Provoke.fm Media

I swear, it wasn’t me! – connecting with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Herd Security on their anti-deepfake fraud prevention solution.

Detailed Summary:

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Brandon Min, founder and CEO of Herd Security, a Best of Show winner at FinovateSpring 2025. Brandon explains that Herd Security focuses on helping organizations build “herd immunity” against generative AI cyber attacks, particularly deepfakes. Unlike competitors who focus solely on detection or training, Herd helps organizations understand their deepfake risk exposure by answering two key questions: what is the organization’s overall vulnerability to deepfakes, and which employees are most susceptible to these attacks. Their approach includes proprietary voice detection algorithms that analyze audio for AI manipulation as part of a comprehensive layered security strategy.

Brandon identifies two primary threat vectors for financial institutions: inbound call centers where fraudsters can use deepfakes to bypass verification systems, and recruitment processes where bad actors might impersonate candidates to gain organizational access. He notes that while deepfake attacks are still relatively uncommon, there have been significant incidents, including a Hong Kong firm losing $25 million to a video deepfake fraud. Brandon emphasizes that organizations should be proactive rather than reactive in addressing these emerging threats, as traditional voice attacks (without deepfakes) have already caused significant damage to companies all over the world.

During his demo, Brandon took a measured approach to raising awareness without fearmongering. He showed the technology’s capabilities by spoofing the host’s voice in a friendly message, then escalated to showing how the same technology could be used in a wire transfer fraud scenario. Brandon stresses the importance of education and preparation, comparing the current situation to early warning signs before a tsunami – we’re seeing the beginning signs of deepfake threats, and while it’s difficult to predict exactly how they’ll evolve, organizations need to understand their vulnerabilities now rather than waiting for a major incident to occur.

More info:

Herd Security: https://www.herdsecurity.io/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/herd-security/

Brandon Min: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-min-356ab290/

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

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

FinovateSpring: https://informaconnect.com/finovatespring/

#Finovate #AIPodcast #FinancialServices #BankingInnovation #FinTech #voice #antifraud #security #deepfake #security #DigitalTransformation #AI #innovation #finovatespring

What happens when we pass the point of technological change so profound that we can no longer predict or comprehend the future? Pay attention because it’s coming soon. For decades, futurists have theorized that the compound impact of converging, accelerating technologies will result in a singularity: that liminal moment when society is irreversibly transformed. This week David S Rose, New York City’s greatest angel investor and a prolific entrepreneur, joins The Futurists to share his perspectives about the experience of living through the knee of exponential change. Brace yourself.  

This week we bring you more insights from Cape Town South Africa as we continue to explore some great startups on the African continent and beyond from Crossfin’s Circle of Fintech event.

In our first segment, Brett speaks with Karl Westvig, CEO of TymeBank South Africa. Since receiving its banking license in South Africa in 2019, TymeBank has grown to 80 million customers globally, focusing on financial inclusion through accessible and frictionless banking. The expanding neobank has plans for further growth in several Asian markets.

Key motivations include the immense scale of the Asian markets: the Philippines with 120 million people and Indonesia with 280 million alongside South Africa’s 60 million. These regions boast young, digitally savvy populations that are largely underserved. Tune in as Brett and Karl discuss new opportunities, TymeBank’s innovative “phygital” distribution strategy, tech stacks, Agentic AI, new products, and more

Then, Brett sits down with Unitey Founder & CEO, Muzaffar “MK” Khokhar, for an engaging conversation about the payments ecosystem. Based in the UAE, Unitey’s mission is to democratize financial services and level the playing field.

MK is a veteran payments ecosystem player, creating and operating payment ecosystems for central banks and governments. With Unitey, he is focused on the serenity of the ecosystem. With our current system built back in the 60s / 70s, we now have better tech for more robust payment rails. Change is happening, efficiency is coming into the system, and interoperability with other rails coming up fast with RTP, mobile money, and more. Unitey specializes in demystifying the card payment rails but has clear roadmaps focused on creating interoperability with other rails, ensuring multiple rails can actually interoperate.

