Breaking Banks

It’s a mashup between Breaking Banks and Dave and Dharm Demystify, a podcast that takes you on a journey through the ever evolving world of fintech and digital finance. In this episode triple hosts, Brett King, Dave Wallace and Dharmesh Mistry offer thought provoking discussion and insights, covering off the fintech movement and relevancy in this new state of banking. Integration is key in the new world order. Special shout out to JPMorgan Chase for all they are doing.

What will the banking experience look like in the future? When Q-Day comes there will be radical transparency, get those strategies in place.

Join the discussion, weigh in, share your thoughts and feedback!

https://youtu.be/CxtFxiEE27Y

In this week’s episode of Breaking Banks we bring you the next feature in our Killing It series as host Jason Henrichs connects with Ohad Samet, Co-Founder and CEO of TrueAccord. Several calls from unknown numbers and one unpleasant conversation about a forgotten credit card with a relatively small balance was the impetus for Ohad to reimagine the debt collection process and the genesis of TrueAccord. Prior experience as the Chief Risk Officer of Klarna, a European payments company, and experience with other start-ups in the area of risk and analytics served him well.

Development is an upward spiral and founding a company (companies actually) involves a lot of self-expression and is often less about the money and more about what you want to do. At some point, though, you may need to fire yourself.

Another candid and enlightening conversation in the series with relevance for all.

The FDIC recently issued a proposed rule change on how brokered deposits are treated. This isn’t so much a proposed change but a rollback. A roll way back. Way back to 1989 when the original brokered deposit rule was written. As Jason Mikula points out, that’s when Taylor Swift was born. Jason M, Alex Johnson, Kiah Haslett and Alex Barrage of Troutman Pepper have some hot takes with Jason Henrichs on how the business of banking has changed through the eras and the implications for the future. Also, the views expressed are those of the individuals and not their respective employers – the lawyers made us add that.

Opening doors to high-potential fintech startups that share a mission to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible has been a goal of Mastercard’s with the founding of Start Path in 2014. Since its inception the program has helped over 430 startups in 57 countries.

With partnership in its DNA, Start Path is helping define how the company innovates for the future and creates meaningful, sustainable impact for society. Working with players large and small, Mastercard is helping fintechs push the boundaries of what’s possible, to foster innovation, expand access and ensure trust. This symbiotic relationship helps the partners innovate at scale and, together, change the game for the wider commerce ecosystem.

In this episode, Brett King connects with Sabrina Tharani, SVP, Global Fintech Programs at Mastercard and Jordan Wright, Co-Founder & CEO of Atomic Financial, a leader in payroll and merchant connectivity solutions, and a member of the Mastercard Start Path Open Banking program. Listen as they discuss Start Path and how their commercial partnership is enabling consumers to automatically switch their direct deposits and update recurring bill payments. A secure, seamless online banking experience through Mastercard Open Banking, solutions delivered in partnership with Atomic, ultimately helping drive account primacy for financial institutions.

As fintechs look to build, launch and grow their business, Mastercard is helping drive smarter decisions for better outcomes across the payments ecosystem.

Interested in joining Mastercard Start Path? Click here to learn more about the programs and apply online.

Consent orders are dropping with increasing frequency. Historically consent orders were viewed as failing grades. It’s no surprise that bankers are a breed that don’t respond well to failing grades, it is the credit mentality around loss avoidance that leads to an overly developed risk-mitigation culture. Doing new things, by definition, requires taking on risk at some level.

In this episode, Jason Henrichs is joined by guests Gilles Gade, Founder & CEO, Cross River Bank, Phil Goldfeder, CEO, American Fintech Council, Clayton Mitchell, Managing Principal, Fintech, and Mandi Simpson, Partner, Accounting Advisory & Finance Transformation Leader at Crowe as they dive into the critical topic of organizational resilience for banks in the wake of receiving a regulatory consent order. Together they explore how financial institutions can not only comply with regulatory requirements but also use this challenge as an opportunity to strengthen their operations and culture.

Spoiler Alert: Lots of great quotes in this episode!

Digital banking is reshaping market share. All the fastest growing banks these days are fintechs.  After a three year battle, fintech challenger Revolut has provisionally secured a UK Banking License. With this, Revolut can now represent themselves as a bank, having the rights and obligations of a chartered financial institution in the UK. Revolut already had a license in the EU but the UK license could help with entry into the US. With 45M customers, revenue over $2B and profitable, they are making a mark for themselves. Listen as hosts Brett King and JP Nicols share their take on the news and implications for the industry.

