Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Trent Sorbe, chief payments officer at First International Bank and Trust, for this episode of Banker’s Hours. 

Banker’s Hours explores the personalities in banking for some real talk on important, interesting and fun topics. 

Trent has specialized in payments over his career, and that has led him into the land of payments technology and banking as a service. First International, which includes the Kotapay division Trent oversees, is the $5.5 billion bank unit of Watford City Bancshares and is based in Watford City, North Dakota.

Trent and Kiah about why and how South Dakota became the payments capital of the United States, how all banks do payments but not all banks are payment banks, and the risk and opportunity that underpin banking as a service, as well as how this business line has evolved. 

Follow Trent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsorbe/

Read Trent’s piece about why banks must reinvent BaaS: https://www.bai.org/banking-strategies/why-banks-must-reinvent-baas/

Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/

Follow Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Bank Nerd Corner welcomes BJ Sanford and Matthew Lambert to discuss the 2019 case, Vullo v. OCC, an important and somewhat-unsettled case that continues to have downstream impacts in the financial services space today.

BJ is a partner at Sivon, Natter & Wechsler. Matthew is deputy general counsel at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. Together, they explore the history of the proposed special-purpose charter, the arguments that both the CSBS and New York made against the OCC and some of the major issues and central questions in the case. They also share where they see this decision falling in the realm of U.S. banking law and regulation, what remains unsolved and how it lives on today. 

Taktile⁠ is an AI Decision Platform that helps financial institutions automate and improve their risk management strategies across the entire customer lifecycle. From onboarding and credit underwriting to fraud detection and transaction monitoring, Taktile empowers risk teams to build, test, and optimize their critical decision processes, without relying on engineers. Taktile has been recognized as category leader — for four quarters in a row — in G2’s Quarterly Report for Decision Management Platforms, and is trusted by leading fintechs, banks, and insurers across the globe. The company is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Berlin and London. For more information, visit⁠ taktile.com⁠ or ⁠follow Taktile on LinkedIn⁠.

Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/

Follow Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Follow BJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barak-j-sanford/

Follow Matthew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewdflambert/

Follow the Conference of State Bank Supervisors: https://www.csbs.org/

It’s finally Alex Johnson’s turn to be a guest on Bank Nerd Corner for a monthly download and recap of interesting items in the banking and fintech universe.

He and Kiah record for the first time together, in the Washington, DC, offices of Canapi Ventures, ahead of the Fintech Takes Coworking day.

In a lively conversation, we talk about banks getting together in the form of M&A, including why buyers are acting now and what it tells us about the direction of the rest of the industry.

We then discuss some fractures among banks of different sizes that are emerging from issues like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Section 1033 and the proposal to raise the deposit insurance limit for certain accounts at certain banks.

And finally, we discuss one potential use of the blockchain, which involves betting and World Cup tickets. 

Taktile⁠ is an AI Decision Platform that helps financial institutions automate and improve their risk management strategies across the entire customer lifecycle. From onboarding and credit underwriting to fraud detection and transaction monitoring, Taktile empowers risk teams to build, test, and optimize their critical decision processes, without relying on engineers. Taktile has been recognized as category leader — for four quarters in a row — in G2’s Quarterly Report for Decision Management Platforms, and is trusted by leading fintechs, banks, and insurers across the globe. The company is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Berlin and London. For more information, visit⁠ taktile.com⁠ or ⁠follow Taktile on LinkedIn⁠.

Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/

Follow Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Todd Phillips, an assistant professor at the Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, to discuss a not-so-theoretical thought experiment about the intersection of artificial intelligence, deposit stability and bank liquidity, 

Todd’s paper, “When Siri Becomes Deposit Broker,” explores the implications for banks if consumers and businesses widely adopt agentic artificial intelligence capabilities that could automatically and autonomously move customer funds out of banks, either for rate seeking or stability reasons. 

This imagined application would continue the long tradition of “deposit brokers” in the industry, a historic deposit designation that indicated the deposits were “hot” and not fully relationships. This time, they — and their regulators — may not realize their customer deposits are “hot” before it’s too late. We talk about the technology that makes this possible, why the definition of deposit broker matters, what are regulators’ limitations and how banks should respond. 

Taktile⁠ is an AI Decision Platform that helps financial institutions automate and improve their risk management strategies across the entire customer lifecycle. From onboarding and credit underwriting to fraud detection and transaction monitoring, Taktile empowers risk teams to build, test, and optimize their critical decision processes, without relying on engineers. Taktile has been recognized as category leader — for four quarters in a row — in G2’s Quarterly Report for Decision Management Platforms, and is trusted by leading fintechs, banks, and insurers across the globe. The company is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Berlin and London. For more information, visit⁠ taktile.com⁠ or ⁠follow Taktile on LinkedIn⁠.

Read “When Siri Becomes a Deposit Broker” here: https://southstatecorrespondent.com/category/banker-to-banker/

Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/

Follow Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Chris Nichols, the director of capital markets at SouthState Bank Corp., for the inaugural episode of Banker’s Hours. 

Banker’s Hours explores the personalities in banking for some real talk on important, interesting and fun topics. 

Chris is a writer in addition to being a banker. He shares why he gives so many secrets away in his popular financial blog “Banker to Banker” and how he identifies operational, performance or technology topics to write about. We discuss tech hot topics like cryptocurrency, stablecoins and artificial intelligence, but also old standbys like deposits and profitability. Chris shares his thoughts on his favorite nonbank topics and a small banking hill he’ll die on. 

Taktile is an AI Decision Platform that helps financial institutions automate and improve their risk management strategies across the entire customer lifecycle. From onboarding and credit underwriting to fraud detection and transaction monitoring, Taktile empowers risk teams to build, test, and optimize their critical decision processes, without relying on engineers. Taktile has been recognized as category leader — for four quarters in a row — in G2’s Quarterly Report for Decision Management Platforms, and is trusted by leading fintechs, banks, and insurers across the globe. The company is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Berlin and London. For more information, visit taktile.com or follow Taktile on LinkedIn.

Follow Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cknichols/

Read Banker to Banker here: https://southstatecorrespondent.com/category/banker-to-banker/

Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/

Follow Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Bank Nerd Corner is back with Kiah Haslett returning … not just as co-host, but as an official member of Fintech Takes! 

That’s right, big news: Bank Nerd Corner will soon be its own podcast feed, with Kiah hosting (and Alex dropping in monthly as a guest). 

Kiah’s podcast launches this September alongside her new weekly newsletter, Fintech Takes Banking! If you’re listening to this episode, you basically asked for it (sign up at fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription).

Now, onto Bank Nerding! 

First up,  the topic that's going to end up on my tombstone when I die: open banking. 

We dig into the CFPB’s sudden flip on open banking. JPMorgan Chase tried charging for data access, the Bureau hit pause on litigation, and now an accelerated rulemaking process is underway. Will banks get the green light to price data, or did Chase just overplay its hand? Is this the beginning of monopoly pricing in disguise?

Next, Kiah schools Alex (and the rest of us) on why crypto firms are suddenly obsessed with national trust charters (what they are, why they matter, and how they could function as narrow banks in disguise). Stablecoin reserves, custody rules, and OCC oversight are all on the table.

And finally, the Palmer Luckey-backed digital bank Erebor enters the chat, promising to be the new Silicon Valley Bank for startups, crypto, and defense companies. Their pitch: political connections will fast-track their national bank charter with the OCC. But can political connections really expedite a de novo charter without wrecking regulators’ credibility?

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 Kiah:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson