Henrichs talk about the ways that fintech can help make apps and branches more productive, with guests Michelle Tinsley, founder of Tinsley Retail Insights, and Mike Laven, CEO of Currencycloud.

Ellen Zimiles, global head of investigations and compliance at Navigant Consulting, shares what she's learned about testing and implementing AI in compliance departments, filing defensive SARs, and hiring the right people to maintain an AI system.

Guest hosts Jason Henrichs and JP Nicols interview Perianne Boring, founder and CEO of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, about blockchain trends and challenges. Brett King talks with Derek Corcoran, chief experience officer at Avoka, about the onboarding vendor’s new Digital Onboarding Trends report.

To be future-proof, banks need data scientists, behavioral psychologists, experienced designers, and community advocates, King says.

Julieann Thurlow, president and CEO of Reading Cooperative Bank Reading Cooperative Bank, a community bank in Massachusetts, argues that tech-savvy lenders like Sofi can draw in the lowest-risk borrowers with a fast, simple online process and shares the challenges of innovating at a community bank.

Bakhshi, CEO of the bank since 2016 and and No. 4 on American Banker's list of the most powerful women in banking, shares what she's doing to improve customer journeys, make the bank a better place to work, and create a culture of innovation.

Brett King talks with Hong Kong venture capitalist Sameer Chishty about the possible trade war and with Bob Pisani, CNBC "On-Air Stocks" Editor, about how U.S. exchanges have responded to blockchain trends.

Moody’s lead analyst Fadi Massih shares some of the things he looks for when deciding how to rate banks, including the traits that could help them withstand the challenge from fintechs.

Just as Amazon provides a marketplace where other retailers provide products, banks need to curate and bring many financial services to their customers, says Chris Skinner, author of Digital Human.

Brett King and co-host Jason Henrichs talk with Margaret Hartigan, CEO of Marstone, Keith Armstrong of Abe.ai and John Schulte, CIO of Mercantile Bank, about what makes relationships between banks and fintech startups work.

Household debt is higher than ever, and delinquencies in credit cards and unsecured personal loans are edgingupward. Bruce Van Saun, chairman and CEO of Citizens Financial, shares his views on the market and the business opportunities there.

Camden Fine, the president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, is due to retire this week. We talk with him about his long career — and his fears for the future of his industry.

Banking apps now rank just after weather and social media in usage. Alice Milligan, chief customer and digital experience officer at Citi Global Cards, shares the results of the bank's survey of 2,000 Americans.

Financial institutions struggle to make their websites and apps a destination rather than a utility. Jacob Jegher at Javelin offers some ideas for building digital relationships.

Dominic Venturo, chief innovation officer at U.S. Bank, shares his vision for digital banking ten years from now. It includes ambient computing – interconnected devices, machines and sensors that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people.

Cathy Bessant, chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America, shares her thoughts on how companies can prevent human foibles and biases from creeping into their software and the need to build an ethical framework for AI software development and use.

William Dudley, who will retire soon as New York Fed president, talks about banks' corporate culture, risks to the economy and what advice he would give his successor.

Are American college students using their student loan dollars wisely? Mike Brown, research analyst at LendEDU, explains the findings of a recent study of student borrowers.

Doug Nielsen from U.S. Bank joins Brett King and co-host Jason Henrichs to talk about SXSW 2018 and Jim Marous, publisher of the Digital Banking Report, weighs in on Amazon's plans for a checking account.

Ken Rees, the CEO of fintech online lender Elevate Credit, explains why payday lending is the roach motel of financial products -- "you check in and it's very difficult to check back out" -- and how his company helps subprime consumers become creditworthy. Also, he shares why his company gives $500 to each employee to buy a bicycle.

Banks increasingly avoid crypto, even banning the purchase of it with their credit cards. But Grainne McNamara at PwC has come up with a framework banks could use to participate in the digital currency world.

Bank of America took heat recently for deciding to charge $12 a month for an e-banking account that had been free. But there are ways to add revenue without ruffling feathers, behavioral economist Wei Ke explains.

Ellen Zimiles, a former federal prosecutor and current consultant to banks at Navigant, shares her experience employing people with autism and other disabilities.  

Natasha Lamb, managing director at Arjuna Capital and the activist investor who got four large banks to publish their adjusted gender pay gaps, explains that companies with gender diversity perform better and are more innovative than those that lack it, and that changing a bro culture takes time.

Brandon Krieg, co-founder and CEO of StashInvest, shares what his company is doing to create a comfortable, "frictionless" point of entry for investing.

