Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Dan Murphy — Founder of Sunset Park Advisors and former CFPB official who helped craft the agency’s open banking rule (finalized last October). Our plan is simple: for listeners less steeped in the regulatory process, we’ll walk through how the rule took shape, assess where things stand today, and focus on what comes next (and what should come next, realistic or not.) Granted, “today” remains a moving target. Just 20 minutes before we hit record, breaking news dropped that changed the open banking conversation yet again. Highlights include: The unusual bipartisan and cross-industry consensus (banks and fintechs alike) that pushed the rule across the finish line (and why that consensus collapsed after October 2024) Why JPMorgan’s aggressive API fee move  rolled out while the no-fee rule was technically still in effect) may have backfired by uniting fintechs, crypto firms, merchants, and even regulators against it The hardest unresolved questions: whether banks can charge for data access, how liability is allocated when things go wrong, how far the rule should extend beyond checking and credit cards, and what counts as legitimate secondary data use. If you care about the future of data portability, the balance of power between banks and fintechs, or just want a front-row seat to the regulatory drama reshaping U.S. finance in real time, this is the episode you don’t want to miss. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Dan Murphy: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieljmurphy01/   Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders, a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay. In some ways, this is the episode everything has been building toward. We’ve explored AI in customer acquisition, underwriting, and compliance — but we haven’t gone deep on the buzziest, most frontier concept in the mix: agentic AI. In Episode 5, we tackle the systems that don’t just analyze or predict, but actually act.  With Kareem Saleh (Founder & CEO of FairPlay) co-hosting, we sit down with Alex O’Rourke (fintech adviser, lawyer, and AI cofounder) and Jay Budzik (AI/ML product and tech leader; Senior VP at Fifth Third) to unpack the implications of letting autonomous agents loose in financial services. Highlights include: Why agentic AI breaks the “rules vs. empathy” binary that has defined human vs. machine roles (and how that opens new risks in compliance, customer service, and fraud detection) How AI agents will reshape customer loyalty (expect your robo-butler to switch your accounts for better rates while you sleep) Why banks might be more prepared than anyone thinks, thanks to a pre-existing culture of risk management (and why consumers remain the weakest link) Don’t miss our deep dive into the wild frontiers of agentic AI … and what it means for the future of work, trust, and intelligent systems in finance. Don’t forget to subscribe and catch the rest of Model Citizens; more insights to come! This miniseries is brought to you by FairPlay. FairPlay is an AI enablement company for financial services. They help companies build, test, optimize, validate and govern AI models. Learn more at Fairplay.ai Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Kareem: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemsaleh/ Follow Jay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaybudzik/ Follow Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-villarreal-o-rourke-39631b28/ Learn more about FairPlay here.

Welcome back to Fintech Takes.  I’m Alex Johnson, and today we’re trying something different: a little audiobook experiment.  I’m turning my recent deep dive, “Why Is This Happening? An Exhaustive Review of the History and Nascent Culture of the CFPB,” into a podcast episode for your listening pleasure(s) anytime, anywhere. It’s a sweeping, inside-the-agency history of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (told through interviews with more than two dozen former staffers) and an investigation into why, 14 years after its founding, the CFPB is being hollowed out in full public view. Along the way: cockroach-infested offices, chainsaw-wielding regulators, and a Mark Andreessen quote I never thought I’d have to say out loud.  If you haven’t read it, or haven’t revisited it since it ran in June, you’ll hear the whole essay, start to finish.  And because the Bureau has been unusually busy these last two months, I’ve added fresh updates on what the CFPB’s been up to (surprise flip-flop on open banking and intervention in the Synapse fiasco), and what those actions tell us about the future of the Bureau. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders, a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay. In some ways, this is the episode everything has been building toward. We’ve explored AI in customer acquisition, underwriting, and compliance — but we haven’t gone deep on the buzziest, most frontier concept in the mix: agentic AI. In Episode 5, we tackle the systems that don’t just analyze or predict, but actually act.  With Kareem Saleh (Founder & CEO of FairPlay) co-hosting, we sit down with Alex O’Rourke (fintech adviser, lawyer, and AI cofounder) and Jay Budzik (AI/ML product and tech leader; Senior VP at Fifth Third) to unpack the implications of letting autonomous agents loose in financial services. Highlights include: Why agentic AI breaks the “rules vs. empathy” binary that has defined human vs. machine roles (and how that opens new risks in compliance, customer service, and fraud detection) How AI agents will reshape customer loyalty (expect your robo-butler to switch your accounts for better rates while you sleep) Why banks might be more prepared than anyone thinks, thanks to a pre-existing culture of risk management (and why consumers remain the weakest link) Don’t miss our deep dive into the wild frontiers of agentic AI … and what it means for the future of work, trust, and intelligent systems in finance. Don’t forget to subscribe and catch the rest of Model Citizens; more insights to come! This miniseries is brought to you by FairPlay. FairPlay is an AI enablement company for financial services. They help companies build, test, optimize, validate and govern AI models. Learn more at Fairplay.ai Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Kareem: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemsaleh/ Follow Jay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaybudzik/ Follow Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-villarreal-o-rourke-39631b28/ Learn more about FairPlay here.

Welcome back to Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders, a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay. In Episode 4, we’re turning the spotlight on a part of lending that rarely gets the AI treatment: customer acquisition and marketing. With Kareem Saleh (Founder & CEO of FairPlay) riding shotgun as cohost, we sit down with Alana Levine (Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect) about the messy, high-stakes business of acquiring customers in a world where LLMs are rewriting the rules of discovery, personalization, and compliance. Together, we explore how GenAI is shaking up everything from landing page copy to affiliate trust dynamics (and why marketers need to stop thinking like ad buyers and start thinking like systems architects). Highlights include: How AI lets teams go deeper on data to target customers more precisely than ever (and what happens when personalization crosses into “‘creepy”) The rise of “no click” discovery and what it means for tracking attribution in LLMs Why marketing compliance is an operational necessity (versus a bottleneck, and how FairPlay’s approach to fair lending fits in) If you’re trying to scale customer acquisition with AI, avoid compliance landmines, and stay fair in the eyes of regulators, this one’s for you. Don’t forget to subscribe and catch the rest of Model Citizens; more insights to come! This miniseries is brought to you by FairPlay. FairPlay is an AI enablement company for financial services. They help companies build, test, optimize, validate and govern AI models. Learn more at Fairplay.ai Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Kareem: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemsaleh/ Follow Alana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanalevine/ Learn more about FairPlay here.

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I riff about fintech companies we're absolutely not giving investment advice on (though this one may test our willpower). We kick things off with Alix, which tackles one of the most bureaucratically brutal processes most people will ever face: settling a loved one’s estate. It’s admin + grief = chaos. Alix offers a $249 flat-fee concierge service that uses AI (plus humans) to cancel subscriptions, close accounts, and chase down deeds. It’s DTC in a space no one wants to think about until they have to (think: Chime-level brand softness meets probate-level emotional complexity). Next up is Narrative, an AI-for-compliance startup that’s not trying to do everything (just the very specific, painful thing of parsing and resolving consumer complaints). What stood out? It’s not just trained on your written policies. It learns from how your best people make decisions. In a post-CFPB, state-by-state enforcement era, that nuance might be the difference between surviving a compliance audit … or hiring 300 more people to do what one model can. Then there’s Ogment AI, which wants to be Shopify for agentic commerce. It builds MCP servers (think: APIs for LLMs) that let merchants make their products shoppable in ChatGPT, Claude, and co. But the big question isn’t tech; it’s trust. Can LLMs represent your brand voice in a way that doesn’t reduce you to “cheap and ships fast”? TBD, but Ogment is skating where the puck might go. Finally, there’s SOLO, which is kind of like a new school credit bureau. One that’s trying to standardize, store, and reuse the messy contextual data that lives outside traditional credit files. Plus, it flips the economics: lenders get paid when others reuse their verified data. It’s a trust layer disguised as underwriting tech, and its success may hinge more on old-school, squishy human partnerships than the tech. Plus, manifestations: We want the Timothée Chalamet of fintech; the operators who give a damn about striving to be the best at their craft. Often, the most profitable companies started that way and the monies followed as a byproduct of obsession with doing it right. Now that’s worth spotlighting. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://www.meetalix.com/ https://thenarrative.dev/ https://www.ogment.ai/ https://solo.one/

Welcome back to Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders, a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay.  With FairPlay’s Kareem Saleh (Founder & CEO) at my side, we unpack: how can banks and fintechs build fair, compliant lending systems in a time of regulatory uncertainty? In episode 3, we’re digging into compliance in the age of AI; an area that isn’t always top of mind for builders in fintech, but absolutely should be. Both of our guests today —  Chelsea Keegan (Chief Compliance Officer at Flex) and Eli Corbett (VP, Deputy General Counsel at Affirm) —  have built compliance functions inside high-growth fintech companies, either in their current roles or in the past.  