Bank Nerd Corner dives deep into Cornell Law Professor Dan Awrey's new paper, “Banking, Technology, and Instability,” and welcomes guest discussant Jason Mikula, an independent journalist who wrote a book on the topic and publishes the Fintech Business Weekly newsletter.

Dan and Jason discuss how they framed and conceptualized the banking as a service business model and why that matters.

Dan says banking as a service inverts the traditional outsourcing model; today's consumer knows their app and has no idea whether there is a bank behind it at all.

In his book, Jason characterized the same phenomenon as a disaggregation of the banking value chain, focusing on how revenue and function are divided among fintechs, middleware providers and partner banks.

They explore the regulatory response to BaaS, including what regulators don’t understand, why the interagency third-party risk management guidance mostly missed the point and the policy proposals that Dan has suggested that will never happen.

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In this episode of Bank Nerd Corner Squared, Alex is back with dispatches from both ends of the spring conference circuit: Fintech Meetup and a fintech event hosted by the Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned bank in the country. 

Alex shared why he’s increasingly believes that artificial intelligence may be more immediately impactful for community banks than for the largest institutions, and how it could revolutionize their workforce and expand their talent pools. 

Next, Kiah and Alex do a timed overview of four different news stories:

They then chat about some major acquisition news in their industry — newsletters — as well as related questions about credibility, editorial independence and the business of business storytelling.

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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/⁠

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Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Brian Fritzsche, Associate General Counsel and Vice President at the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), for a conversation about the fraud ecosystem and potential policy responses recorded at CBA Live 2026 in San Diego.

Brian authored CBA's comment letters to federal banking regulators on payments fraud, where he argues that banks cannot fight fraud alone.

As part of their conversation, Kiah and Brian discuss the landscape around fraud and scams, including the disconnect between where fraud originates and where banks enter the picture. He explains why banks need a legal safe harbor to share fraud data and why a centralized fraud data repository remains elusive despite private market solutions. 

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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/

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Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Jay Budzik, Senior Vice President at Fifth Third Bank, for a conversation recorded at CBA Live 2026 in San Diego.

Jay Budzik is no stranger to artificial intelligence and uses his unusual resume and expertise to help Fifth Third leverage AI in its credit, lending and fraud functions. He shares which loan types and stages of the credit lifecycle are best suited for AI deployment, the governance framework required at a regional bank and offers practical advice for community and regional banks that feel behind on AI adoption.

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Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it.

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Bank Nerd Corner is excited to premier Closing Credits, a series where Kiah, joined by friend and American Banker reporter Catherine Leffert, discuss movies with banking, money or finance themes.

For their debut episode, Kiah and Catherine rewatched the 2011 workplace drama 'Margin Call'.

There’s a lot to discuss: the 2008 financial crisis, the crazy organizational chart, what they wish the movie had included, favorite quotes and what feels relevant today.

As of this recording, listeners can watch 'Margin Call' for themselves for free on Amazon Prime.

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/

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Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Rajesh Narayanan, a professor in the Department of Finance at Louisiana State University. Rajesh recently coauthored a paper titled “The Decline of Branch Banking,” which was presented at the 2025 Community Bank Research Conference.

Kiah and Rajesh discuss how the restructuring of the U.S. bank branch network is driven primarily by deposit activity, not lending. Rajesh explains how interest rates and depositors’ comfort with digital banking increasingly factor into the value that banks derive from their deposit franchise. The paper found that banks are more likely to close branches in areas where deposits are "hot" or flighty, and where customers don't place high value on physical proximity to a branch.

Kiah and Rajesh explore whether banks’ ability to pay below-market rates on deposits will survive in an increasingly digital world. Rajesh also discusses what regional bank CEOs should consider when rationalizing their branch networks, and why deposit acquisition and retention costs should guide their strategies.

Read “The Decline of Branch Banking” here: https://www.communitybanking.org/-/media/files/communitybanking/2025-papers/rs1_p1_rajesh-narayanan_the-decline-of-branch-banking.pdf?sc_lang=en

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/

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In March’s episode of Bank Nerd Corner Squared, Kiah and Alex spend some time with the biggest stories in the nonbank finance space. 

First up is the surprise news that Kraken was approved for a limited Federal Reserve payment account, a little more than a month after the comment period closed on the Fed’s skinny account proposal.

They then chat about private credit, including a brief history and the concerns behind the headlines we’re seeing today. Finally, they return to the bank space to talk about a more traditional channel: branches. Specifically, why is Chase opening so many?

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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/

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Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Madeline Fredin, Vice President of Partnership Strategy at Alloy Labs Alliance.

Madeline is an AI whisperer for Alloy Labs Alliance banks, where she helps them figure out how to deploy AI and even think about what a “black box” bank of the future could look like. 

Madeline shares the story of IBM’s Deep Blue, a supercomputer chess bot that beat a grandmaster in 1997, to show how it figures out new ways to accomplish tasks.

She and Kiah talk about how artificial intelligence has created a level playing field for institutions right now, if banks can figure out how to capitalize on it. To do that, they’ll need to come up with new skills to build agents and new governance to oversee them. 

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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/

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Alex Johnson of Fintech Takes and Jason Mikula of Fintech Business Weekly join this very special episode of Bank Nerd Corner to talk about white-collar crime and the Forbes 30 for 30 list.

The Forbes list identifies up-and-coming tastemakers, entrepreneurs, leaders and the occasional fraudster. Jason and Alex chat about their relationship to white collar crime before moving to a little show-and-tell about four names on the more infamous Fraud 30 for 30 list. The gang discusses about the incentives that surround these crimes, victims and the continuum of criminality. Buckle up for a compelling and fun chat!

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/

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Substack: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/

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Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Bernadette Ksepka, senior vice president and deputy head of product management for the Federal Reserve System’s FedNow Service.

FedNow is a real-time clearing and settlement service that supports instant payments in the United States. It was developed and launched by the Federal Reserve Banks in summer 2023. Bernadette shares her observations about how the first three years of the network have gone, and the growth and adoption trends she’s seen over that time.

The network is growing but has connections to less than a quarter of total financial institutions in the country, which represent about 50% of deposit accounts. But a variety of use cases are popping up, which may drive broader future adoption. 

Kiah and Bernadette also discuss the shifts and adjustments financial institutions need to make so they can successfully implement instant payments and navigate the accelerating pace of change. 

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/

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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadette-ksepka-bbb4212/