Dek: Breaking Banks producer Rachel Morrissey visits the Mastercard Innovation Lab in Nairobi and reports on ideas under development there.

Celent analysts Alenka Grealish and Stephen Greer explain how banks in Europe and the Netherlands have built business models around open banking.

A CapGemini study found that within three years, 40% of consumers will use voice assistants rather than a website or app (compared to 24% today). What does this mean for banks’ business models?

Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the CFPB, sent strong signals in a memo to all bureau staff last week that he wants to crack down on unscrupulous debt-collection firms as well as be less mission-driven and more data-focused. Kate Berry reports.

Dan Kimerling, an open banking pioneer turned venture capitalist who recently founded Deciens Capital, explains what open banking is, why an excessive focus on risk management prevents U.S. banks from adopting it, and why it would make sense for them to take on the platform model.

Venture capitalist Spiros Margaris offers a level-headed perspective on the hotly debated cryptocurrency alternative to traditional methods for funding young companies.

How politics, corruption, population growth and new technology are reshaping banking in Central and South America.

This week, Brett King interviews Ben Goertzel, chief scientist of robotics firm Hanson Robotics, about the strengths and weaknesses of Hanson’s humanoid Sophia robot. “We’re teaching her to understand what she sees and hears and hold conversations about what happens in her everyday environment,” he said. Goertzel, who is also founder and CEO of SingularityNET, a blockchain-based AI marketplace, shares how he’s trying to build interconnected artificial intelligence engines that can solve problems better than people can, yet also empathize with humans.

Jon Stein, CEO of Betterment, uses behavioral biology and machine learning to to make his robo-advisor software's suggestions continuously more intelligent and personalized.  

What’s in the Senate plan to scale back the Dodd-Frank Act and if it goes through, how will it impact bankers? American Banker reporter Ian McKendry reports on the potentially landmark legislation.

Bitcoin has passed $13,000 in value, and is now acting as a digital asset. But with the spike in value, many people are wondering if this is a bubble or just the beginning. Brett King hosts four guests: Brian Roemmele, founder of PayFinders.com; Bailey Reutzel, U.S. editor of Coindesk; Gabe Sukenik, founder of Morph Token; and Suleman Din, technology editor at American Banker and Financial Planning.

The battle for control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to be over for now. How will the winner, Trump-appointed Mick Mulvaney, reshape the consumer watchdog agency? American Banker Editor-in-Chief Rob Blackwell shares his inside-the-Beltway take on the CFPB’s future.

Jane Fraser, chief executive of Citigroup Latin America, talks about the dramatic changes the company has been making to its business model in that region and shares her perspective on how the new strategy is working out so far. She also touches on the unusual popularity of retail bank branches in Mexico, the digital push Citi is planning there next year, and what she sees as the three biggest differences between running a Latin American bank and a U.S. one – diversity, volatility and ethics.  

When CFPB Director Richard Cordray resigns in two weeks, will the agency grind to a halt? Kate Berry shares the latest on the embattled agency.

Fintechs got a head-start in the person-to-person payments race, and Zelle seemed like banks' catchup attempt, but it may prove to be a true innovation. Brett hosts Elise Moussa, CEO of Snapay , Jim Marous of The Financial Brand, JP Nicols, host of Serial Intrapreneur, and Wade Arnold, Builder of Awesomeness at BillGo.

President Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, has served on the Fed board since 2012 and been in the public eye for decades. But what he would actually do with the job is something of a mystery. American Banker reporter John Heltman provides an inside-the-beltway view of the likely new Fed head.

Cordray is still keeping everyone guessing about whether he is staying or running for governor of Ohio. And Republicans could weaken the agency by putting one of their own in charge and rolling back many of the rules it’s set.

Senate Republicans overturned a CFPB rule that would have prevented banks from forcing arbitration on consumers in disputes. American Banker reporter Kate Berry explains what this means and what the CFPB might do next.    

Women are rare in the upper management teams of fintech companies. Amy Nauiokas, co-founder of venture capital and advisory firm Anthemis Group, shares her take on this problem and the steps the industry could take to fix it.

This week’s show is the first episode of a new spinoff, Breaking Banks Asia, hosted by Simon Spencer, founder of startup advisory firm Edgelabs.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard explains why community banks feel they were hit with unduly tough regulations after the financial crisis.

Two realistic utopians -- David Orban, founder of the London think tank Network Society Research, and Himi Khan, executive V.P. at the virtual assistant tech startup Clinc – join the show to share how AI is letting people bank with their voice and may eventually give each person a virtual assistant with which they can communicate on any device.