So we’re taking this opportunity to learn from their experience (what they’ve seen, what they’ve learned, and how they’ve approached compliance). Together, we unpack the new realities of legal risk in fintech … and why compliance can’t just be a legal function anymore Highlights include: How you can't compliance your way out of a bad product (why product, engineering, and legal need to be in the room together, especially when building with AI) Regulators are watching your blog posts. Your marketing language might be Exhibit A in a future consent order Why nimble tech, cultural fluency, and strong governance matter more than legacy checklists or canned audits Why a fintech’s worst-case scenario isn’t the same as a bank’s (and both sides need to plan accordingly) Don’t forget to subscribe and catch the rest of Model Citizens; we’re just getting started! This miniseries is brought to you by FairPlay. FairPlay is an AI enablement company for financial services. They help companies build, test, optimize, validate and govern AI models. Learn more at Fairplay.ai Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Kareem: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemsaleh/ Follow Chelsea: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-keegan/ Follow Eli:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-eli-corbett-1b0177130/

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner-in-recapping, Jason Mikula. Usually, we sift through a grab bag of headlines, but not this time. There are two seismic fintech stories worth your time (both tied to data access, control, and what comes next). So that’s where we’re headed. No visit to BaaS Island this time.  Our first story: JPMorgan Chase’s proposed pricing for open banking API access is reportedly 10x what aggregators currently charge their customers. The fee isn’t just financial; it’s strategic. Payments use cases (ahem, Pay by Bank) are priced highest.  With the CFPB's open banking rule under fire (and the CFPB now switching legal sides to ask the court to toss out its own rule), we unpack what this means for consumer data access and the economics of data sharing. With Chase proposing “punitive” fees that could render key fintech use cases economically unviable, are we on the verge of screen scraping 2.0? Our second story: Congress passes the Genius Act, giving stablecoins their first real federal framework. It could be a win for players like Circle, but what does it mean for banks, tokenized deposits, and global dollar dominance? Are we just exporting U.S. monetary power through DeFi rails (and will regulators have the bandwidth to keep up)? Plus, in our Can’t Let It Go corner: Jason goes off on the ethics of betting on people’s divorces. Meanwhile, I spiral down the rabbit hole of Bill Pulte’s unhinged Twitter (where he’s on a mission to destroy FICO and get Jerome Powell fired, in ALL CAPS and random quotation marks). Enjoy! Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders, a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay.  With FairPlay’s Kareem Saleh (Founder & CEO) at my side, we unpack: how can banks and fintechs build fair, compliant lending systems in a time of regulatory uncertainty? In Episode 2, we’re joined by Kevin Moss (Senior Advisor at Baselayer, former CRO) and Andrada Pacheco (EVP & Chief Data Scientist at VantageScore) to explore how AI is reshaping credit modeling, and where caution is still very much required. We trace the evolution from decision trees and logistic regression to gradient boosting, cash flow data, and the emergence of AI. Along the way, we tackle the core dilemma: how to boost predictive power without losing explainability or fairness. Highlights include: Why better performance often comes at the cost of transparency (and how to bridge the gap with hybrid models) AI isn’t new in credit risk modeling; tree-based methods like CART, CHAID, and gradient boosting have been around for decades (what’s changing now is the scale, the data, and the complexity) LLMs are great for fraud, operations, and consumer education, but they’re not safe for credit decisions just yet) Fairness is expanding: Disparate impact enforcement may be fading federally, but state attorney generals and plaintiffs’ attorneys are picking up the slack. We close with a reminder: credit modeling doesn’t just need to be effective. It needs to be explainable, equitable, and defensible; especially as AI raises the stakes. Don’t forget to subscribe and catch more insights on Model Citizens in upcoming episodes! This miniseries is brought to you by FairPlay. FairPlay is an AI enablement company for financial services. They help companies build, test, optimize, validate and govern AI models. Learn more at Fairplay.ai Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Kareem: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemsaleh/ Follow Kevin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moss-b032163/ Follow Andrada: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrada-pacheco-ph-d-26731a1/ Learn more about FairPlay here.

