Finovate Podcast

Rapid growth as a community bank – Five Star’s strategies for using fintech to expand their customer.

Detailed Summary:

This episode of the Finovate Podcast features DJ Kurtze, Executive Vice President and Bay Area President of Five Star Bank, discussing the community bank’s impressive growth trajectory and unique positioning in the competitive San Francisco market. Five Star Bank is a $4.6 billion community bank headquartered in Rancho Cordova with nine branches and two administrative offices, serving real estate communities, small to medium-sized businesses, nonprofits, agriculture, and governmental entities. Founded 25 years ago by real estate developers Buzz Oates and Frank Ramos, the bank has maintained a remarkable 20% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years through organic growth strategies rather than acquisitions. Kurtze joined Five Star after the collapse of Signature Bank in March 2023, bringing his team over to capitalize on opportunities created by the banking sector disruptions involving SVB, First Republic, and Signature Bank.

The conversation explores Five Star’s competitive advantages, which center on hiring exceptional senior bankers who understand their clients’ businesses and providing direct access to decision-makers with speed and certainty of execution. The bank positions itself as “technology first,” implementing advanced systems both for customer-facing services and internal operations. This technological focus, combined with their flat organizational structure and lack of legacy systems from acquisitions, allows them to operate at a 40% efficiency ratio and quickly implement customer feedback and new product offerings. The bank’s approach to fintech partnerships emphasizes working with vendors who have proven track records with financial institutions and can provide plug-and-play solutions compatible with existing core banking systems.

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on Five Star’s specialized approach to nonprofit banking, which requires understanding unique cash flows, funding structures, and the sophisticated needs of experienced C-suite executives and board members who often come from successful business backgrounds. The bank provides advanced fraud prevention tools, insured cash sweep products for higher FDIC insurance limits, and creative lending solutions including tax-exempt financing. Kurtze closes by highlighting how community banks have advantages in fraud prevention through personal relationships and direct banker-client communication, allowing them to identify unusual transactions and protect clients more effectively than larger institutions despite having smaller technology budgets.

More info:

Five Star Bank: https://www.fivestarbank.com/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/five-star-bank-california/

DJ Kurtze: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dj-kurtze-449b3934/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #FiveStarBank #communitybank #nonprofitbanking #digitalbanking #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #bank #banks #security #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking

Finovate Awards Winner InvestiFi on the changing investment landscape, consumer education, and bringing investment assets back to banks and CUs.

Detailed Summary:

In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Kian Sarrestheh, co-founder and CEO of InvestiFi the 2025 Finovate Awards winner in the Best Alternative Investment Solution category. InvestiFi provides a digital investment platform specifically designed for banks and credit unions, allowing their customers to invest in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and roboadvisory portfolios directly from their checking or savings accounts without transferring money to third-party platforms. This innovative approach keeps deposits on the financial institution’s balance sheet while providing a seamless user experience that eliminates the friction of moving money between accounts.

The conversation explores how consumer investment behavior is rapidly shifting toward third-party apps like Robinhood, Coinbase, and SoFi, with financial institutions losing between 5-10% of their deposits to these platforms. Kian explains that these fintech companies are expanding beyond investing into traditional banking services, including mortgages, checking accounts, and savings products, creating a significant competitive threat to community banks and credit unions. InvestiFi addresses this challenge by enabling financial institutions to offer comparable digital investment experiences while maintaining the customer relationship and deposit base within their own ecosystem.

Looking toward the future, Sarrestheh predicts that banks and credit unions will ultimately prevail over third-party investment apps due to their physical presence, established community trust, and ability to provide in-person customer service when issues arise. He believes that financial institutions offering similar digital investment capabilities through platforms like InvestiFi will leverage their 150-year track record of resilience and local relationships to win back customers who have migrated to fintech alternatives. The discussion emphasizes the importance of consumer education and the value of maintaining that crucial primary financial institution relationship in an increasingly digital investment landscape.

More info:

Tenerity PrivacyGuard: https://investifi.co/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/investifi-cuso/

Kian Sarreshteh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/technologykian/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #InvestiFi #FinovateAwards #investing #wealthmanagement #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #creditunions #banks #cryptocurrency #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking

The real threat of AI-enabled fraud might not be what you think – hear from an expert on what you need to be focusing on right now.

Detailed Summary:

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Christopher D’Aprile, Director of Business Development at PrivacyGuard, following his keynote presentation at FinovateFall. D’Aprile brings over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, having worked at major institutions including MBNA Bank, NASCAR, Allstate, and Kobe Marketing before joining PrivacyGuard. The conversation centers on the growing threat of identity theft and how financial institutions can better protect their customers in an increasingly digital landscape.

