Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m your host, Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller.

This following is part of a new series we’re running. It’s called the Big Bank Theory, and it’s all about the future of banking. We see three options going forward: in the march towards digital, people will gravitate towards the digital arms of incumbent banks, give their business to new upstart challenger banks, or the biggest opportunity, which is to bank with the brands they love.

Through embedded finance, people are increasingly turning to companies they frequent often -- whether it's a big retail player like Walmart or SMB accounting software like QuickBooks -- to plan, store, and move money around.

The following series includes content from Tearsheet’s Big Bank Theory Conference, held in November 2021.

We had three full days with the top companies and professionals defining what banking looks like today and into the future. We heard from large incumbents like Bank of America and innovative startups like Current.

Behind many of today’s top fintech firms sit important partners. A lot of them are pure technology firms. Other partners hold charters. But Cross River combines both tech and banking to power brands like Affirm, Coinbase, Upstart, Upgrade, and Stripe. The firm’s chief strategy officer, Karan Mehta, joined us at The Big Bank Theory Conference this November to discuss how Cross River’s technology is enabling the delivery of innovative financial solutions to millions of consumers and businesses.

We discuss Cross River’s growth, the building of an ecosystem around its proprietary, real-time core, and how fintech partners are plugging into this one-stop-shop to enable payments, banking, and merchant acquiring at scale.