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Is AI good or bad for artists? Contrary to conventional wisdom, Bay Raitt believes that artificial intelligence confers immense power on artists. A prolific artist across film, games, print and other media, Bay speaks from deep experience. He tells The Futurists what he has learned by embracing AI in every aspect of his artists pursuits. According to Bay, AI must be embraced by creative people in every walk of life to reach its full potential. 

This week we introduce you to a series profiling the digital banks and founders that are changing the world of banking. Focused on first hand accounts from founders all over the globe, the series chronicles the NeoBanking movement from the early days though to today, documenting the players building a new category of digital banking, reshaping the digital movement. Throughout our series we look at foundation stories, challenges each had, and the regulatory approach each took — a look at the pioneering history of the neo and challenger bank movement.

In this episode, Breaking Banks host Brett King connects with bunq’s Founder & CEO. Ali Niknam. bunq is based in The Netherlands, a small country doing big things. bunq, bank of The Free, offers mobile banking that makes life easy for every new chapter in one’s life, and for the digital nomad in everyone.

Born out of Ali’s interest in creating products that people like to use, bunq began in 2012 and its mobile app came out in 2015, all with the aim to help the world forward and do banking a little differently. bunq has brought lasting change to the European banking industry. Having built a product rooted in customer needs and wants, bunq quickly scaled to become the second largest neobank in the EU. Serving digital nomads across the European Economic Area, bunq makes life easy for location-independent people and businesses starting from the way they manage money: how they spend, save, budget and invest.

On a mission to build the first global neobank for digital nomads, bunq announced its bid to enter the US market (April 2023) by applying for a banking license.

It’s an intriguing story, not to be missed!

The investment landscape, IPO and M&A predictions, and what to expect in 2025.

In the first episode of Breaking Banks Africa, we explore the transformative impact of digital assets and CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) on financial inclusion and regulatory frameworks across Africa. Our guest Carmelle Cadet – CEO & Founder of EMTech, shares insights into the role of regulators in adapting to innovation, using tools like the sandbox to manage risks without waiting for full legislation. Highlighting real-world examples, we discuss the Bahamas’ blockchain solution for island-wide financial access and Ghana’s CBDC initiative to streamline government payments. The conversation delves into the unique opportunities for Central Banks to issue digital currencies, fostering financial inclusion without requiring traditional banking infrastructure. The discussion also touches on the evolving regulatory landscape, with a focus on Africa’s potential to lead in fintech innovation. Acknowledging the challenges of trust and currency volatility, the episode emphasizes how blockchain and tokenization may offer solutions, creating a more resilient financial system for the continent’s future.

Marc Buckley returns to The Futurists with Brett King talking his return to Davos with Alohas Regenerative Futures in his role as a resident futurist with the United Nations Climate Change Global Innovation Hub and World Economic Forum advising on global sustainable development goals. Buckley maintains we can build a better future if we are clear about our goals and visions of the future, and that a regenerative future is very possible with the tech that is available today. When Marc speaks about this you get a clear sense of urgency, and he talks about the impact of ongoing extreme weather events like the LA wildfires also.

This week on Breaking Banks, we take you inside fintechXchange, hosted by the Stena Center for Financial Technology at the University of Utah. As a proud media partner of the event, we explore how industry, academia, and policymakers are coming together to drive the future of financial services.
Host Jason Henrichs sits down with Meghan Kober, VP of Fintech Partnerships & Investments at U.S. Bank, Taylor Randall, President of the University of Utah, and Ryan Christiansen, Executive Director of the Stena Center for Financial Technology. Together, they discuss the power of ecosystem building, highlighting the incredible human capital fueling innovation: VCs, startups, and institutions of all sizes collaborating to shape the next wave of fintech growth and banking transformation.

Then, it’s time for the first Hot Takes of 2025, recorded live from ‘Silicon Slopes’! Alex Johnson (Fintech Takes) and Jason Mikula (Fintech Business Weekly) are back in the hot seats with Jason Henrichs to break down the latest fintech headlines with sharp insights and no-holds-barred opinions. They dive into:

This episode is packed with insight, energy, and hard-hitting discussions you won’t want to miss!

This week on Breaking Banks, we take you inside fintechXchange, hosted by the Stena Center for Financial Technology at the University of Utah. As a proud media partner of the event, we explore how industry, academia, and policymakers are coming together to drive the future of financial services.
Host Jason Henrichs sits down with Meghan Kober, VP of Fintech Partnerships & Investments at U.S. Bank, Taylor Randall, President of the University of Utah, and Ryan Christiansen, Executive Director of the Stena Center for Financial Technology. Together, they discuss the power of ecosystem building, highlighting the incredible human capital fueling innovation: VCs, startups, and institutions of all sizes collaborating to shape the next wave of fintech growth and banking transformation.

Then, it’s time for the first Hot Takes of 2025, recorded live from ‘Silicon Slopes’! Alex Johnson (Fintech Takes) and Jason Mikula (Fintech Business Weekly) are back in the hot seats with Jason Henrichs to break down the latest fintech headlines with sharp insights and no-holds-barred opinions. They dive into:

This episode is packed with insight, energy, and hard-hitting discussions you won’t want to miss!

Paolo Sironi meets Jason Mikula, author of “Banking as a Service: Opportunities, Challenges and Risks of New Banking Business Models”.

BaaS is a game changer in the financial services sector, radically transforming both how consumers experience financial products and the business models delivering them. In this conversation, Jason cuts through the hype to provide a measured overview of BaaS, helping us to demystify a complex evolving field and understand its key opportunities, challenges and risks. There is a difference between BaaS, embedded finance and open banking. And Jason provides a framework for understanding where BaaS came from, how BaaS changes the economics and business models of banking products and services, its impact on key stakeholders, and its key regulatory implications. 

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Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/

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Is DeepSeek a massive disruption of the AI landscape? Or just another entrant in a brutal contest between Big Tech and feisty startups? In this episode, Brett and Rob examine the advent of DeepSeek R1 from all angles:  China’s rising AI prowess, the new Cold War, the myth of American exceptionalism, protectionism and export controls, the power of open source software, the winners and losers, and some surprising insights about the massive 17% drop in Nvidia’s market cap. 

In this episode of News From The Fintech Front, host Matteo Rizzi is joined by Alexander Gaillard, CEO of InvestGlass, to discuss the biggest fintech stories of January 2025. The month saw a major funding round in Europe, with French fintech Swan raising €42M to expand embedded banking across the continent, highlighting strong investor confidence in the sector. In payments, Elon Musk’s X announced a partnership with Visa Direct to power X Money, introducing real-time P2P payments for U.S. users. Meanwhile, the AI space saw a significant development as OpenAI launched o3-Mini, a powerful reasoning model aimed at countering rising competition from DeepSeek. Additionally, the financial infrastructure space witnessed a key partnership as Euroclear signed a seven-year deal with Microsoft to modernize operations through cloud computing and AI. With Alexander Gaillard’s expert insights, this episode explores how these developments are shaping the fintech landscape in 2025.

Follow Alexandre: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandre-gaillard-fintech
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