Fintech Business Podcast

In this episode, I had the chance to speak with Cross River Bank’s chief AI officer, Pravesh Rijal, following the bank’s announcement earlier this week of its expanded partnership with Stripe to support agentic commerce. Pravesh and I had the chance to talk about:

* Cross River’s announcement this Wednesday of its expanded partnership with Stripe to support card issuing for agentic commerce

* What agentic commerce actually looks like for the different stakeholders in a transaction

* How Cross River and Stripe’s new capabilities address some of the risks of delegating transact...

In this episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:

* What industry stakeholders — fintechs, banks, and debt capital providers — can learn from the abrupt collapse of SMB credit card startup Parker card

* Prediction market grab bag: Polymarket allegedly ran fake ads, Meta plans to launch “Arena,” the CFTC proposes a rule

* The debanking debate just won’t go away

* And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of

And a reminder, if you’re enjoying this show, please follow, rate & review on your preferred podcast platfo...

In this episode, I had the exclusive chance to chat with Current’s CEO Stuart Sopp and CTO Trevor Marshall on the company’s $80 million Series E, led by Springcoast Partners, announced earlier today. We also discussed:

* Current’s expanded product suite and impressive 70% growth for the third year in a row

* The role AI has played across the company’s business and how Stu and Trevor think about cost discipline and “return on tokens”

* Current’s expanded financing facility with bank partner Cross River and General Catalyst

* How Stu and Trevor think a...

In this episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:

* Why seemingly every bank, crypto, and stablecoin company wants to become a bank (and what it could mean for their valuations)

* A return to BaaS Island: CFSB’s consent order, and how it compares to those of other fintech partner banks

* President Trump’s fintech- and banking-related executive orders

* And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of

In this episode, I had the chance to chat with Edward Woodford, the founder and CEO of crypto, stablecoin, and tokenization infrastructure platform zerohash. Edward and I had the chance to talk about:

* Why zerohash is applying for a national trust bank charter

* How the CLARITY Act (crypto market structure legislation) may impact the U.S. crypto industry

* What Edward is hearing from non-financial industry execs about crypto, stablecoins, tokenization, and blockchain

* Thinking about crypto as an “asset class” vs. crypto as “software”

* The potential synergies between crypto/stablecoins and AI a...

In this episode, I had the chance to chat with merchant connectivity platform Knot’s cofounder and CEO Rory O’Reilly. Rory and I had the chance to discuss:

* Rory dropping out of Harvard to start his first company

* How Knot became the industry’s go-to solution for card switching

* Expanding from its initial card switching product to building the merchant connnectivity layer, and how Knot complements other core fintech infrastructure

* Hitting a 100 million API call per month milestone

* Knot’s international expansion to Canada and Latin America

* And...

In this episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:

* If there’s one idea fintech founders can’t quit, it’s solving personal financial management. There’s a new wave of AI-powered tools. But can they solve some of the fundamental challenges that have prevented a breakout company from emerging in the category?

* Bolt, the one-click checkout turned financial “super app,” is in headlines, again, with further layoffs and as it struggles to pay its vendors. Why Americans don’t really want a “super app.”

* Congress actually tries to legislate: the bipartisan PACE Ac...

In this episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:

* Rent rewards and neighborhood loyalty startup Bilt’s rocky transition from Wells Fargo to Column and Cardless

* The “graduation problem” in banking-as-a-service

* The New York legislature’s decision to

* And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of

In this episode, I had the chance to chat with Tyler Allen, the chief operating offier at Unit21. We had the chance to discuss:

* How fintech, financial crimes compliance, and software engineering have evolved since Tyler joined Unit21 back in 2019

* The limitations of addressing compliance challenges by throwing bodies at them

* How regulators are thinking about agentic AI

* What an AI-first approach to compliance looks like

* And much more!

In this episode, I had the chance to chat with S.P. “Wije” Wijegoonaratna, the cofounder and CEO of Aliya Financial Technologies. We had the chance to discuss:

* The challenges different segments of consumer lenders are facing today

* How AI-powered infrastructure is fundamentally reshaping how financial institutions think about making decisions

* How Aliya is thinking about its go-to-market approach

* How Aliya can help banks improve their returns

* What folks who have never worked in lending through a true credit cycle/recession should know

* And much more!

