FinAi Podcast

Varo Money officially announced today it is shedding the “banking startup” title, as the company has finally received its banking charter after a three-year journey. Whether more fintechs will follow suit remains to be seen. “A banking charter comes with capital requirements and regulatory oversight that will not be appealing to all fintechs,” said Julie Hill, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law who focuses on banking and commercial law. Startups Remitly and TransferWise, meanwhile, scored big funding rounds and boosted their valuations.

Find this and more in today’s edition of The Weekly Wrap, featuring JJ Hornblass, Bianca Chan, Rick Morgan and Patrick Kandianis, CEO and co-founder of Quatromoney, for the week ending July 31, 2020.

Banks may be losing their edge when it comes to CX, at least according to a new report from Sitel Group. “While the retail industry quickly implemented practical online solutions such as click and collect to meet changing customer needs, banking and financial services fell behind,” Sitel Group said in a financial services industry snapshot of the report. U.S. Bank, meanwhile, reported during its second-quarter earnings that 77% of its customers are using digital channels. Bank Innovation also sat down this week with Chris Tremont, executive vice president of virtual banking at Radius Bank, to discuss the bank’s technology roadmap.

Find this and more in today’s edition of The Weekly Wrap, featuring JJ Hornblass and Rick Morgan, for the week ending July 24, 2020.

Credit unions are rejecting some of the big core providers and instead choosing startups to overhaul their technology. Royal Oak, Mich.-based banking software company Bankjoy has grown its customer base by 50% since the start of the pandemic. Point-of-sale lending, meanwhile, is continuing its rapid growth trajectory. Afterpay announced it is launching in-store capabilities this week, while Visa also made a move into the space, and MoneyLion announced plans to do the same.

Find this and more in today’s edition of The Weekly Wrap, featuring JJ Hornblass, Bianca Chan, Rick Morgan and Johan Envall, vice president of sales and business development at COVR Security, for the week ending July 17, 2020.

Zelle is moving beyond peer-to-peer and pushing into business-to-consumer territory. “Not only we, at Wells Fargo, but Early Warning and its network banks have seen a significant increase in businesses using disbursements with Zelle,” said Michelle Ziolkowski, head of global payables in treasury management at Wells Fargo. Big banks, meanwhile, are adopting fusion centers to enlist different departments to work together to fight cybersecurity threats. Finally, INV Fintech startup gravityAI has launched out of private beta, and its two-sided marketplace for algorithms is "open for business."

Find this and more in today’s edition of The Weekly Wrap, featuring JJ Hornblass, Bianca Chan, Rick Morgan and gravityAI founder Daniel Huss, for the week ending July 10, 2020.

This week, Bank Innovation took a look a Verint report that ranked some of the country's biggest banks based on their crisis customer experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Smaller banks, meanwhile, are pursuing standalone brands despite the fact that bigger banks have stumbled with their own digital offshoots. In startup news, Upgrade plans to move beyond its credit products by launching bank accounts sometime this quarter. The company received a $40 million from Santander InnoVentures this week and hit $1 billion in valuation.

In this episode, Bank Innovation sits down with Imran Khan, the head of global digital experience at TD, to talk about the bank's personalization efforts. Khan discusses how TD uses emerging technology to foster relationship banking in the digital age.

The Bank Innovation team sits down and discusses major news from the past week and what to look for in the week ahead.

The Bank Innovation team sits down and discusses major news from the past week and what to look for in the week ahead.

The Bank Innovation team sits down and discusses major news from the past week and what to look for in the week ahead.