ICOs are relatively new and raise a host of regulatory questions, but fintech and other startups find them so appealing because they draw funding from beyond the venture capital world, explain blockchain providers George Burke and Chandra Duggirala and investors Kenzi Wang and David del Ser.

Yolande Piazza, CEO of Citi Fintech, describes the bank’s unique method of gathering feedback and ideas about its apps from customers who are at home, often in their pajamas.

How Ellen Alemany, CIT's CEO, is enforcing a set of core behaviors at the company. One is straight talk.

Dek: Brett King is back on the show, talking about diversity in fintech with Anouska Streets, head of engineering at Finkit, a unit of digital banking software company Monitise, which was recently bought by Fiserv; and Colleen Wilson, founder and CEO of consulting firm Collaborate Chicago.

Forget millennials (for a minute). Theodora Lau, director of market innovation at AARP, shares why financial companies and fintechs should pay more attention to the over-50 crowd in their app designs and how a few fintech startups address this market.

Beneficial Bank in Philadelphia intends to be an early adopter of Apple’s Face ID. “We try to stay at the front of the pack,” CEO Gerry Cuddy says.  

Newly appointed Editor in Chief of American Banker, who was formerly Washington Bureau chief of the publication, shares his take on current events in the capitol and the prospects for financial regulation reform this fall.

It's only a matter of time before U.S. banks are forced to cede control over payments the way banks in China already have, says Brett King in this week's episode, which was recorded live at the Mobile Payments Conference in Chicago.

Karen Mills, former head of the Small Business Administration, says the glut of online lenders can be a boon for entrepreneurs by helping them obtain funds quickly. But the lenders still need to be more transparent about their rates and fees, and regulations would help.

Banks have started dabbling in virtual reality, such as BNP Paribas' letting French customers tour homes and apartments through VR headsets, says Raja Bose, global retail banking consulting leader at Genpact. Some of the strongest use cases for banks, he says, are in wealth management, trading and mortgages.

Divine, a rapper from Brooklyn, shares how he forged a friendship with billionaire venture capitalist Ben Horowitz and went on to create financial technology company BLAK. Also in this episode: Ramy Serageldin explains how his Honeyfi app helps couples collaborate on their finances and Paul Walker at Q2 shares his company’s work with fintech startups.

Some attempts to charge for basic banking services (e.g. Digit and Bank of America) have crashed and burned. Wei Ke, a partner with Simon-Kucher & Partners, explains how banks can help consumers get over their price sensitivity.

As the American working population ages and continues to be disrupted by technology, the U.S. needs to create skills training that will help them navigate the changing jobs landscape, says Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan. “Until we improve this, I think the workforce will not meet its potential,” he says in the latest American Banker podcast.

At a time when many banks struggle to win over millennials, Ally Bank appears to be bringing them in: more than 60% of new customers are millennials. President Diane Morais explains how the bank is getting the attention of a younger generation. One popular product: debit controls.

The Faster Payments Task Force of the Federal Reserve  just released its final report with proposals to be adopted by 2020.   Today, Ron Shevlin hosts a member of that task force-  Travis Dulaney, Founder and CEO of Push Payments.   James Wester, Research Director of Worldwide Payment Strategies at IDC will also being joining to discuss the 10 different proposals, the future of banking, and the idea of virtual accounts vs legacy accounts. Also, we are talking about #VoicePay and #AmazonPay with Brian Roemmele. Julie Conroy, from Aite Group, talks to Ron about the new uses of AI and how it will enhance faster payments and assist fraud prevention accuracy.  

Christine Duhaime, an anti-money-laundering attorney in Toronto, lays out the reasons banks should become early experts in and assist in initial coin offerings. She also lays out the risks, especially in the wake of the SEC’s report suggesting some ICO tokens are really securities.

Former Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig shares stories from his days as a top regulator during the Clinton Administration, the reasons why bank rules should be reviewed and maybe rewritten, and why he thinks the revolving door between Washington and the private sector is ok.

Nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, Plug and Play is the world’s largest tech accelerator. Sometimes called University 165, it has given early homes to some of the greatest tech success stories like Google, Paypal, and Logitech. Known for pairing startups with larger companies needing their solutions, this year, Plug and Play ran 11 “verticals” with 90 participants that all expect to leave the program with investment and a pilot deal. The organization invited Breaking Banks to profile its fintech vertical. We find out the history of Plug and Play and the focus on fintech through Scott Robinson, its fintech VP. Then we talk to three of the presenters who are participating to get a flavor of the scope and diversity of places that Plug N’ Play is investing: Flutter Wave CEO Iyinoluwa Aboyeji; BigID CEO Dimitri Sirota; Zumigo CEO Chirag Bakshi

Tom Michaud, the president and CEO of Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a top matchmaker for bank mergers, explains why large banks will soon return to dealmaking after a long absence. He also discusses the case for starting a new bank in today's environment, the enduring value of retail branches, and more.