The discussion reveals alarming trends in identity theft rates, which typically hover around 9-10% but spiked to 12-13% during the pandemic due to increased digital banking adoption and government money transfers. Chris explains that while deepfakes capture public attention, the real AI-driven threat lies in fraudsters becoming more efficient at targeting victims through sophisticated data analysis and demographic profiling. Rather than focusing on complex deepfake technology, criminals are using AI to identify vulnerable populations and optimize their scam operations, treating fraud as a business with the same analytical approaches legitimate companies use for marketing.

The conversation goes on to highlight critical gaps in how financial institutions approach identity theft protection. While many banks provide educational resources on their websites, D’Aprile emphasizes that identity theft restoration is too complex for a DIY approach and requires professional assistance. He advocates for banks to partner with specialized third-party providers like PrivacyGuard to offer comprehensive, white-labeled solutions that can generate revenue while providing customers protection at reduced costs. Looking forward, Chris discusses emerging features including scam protection, data scrubbing services, reimbursement for stolen funds, and offensive capabilities that allow consumers to report fraudulent websites for takedown, giving victims the ability to “punch back” against criminals.

More info:

Tenerity PrivacyGuard: https://www.tenerity.com/privacyguard/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/tenerity/

Christopher D’Aprile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-d-aprile-0928aa3/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #PrivacyGuard #FinovateFall #security #AI #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #antifraud #banks #financialsecurity #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking

This episode of the Finovate Podcast features an interview with John Findlay, CEO of Lemonade LXP, one of the Best of Show winners from FinovateFall. The conversation explores how Lemonade has transformed from its original 2018 concept into a comprehensive all-in-one learning and knowledge platform specifically designed for financial institutions. Findlay discusses the critical gap in traditional learning management systems, which typically focus on compliance training rather than equipping frontline staff with the skills needed to drive business growth, promote digital products, and provide effective customer service.

The discussion delves into Lemonade’s unique approach to training, which emphasizes interactive micro-learning experiences that fit within the flow of work rather than lengthy, traditional training sessions. Findlay explains how their AI-powered platform allows institutions to drag and drop documents to automatically create training content, while also providing a chatbot for real-time support. A key aspect of their success has been their customer-driven development approach, where they democratize their roadmap by allowing customers to vote on features and development priorities, ensuring the platform evolves based on actual industry needs.

Throughout the interview, Findlay shares impressive results and metrics from their implementations, including significant reductions in staff onboarding time, decreased attrition rates, and improved digital product adoption. The conversation also covers the various use cases that have emerged organically as customers have adapted the platform for different needs, from new staff onboarding and compliance training to universal banker programs and contact center operations. The episode concludes with insights into what types of financial institutions are best suited for Lemonade’s platform, ranging from smaller institutions looking to replace basic compliance systems to larger organizations implementing specific business-focused training initiatives.

More info:

Lemonade LXP: https://www.lemonadelxp.com/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/lemonadelxp/

FinovateFall Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovatefall-2025-lemonadelxp/

John Findlay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-findlay-a03545/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #LemonadeLXP #FinovateFall #BestofShow #training #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #AI #banks #financialtraining #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #creditunions #communitybanks

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Krida’s AI layer is transforming the lending process and deepening relationships to make the process easier for everyone.

Detailed Summary:

Krida, cofounders by Shivangi Khanna and Sophie Jewsbury join Greg on this episode to talk about their assistive AI tools for commercial loan officers in relationship banking and localized community banking. Krida focuses on streamlining the commercial lending process through workflow automation. The platform they demoed in New York addresses the universal pain point of document collection and processing by automating the feedback loops between borrowers and loan officers, pre-filling forms, and reducing overall cycle time from lead generation to loan application completion. The system can work as a standalone solution that integrates with existing core banking systems or it can function alongside loan origination systems to maintain established workflows.

Shivangi and Sophie share their experience post-demo, where they discovered broader market appeal than they anticipated. While they originally designed their product alongside community and regional banks, they were pleasantly surprised by significant interest from credit unions looking to build out their commercial banking platforms. Additionally, super regional and national banks approached them, expanding their potential customer base beyond their initial target market. Both co-founders emphasized that the pain points they address – manual document processing, understanding diverse business requirements across different locations, and data entry work – are universal across all types of financial institutions, regardless of size or organizational structure.

The conversation concludes with some personal background for both Sophie and Shivangi. Shivangi talks about spending nearly a decade in finance and technology, including time at JPMorgan Chase working with interest rates and regional bank balance sheets, which provided deep insights into banking operations and regulatory compliance. For her part, Sophie previously built an SME lender in Southeast Asia and worked as a bank consultant at McKinsey, giving her firsthand experience with manual processes in lending workflows. These experiences have helped them to make Krida into the Best of Show winning solution that it is today.

