Provoke.fm Media

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

In the new episode of Breaking Banks Africa, host Nadine Zoro explores how Wave, a mobile money company, is breaking barriers to financial inclusion across Francophone West Africa. Guest Coura Carine Sene, General Manager WAEMU Region, Wave Mobile Money, shares her journey from studying and working in France to returning to Senegal to drive change. Wave prioritizes affordability and simplicity—lowering transaction fees from as high as 12% to just 1%—to make digital finance accessible for underserved communities. Their approach builds trust by focusing on user-friendly services for people new to financial tools, many of whom are illiterate or lack smartphones. Wave innovates with solutions like QR-coded cards that work offline, enabling rural users to transact through agents. The episode also highlights the challenges of navigating regulation and partnering with telcos, stressing the importance of collaboration with regulators to scale services. Overall, Wave demonstrates how fintech can foster inclusion, economic activity, and empowerment through practical, low-cost innovation.

Connect with our guest:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/coura-carine-tine-sene

‌

Media cartographer Evan Shapiro publishes the definitive chart of the global media industry cited by every pundit and trade publication. After 20 years of disruptive change, the media industry is evolving so quickly beyond recognition that Evan’s chart has emerged as the universal scorecard to keep track of who owns what. Evan joins the Futurists to decipher the chaos in streaming, television, socials and cinema. Topics include: the importance of audience fragmentation across media formats and platforms; the consequences of consolidation; why Big Tech is trouncing Big Media;  why Netflix is worth more than Disney, Comcast, WarnerBros Discovery, and Paramount combined;  YouTube as the new era of cable TV;  why 60% of all advertising dollars flow through three companies;  Disney’s genius move with ESPN;  and Evan’s surprising answer to the question: which is the only major media company that has managed the transition to the digital age?

Gyrating securities prices, perplexing consumer confidence numbers, multiple revisions of jobs numbers, varying interest rate forecasts- that’s VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Tim Mahedy is Founder and Chief Economist at Access Macro and serves as the Chief Economist at Alloy Labs, and his perspective, shaped by time at the IMF, as the Chief of Staff at the San Francisco Federal Reserve, and by advising leaders globally, comes at a critical moment.

He joins host JP Nicols to reveal why the old banking playbooks are dead, how the “VUCA Bazooka” is reshaping the landscape not just now, but for the foreseeable future, and what bold leaders must do now to turn chaos into their biggest competitive advantage. If you don’t want to be left behind, this is your wake-up call, and your blueprint to winning in 2026 and beyond.

JP Nicols and Tim Mahedy will be giving an executive briefing on their findings and recommendations on October 2nd. Learn more and register at AlloyLabs.com/events

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

Best selling author M.P. “Mike” Woodward joins the Futurists to share scenarios for the future of the next major naval war in the Pacific. How might a war between the United States and China happen? According to Woodward, it begins with a struggle to control the chips that govern artificial intelligence, then rapidly escalates to a massive ocean-spanning clash between two navies bristling with high tech gear. Woodward exposes critical weaknesses in US military preparedness and he speculates about innovations in weaponry and tactics.  Woodward’s new book RED TIDE provides the basis for a lively discussion about the politics, economics and strategy that will determine the course of the next world war.

This week on Breaking Banks, we feature a fascinating and thought-provoking episode from our sister podcast, The Futurists, where Brett King welcomes celebrated experimental astrophysicist Professor Brian Cox.

Professor Cox, an English physicist and musician, is widely recognized for presenting science programs such as BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage and the Wonders of... series. He is also the author of two popular science books: Why Does E=mc²? (And Why Should We Care?) and The Quantum Universe. He’s selected to deliver the keynote address at The Futurists X Summit in Dubai on September 22nd.

In this episode, Professor Cox dives into how our understanding of black holes and quantum information theory could change our fundamental understanding of the universe, ushering in a new era of scientific advancement.

Professor Brian Cox is one of the most articulate scientists in the world today. This interview underscores that, in an era where science faces ongoing challenges from political forces and media, our future lies in embracing knowledge and applied intelligence. Are we at the event horizon of something new and extraordinary?