Welcome to Model Citizens: AI Compliance for Banks and Fintech Lenders, a six-part miniseries from the Fintech Takes podcast in partnership with FairPlay. In this series, I’m joined by FairPlay’s Kareem Saleh (Founder & CEO) to explore how banks and fintechs can build fair, compliant lending systems in an era of regulatory uncertainty. Episode 1 tackles one of the biggest questions in financial services today: what happens when the top federal watchdog (that was/is the CFPB) loses its bite? Joined by David Silberman (former CFPB Associate Director for Research, Markets, and Regulation) and Abby Hogan (SVP of Legal & Regulatory Affairs; ex-CFPB), we explore the vacuum left by a defanged CFPB and the new patchwork of enforcement that’s emerging in its place. Highlights include: Why 50-state compliance is the most expensive form of “deregulation” you’ve never asked for How pragmatic state regulators are becoming the new R&D lab for rulemaking since fintech innovation won’t wait What the five-year lookback really means for compliance teams (hint: regulatory whiplash isn’t a free pass to hit cruise control) Whether the CFPB could be rebuilt (and how fast the talent might come roaring back) This episode sets the stage for what’s ahead. Because the future of fair lending isn’t just about algorithms; it’s about who’s making the rules, who’s watching, who’s suing, and who’s redrawing the lines of fairness and risk.  In other words: it’s about what kind of model citizens we want our institutions (and our systems) to be. Don’t forget to subscribe and catch more insights on Model Citizens in upcoming episodes! This miniseries is brought to you by FairPlay. FairPlay is an AI enablement company for financial services. They help companies build, test, optimize, validate and govern AI models. Learn more at Fairplay.ai Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow David: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-silberman-1143414a/ Follow Kareem: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemsaleh/ Follow Abby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbyhogan/ Learn more about FairPlay here.

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Evan Weinberger, Bloomberg Law reporter and bank regulation whisperer (and the rare guest who can quote both Caddyshack and Empire Strikes Back in a single episode, enjoy). This week’s show unpacks the JP Morgan Chase open banking fee bombshell (they’re now charging for access to their open banking APIs) — the story Evan himself and Bloomberg colleague Paige Smith broke — and the ripple effect it’s having across fintech, data aggregators, and regulators who seem genuinely unprepared for how fast it’s all moving. If there’s a central theme, it’s this: When the banks move first, everyone else scrambles. We dig into Chase’s strategy, the pricing breakdowns, and what the “value capture” narrative says about the future of open finance. But that’s just the start. Highlights include: -Why the CFPB is simultaneously gutting its rulebook and losing most of its staff -Why regulators are quietly abandoning disparate impact and what it means for fair lending -Why the Trump administration is targeting CDFIs (even though they serve many rural Southern areas aligned with the GOP) -How a data fight might unite crypto VCs and big box merchants (yes, really) This episode has it all: open banking drama, more regulatory whiplash, and fintech caught in the middle wondering what the hell just happened. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Evan Weinberger: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-weinberger-3746aa4/ X: https://x.com/reporterev  Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Matthew Goldman — Totavi founder, serial fintech builder (Wallaby, Vertical), ex-Bankrate, and still rocking 30 credit cards. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, but if there’s a through-line, it’s this: premium cards are evolving into subscription bundles, fintechs are embedding loyalty into everyday local spend, and crypto is making a broader push into full-service financial platforms. We kick things off with the Chase Sapphire Reserve $795 price hike (and why Chase wants you to downgrade). Then we get into Bilt — aptly described by Matthew as the fintech playing chess while the rest of us are still playing checkers. And finally, we dive into Coinbase’s new Amex card and the rise of membership-powered ecosystems. Highlights include: -Why Chase Sapphire Reserve rewards are the Disneyland of personal finance -The hidden genius of Bilt’s wedge strategy (spoiler: it’s not just the rent rewards) -What crypto reward cards reveal about financial fandom and the economics of loyalty Whether you’re a points junkie, an operator, or just curious why your airport lounge is so crowded … this one’s for you. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Matthew Goldman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgoldman/   Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I talk about fintech companies that we're definitely not giving investment advice on. We kick things off with Polar (think Stripe Billing but for LLMs). Polar tracks things like token usage, execution time, and even GitHub access to handle metered billing for AI-native products. It's not even payments; it’s pre-payments, too. Polar helps you charge for the thing before the thing happens. Hey, as AI agents start shopping for themselves, someone has to keep the receipts… Next up is Multiply Mortgage. “Mortgage-as-a-benefit” sounds cursed, but here we are. Multiply partners with employers to offer discounted mortgages (plus human advisors) to employees with zero cost to the company. Their bet is housing is the new healthcare: too broken to fix individually, but too big for employers to ignore. Especially useful in tech, where compensation is equity-heavy and underwriting gets weird. But it’s also a bet on this macro moment in time; if rates drop or unemployment spikes, the model may crack. Then there’s OpenTrade. Yield-as-a-service for stablecoins. Most stablecoins can’t offer interest directly (thanks, regulators), but OpenTrade does the regulatory gymnastics to plug stablecoins into money market funds via tokenized swaps. But I wonder what’s more disruptive: the yield or the regulatory workarounds? You can’t stop yield from sneaking in the side door (and honestly, why try?). Last up is Spinwheel (think Plaid, but for liabilities). While Plaid figured out the asset side of your balance sheet, Spinwheel builds pipes for the other half: credit cards, BNPL, student loans, and more. They started with embedded debt repayment and found their niche by giving lenders the kind of granular, real-time liability data that credit bureaus can’t (or won’t) offer. With Section 1033 on life support, is Spinwheel poised to become the only player with coverage that actually matters? Plus, manifestations: can someone please build a public credit bureau (kind of like a USPS for liabilities)? And while we’re at it, a stablecoin for the unbanked/underbanked that isn’t built on Tron? Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://polar.sh/ https://www.multiplymortgage.com/ https://www.opentrade.io/ https://spinwheel.io/

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) with my partner-in-fintech-recapping, Jason Mikula. Let’s get into it. First up: at long last, FICO score versions now include BNPL data, but there’s a catch (several, actually). Affirm is furnishing data, but other major players like Klarna and Afterpay? Not so much. We dig into why most BNPLs resist sharing data (hint: it’s expensive, complicated, and gives away their competitive edge), and how open banking could help—if you could reliably connect Klarna to Plaid (you can’t). Then, just when we abandon BaaS Island, the CFPB shows up with a lifeboat with a surprise move in the Synapse bankruptcy. A four-page filing could open the door to using the Civil Penalty Fund to repay depositors. It’s not quite a fintech bailout, but it might be the cleanest way to make people whole … and quietly shut the whole thing down. All of which still raises the bigger question: why did this happen in the first place (BaaS was supposed to be a thin layer on top of FDIC-insured banks)? Next, FHFA (which oversees Fannie and Freddie,  federal home loan banks, and a whole host of other interesting things) does crypto policy by tweet. Director Bill Pulte told Fannie and Freddie (via Twitter) to undertake a study for accepting crypto as mortgage collateral. According to the latest Federal Reserve data, only 8% of households used crypto in any fashion in 2024. So… why? Because someone asked. And in our Can’t Let It Go corner: Jason roasts ABN AMRO’s new sub-brand, BUUT (yes, BUUT), while I spiral over Circle’s $56B IPO valuation (this is meme coin math applied to a narrow bank!).  Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m your host, Alex Johnson, joined by Martin Kleinbard; advisor at Granular, ex-CFPB, and author of the absolute banger of a research report How Cash Flow Data Can Diffuse the Credit Score Time Bomb (which we just published on Fintech Takes!). Martin and I have been having nerdy off-the-record chats about credit risk and underwriting systems for years. But with his new research report, we had to hit record. First, we dig into the true origin story of FICO; not just the 1989 launch, but the regulatory vacuum left by 1970s civil rights legislation. And how that vacuum gave rise to the idea of a generalizable, “objective” score. A score that quickly became a proxy for trust. A tool turned institution. We unpack how: Laws meant to reduce discrimination led to over-standardization Securitization needs quietly reshaped how lenders priced risk A single point estimate became the underwriting gospel, even in the face of wildly diverging real-world ability to repay (!) Then, we turn our attention to now. Today, AI’s juicing scores faster than lenders can keep up, but they’re downgrading inflated FICOs when they can. This leaves consumers feeling betrayed, and the industry on the edge of a trust collapse. So, when trust in the score dies (and your customers feel misled), is there a plan for what comes next? Tune in to find out. This episode is brought to you by: Newline™ by Fifth Third is an innovative, API-first platform that enables fintechs to launch embedded payment, card and deposit solutions directly with Fifth Third Bank. Visit Newline53.com to see how Newline can elevate your business. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Martin Kleinbard: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-kleinbard-6122aa1a/   Follow Alex Johnson:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, and today we’re lucky enough to dig into stablecoins (again!) with James Wester, co-head of payments research at Javelin Strategy & Research, who previously led strategic communications for blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies PayPal and served as a market research analyst at IDC.  Last time on the pod, we tackled domestic payment use cases (ACH, interchange, and why crypto UX still can’t touch the Starbucks app). This time, we zoom out. First, we unpack whether stablecoins are net good or net bad for community banks. The real threat isn’t deposit flight; it’s being boxed out of innovation. For years, regulators told community banks to steer clear of crypto. Now Stripe’s leaning into stablecoins, startups are building directly on-chain, and regulators are finally creating a bank-like charter for issuers. So who’s actually being served by this “innovation”? Then: what makes stablecoins different? One word: programmability. This is money you can code. Treasurers and developers love it. And if issuers get access to Fed master accounts or card networks? It could reshape BaaS (and who gets to build on it). Finally, we tackle the hard stuff: regulation, insurance, and that annoying habit of moving the goalposts. What happens if a stablecoin fails? How do you design for risk (and communicate that risk honestly to consumers)? Why does this space keep getting held to a higher bar than banks with fractional reserves? James puts it plainly: stablecoins aren’t the next hot, sexy fintech product. They’re utilities; more like electricity or cell service. Nobody gets excited about who powers their outlets or offers marginally better 5G. You just want it to work. And that’s where stablecoins are headed: quiet, foundational, infrastructure-grade. The real innovation won’t be stablecoins; it’ll be the stack built on top of it. This episode is brought to you by: Newline™ by Fifth Third is an innovative, API-first platform that enables fintechs to launch embedded payment, card and deposit solutions directly with Fifth Third Bank. Visit Newline53.com to see how Newline can elevate your business. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow James: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswester/ X: https://x.com/jameswester   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I talk about fintech companies that we're definitely not giving investment advice on!  We kick things off with Nekuda. Human-not-present is the new card-not-present. Nekuda’s building SDKs (software development kits) for agentic checkout, so your AI assistant can securely store and inject payment credentials at just the right moment. This is Visa’s “agent on file” era. We’ve spent a decade trying to keep bots out of commerce. Now we’re figuring out how to let the right ones in (without blowing up the fraud model). What happens to trust, attribution, and liability when no human’s at the checkout? Next is Vontive. Call them embedded mortgage lending for investment properties (basically, BNPL for real estate investors).They raised $135M in 2022, just added fresh equity from Citi, and secured a $150M revolving securitization shelf. They connect proptech platforms, banks, and marketplaces with private credit, so those platforms can embed short-term