In this episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:

* Block’s plan to sell access to its proprietary Cash App credit score

* So-called “no KYC” crypto cards

* Stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge’s apparent derisking

* The brewing internecine fights over regulating prediction markets

* And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of

In this episode, I had the chance to chat with Modern Treasury cofounder and CEO Matt Marcus, as well as the company’s recently joined lead counsel, Matt Janiga. We had the chance to discuss:

* Modern Treasury’s newly launched payment service provider offering

* What kinds of companies can benefit from payment orchestration

* Use cases driving the explosive growth of stablecoins

* How Modern Treasury thinks about building in the rapidly evolving stablecoin space

* And much more!

Those wanting to learn more about the payments orchestration space, including stab...

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Hey all, Jason here.

Alex Johnson, creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you the latest episode of our monthly podcast, Fintech Recap, where we unpack some of the biggest stories in fintech, banking, and crypto.

In this episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:

* The HBO drama “Industry” tackles banking and fintech and it gets dark (SPOILER WARNING)

* Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong rug pulls crypto market structure legislation

* Are proposals for a 10% cred...

In this episode, I had the chance to chat with Castellum.AI’s cofounder and CEO, Peter Piatetsky about what has undeniably been one of the hottest topics in fintech, banking and compliance: agentic AI. Peter and I had the chance to discuss:

* How compliance leaders should approach evaluating agent-based solutions.

* What regulators are signaling when it comes to adoption of AI agents and how to turn those signals into governance, documentation, and examiner-ready controls.

* How firms should think about model governance as it relates to agents.

* How Castellum.AI’s agen...

Alex Johnson of Fintech Takes and I had the chance to discuss the WILD story of Y Combinator- and Coinbase-backed Kontigo:

* Some context setting and clarifications on the difference between AML vs. sanctions and the impact of sanctions on the everyday people of the countries they’re enforced against

* Explaining Kontigo’s retail user service and its value proposition

* Talking through what also was happening behind the scenes to make Kontigo’s service possible

* The responsibility of “infrastructure” providers, like Rain, Checkbook, Bridge, and Stripe, as well as underlying bank partners, which incl...

In this year-end episode, Alex and I took a look back at major themes and stories from 2025 and look ahead to 2026. We had the chance to discuss:

* The major shifts in the US banking regulatory landscape

* The explosive growth of interest in stablecoins

* Open banking’s setbacks

* Why everything seems to be gambling now

* Fintech IPOs

* Our predictions for 2026, such as they are

* And, as always, what we just can’t let go of

In this episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:

* The latest developments in the “do over” of the CFPB’s open banking rule

* Apple’s fledgling Digital ID

* Green Dot going private

* And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of

Alex Johnson, creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you the latest episode of our monthly podcast, Fintech Recap, where we unpack some of the biggest stories in fintech, banking, and crypto.

This episode is brought to you by Cross River Bank, the bank behind the bold.

In this abbreviated episode, Alex and I had the chance to discuss:

* The 14,000 or so comments on the CFPB’s open banking do over

* Erebor’s conditional charter approval

* And, as always, what we just can’t let go...

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Hey all, Jason here.

In this episode recorded live in Las Vegas this Tuesday during Money20/20, I had the chance to talk with Oscilar cofounder and CEO Neha Narkhede. We had the chance to discuss:

* Neha’s background as co-creator of Apache Kafka and cofounder of Confluent, which eventually scaled to a $10 billion IPO

* How Oscilar is helping both fintechs and banks — including household names like Sofi — to power real-time risk stacks

* Thinking about risk as a data and AI problem

* Wh...

Hey all, Jason here.

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Brian Reshefsky, founder and CEO of cashflow analytics platform EDGE, Timothy Li, cofounder and CEO of orchestration platform LendAPI, and Vincent Zhang, chief growth and strategy officer at Braviant Holdings. We had the chance to discuss:

* How different stakeholders across the lending value chain are driving change

* What goes into transforming raw transaction data into something that is usable in the underwriting process

* How cashflow data can be used to help underwrite borrowers across the credit spectrum<...

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Unit21’s head of product Kunal Datta. Kunal and I had the chance to discuss:

-The recent guest post Kunal published in Fintech Business Weekly

-The new fintech playbook: eliminating work instead of just streamlining it.

-How fintechs use AI to differentiate by solving for frequency instead of friction.

-How fintechs, banks, and credit unions are using AI to automate financial crime operations.

-How to think about AI automating manual work in financial services.

-And more!

In this episode, I was joined by Charles Calomiris, Henry Kaufman Professor Emeritus of Financial Institutions in the Faculty of Business and Professor Emeritus of International and Public Affairs at Columbia Business School, Stephen Haber, A.A. and Jeanne Welch Milligan Professor, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Professor of History and, by courtesy, of Economics at Stanford University, and Kiah Haslett, bank reporting veteran and creator of the Fintech Takes Banking newsletter.

Charles and Stephen are the authors of 2014’s excellent comparative analysis of banking and political sy...

This episode was recorded live during last week’s MX Money Experience Summit in Park City, Utah. During the event, I had the chance to sit down with Brian Reshefsky, founder and CEO of cashflow analytics platform EDGE, and Matt West, chief revenue officer of open banking infrastructure company MX. We had the chance to discuss:

* What makes EDGE unique among cashflow analytics platforms, including its ability to help lenders make better use of their first-party data

* How EDGE works with open banking data companies like MX to power a variety of use cases across th...

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Hey all, Jason here.

Alex Johnson, creator of the Fintech Takes newsletter, and I are happy to bring you the latest episode of our monthly podcast, Fintech Recap, where we unpack some of the biggest stories in fintech, banking, and crypto.

This episode is brought to you by Fintech NerdCon, the fintech event by operators, for operators. Use promo code FBW20 to save 20% on your ticket!

In this episode, Alex and I discussed:

* If open banking is prisoners’ dilemma, Plaid defected to JP...

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Hummingbird cofounder and CEO Joe Robinson about the AI-powered compliance platform’s latest product news. Joe and I had the chance to discuss:

* The launch of Hummingbird’s new customer screening and transaction monitoring capabilities

* How financial institutions can move beyond disparate platforms and siloed data to more effectively mitigate financial crime risk

* The explosion of “AI” everything, how Hummingbird actually uses artificial intelligence, and what Hummingbird’s AI-powered capabilities empower its customers to do

* The importance of being able to adapt quic...

In this episode, Alex and I discussed:

* Open banking’s do over: parsing the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking

* Rescue ships head for BaaS Island, but what precedent does the first-ever fintech bail out set?

* The GENIUS Act, legislation to regulate and license permitted payment stablecoin issuers, is already the law of the land. Why are bank trade groups pushing back now?

* And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of.

In this episode, Alex Johnson and I discussed:

* The revelation that JPMorgan Chase intends to begin charging third-parties, including aggregators like Plaid and MX, to access consumers’ data rocked the U.S. fintech landscape last week. Alex and I unpacked what it could mean.

* Since we recorded this last week, a group trade associations, including the Financial Technology Association and the American Fintech Council, sent a letter to President Trump, essentially asking him to reconsider the CFPB’s position to abandon defense of the rule (I covered this on Sunday here.)

* In a surp...

In this episode, Alex Johnson of Fintech Takes and I discuss:

* FICO launches new scores that incorporate pay-in-four buy now, pay later data. But will it make a difference?

* The CFPB files a statement of interest in the Synapse bankruptcy, potentially setting up a backdoor bailout to make out-of-pocket depositors whole. Does it set a bad precedent?

* A brief word on crypto mortgages.

* And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of.

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Hey all, Jason here.

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Executive Vice President and General Manager of Payments and Financial Services at BILL’s Mary Kay Bowman. Mary Kay’s career has spanned roles at Amazon, Square, Visa, and now financial operations platform BILL. We had a chance to discuss:

* BILL’s evolution from accounts payable and receivable tools, to cashflow insights and forecasting, to the wide breadth of capabilities it offers today

* Why so many businesses still use checks (really...

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Luke Voiles, CEO of embedded financing platform Pipe. Luke and I had the chance to discuss:

* How Pipe has evolved over time

* The kinds of platforms Pipe partners with

* Pipe’s embedded card capabilities

* Pipe’s relationship with its bank partner

* And more!