We are celebrating our 200th episode today!   Brett is hosting Chris Skinner, Dave Birch, and Sam Maule  (all show regulars) to discuss how much has changed since we launched in May of 2013 and how much has stayed the same.   On the discussion table are:  alipay, Jack Ma, blockchain, AI, building a true digital system, payments, financial inclusion, and favorite guests and lessons from the previous 199 episodes.   It is all wrapped up in a Moment of Snark from Ron Shevlin.

To date, capital curbs have limited their participation in U.S. collateralized loan obligations, but Chinese banks and insurance companies are sophisticated investors with a big appetite for yield. Tricia Hazelwood, managing director and head of structured products at MUFG Securities, explains how China views US CLOs and how this new and potentially large source of capital could impact both deals and the leveraged loans used as collateral.

Today, Brett is joined by Penny Crosman of American Banker to discuss ICOs. Then, he talks with Carl Ryden, CEO of Precision Lender, to talk about his new book “Earn It: Building Your Bank’s Brad One Relationship at a Time“, and the principles that lenders need to adhere to to build trust and community. Also, Felipe Echandi Lacayo, the Founder of PanaFintech, helping to build a fintech ecosystem throughout Latin America. And for the last half the show, we have Sam Shawki, the CEO of Magic Cube, who are using both hardware and software systems to ensure cyber security.

This episode of Breaking Banks was sponsored by NTT DATA… They get stuff done. We were guests at the Money 2020 conference, and had the chance to do lots of amazing interviews. The theme of the conference was Fintech Superheroes, and this show highlights just 4 of many Fintech fighters that are working to make the system better, smarter, faster, cheaper, and more honest. First we meet Neobank hero- Norris Koppel, the founder of Monese, which was started out of his own need to as a migrant to open a bank account. Like many heroes, he decided to solve the problem for everyone after him! Next, we meet Frederic Nze, whose Oakam is transforming microlending in London, strengthening communities and giving opportunity to the financially underserved. Then we go to Marta Piekarska at the bright star of Hyperledger, working on blockchains that could solve problems of trust, transparency, and tranfers forever. And last, but hardly least, is our own Fintech “Q”, Steve Kirsch. As CEO and Founder of Token, he is solving the problem of banks accuracy, agility, and speed. In coming weeks, we will bring you more stories from the conference…  

Dr. Dan Geller, behavioral economist and author of the book Money Anxiety, explains why Americans are more stressed about their finances than ever before and how fear affects their decisions about financial products and banks. Due to the July 4 holiday, the next American Banker podcast will air July 11.

Why does it cost so much to move money?   If every record is computerized, if all the movement is recorded electronically- then why the fees to get money out of a different banks atm? Why the fees to spend your money in another country?  Is it that expensive to move money?  And does it need to be anymore? On today’s show, Brett King hosts Bill Barnhydt of Abra, and Shachar Bialick of Curve- two fintech companies trying to solve this issue, making it better, cheaper and smarter to use your money where you are and how you need. Also, Penny Crosman joins from American Banker, to give the news overview.

Next month, the credit bureaus will have to drop information about tax liens and civil judgments from credit scores unless they can independently verify the data. Eva Wolkowitz, manager of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, and Sarah Davies, senior vice president of VantageScore, share their take on what this means for the credit scores lenders use.

No one can decide if ICOs have caused cryptocurrrencies to really “arrive” or if this is just a cryptocurrency bubble. Today, we have people to help us make sense of it all.  Dave Birch, Author of Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin is going to tell us why Bitcoin is not the savior we think it is, but it kinda is. We have on Charlie Shrem and Anthony Di Iorio from Jaxx  Blockchain Interface-  a multi-token blockchain wallet to take us through the ICO madness, and what we can expect in the near future.  And we have Marc Hochstein from American Banker on to talk about why he was wrong about bitcoin. Also-  Marc Andrews, VP of Watson Financial Services Solutions explains how the famed AI-  IBM Watson- is going to augment and fix with their new regtech cognitive solutions suite.  

Dan O'Malley, who until very recently ran the fintech incubator at Eastern Bank (and before that was at Capital One), now has a startup called Numerated Growth Technologies and software that he says can process loans in five minutes. O'Malley explains how it all works in this podcast.