Then, it’s Tyme….TymeBank, South Africa’s (and the African continent’s) most successful challenger bank aimed at the lower income market. Listen as Co-Founder, Coen Jonker, speaks with Brett to share Tyme’s origin story and progress. Tyme is challenging the notion of how neos might work in this space. It began with BaaS and several years later, 2019, TymeBank launched in South Africa (SA). Launching during CoVid taught Tyme (Take Your Money Everywhere) to build an anti-fragile business.One of three banks since 2000 to have been granted a SA banking license, TymeBank uses a phygital operating model to work towards it’s goal of financial inclusion and democratizing access to banking. In 2022 they expanded to the Philippines, GoTyme, and now, Vietnam. Via digital kiosks for onboarding in physical retail stores — you can open an account in 3 – 5 minutes and be issued a debit card — they are building trust and educating customers, integrating banking into the shopping proposition. TymeBank is in it for the long game.

Another thrilling episode of Breaking Banks’ special series Killing It!. Host Jason Henrichs connects with fintech superstar, dare we say fintech Olympian (Paris 2024!), Bill Harris, industry veteran, founder of 10+ tech and fintech companies, author, and current Founder & CEO of Evergreen Money. Together Jason and Bill look back at Bill’s career to date, the different companies, the lessons learned and the tough calls made. Among those hard decisions, the need, at times, to avoid prolonging a failing venture and the need to conserve resources. It’s a race to the finish where Bill shares details about his latest endeavor.

Integration is a team sport these days. There is a need for constant adaptation and innovation, it can be complex and expensive, a lack of standards in the U.S. has introduced a lot of competing standards and solutions challenging business and consumer adoption. Partnerships and tighter focus can be key to bringing down cost to exchange funds and complement the current payments system with $80 Trillion processed on the ACH system in 2023, $55 Trillion of it B2B payments. Listen as Brett King catches up with Dwolla’s CEO, David Glaser and CTO, Skyler Nesheim. Dwolla was first featured on Breaking Banks back in 2013, they bring us up to date on the innovative interfaces that Dwolla offers to the US banking system and their ability to work with innovators of all sizes. It’s an interesting discussion covering RTP payments, open banking, pay by bank, connections to the ACH Network and RTP Network for institutions of all sizes.

Then Jason Henrichs chats with veteran financial services executive, founder & CEO Sanjib Kalita, about fintech events from Money 20/20 to Fintech Meetup and beyond. From best practices to the need to create the right culture and maximize the value of content and improve ROT (Return on Time), differentiation is important as is contributing to greater knowledge. Are there too many events? It’s a master class in events!

Deposits are the aqua vitae of banking, the water of life.

The very core of the traditional banking business model is gathering deposits at no to low-cost and lending the money back out at higher rates. Bankers used to reference the “3-6-3 Rule”: bring in deposits at 3%, make loans at 6%, and be out on the golf course by 3:00PM.

Money is the primary raw material in the business of banking. The difference between what financial institutions pay for that raw material is subtracted from what they earn from lending it out right at the very top of their income statements. That difference is net interest income, and it is the largest component of earnings for virtually every bank. As much as 95% or more for some.

Expressed as a ratio, the net interest margin or NIM is a key metric in measuring bank performance, and it’s been under considerable pressure lately. The traditional levers have been trying to lower deposit rates and raise loan rates, and hope you don’t lose too much volume. As the business has become more complex, so have the tools and strategies to reduce that pressure.

Today we get into some of the hidden levers that banks are using to add non-rate value, one focus is SBA lending. How new approaches and new technology is expanding the market for banks large and small, and also for fintechs; and how the secondary market is helping to improve liquidity and improve NIM. Joining host JP Nicols in this episode are Steve Tanzer and Joel Updegraff, both Managing Directors at Brean Capital.

This Breaking Banks episode’s Killing It guest went from software engineer to investment banker to founder of a community supporting the next generation of fintech founders to adviser then founder of the fintech team at Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) and now solo venture fund founder in the fintech space investing at the angel, pre-seed and seed stage. Meet Rex Salisbury, founder Cambrian Ventures, backing early-stage companies, as he shares his journey and founder stories — his path, motivation and the support that ultimately led him to being a solo fund founder after clearly being bitten by the fintech bug. He shares thoughts on putting talents and strengths to good use, creative destruction and how to think about failure to get you where you want and ought to be. In short, he’s killing it!