Stablecoins, relationships, and licenses – inside the Flutterwave success story

Detailed Summary:

In this Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Bridgit Antwi, Head of Strategy and Planning at Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments company. Founded in 2016 by Olubenga “GB” Agbola, Flutterwave was created to solve the significant friction in facilitating financial transactions across Africa’s complex landscape of 54 countries, 40+ currencies, and numerous payment systems. The company has built an infrastructure that abstracts this complexity through a single API platform, allowing merchants to seamlessly collect payments across multiple countries, currencies, and payment methods. Today, Flutterwave operates in over 30 countries, holds licenses in 14 African nations (making it the most licensed non-bank entity on the continent), and maintains 35 money transfer licenses.

Flutterwave’s growth has required not only technological innovation but also extensive relationship-building across the financial ecosystem. The company has established over 150 direct connections to banks, mobile network operators, payment schemes, and digital wallets, creating redundant payment rails necessary for reliable operation in Africa. This infrastructure has become a competitive advantage and now powers the next generation of African startups. Key customers include global companies like Uber, which Flutterwave helped expand from Nigeria to ten additional markets by localizing transactions and improving authorization rates. They also serve local merchants like Nigerian airline Airpeace and payment service providers from Europe, the US, and increasingly Asia.

Looking toward the future, Flutterwave is focusing heavily on stablecoins, particularly USDC. As a member of the Circle Partnership Network, they are one of few African partners that can mint USDC and provide on/off-ramp services between USDC and fiat currencies. This focus addresses critical needs in Africa, where currency volatility and inflation make stablecoins an attractive alternative for cross-border transactions due to lower costs and faster settlement times. Beyond facilitating local payments, Flutterwave is helping merchants expand their reach across borders, with particular interest in the “big four” e-commerce markets (Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt) as well as secondary markets like Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, and parts of Francophone Africa.

More info:

Flutterwave: https://flutterwave.com/us/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/flutterwave/

Bridgit Antwi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridgit-antwi/

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

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

#Finovate #Flutterwave #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #payments #stablecoins #paymentsystems #fintech #finserv #africanfintech #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #USDC

This week The Futurists welcomes celebrated experimental astrophysicist Prof Brian Cox. Prof Cox dives into why our understanding of black holes and what it means for quantum information theory could change our fundamental understanding of the universe and usher in a new era of scientific advancement. Cox is one of the most articulate scientists in the world today and this interview proves once again that in an age where science faces ongoing attacks from political forces and media that our future lies in embracing knowledge and applied intelligence. It could be said that we are at the event horizon of something new and extraordinary.

This week on Breaking Banks we’re continuing our series on Brett King’s new book, Branch Tomorrow, featuring interviews with contributing authors: Bruno Diniz, Efi Pylarinou,Jim Marous, Paolo Sironi, and Richard Turrin. Each brings specialty in different markets giving Branch Tomorrow a multi-perspective look at banking, banking culture, and the future of financial services across the globe, from the US to India, Europe, China, and Latin America.

In this episode, Branch Tomorrow co-author Efi Pylarinou, a leading global fintech and tech influencer, shares insights on branch transformation from the European zone. Efi delves into some of the uniqueness, challenges and opportunities of the European market — a great example of diversity and different ways of operating — one item of note, the large Post Office networks that can essentially compete with fintechs and offer services.

In looking at the evolution of banking and to the future of banking in Europe, Efi and Brett focus on the transition from traditional banking to digital-only models like Revolut, breaking down what makes them successful, taking a close look at the economics of the different models. They also explore how AI is reshaping customer experiences in banking, the impact of cashlessness, and the social implications of some of these changes.

How will regulatory challenges shape the future of banking? Will shared banking spaces emerge as a solution for branches? In the next five years, in Europe and globally, will we see new disruptors that will challenge existing disruptors from the last decade?

The future of banking is here. Branch Tomorrow, a must-read for future-focused leaders dedicated to thriving in the digital transformation of finance — available mid-September. Get a sneak peek by listening now!