[Editor's note: This interview was recorded on April 16, six days before the news of the Synapse bankruptcy and several weeks before any of the major problems that came to light at fintechs that were working with Synapse.]

To say the banking-as-a-service space is having a moment is an understatement. But many banks have been doing this successfully for a number of years and have thriving partnerships with fintechs. One such bank is Pathward, formerly known as MetaBank.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Anthony Sharett. He is the President at Pathward, a position he has held since 2021. Pathward is one of the largest and most important banks in the fintech space, so I wanted to get him on the show at this critical time for the industry.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Anthony came to be at Pathward.
• The history of the company and the rebrand from Metabank to Pathward.
• Anthony's take on the state of banking-as-a-service today.
• Why the concept of middleware may not be dead yet.
• The services they offer and some of the fintechs they are working with.
• How they co-create new products with their fintech partners.
• How they have built their risk and compliance framework.
• How they manage the balance between creativity and compliance.
• Their status as far as taking on new fintech clients.
• What they are looking for in a new fintech.
• Anthony's advice to a startup fintech CEO today.
• What he thinks of the state of fintech innovation today.
• What the BaaS landscape will look like in 3-5 years.

Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn
Connect with Pathward on LinkedIn

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