The Buzz

Citi’s embedded finance service, Spring by Citi, is looking to expand its use cases in payments acceptance and foreign exchange by tapping the consumer bank, Managing Director and Global Head Vineeth Subramanyam tells Bank Automation News on this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

Spring by Citi launched in 2020 and has a global presence in 23 markets. The payment and acceptance and merchant acquiring service sits inside the $1.7 trillion bank’s services organization and is built on Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions payments network.  

Access to transactional data provides the richest insights for personalized banking experiences. 

“What are [consumers] paying, how are they paying, what kinds of life stages are they in the midst of?” Lindsay Soergel, chief executive at AI-powered digital banking solutions provider Fintilect, asks. She says this information delivers “the greatest value to our financial services customers.” 

Soergel, who has held leadership positions in the financial services industry for more than 20 years, pointing to her time at PNC, SunTrust Bank, NCR, Kasisto and more, speaks with Bank Automation News for this episode of “The Buzz.” 

She became CE...

JPMorgan Chase is scaling its digital resources and fintech integrations to support small business owners through economic uncertainty and continued digital transformation. 

The effort starts with understanding business owners, John Frerichs, head of global SMB payments at the $4.3 trillion bank, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

“Our duty is to be here for our customers in difficult and uncertain times,” he says. 

According to JPMorgan Chase’s March small business sentiment survey, 78% of respondents were optimistic about the future, with about 40% planning to expand, Frerichs tells BAN. However,  tariff concern...

Financial institutions are moving beyond pilot projects to implement production-grade, explainable and cost-effective AI solutions that can meet operational and regulatory demands. 

AI has evolved rapidly since fintech Arteria AI was founded in 2020, Amir Hajian, chief science officer, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. The company provides banks with AI-powered digital documentation services. 

“2020 was a very simple year where AI was classification and extraction, and now we have all the glory of AI systems that can do things for you and with you,” Hajian says.  

“We realized one day in 2021 t...

Citizens Bank is advancing its digital payments strategy in 2025, with a focus on embedded finance and omnichannel capabilities. 

For example, Citizens is moving from screen scraping to an API-enabled environment, allowing it to use insights from its private banking segment in other segments, such as SMB, mid-market and commercial, Taira Hall, executive vice president and head of enterprise payments at the $217.5 billion Citizens, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

“One of the benefits of having an enterprise payments function is … we can look at all of our core payment rails and unders...

FairPlay, a “fairness as a service” startup is launching an index tool in Q3 of this year that shows financial institutions how their underwriting affects consumers.

Los Angeles-based Fairplay uses AI-powered data analytics software to help FIs assess the accuracy of their automated loan decision models and provides them with metrics to help identify potential biases, Kareem Saleh, founder and chief executive at FairPlay, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.

Saleh was named one of BAN’s executives to watch in 2024.

“Fundamentally, what we do is help financial institutions...

Financial institutions are looking to deepfake detection solutions in their fight against the growing threat of generative AI-driven fraud. 

The growing deepfake detection market is expected to be a $15.7 billion industry by 2026, according to consultancy firm Deloitte. 

AI voice fraud detection startup Herd Security is one tech provider that banks are channeling to reduce targeted attacks against their organizations and clients, Brandon Min, co-founder and chief executive of Herd Security, tells Bank Automation News on this episode of the “The Buzz” podcast.  

Herd Security, launched in 2023 by Min and his co-founder and chief technol...

Small business owners are looking to banks to provide data, tools and analytics to help them make more informed financial decisions. 

“Business owners need better tools to make better financial decisions, understand their finances and where their finances are going,” fintech Monit Chief Executive and founder Steve Dow tells Bank Automation News on this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.  

Banks of every size must be equipped with the right tools and data to serve small business customers effectively, he says.  

While major FIs, like $4 trillion Chase for example, are building proprietary technology like Chase Custo...

AI-driven risk management decisioning and monitoring platform EnFi is automating the credit approval process for financial institutions while maintaining compliance, freeing up employees to focus on other areas of operations. 

EnFi uses natural language processing and modern AI models to extract information from loan and security agreements and offer instant compliance, Chief Technology Officer Scott Weller tells Bank Automation News on this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.  

Digital bank Grasshopper Bank is among users of the tech, he says.  

EnFi will demonstrate its technology at Bank Automation Summit U.S. in Nashville, Tenn., on Marc...

Financial institutions are focused on IT resilience as outages repeatedly disrupt operations such as the ones that affected Crowdstrike, Bank of America, Monzo and others this year. 