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Trent Sorbe, Chief Payments Officer at First International Bank & Trust. Trent and I had the chance to discuss:

* The different waves of bank-fintech partnerships and the popping of the BaaS bubble

* What some investors and bankers got wrong about the first wave of BaaS

* What’s different about First International Bank & Trust’s payments platform, Kotapay, and banking-as-a-service platform, Kavinu

* Kavinu’s first customer: online savings marketplace Raisin

* And more!

In this episode, Alex and I discussed:

* Unpacking Chime’s IPO plans

* What the hell is going with 1033?

* The GENIUS bill advances in the Senate

* And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Arad Levertov, cofounder and CEO of buy now, pay later lender Sunbit. Arad started Sunbit 10 years ago — long before BNPL as we know it today exploded in popularity during the early days of the COVID pandemic. Arad and I had a chance to discuss:

* What differentiates Sunbit from other BNPL providers in a crowded market

* Why distribution is key in lending, particularly in BNPL

* Sunbit’s unique approach to underwriting borrowers that allows it to approve 9 out of 10 applicants

* How Sunbit stay...

In this episode Alex Johnson, of Fintech Takes, and Jesse Silverman, of Troutman Pepper, joined me to talk about:

* Recent developments in the bankruptcy case (spoiler: Jesse isn’t a bankruptcy lawyer!)

* Who’s to blame for the Synapse disaster

* Reflections on some of the regulatory response, including former FDIC Chair Gruenberg’s effort to roll back the 2020 brokered deposit rule and the “Synapse” ledgering and reconciliation rule

* What lessons stakeholders — banks, fintechs, regulators, VCs — can and should take from this situation

* And more!

In this episode, Alex and I discussed:

* Alex’s trip to BaaS Island: the founder/CEO of Increase seeking approval to acquire a controlling stake in a bank & the Hatch Bank’s consent order with the California DFPI

* Ryan Breslow’s return to one-click checkout / “super app” Bolt

* Crypto firms seeking bank charters

* And, as always, what Alex and Jason just can’t let go of

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Michele Alt, cofounder and managing director of Klaros Group and a 22-year veteran of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Michele and I had the chance to discuss:

* What the opening of the “charter window” means and how fintechs should think about the opportunity

* The de novo process vs. acquiring an existing bank

* Michele and Klaro’s recent work on SmartBiz’s acquisition of United Community Bancshares and its subsidiary, Centrust Bank

* Thinking through when becoming or buying a bank mak...

In this episode, we discussed:

* Alex and I recorded this before “Liberation Day” and thus before Klarna chose to delay its IPO; that said, our analysis of Klarna’s F-1 registration statement stands!

* A return to BaaS Island: a first-hand account of Mercury and Evolve’s abrupt public parting of ways; what other banks, fintechs, and regulators can learn from the chaotic split.

* It’s charter time: a brief discussion of SmartBiz, OakNorth, and OneMain’s progress on charters; prescient, given the news this week that Stripe has applied for Georgia’s merchant acquirer limit...

In this episode, I had the chance to talk with Matthew Goldman, a true expert in the card space. Matthew has done stints at Green Dot, AT&T, Bankrate, and Apto Payments, as well as starting multiple of his own ventures. Matthew currently published the CardsFTW newsletter and is the founder and managing member of boutique fintech consultancy Totavi.

We had a chance to discuss:

* Matthew’s thoughts on where fintech debit & credit card businesses stand in 2025, including if interchange alone is a sustainability business model (hint: it’s not)

* Whether or not ther...

In this episode, I had the chance to speak with ledgering, reconciliation, and compliance startup NAYA’s CEO Sherif Kozman. We had a chance to discuss:

* Why ledgering and reconciliation, especially in fintech-bank partnerships, is so dang difficult (hint: legacy cores, batch payment files & more)

* The consequences of poor ledgering and reconciliation

* Advice for banks and fintechs struggling to manage manual processes

* And more

In this episode, I had the chance to speak Current’s cofounder and CTO, Trevor Marshall, and Cross River Bank’s Head of Strategy and Development, Hillel Olivestone. We had the chance to talk about:

* Why Current decided to build its own tech stack & what it’s enabled the company to do

* How Current and Cross River think about the “buy vs. build” debate

* The “jobs to be done” addressed by Current’s Build Card

* Current’s latest Datos Insight case study

* The beauty and resiliency of ACH flat files (yes, really...