Breaking Banks

The personalization of finance is here. Listen as Brett connects with Emmanuel Daniel about his book "The Great Transition" where Emmanual, founder of The Asian Banker and global thought leader in the future of finance, outlines the transition that the finance industry will go through from its platform stage today into the personalization of finance. Personalization will have a profound effect on how institutions, markets and society will function in the network age. He introduces the term ‘financialization of everything’ to describe how entire economies will interact with cryptocurrencies, blockchain and new trends in gaming to shape the personalization of society. Predicting the future of finance.

Then, in 1992, John Hope Bryant brought a bus full of largely White corporate leaders to witness the disinvestment in South Central LA. This was the first big move for Operation HOPE, Inc., a nonprofit that John, Chairman and CEO, founded to empower underserved communities through financial literacy. In this episode from sister podcast Emerge Everywhere, John Hope Bryant and Jennifer Tescher, President and CEO, Financial Health Network, discuss everything he’s learned in the 30 years since that first bus tour – including the importance of financial inclusion and building Black wealth. 

https://youtu.be/b_Y--fSi8uw

Making lemonade out of a lemon....being sued is not necessarily a bad thing, in this case it spurred the development of a personal financial management tool that is helping many clear debt and learn to budget. Gone are spreadsheets and lessons from our elders on how best to budget. It sometimes takes a village and a community, as users share tips and stories so that everyone wins. Listen as Jason Henrichs connects with Carmen Perez, CEO and Founder, Much, about her journey and inspiration in creating a budgeting app to help others win with money management. Much is changing the way people think about money and helping users take control of their financial journey.

Then we spotlight sister podcast NextGen Banker. The digital banking world is no doubt convenient. Delicia Hand wants to make sure it’s fair, too. David Reiling, host of NextGen Banker, speaks with Hand, the director of financial fairness at Consumer Reports, who helped put together a framework that evaluates how well digital financial products are working for consumers. Delicia talks about the framework — which includes principles like privacy, inclusivity and transparency — as well as how working on Capitol Hill during the Great Recession framed her perspective on developing financial policy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Et9z8xmxU

Dreams becoming reality. This episode spotlights champions leading the way forward towards an inclusive financial ecosystem for the Black community.

In the first segment, Jason Henrichs connects with Kenya McKnight-Ahad, the CEO and Founder of Black Women's Wealth Alliance, BWWA. BWWA resulted from combining Kenya's background in economic development with her desire to engage with Black women about how to empower themselves financially. Kenya's focus on improving the lives of others by illuminating and encouraging the creation of generational wealth, as well as her passion for entrepreneurism and community building, has created health & wellness opportunities for Black women, providing wealth education, business support services, small grant program, career services, and a building, ZaRah where Black women can flourish. Kenya worked with Mary Stoick, SVP Director of Tax Credit Lending, Sunrise Banks to make ZaRah happen. Sunrise Banks is truly more than just a bank, it helps in fulfilling dreams. BWWA is well on its way with its new incubator space and furthering of Black community building.

Then meet Damon Jenkins, SVP and Regional Market President, Twin Cities for First Independence Bank and Bryan Toft, CRO, Sunrise Banks. First Independence Bank's mission is to deliver financial services with an affinity for under-served and minority communities, and Sunrise Banks is focused on creating financial empowerment for all as a socially-responsible community bank. Together they discuss how banks have fallen short of true inclusivity. Banks need to be close to their community and not tone deaf to how their practices affect the people they serve. The trust gap is real and everyone's experiences are different. Connection is important for trust, banks need to both meet people where they are and do a better job communicating how banking can be beneficial for building wealth. In building cultures of inclusivity, there is the need to understand the issues, problems and how best to solve them, this is important inside the bank and out. Social responsibility and banking on values can create partnerships, opportunities to combine resources and help more people faster, creating systemic change, building futures and equitable outcomes, The future of Black finance is bright.

https://youtu.be/a6ac6hJWCgo

Live from AOBA (Acquire or Be Acquired Conference)! As bank leadership and executives focus on strategy & growth, explore paths to creating more value and the evolving competitive landscape, Jason Henrichs, Alex Johnson and Mary Wisniewski take time out to gather around the firepit to problem solve and offer up some spicy takes and take-outs.