With outage repercussions in mind, organizations are investing in infrastructure, teams and resiliency strategies to reduce downtime and losses, software company Cockroach Labs co-founder and Chief Executive Spencer Kimball tells Bank Automation News on this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

In a survey conducted by Cockroach Labs and Wakefield Research, 100% of respondents said they had experienced unplanned or unexpected downtime in the past 12 months. The report surveyed 1,000 senior cloud...

Fintech Appli recently launched an AI-driven financial calculator that can be embedded into a financial institution’s lending platform in minutes using just one line of code.   

"AI is best used when it's most practical,” founder and chief executive of the Salt Lake City startup Tim Pranger tells Bank Automation News on this episode of the “The Buzz” podcast. 

Appli’s solution, which can be customized or white-labeled for financial institutions, uses AI to drive better lending and engagement experiences on financial institutions’ websites, Pranger says. 

Using AI-driven confidence models, Appli takes client inputs including...

Esquire Bank considers client needs when determining where to invest in products and innovation. 

The New York-based bank, which provides small businesses lending and litigation finance, is working on customized lending for its litigation platform that is expected to roll out early next year, Chief Executive Andrew Sagliocca tells Bank Automation News on this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.  

“The best thing we can do in either vertical we serve nationally is to make sure we shut our mouth and listen to what the client not only has to say, but more importantly, let them describe...

J.P. Morgan is joining French payments network Cartes Bancaires, Mike Lozanoff, managing director and global head of merchant services at J.P. Morgan, tells Bank Automation News on this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

The bank is tapping cloud-based Renovite to build the connection to the network, Lozanoff says. The bank acquired Renovite in 2022 and is using the cloud-based solution and its team to build the tech, he says.  

“We’ll be the first American bank actually part of the French banking system, where we’ll be registered and able to offer that card type directl...

Listen as Matt Denham discusses how fintechs can boost digital engagement on FI platforms.  

Listen to ConnectOne’s Sharif Alexandre and Siya Vansia, chief innovation and brand officer at the bank, discuss technology and data strategies. 

Listen as Jess Turner discusses open banking innovation, regulation and the future of open banking for consumers and small businesses. 

Listen as Sanjiv Das discusses POS financing and the opportunity it presents for lenders. 

Listen as Rob Krugman discusses what banks are doing right with AI.  

Listen as Rackspace’s Doony Cross discusses cloud migration, cost management and FinOps. 

Listen as nCino’s Anthony Morris discusses how he helps FIs approach emerging tech. 

Listen as Adam Hallquist, principal at investment firm FTV Capital, discusses fintech funding on “The Buzz” podcast.

Listen to this episode of “The Buzz’ to hear Hapax’s Kevin Green discuss how FIs are streamlining internal operations with AI and replacing time-consuming tasks with the technology. 

Listen as Arteria AI’s Abrar Huq discusses how FIs are using AI to structure their data.

Listen as Arteria AI’s Abrar Huq discusses how FIs are using AI to structure their data and unlock the potential of data they already have.  

Listen to “The Buzz” to hear Chad Wallace discuss Mastercard's API strategy, B2B solutions and virtual card innovations. 

Listen as Temenos’ Rodrigo Silva discusses the future of the cloud in banking, what clients are requesting and how to approach cloud migration. 

Listen to Jane Prokop discuss how Mastercard is creating solutions to help SMBs and how the company aims to use new technologies like AI to drive business growth.

Listen as Grasshopper CEO Mike Butler discusses how the digital bank competes for deposits through customer retention efforts and investment in customer experience.  

Listen as Fintel Connect CEO Nicky Senyard discusses how financial institutions can grow account volume, bring acquisition costs down and gain overall deposits. 

Listen as Citizen's Jo Wyper discusses how to approach generative AI and new innovations the commercial bank is working on for 2024.  

Listen as Jack Henry's Greg Adelson discusses his transition into the role of CEO.  

Listen as Savana COO Emily Steele discusses how banks can use technology to create efficient and consistent processes throughout their operations. 

Listen as Fiserv's Dudley White discusses the digital experiences financial institutions are developing to meet client expectations. 

Listen as Chargebacks911 CEO Monica Eaton shares what tech she is watching in 2024. 

Listen as Episode Six CEO John Mitchell addresses how FIs can best approach modernization, the 2024 tech trends to monitor, and the recent evolution of technology in the financial services industry.

Listen as WorkFusion's Adam Famularo shares how financial institutions can leverage digital workers and AI to drive efficiency within the organization. 

Listen as Zest AI CEO Mike de Vere tells how credit unions are improving the underwriting process with AI. 

Softserve's Rishi Chohan discusses the opportunities that digital wallets present to FIs. 

Listen as UiPath’s Graham Sheldon discusses how financial institutions can improve operations by automating mundane tasks with AI and generative AI.