To teach artificial intelligence to responsibly execute human goals, like driverless driving and automated loan decisions, there’s a need to build bridges between human thought and language computers can understand, Stephen Wolfram, founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, explains in this week’s episode of Breaking Banks.

Some of the biggest risks facing any large bank come from within, such as human error or mischievous traders. Andrew Waxman, a risk management consultant and author of the new book, Rogues of Wall Street, discusses how cognitive psychology and augmented intelligence offer help.

American Banker reporter Brian Eha shares stories and thoughts from his new book, "How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance," and two fintech leaders explain why Charlotte is destined to be the next big fintech hub.

A new survey finds that 14% of small and medium-size businesses switched banks last year and 18% are considering switching this year. Having an appealing mobile app is critical to keeping small business owners happy, according to Doug Brown, senior vice president of FIS. He explains why, and also shares some of the study's observations about millennials.

There is no question that AI presents exciting new solutions and happy additions to our lives. But in order for us to truly take advantage and prepare for a future when cars are not privately owned and are self-driving, energy is green, abundant, and cheap, and robots replace workers at a dramatic rate, changing the nature of work forever. To talk about this future and how fundamental “fintech” principles are to it, Brett is hosting thought leaders – JoAnn Barefoot of Barefoot Innovation, Greg Cross of Soulmachines, and Tony Seba, Author of “Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation”  

David McLaughlin, founder and CEO of QuantaVerse, discusses how artificial intelligence can improve anti-money-laundering compliance; the problems of de-risking and "defensive filing" of suspicious activity reports; the Clearing House's proposal to reduce banks' AML costs; and more.

How do we get money to small businesses that make the economy work for most people around the world? What kind of systems do we need to create?  And how do we make them flexible so multiple cultures can utilize them? Today, Sam Maule hosts Chris Rentner from Akouba Credit and Viola Lewellyn from Ovamba to discuss the different strategies they have created to help address the needs from small communities in North America to African Continent.  

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker sat down with American Banker to talk fintech, financial regulation and the economy.

MIT professor Maria Loumioti has studied loans made strictly using hard data and loans where a loan officer clearly was influenced by personal connections or feelings about a borrower. The results, which she shared with American Banker editors Bonnie McGeer and Penny Crosman, shed light on the value and limitations of "soft" information.

For a small island, Ireland has developed a massive tech scene. The Celtic Tiger of the 90s took a serious hit with the recession, but during that time it established itself as a useful hub for many tech companies to put down deep roots. As the global economy continues to recover and grow, Ireland's small but powerful tech community is fostering fintech growth. In this episode, Peter Oakes, founder of FintechIreland; Dave Anderson, head of consulting at Ammeon; Gene Murphy, innovation community manager at Bank of Ireland; and Tony Kelly, CTO of Deposify, join Breaking Banks to discuss the growth of fintech in Ireland and the new opportunities due to Brexit.  

Andreas Dombret, the head of banking supervision for the German central bank, discusses how cooperation remains vital despite retrenchment in the U.S. and Europe, how blockchain changes banking, and the difference between the German and U.S. banking systems.

Many community bankers take a wait-and-see approach to blockchains — "I'll deal with it when it's real." But the technology requires major change in people and processes and smaller banks need to prepare, according to Joe Dewey, an attorney at Holland & Knight and author of a new book about blockchain technology.

American Banker's Rob Blackwell and Marc Hochstein discuss the pushback from state regulators and consumer advocates to the OCC's proposed charter; Chris Skinner and Jim Marous hold forth on fintech. 

Kosta Peric, deputy director of digital payments and financial services for the poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses his efforts to expand access to low-cost financial services in developing countries. Peric, who joined the foundation in 2013 after more than two decades at Swift,  also talks about creating interoperability between mobile money systems across borders; the foundation’s answer to the challenges of AML and KYC; why bitcoin doesn't fit the bill yet; and more.

A freewheeling discussion (over beers) about the future of branches with Tom Brown of Second Curve Capital and Dave Martin of BankMechanics at the Trump National Doral hotel in Miami during American Banker's Retail Banking 2017 conference.

At last week's conference in London, host Brett King took time away from speaking and judging startup pitches to talk to some of the main presenters, including Ruth Wandhöfer, Citi's global head of regulatory and market strategy.

Researchers studied misconduct data for all 1.2 million financial advisers registered in the U.S. from 2005 to 2015 and found that, following an incidence of wrongdoing, female advisers are 20% more likely to lose their jobs and 30% less likely to land new jobs compared to male advisers. Women face harsher punishment despite engaging in less costly misconduct and despite a lower propensity towards repeat offenses. Mark Egan, assistant professor of finance at the University of Minnesota, explains the double standard to Penny Crosman, editor at large of American Banker, and Bonnie McGeer, executive editor of American Banker Magazine.