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Connect With Karl Westvig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-westvig/

Connect with Unitey: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unitey-digital/

Connect with Brett King: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettking/

Next-gen customer service – connecting with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Penny Finance on attracting, retaining, and serving members of the digital generation

Detailed Summary:

In this Finovate podcast episode, host Greg interviews Crissi Cole, founder and CEO of Penny Finance, a Best of Show winner at FinovateSpring in San Diego. Cole, a former Goldman Sachs financial advisor, created Penny Finance in 2020 to provide personalized financial planning for everyday Americans. After building a community of 20,000 individual users, Penny pivoted to partnering with community banks and credit unions when they discovered 80% of their members already had relationships with local financial institutions, while only 20% of these institutions offered financial planning services.

Penny Finance’s platform connects consumers’ financial plans with their financial institution’s products, helping community banks and credit unions better serve their members. Cole emphasizes that smaller financial institutions have advantages over larger banks in their ability to tailor offerings to individual customers and provide more attractive financial products. However, these institutions often struggle with building the digital presence needed to attract and retain today’s online customers, which is where Penny’s technology helps bridge the gap.

Crissi highlights that effective financial services aren’t just about technological capabilities or integration with online banking platforms, but about understanding customers and meeting them at key moments in their financial journey. She stresses that relevance and timing in the user journey are more important than fancy CRMs or mobile apps. The ultimate goal is to transform financial institutions from merely offering a menu of products to becoming true financial partners that help customers when they need it, making financial planning accessible to everyday Americans while helping community banks manage more of their members’ wallets.

More info:

Penny Finance: https://www.penny-finance.com/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/penny-finance-inc/

Crissi Cole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crissicole111/

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

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

FinovateSpring: https://informaconnect.com/finovatespring/

#Finovate #Podcast #FinancialServices #BankingInnovation #FinTech #creditunion #communitybank #CX #DigitalTransformation #innovation #finovatespring

This special episode of Breaking Banks Europe at Money20/20 features insights from fintech and crypto leaders shaping the future of finance. Jeff Parker, CEO of Paymentology, outlines the company’s global, cloud-based card processing platform that supports fintechs and digital banks in over 50 countries. Emphasizing agile infrastructure, tokenization, and financial inclusion, Parker highlights innovations like instant virtual cards and kiosk-based banking access. Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Ethereum and Cardano, reflects on crypto’s journey from fringe to mainstream. He discusses decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, and the need for automated compliance and global regulation, emphasizing the transformative potential of blockchain. Stani Kulechov, CEO of Aave Labs, discusses the evolution of DeFi through the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs). He advocates for more accessible, programmable finance and collaboration between traditional and decentralized institutions, positioning DeFi as the next engine for scalable, transparent, and inclusive financial ecosystems.

Connect with our guests:

This week’s episode of Breaking Banks brings you insights from Cape Town, South Africa, and the Circle of Fintech event hosted by Crossfin. Africa accounts for a remarkable 70% of mobile money accounts globally, and over the past decade, fintech and mobile money have brought 1.1 billion Sub-Saharan Africans into the formal financial services system..

In the episode, Brett King is joined by Dean Sparrow and Anton Gaylard, Co-Founders of Crossfin to talk about next gen financial services infrastructure emerging from South Africa and extending across the planet. They explore the evolution of fintech across the African continent. the rapid adoption of mobile money, fueled by the limited legacy banking infrastructure and the widespread use of mobile technology. They then get into Crossfin’s investment strategy with focus on supporting founder-led businesses in Africa, particularly those developing payment-oriented solutions, and showcasing the agility and innovation within the African fintech ecosystem.

But first, Brett sits down with Barry Levett, CEO of Mypinpad, a fintech entrepreneur dedicated to creating secure and scalable infrastructure that transforms mobile devices into trusted platforms for commerce. As the founder of SmartPesa, Barry spearheaded the expansion of its payment and agency banking solutions across 11 countries. After a merger with Mypinpad in 2022, he assumed the role of CEO, bringing a unified strategic vision to the combined entity — a vision emphasizing digital infrastructure that enhances freedom and efficiency, enabling individuals and businesses to transact more securely and simply on their own terms. A key focus is “Soft POS,” a growing trend in finance that leverages the capabilities of ordinary mobile phones to accept payments, essentially turning a phone into a point of sale terminal.

