In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Miguel Armaza (WG’21/G’21) is joined by Susan French, Head of Product at BBVA Open Platform where she leads the design and development of Open Platform’s suite of white-label, banking-as-a-service APIs in the US.

About BBVA Open Platform

BBVA Open Platform offers API-driven, white-label banking and payments solutions for the enterprise. Open Platform enables companies to embed end-to-end banking and payments services into their brand to create engaging and intuitive customer experiences . Founded in 2016, BBVA Open Platform works with industry leading companies, at the forefront of digital innovation, to optimize their user experience through API-powered banking and payments solutions provided by leading U.S. bank BBVA USA, Member FDIC.

For more information, visit Open Platform at https://bbvaopenplatform.com/

Susan French

Susan is Head of Product at BBVA Open Platform. She lead the design and development of Open Platform’s groundbreaking suite of white-label, banking-as-a-service APIs in the US. Susan is a payment, digital commerce and financial services expert, with an unparalleled understanding of what fintech companies navigating this landscape want from an API platform – and how to deliver it. Susan has been working in the financial services sector for more than 25 years, most recently leading the team that created and launched Visa’s Developer Program, a suite of APIs that opened up Visa’s network to all developers, from startups to large financial institutions. A former CTO, Head of Enterprise Architecture and Technology Strategist at Visa, Susan also worked as Chief Operating Officer at Euphorion, a website design and development startup in Silicon Valley, and started her own independent consulting business.

In this interview, Susan shares:

- Her journey through the financial sector and what led her to BBVA

- How BBVA positioned itself as one of the leading proponents of fintech innovation

- Some of the reasons why the US has been slower than Europe to adopt Open Banking solutions and why the COVID-19 is forcing the US to catch up

- Some of the startups benefiting from BBVA Open Platform’s services such as Azlo, Wise, Catch, and Jet.

- The importance of a unified regulatory environment and some of the opportunities currently being developed in the US