Starling Bank in the U.K. is building from scratch.  Unlike other neobanks, Starling sees its future as a hub of financial products, not necessarily the generator of every product. CEO Anne Boden explains.

Mary Mack, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo, took over the retail banking business last year, shortly before the company was fined $185 million for opening 2 million unauthorized accounts for customers on her predecessor's watch. Mack's challenge is to rebuild consumer trust and transform the retail branch network's culture from a sales-oriented to a service-driven one. On March 23, she gave a progress report on her mission at American Banker's Retail Banking 2017 conference in Miami, discussing how employees reacted to its new incentive pay plan, why the bank stopped calling its branches "stores," how it now prevents salespeople from impersonating customers, and more.

Derek Corcoran of Avoka discusses how banks have embraced digital marketing but still struggle with digital sales. Author Randy Pennington talks about building corporate cultures that adapt and foster innovation.

Richard Hunt, the head of the Consumer Bankers Association, sits down with Rob Blackwell, American Banker’s Washington Bureau Chief, to talk reg reform, the chances for a rollback of the Durbin amendment and more.

This week, Breaking Banks’ Brett King talks to Rachel Schneider, senior vice president of Center of Financial Services Innovation, about her new book "The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty" and on potential solutions to income volatility problems. The book is based on the U.S. Financial Diaries study, which follows the lives of more than 200 low- and middle income-families over the course of the year. Also: Travis Dulaney, chief executive of Push Payments, talks instant payments; Mary Wisniewski of American Banker discusses the week's news, including the OCC's fintech charter, data aggregation battles and alternative data.

Banks are underestimating the amount of work and education needed for blockchain technology to be adopted throughout the industry, says Steven Ehrlich, lead associate within emerging technologies at Spitzberg Partners, a New York City consulting firm.

It is easy for banks and fintechs who know that they need to innovate to get caught up in what looks innovative, or what sounds innovative, but ends up being more for show than for dough. To avoid the pitfalls, and help everyone invest in true innovation that can enhance customer experience and truly add value, we are talking about Innovation Theater- how to avoid it and find implement true innovation. Ron Shevlin guest hosts, with guests Nick White from Monotise, and Marc Hochstein and Penny Crosman from American Banker. Also Gaia Fasso joins to talk about the Anthemis Fellowship  

This week, Brett and Breaking Banks were onstage with Antony Jenkins, CEO of 10x Future Technologies at the LendIt conference in NY! While we were at the conference, we decided to talk to some others that were making new waves in the lending space. We talked to Brock Blake, CEO of Lendio about their new “franchising” model to expand their reach in the US. We caught up with Christoph Reiche, CEO of iwoca about the affects of Brexit on the lending space for small business through the EU, and what kinds of data are proving useful to create new lending models. We chatted about the ideas of debt rehabilitation with Ohad Samet, from TrueAccord, and how machine learning and AI can help people fix their credit situations. Of course we talked with Peter Renton, who created the conference, and we wrap up by catching up with John Owens and Emmanuel Daniel! It was a full day at a great event! We want to thank the LendIt conference, Metro Multimedia, and all our guests!

Much progress has been made lately, for bitcoin and blockchain. Bitcoin is now worth, literally, as much as gold. Thai Stock Exchange is planning to use blockchain for a new startup marketplace. Banks have signaled bullishness toward blockchain tech. But bitcoin and blockchain purists say ignorance around distributed ledger and cryptocurrency technology is leading to ill-informed choices.

Professor Rahul Telang at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College analyzed the behavior of 500,000 bank customers over five years to observe their reactions to adverse events such as fraud on their bank account. It's a rare objective measure of the effect of fraud on customer retention.

Brett King, Marc Hochstein of American Banker, and Peter Renton, Founder of LendIt Academy, talk about the upcoming Digital Identity Crisis Webinar, The LendIt Conference at the Javits Center in NYC, and the proposed Fintech Charter and what that can mean for changes in banking in the US.   Sam Maule takes the helm in the second half, and talks to Zeina Shuhaibar from the IRC, Ashish Gadnis, Founder/CEO of BanQu Inc., and Aneesh Varma, Founder of Aire (Credit scores for humanity @AireScore) to talk about fintech solutions to help refugees regain some economic stability and contribute to the economies of their new domiciles.

Trust and transparency can be strengthened and like-minded borrowers and banks can be brought together if transactions are "tagged" and investments are explained, argues Bruce Cahan, adjunct professor at Stanford University.