More info:

Krida: https://www.krida.ai/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/krida-ai/

FinovateFall Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovatefall-2025-krida/

Shivangi Khanna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivangik/

Sophie Jewsbury: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiejewsbury/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #Krida #FinovateFall #BestofShow #lending #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #AI #relationshipbanking #loanorigination #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #creditunions #communitybanks

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Eko Investments is bringing investment opportunities to early-stage investors, growing individual wealth and helping FIs of all sizes retain their customers.

Detailed Summary:

Mart Vos, CEO of Eko Investments, joins Greg to talk about his company’s role as a leading digital investment provider for credit unions and banks. Eko’s mission stems from Mart’s personal experience when he moved from the Netherlands to the US and discovered that traditional banks only offered investment services to wealthy clients through financial advisors, requiring minimums like $100,000 rather than accommodating smaller amounts like $100. This contrasted sharply with the Netherlands, where every bank offers accessible investment products, eliminating the need for third-party apps like Betterment, Robinhood, or Acorns. Eko enables financial institutions to offer investments to all their clients, not just the top 1%, through a low-threshold investment solution natively integrated within digital banking platforms.

Eko has achieved remarkable success, winning Best of Show at Finovate Fall for the second consecutive year. The company’s evolution is driven by their commitment to listening to financial institutions and members, with a significant portion of engineering hours reserved for client requests that can be implemented within one to two weeks. Recent feature developments include IRAs and Roth IRAs, faster money movement capabilities, and a unique structure providing core integration benefits without actual core dependency. Eko serves a diverse range of clients, from their smallest credit union with 7,000 members to their largest with 20 billion in assets, demonstrating their scalable solution across different institutional sizes.

Mart continues by describing how the Eko platform serves as an essential tool for financial institutions looking to retain clients who might otherwise migrate to third-party investment apps. With 68% of users making their first investment ever, and an average investment amount of $1,200, Eko focuses heavily on financial literacy and education, particularly serving millennials and Gen Z users. Rather than competing with traditional wealth advisory firms, Eko operates as a complementary funnel, providing warm leads for wealth services when clients reach higher investment thresholds like $50,000 or $100,000. This collaborative approach prevents financial institutions from having to “sell no” to smaller investors while creating pathways for future wealth management relationships.

More info:

Eko: https://eko.investments/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/ekoinvestments/

FinovateFall Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovatefall-2025-eko/

Mart Vos: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mart-vos/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #Eko #FinovateFall #BestofShow #investment #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #wealthmanagement #deposits # #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #creditunions #communitybanks

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Vertice AI: Using AI to help smaller FI’s punch above their weight.

Detailed Summary:

In this episode, Greg catches up with Mitch Rutledge, CEO and co-founder of Vertice AI, who won Best of Show at FinovateFall. Mitch starts out by discussing his company’s mission to empower community financial institutions through AI-powered solutions. Vertice serves as an AI-driven growth engine that transforms institutional data into actionable insights, enabling smaller community banks and credit unions to compete effectively with larger financial institutions. The platform specifically targets community FIs with lean marketing teams, helping them deliver personalized customer engagement and measurable growth outcomes. Rutledge emphasizes that while big banks like Bank of America employ over 3,000 data scientists and JP Morgan invests over $4 billion in AI, community banks possess a crucial advantage: the trust factor that can be leveraged alongside modern technology.

The conversation then explores Vertice’s approach to personalization, which Rutledge defines as delivering relevance by understanding customer needs and serving appropriate products at the right time. The platform utilizes multiple AI applications including propensity scoring to predict product adoption and churn risk, automated campaign creation that generates targeted messaging for different demographics while maintaining regulatory compliance, and real-time campaign performance analysis. This comprehensive approach addresses the significant gap between consumer expectations for personalized financial experiences (74% want it) and actual delivery (only 22% feel they receive it). The technology enables marketing teams of one or two people to achieve the same level of personalization as larger institutions with extensive data science teams.

A notable aspect of Vertice’s journey is their decision to remain bootstrapped without taking venture capital funding. Rutledge explains this choice allowed the company to maintain control over their mission and vision while building according to client needs rather than investor timelines. The company achieved cash flow positivity from day one and focused on thoughtful, sustainable growth. For startup founders considering funding options, Rutledge advises being clear about the “why” behind raising funds, noting that while VC funding may be necessary for businesses requiring hyperscaling, companies that can grow profitably through customer revenue shouldn’t underestimate the bootstrap path. This approach creates discipline and efficiency, ensuring every dollar earned is tied to value creation and customer satisfaction.

More info:

Vertice AI: https://verticeanalytics.ai/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticeai/

FinovateFall Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovatefall-2025-vertice-ai/

Mitch Rutledge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchrutledge/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #VerticeAI #FinovateFall #BestofShow #marketing #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #credit #payments #orchestration #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #cx #creditunions #communitybanks

FinovateFall Best of Show winner LendAPI on the future of lending (spoiler: it’s gonna be a lot faster)

Detailed Summary:

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg interviews Tim Li, CEO and Co-Founder of LendAPI, a recent Best of Show winner at FinovateFall. LendAPI is described as a “super orchestration platform” that allows users to build various financial products through an intuitive browser interface. The platform features a product studio where FI’s can create everything from personal loans to mortgages by customizing templates, with integrated rule studios, model studios, pricing engines, and third-party plugins. Tim emphasizes that the platform dramatically reduces the traditional timeline for launching financial products from years to potentially just days or weeks.

