Bankadelic: The colorful side of finance

On this special episode of Bankadelic, Apiture Chief Product Officer Daniel Haisley (left) and DefenseStorm CEO Steve Soukup (right) talk about how thier businesses joined forces to elevate Apiture's mobile banking service to a new level of cyber-threat preparedness. That's all the more relevant given how AI is being accessed by fraudsters through "Deep Fakes as a Service" (DFaaS) on the Dark Web--a subject Soukup and Haisley address here.

Perhaps the most talked-about aspect of artificial intelligence in 2025 has been agentic AI—the technology that computers will use to make decisions without the need for human intervention. But are financial institutions jumping the gun to embrace fintech that’s not yet ready for prime time? On this episode, two of the founders of Tyfone — Siva Narendra (left) and Prabhakar Tadepalli — explain what it really takes to recognize opportunities to employ agentic AI, and how to understand the technology once the hype is stripped away.

New statistics show that only a minuscule percentage of people know a deep fake when they see one. That creates a huge peril for financial institutions, businesses and consumers who aren’t ready to face the full frontal assault of cybercriminals armed with AI. Andrew Bud, Founder and CEO of iProov, draws on decades of tech experience to explain how deep fakes can be spotted, and shares how his company has developed a defense that builds on biometrics to create bulletproof fake-spotting.

As smaller institutions often learn the hard way, you can't just throw a switch on new tech and expect all will go well--especially when marketing teams, for example, are overlooked. What should the value propositions be for community banks and credit unions at a time when everyone's trying to win on rates? And how best to apply key pieces of the high-tech puzzle? Samantha Paxson, Founder and Lead Investor of the Power and Light Collaborative, shares from her decades of experience on how to get everyone across the finish line successfully.

Long regarded as frumpy financial vehicles, certificates of deposit are playing a huge role in a volatile marketplace. But how do local and regional banks compete with the big dogs and win? John Blizzard, President and CEO of Seattle Bank and Founder of CD Valet, explains why consumer demand for certificates continues to be strong—and how the right platform can put banks of all sizes in the hunt for that business, even if they’re mostly unknown outside of their geographical market.

Is it time to put the white clothes away? Find out what our panel of four distinguished fintech experts has to say about this and much more pressing subjects -- such as, which end of financial services deserves an extra day off -- on this special holiday show. One more barbecue, one more beach day but at Bankadelic it's always summer fun... or at least fun and food for thought no matter the season and definitely on this episode. Our guests:

Lee Farabaugh, CEO of Monarch Professional Services Group

Ricky Guillot, President at BAFS

Todd Michaud, CEO of HuLoop Automation

Preetha Pulisani, CEO of Deep Target

In light of all the unknowns surrounding AI and its ascendancy, questions of human talent have taken on more currency and urgency than ever before. In this episode, Susan LaMonica, Chief Human Resources Officer at Citizens Bank, talks about how financial institutions can recognize the deeper needs of their team members and create a winning formula based on workplace culture, commitments to learning and addressing the human needs of all those who make success possible.

While it made sense that savings accounts weren't that popular in the era of near-zero percent interest, the environment is ripe for America’s consumers to wield this important financial tool their to their advantage. Cetin Duransoy, CEO of Raisin US, examines the current environment and explains how his platform helps consumers connect with banks in search of the best interest rates.

To read Raisin’s latest post “How Gen Z is re-shaping savings culture, for the better,” visit:

raisin.com/en-us/education-center/gen-z-finances-and-savings-culture/

Given that digital technology and data go hand in hand, there hasn’t been much precision in measuring how banks rise to the challenge of becoming tech-savvy leaders. Allison Cerra, Chief Marketing Officer at Alkami, shares the results of her company’s 2025 Digital Maturity Model + Report, which breaks financial institutions into four distinct cohorts—each reflecting an increased level of digitally maturity. Cerra also discusses Alkali’s latest Generational Trends Report.

Starting with 2020 and the pandemic, fintech has run at blazing speed. Today it's adopted large language models; tomorrow the explosive power of quantum computing. On this episode Gareth Gatson, Chief Product Officer of Candescent, takes us on tour through the near — some would say very near — future of banking in the digital age that makes the most of AI while expanding service and product platforms like never before.