MPESA, the Swahili word for money, is Kenya’s mobile money system developed by Safaricom.   It has literally transformed the ability for people to work, save, pay for everything from groceries, bills, rents, and everything else.  Kenya reports that use of MPESA has helped to lift 186,000 families out of poverty.  That is nearly 2% of the entire population.  And it has helped wealth grow across the board, helping to develop a stronger middle class. Today, Breaking Banks tells the story of MPESA, and how it came to partner with banks, particularly KCB,  to give all people access to banking services, to easy movement of their money, increasing their ability to save and build wealth in their lives.

Hong Kong and Singapore have long been economic crossroads. China and India are economies with vast populations and huge potential. And Shenzhen is bursting with innovative creativity. All of these contribute to the Asian fintech market being far ahead in adoption and ecosystem creation.

Andrew Lo straps sensors to traders and watches how their pulses and body temperatures change when markets dive or trades go bad. The technology could be used elsewhere in a bank to address problems before they escalate.

Insights from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: How can AI help consumers spend and save wisely? If friction should be added back into the system, can we put it where it is useful, not frustrating?

Guest host Sam Maule speaks with American Banker reporter Lalita Clozel, Sam Hodges, managing director of Funding Circle, and Normand Lepine, senior practice lead at NTT DATA about U.S. regulators’ approach to fintech companies and trends in smart home devices. Sam then interviews Brian Roemmele, founder of PayFinders.com, about the growth of virtual assistants and the security and compliance issues of far-field versions like Amazon Alexa, and Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group, about digital marketing.

Jim Van Dyke, CEO of futurion, discusses the correlations between mobile deposit features, the ratings of those features, and app adoption.

Justin Newton, founder and CEO of Netki, discusses the barriers to commercialization of bitcoin, how his startup is trying to solve the problem, why private blockchains are useful and why public ones will eventually become more valuable.

Host Brett King chats with TheFinanser.Com's Chris Skinner and American Banker's Penny Crosman. Then, Brett reports from the floor of the Computer Electronics Show, where he spoke to Guy Kawasaki, a VC who drives a semi-autonomous Mercedes.

American Banker is pleased to bring you Breaking Banks, hosted by Brett King, and featuring the editors of American Banker. In this episode, guest host JP Nichols talks to an innovative team at Capital One who are rethinking the very nature of a bank for customers, employees, and entrepreneurs.

American Banker is pleased to bring you Breaking Banks, hosted by Brett King, and featuring the editors of American Banker.   In this episode, guest host Ron Shevlin talks to American Banker's Rob Blackwell and Joe Adler and the Financial Brand's Jim Marous about what to expect from the next administration. Also, Megan Caywood, chief platform officer of Starling Bank, talks about creating an open API for developers outside the U.K. startup bank.

American Banker is pleased to bring you Breaking Banks, hosted by Brett King, and featuring the editors of American Banker.   In this episode: American Banker's Innovator of the Year, John Hope Bryant of Operation Hope; Richard Brown and Charley Cooper of the blockchain consortium R3; and Ravi Srinivasan, who describes India's drastic move to stamp out cash.

American Banker is pleased to bring you Breaking Banks, hosted by Brett King, and featuring the editors of American Banker.   In this episode: Brett King traveled to Helsinki and Tokyo and spoke to experts about how artificial intelligence and augmented reality will change people's financial lives. He interviewed Kristian Luoma, who runs an accelerator program at Finnish financial services firm OP Financial; Ville Hulkko from fintech startup Valossa, which has built an artificial intelligence engine that watches videos and can describe what happens in them; Megan Beck, author of The Network Imperative, a book about digital transformation; Natalie Shiori Fleming and Hiroki Kudo from Fintech Association Japan; and Toshi Taki from Money Forward, a personal financial management software startup in Japan that uses AI to categorize transactions.

American Banker is pleased to bring you Breaking Banks, hosted by Brett King, and featuring the editors of American Banker.   In this episode: Brett hosts Keith Teare, a founding member of tech media company TechCrunch and startup accelerator Archimedes Labs; and Brian Solis, an expert in technology and customer behaviors who shared thoughts from his new book X: The Experience When Business Meets Design.

American Banker is pleased to bring you Breaking Banks, hosted by Brett King, and featuring the editors of American Banker.   In this episode: Brett hosts a group of fintech influencers — including Chris Skinner, Jim Marous, Dave Birch, and Ghela Boskovich — to review a bit of 2016 and talk about the trends and predictions for 2017. What's next?