Tim explains that LendAPI was born from his own 20 years of frustration working in various financial roles, where he experienced firsthand the pain points of slow implementation and inefficient processes. The company has received enthusiastic responses from financial executives, particularly chief lending and risk officers from credit unions and banks who see the potential to finally launch products they’ve wanted to implement for years. Following their Finovate success, LendAPI has decided to focus specifically on embedded finance opportunities, even changing their tagline from “onboard anyone” to “embedded anywhere.”

Looking toward the future of lending, Tim envisions reducing friction at what he calls “the moment of truth,” that critical moment when consumers or small businesses want to make purchases or access credit. He believes financing, lending, and payments should blend seamlessly, creating a “magical” experience where credit decisions happen instantly without requiring extensive applications. This approach would prevent situations where people delay important purchases or decisions because of the onerous loan application process, ultimately making financial services more accessible and user-friendly.

More info:

LendAPI: https://www.lendapi.com/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/lendapi/

FinovateFall Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovatefall-2025-lendapi/

Tim Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothytli/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #LendAPI #FinovateFall #BestofShow #lending #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #credit #payments #orchestration #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #cx #creditunions #communitybanks

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Casap on the biggest opportunity you’re missing to prove to your customers that you’re on their side.

Detailed Summary:

In this Finovate podcast episode, Greg interviews Shanthi Shanmugam, co-founder and CEO of Casap, a Best of Show winner at FinovateFall 2025. Shanthi explains that Casap was founded after she and her co-founder discovered that negative dispute experiences were the primary non-life-event reason customers left financial institutions. Casap addresses this by instantly resolving disputes for honest customers while protecting banks from fraudsters. The current dispute process typically takes 90 days with little communication, creating frustration for customers who need resolution.

Shanthi highlights that first-party fraud has become the leading fraud attack vector globally, surpassing account takeovers and scams. This type of fraud—where customers falsely claim they didn’t make purchases they actually did—costs financial institutions $100 billion annually. Casap’s solution uses AI agents that ask objective questions like expert investigators while analyzing transaction data to generate a “win score” that determines if a dispute is legitimate. For honest customers with high win scores, Casap provides instant resolution, while creating friction for potential fraudsters.

Following her Finovate demo, Shanthi received significant interest from various financial institutions, including fintechs, banks, and credit unions. Casap serves issuers of all sizes, from public fintechs to top 25 banks and credit unions with assets ranging from $200 million to $20 billion. Shanthi closes by envisioning a future where Casap helps create a financial system where trust is a given, fraud is minimized, and financial services are truly democratized. The solution is designed for any issuer handling at least 200 dispute cases monthly, providing immediate savings and improved customer experiences.

More info:

Casap: https://www.casaphq.com/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/casaphq/

FinovateFall Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovatefall-2025-casap/

Shanthi Shanmugam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanthi-shanmugam-4057284a/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #Casap #FinovateFall #BestofShow #ai #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #disputes #fraud #antifraud #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #cx

AI is revolutionizing lending – are you ready?

Detailed Summary:

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Greg Sullins, head of the U.S. Banking Center of Excellence for Newgen Software. Sullins, with 35 years of banking experience, discusses how Newgen supports financial institutions in their digital banking transformation. The conversation primarily focuses on how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing lending processes, with Sullins explaining that lending is particularly suitable for AI implementation because it sits at the intersection of data intensity, risk management, and customer experience.

Newgen’s technology addresses lending challenges through end-to-end automation using their low-code platform, AI-powered decisioning, configurable workflows, and enhanced customer experience capabilities. Sullins emphasizes that the low-code component is crucial as it allows business analysts rather than programmers to configure workflows and deploy changes quickly. This approach helps banks modernize legacy systems while maintaining compliance through built-in governance, audit trails, and explainable AI.

Looking toward the future of lending, Sullins predicts four major shifts: instant lending with approvals in seconds, more inclusive credit using AI and alternative data to serve traditionally underserved borrowers, embedded lending that appears where customers need it, and risk and compliance by design. He concludes that banks need to shift their mindset from viewing lending as a process to manage to seeing it as an experience to deliver, adopting an outside-in perspective that prioritizes customer expectations while still managing risk responsibly.

More info:

Newgen: https://newgensoft.com/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/newgen/

Greg Sullins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-sullins-9788b23/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #newgen #ai #lowcode #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #payments #lending #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #africanfintech #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #cx