bridge loans or long-term rental mortgages directly into their UX. They don’t hold the loans, but they do centralize underwriting across a very regionally variable asset class. And that can get risky fast. Then, there’s Atticus, a stablecoin neobank in extreme stealth mode (with Palmer Luckey reportedly leading a new round at a $2B valuation). So naturally, we speculated: is Atticus a stablecoin bank with Fed access? A defense-industrial banking layer with regulatory immunity? If the GENIUS Act passes, this could be the first stablecoin issuer with full access to traditional rails. Finally, there’s Affiniti. Embedded, vertical-specific SMB credit cards. Affiniti partners with trade associations (pharmacists, HVAC techs, auto dealers) to co-brand its SMB credit cards and distribute to pre-qualified member bases. They hit $5.5M ARR in year one and are on pace for $1B in transaction volume this year. Their edge is twofold: tailored underwriting based on industry norms, and an AI-powered CFO agent that flags anomalies, forecasts bills, and suggests vendor strategies. It’s Ramp-as-a-service for the parts of the market that Ramp and Brex won’t touch. The scaling question then becomes: choose depth (more products) or breadth (more industries)? We’ll be watching. Plus, a manifestation: can someone please build a model that uses cashflow data to detect early signs of gambling addiction? It’s doable, valuable, and might just save lives. This episode is brought to you by: Newline™ by Fifth Third is an innovative, API-first platform that enables fintechs to launch embedded payment, card and deposit solutions directly with Fifth Third Bank. Visit Newline53.com to see how Newline can elevate your business. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://nekuda.ai/ https://www.vontive.com/ Atticus (extreme stealth mode is right) https://affiniti.finance/

In this week’s episode of Fintech Recap, Jason Mikula and I break down a surprisingly busy run of headlines. The IPO window is open after all: eToro priced above its range, Circle (the issuer of the USDC stablecoin) is eyeing a debut, and we can’t not dig into Chime’s S-1. First up: the S-1 heard round the world. Chime has finally filed to go public, and it’s … complicated. Is it a payments company? A bank in denial? We unpack the Rorschach test (Alex’s gloss) that is Chime’s business model. Plus, a look into Chime’s $1.5B in marketing spend and the real question that’s not really a question but a comment: Chime still hasn't cracked credit in a compelling way? Next, it’s the open banking implosion no one saw coming. The CFPB’s open banking rule (Section 1033) could be overturned (yes, everything the CFPB has done since 2022 could be wiped off the map, including 1033). Jason and I walk through how the legal and regulatory whiplash could kill the broader API economy, spark a screen scraping renaissance, and more. Then, stablecoin legislation enters the chat. The GENIUS Act (yes, that’s the real name) is gaining steam in Congress, but the fine print matters. We dig into what the bill actually allows (yield or no yield?), what banks are really scared of, and why the next few years could make or break trust in digitally-issued (nonbank) monies. Plus, we can’t let go of the recent NYC crypto kidnapping straight out of Law & Order. When you’re self-custodying and everyone knows what your “bank” holds, well … maybe the next era of crypto will finally learn what old money always knew: real wealth whispers. This episode is brought to you by: Newline™ by Fifth Third is an innovative, API-first platform that enables fintechs to launch embedded payment, card and deposit solutions directly with Fifth Third Bank. Visit Newline53.com to see how Newline can elevate your business. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/  And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m your host, Alex Johnson, and today we’re digging into one of the most urgent (and underdiscussed) financial issues in America: gambling. My guest is Alex DeMarco, founder and CEO of MoneyStack, who’s helping reframe gambling addiction not just as a behavioral health issue, but as a financial systems crisis. Since 2018, when the Supreme Court cracked open the door to state-by-state legalization of mobile sports betting, we’ve seen a gold rush in gambling. Operators are now pulling in more than $70B annually (ads are everywhere, the apps are engineered for nonstop engagement, and the harm is rising fast). In NJ, one of the first states to legalize, 6% of adults are already experiencing moderate to severe gambling-related issues (double the national average). We connect the dots between gambling and