American Banker is pleased to bring you Breaking Banks, hosted by Brett King, and featuring the editors of American Banker.   This week's show is a remix of Brett King's interview with Bruce Cahan, Stanford professor and creator of GoodBank and Manu Saadia, author of Trekonomics, a book about the economics of Star Trek. In the second half, Sam Maule, director and senior practice lead at NTT Data Americas, and Marc Hochstein, editor in chief of American Banker, speak with John Hope Bryant, American Banker Innovator of the Year and creator of the "Silver Rights Movement."  

Dave Martin, founder of BankMechanics, shares his insights on sales culture, performance incentives, motivating employees to think about the long term, the future of branches, why in-store locations are harder to run than you think, and more.

Peter Wannemacher, senior analyst at Forrester, explains why Europe's PSD2 regulation matters to U.S. banks and why it will be a hot topic in 2017. He also shares his tech predictions for 2017 and a few contrarian warnings.

Loretta Mester, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, discusses how Trump's election will affect financial services, what she thinks of Neel Kashkari's plan to end "too big to fail," and her views on interest rates.

Ping-pong tables, latte machines and other neat frills don't attract millennials as much as companies like to think, according to Melissa Louis, managing consultant at The Gallup Organization, which has done massive surveys in this area. "The biggest thing millennials really care about is development," she says. "Are they going to be in an organization where they will be consistently coached, where they can see a path for themselves in the future, regardless of what role they're starting in?"

Wei Ke, a partner at consultants Simon-Kucher, discusses the psychology behind customers' choices, including the appeal of metal credit cards, the willingness to pay $450 a year for a card and the paralysis of too many options.

Banks are just as vulnerable to the kind of nation-state cyberattack Yahoo suffered, and can avoid some of the mistakes it made, says Samuel Visner of the consulting firm ICF and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

David Weiss, senior analyst at Aite Group, weighs in on the IBM/Promontory deal and how humans and artificial intelligence programs will interact in the field of bank regulatory compliance.

Julio Alejandro, CEO of Humanitarian Blockchain in London, thinks so. Some of his projects, such as providing bitcoin Visa debit cards to refugees and digital identities for ex-cons, are ideas financial services firms could implement here.

It's long been assumed that technology will help the financially underserved access the banking services they need. Christine Duhaime, an attorney and founder of the Digital Financial Institute, a financial technology think-tank, says this assumption is wrong, and that some tech advances are already starting to have unanticipated adverse effects on the financially disadvantaged. Banks will have to think creatively — by teaching people to code and maybe even making house calls — to ensure they provide fair access to services.

Bill Barhydt, founder of startup Abra, explains how his company's mobile app uses bitcoin as a payment rail for cross-border remittances while solving the foreign exchange risk and last-mile problem that have hampered adoption of the cryptocurrency.

Executives from Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Canada share their early learnings about distributed ledger technology at American Banker's Blockchains + Digital Currencies conference in July.

Zooko Wilcox, founder of Zcash, discusses how advanced cryptography can bring confidentiality to transactions on distributed ledgers; the relative merits and drawbacks of the Bitcoin and Ethereum models; and more.

David Pollino, deputy chief security officer at Bank of the West, shares insights into the email-based cybertheft attacks he's been tracking and what the bank is doing to shield itself and its customers from email scams.

Regulatory burdens (particularly the Durbin interchange cap), stubbornly low interest rates and a slow, expensive transition from branch to digital banking mean only the wealthy and the desperate are attractive customers, says Todd Baker of Broadmoor Consulting.

Christopher Whalen, senior managing director and head of research at Kroll Bond Rating Agency, discusses the sorry state of European banks, the missteps by European Union regulators and the potential ramifications for financial institutions in the U.S.

Marketplace lenders have been declaring "FICO-free Zones" and playing down the need for the longstanding measure of creditworthiness. FICO CEO Will Lansing explains how the company's score is evolving and why he believes FICO remains the best (not necessarily the only) way to determine ability to repay a loan.

Moven founder and all-around fintech evangelist Brett King discusses how financial institutions can survive a future where artificial intelligence is widespread and plastic cards are no more.

Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, authors of "Blockchain Revolution," discuss the implications for banks of distributed ledger technology, the pros and cons of private blockchains compared to open networks, how DAOs might eliminate moral hazard, and more.

Presidential candidates have called this year for the Federal Reserve to be subject to public audits. Peter Conti-Brown, a Wharton professor and author of "The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve," explains why he only partially agrees.

The ongoing battle between the FBI and Apple over encryption could have consequences not only for iPhone and mobile banking security, but overall software security and the privacy of customer records, according to David Weiss, senior analyst at Aite Group.