Stay tuned for this insightful episode!

Talk to me – connecting with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Illuma Labs on their AI CX and authentication agent

Detailed Summary:

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Milind Borkar, founder and CEO of Illuma, a two-time Best of Show winner at Finovate events. Illuma specializes in voice authentication and fraud prevention solutions for mid-market financial institutions like credit unions, community banks, and regional banks. The company has evolved from primarily focusing on authentication to becoming more of a fraud prevention company, developing advanced capabilities to detect deepfakes and other voice-based fraud attempts. During the interview, Milind explains how their technology works by running parallel engines – an authentication engine that matches voiceprints and a synthetic detection engine that identifies signatures of artificially generated voices.

Milind goes on to discuss how the financial industry’s response to AI-based threats has evolved. Initially, there was skepticism and fear when deepfakes first emerged, with many institutions paralyzed by uncertainty. Now, there’s growing acceptance that humans alone cannot detect sophisticated AI-generated voice fraud, and that “the only way to really battle the evil use of AI is good use of AI.” Financial institutions are increasingly interested in implementing AI solutions while also asking more questions about ethical AI use and governance frameworks, though many organizations are still determining what ethical AI implementation actually means in practice.

The conversation concludes on the note that fraud challenges are universal across different types of financial institutions and geographic locations. Whether on the East or West Coast, or whether dealing with small credit unions or large regional banks, the same fundamental problems exist – just at different scales. Milind notes that fraudsters are opportunistic and don’t discriminate based on region, making Illuma’s solutions equally relevant across the financial services spectrum.

More info:

Illuma Labs: https://illuma.cx/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/illuma-labs/

Milind Borkar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/milind-borkar-4197a917/

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

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

FinovateSpring: https://informaconnect.com/finovatespring/

#Finovate #AIPodcast #FinancialServices #BankingInnovation #FinTech #voice #CX #security #DigitalTransformation #AI #innovation #finovatespring

This week Brett and Rob take a check on the latest in AI news diving into the growing requirements for AI infrastructure, and the advances being made in Agentic-AI. We dive into Anthropic and Open AI’s latest announcements including the $6.5Bn acquisition by Open AI of Jony Ive’s revenue-less and customer-less startup, and we look at investments in the UAE in the world’s largest AI data center.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi sits down with Patrick McConnell, author of “Digital Money: Operational Risks and the Threats to Operational Resilience”. They discuss the far-reaching impacts of emerging types of digital money upon financial institutions’ operational risk and resilience profiles. Many new operational risks could potentially arise as digital money innovations are integrated with existing systems. In addition to helping to manage existing risks, operational risk management (ORM) groups will have to become experts in technology and cryptography. Patrick’s comprehensive analysis of how the digital financial ecosystem is adapting covers: emerging types of digital money, evolving global and instant payments, cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins. They also discuss other financial and technology innovations, such as post-quantum computing.

GUEST SOCIAL MEDIA

Patrick McConnell – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pjmcconnell/

Traditional banks just pocketed $268 billion in profit—even with loan growth stuck in first gear—while global fintech funding barely limped past $10 billion, thanks to a single blockbuster round. This week, Theo Lau and Greg Palmer join hosts JP Nicols, Brett King, and Jason Henrichs to untangle those contradictions and ask who’s really carrying the baton in the race for the future of money.

Brace yourself for a knife-fight over BaaS regulation, a land-rush toward instant payments, and an AI gold rush that could super-charge compliance… or automate you right out of a job (and maybe swipe your wallet on the way).

Add in deep-fake demos, a no-holds-barred scorecard of today’s leaders, learners, and laggards, and stark predictions of where they’ll be tomorrow. Whether you’re sprinting on a 150-year-old balance sheet or a Series A term sheet, the finish line is the same: deliver smarter, safer money experiences—before someone else does.

And whatever you do, try not to low-key suck.