familiar fintech business models: the same behavioral nudges, same VIP economics, the same revenue dependence on a vulnerable sliver of power users. If overdraft fees and gamified trading feel predatory, this is that (but on steroids). We unpack: Why sports betting apps now hold three times more per wager than old-school sportsbooks How engagement tactics mimic (and often outstrip) the most addictive elements of gamified finance Why we’re watching investing and gambling blur into one screen (and one behavior) What proactive financial intervention might look like, and why most help comes too late How banks and fintechs can step up (detecting risk early, training advisors, and supporting families in recovery) We close with this big question: when gambling is mobile, funded from a checking account, and styled like Robinhood … can the financial industry really say it’s not their problem? This episode is brought to you by: Newline™ by Fifth Third is an innovative, API-first platform that enables fintechs to launch embedded payment, card and deposit solutions directly with Fifth Third Bank. Visit Newline53.com to see how Newline can elevate your business. The world needs MoR. With Paddle as your Merchant of Record (MoR), the global growth is yours. The risk, compliance and accountability are ours. Simple. Paddle offers all the benefits of an enterprise-grade billing system but with MoR flexibility, MoR control, and MoR focus on your core product. Visit paddle.com to learn more. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex (DeMarco): LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdemarco/ MoneyStack: https://www.linkedin.com/company/moneystack/   Follow Alex (Johnson):  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, the podcast where Simon Taylor and I (Alex Johnson) talk through fintech companies we’re intrigued by, puzzled by, and occasionally want to manifest into existence (but definitely not invest in). First up is Cardamon, the cozy-sounding AI copilot tackling the cold, hard world of compliance. They’re building a regulatory assistant to speed up product launches (a direct threat to $500/hr law firms and a clever way to navigate the compliance iceberg). Their bet is that if you structure regulatory knowledge right, it can accelerate innovation. Which brings us to this question: What if compliance is actually the best place to start when designing financial products? Next is Sprive, a UK app helping homeowners pay off their mortgage faster by redirecting cashback and round-ups toward debt repayment. It’s clever. It’s elegant. But it also risks falling into what Simon calls the “PFM ditch” (the only people who use the tool are the ones already inclined to do the behavior anyway). But is mortgage payoff the product, or a feature? And if the real value is in rerouting savings wherever they matter most, maybe Sprive isn’t a mortgage app at all? Then comes Figg Wealth, the most complete “dashboard of dashboards” net-worth tracker we’ve seen in the UK. It pulls in everything (cars, property, crypto, stocks, bank accounts) and auto-values it all. The real unlock may be pairing that aggregation with AI-driven advice. If AI can widen both the top and bottom of the funnel, Figg might just make wealth management scalable. Last is Glide, which began life as a neobank but pivoted to selling onboarding and lending infrastructure to community banks and credit unions.Now they sit in the middleware layer. But here’s the big question: what can vendors build beyond table stakes that offers these smaller institutions a real shot at differentiation? No end-of-show manifestation this time, unless you count my dream of having agentic private bankers before we have agentic commerce! 00:02:30 – Cardamon  00:17:43 – Sprive 00:29:03 – Figg Wealth 00:40:43 – Glide This episode is brought to you by: Newline™ by Fifth Third is an innovative, API-first platform that enables fintechs to launch embedded payment, card and deposit solutions directly with Fifth Third Bank. Visit Newline53.com to see how Newline can elevate your business. The world needs MoR. With Paddle as your Merchant of Record (MoR), the global growth is yours. The risk, compliance and accountability are ours. Simple. Paddle offers all the benefits of an enterprise-grade billing system but with MoR flexibility, MoR control, and MoR focus on your core product. Visit paddle.com to learn more. Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Simon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/ Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Companies featured: https://cardamon.ai/ https://sprive.com/ https://figgwealth.com/ https://withglide.com/