Banking is complex, redflag those that don't recognize that. Competition, economic challenges and friction can garner results, leading to business opportunities and new business models for those looking to differentiate and innovate. As banks continue to fight for deposits, the trio cover fintech partnerships, affinity groups, fees - those that cost and the idea of subscription, debt - both a trap and tool, and how some critical parts of banking are just plain squishy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH-OwqRhlTs

In This Episode

Rising competition, changing customer expectations, and the fight for talent are top of mind these days. With possible regulatory changes and economic fluctuations, it’s essential that banks remain focused and agile. Brett King, Jason Henrichs, James White, Banking Industry Principal, Total Expert, and Ron Shevlin, Chief Research Officer, Cornerstone Advisors and Forbes' Fintech Snark Tank author engage in a lively discussion on the value of agility in banking. Tomorrow’s winners will be proactive, finding innovative ways to remain nimble, to make sure that their financial institution stays on the right track.

Then meet Breaking Banks' newest sister podcast, Breaking Banks Asia Pacific and host Rachel Williamson as she looks at open banking in India. Open banking is opening the door for millions of people to take part in the formal banking sector, be it an individual opening a bank account or a small business getting a loan. Rachel and Smita Aggarwal, Global Investments Advisor, Flourish Ventures, with 30+ years experience as a banker with some of India's biggest banks, discuss how new business models are being built in a region of empowered citizens who are more data rich than economically rich. #opportunity #financialinclusion

https://youtu.be/YSmJ4r_xl3g

The U.S. can be a tough and complex regulatory environment. Listen as Brett catches up with Peter Hazlehurst, Co-Founder and CEO, Synctera. Peter's background with Uber Money, consumer payments at Google and experience creating financial products for banks, fintechs, and large tech companies has helped create an end to end platform to enable fintech builders to create products with embedded banking and card issuance. Aside from the need for regulatory clarity, they cover KYC, global identity verification and portability (can Apple and Google help?) and some interesting specialized neobanks.

Then, Brett King and his The Futurists co-host Robert Tercek, connect with payment tech expert David Birch, author of “Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin”, "The Currency Cold War", and "Identity is the New Money" about all things identity and digital assets...it all gets very interesting indeed!

In this Episode:

As the costs of meeting customer expectations and competitive pressures continue to rise, more banks are considering mergers and acquisitions to gain scale and stay relevant, but there are deep structural regulatory constraints that can often be an impediment. Everything from the way geographic boundaries are defined, to the way competition is measured to the way products and services are evaluated have mid-twentieth century origins that don’t seem well-suited for today’s financial services landscape.

As we lead up to Bank Director’s Acquire or Be Acquired (AOBA) conference, Kiah Haslett, Managing Editor for Bank Director magazine, joins us to walk through some of the increasingly outdated modes of analysis, some of the ways regulators are planning updates, and what “good” and “bad” mergers look like. We also debate whether it’s all enough to achieve the stated goals of maintaining competitive markets for the good of the public, and Kiah draws on her experience as a soccer referee to show a few yellow cards to the industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTAPar8eNZo

It's an epic episode as Breaking Banks kicks off its 10th year. This week we offer you a megamix and extended play as Jason Henrichs, Brett King and JP Nicols chat with 10 industry all-stars about what is next in financial services. Big predictions from big names! Henri Arslanian, David Birch, Leda Glyptis, Theo Lau, Liz Lumley, Jim Marous, Ron Shevlin, Paolo Sironi, Chris Skinner and Mary Wisniewski. Cheers to 2023!!

https://youtu.be/A73dCMkoPYA

For the last show of 2022 we end the year by looking back at how we started it. Brett, Jason, and JP made some 2022 predictions, listen to find out just how clear their crystal balls were.

Spoiler alert: None predicted the crash in crypto prices or bankruptcy filings by some of the biggest platform players, global price spikes, or Twitter being taken private by Elon Musk, but we did get a few things right.

The hosts all agreed on the need for financial institutions to better vet and manage fintech partnerships and the need to have a viable strategy beyond traditional M&A.

Jason saw fintech valuations coming back to earth, a slow down of the fintech funding frenzy, and some early cracks in the foundations of interchange. Brett was looking forward to advances in AI, AR and VR. All were cautiously optimistic on the sufficiency and efficacy of the technical and compliance infrastructure to support the global growth of crypto and defi.

Join us next week for a forecast megamix for 2023 and a celebration...2023 marks 10 years of Breaking Banks!

https://youtu.be/V_9qozsCGnc