Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller, Tearsheet’s editor in chief. The move to faster payments is happening. When you zoom out and look where things like the real time payments initiatives are going to have a real impact, you can see that instant payouts can have a lot of resonance in insurance and supply chain. But to do this in B2B, you really need to make it easy and marry identity together with payouts. That’s because a lot more is at stake when things move to real time. My guest today on the show is Stephany Kirkpatrick, founder and CEO of Orum. Orum offers a single API integration for payouts that works over RTP, ACH, and other rails. Stephanie may be a financial planner by training but she’s all in on Orum and payouts. We discuss what’s driving the move to real time payments and how disbursements and early wage access are two of the most important first use cases. Stephanie shares what looking abroad can reflect about the road and impact to real time payments. She also shares her views on where the market is headed and her plans and goals for Orum in 2023. Stephany Kirkpatrick is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. You can access the audio and a full transcript here: https://tearsheet.co/podcasts/you-can-programmatically-use-blockchain-to-reduce-counterparty-risk-fireblocks-michael-shaulov/

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor-in-chief, Zack Miller. A couple of years back, Visa made a move to acquire Plaid but the Justice Department scuttled the deal. The idea was if a company whose business it was to create nodes at most of the financial institutions in the US and with millions of customers, it wasn’t far-fetched to see Plaid become a mover of money, not just financial data. Well, Plaid now does over a billion ACH transactions a year and is investing more deeply into its payments offerings. The firm recently hired John Anderson from Meta, who has a 20-year history with building out innovative payments platforms. I spoke with John about Plaid’s positioning in payments and where it’s headed. The company recently released Signal, an ACH risk assessment and scoring API. John Anderson is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. You can access the full transcript and audio here: https://tearsheet.co/podcasts/signal-makes-the-us-banking-rails-behave-the-way-they-should-in-the-future-plaids-john-anderson/

Welcome to our first Tearsheet Pro webinar. This is for Tearsheet Pro subscribers. And this is where we go deeper into some of the topics that are really impacting financial services. You have to be living in a cave not to have experienced the excitement or elation around ChatGPT. For me and for the rest of our team, it really got our gears going about the potential impact of AI in financial services. I've invited two experts to our show to basically separate facts from fiction and really get a feel for what the opportunities are in financial services as we approach these types of technologies and what may be just sort of fantasy. Joining me on the show, I have Moses Guttmann, who's co-founder and CEO of ClearML. Moses brings more than 20 years of experience making visionary technologies a reality. He's co founder and CEO of ClearML, where he leads the teams behind the industry's only unified end to end frictionless MLOps platform. Prior to ClearML, Moses co founded and led several startups in the computer vision and embedded processing spaces, including Optical, CV for 3D cinema, and an embedded CV startup during his PhD, the last two of which were sold. Moses is an alumnus of the IDF 81 elite technology unit. He's been granted 13 patents and has applied for an additional 27 patents in the field of machine learning. He has been published in five academic journals, Moses is a graduate of Tel Aviv University with a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in computer science. Dev Patnaik is the CEO of Jump Associates, the leading independent strategy and innovation firm. He’s a board member of Conscious Capitalism. Dev has been a trusted advisor to CEOs at some of the world’s most admired companies, including Starbucks, Target, Nike, Universal and Virgin. Dev is a frequent keynote speaker at major forums, and his writing has appeared in BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fast Company, and many others. He is the author of the book Wired to Care, named one of the best books of the year by both Fast Company and Business Week. Malcolm Gladwell called Wired to Care “just what we need for the lean years ahead.” When not at Jump, Dev’s also an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University, where he teaches social science methods to MBA and design students.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Today’s guest on the show is Mohammed Badi, head of American Express’s global network business. He spoke at our Power of Payments conference last year and I invited him back on our podcast to talk about two new recent launches Amex made that I wanted you to hear more about. The first is Amex Business Link, a B2B payments ecosystem that includes Amex’s commercial bank partners, for their customers and their suppliers. B2B payments continue to be an important theme, as different players come at this from their unique angles. The second launch is a co brand card Amex recently launched with Simon malls that rewards in-person shopping. As the pandemic wanes, there is an appetite for in-person shopping (remember that?) – this card targets a younger demographic with incentives for spending money at malls. Mohammed and I discuss these new products as well as trends in Amex’s network business. Today’s guest is Amex’s Mohammed Badi.

Welcome back to the Power of Payments podcast. I’m your host Ismail Umar, and today I’m joined by Jessica Cheney, VP of Product for the Digital Banking Solutions group at Bottomline Technologies. Jessica has been with Bottomline for over a decade. Prior to that, she held similar roles at a number of other fintechs, and was also part of the commercial product management group at US Bank. She has been involved with real-time payments for many years now, and says she has a comprehensive outlook on how payments impact financial services from a commercial, fintech, and retail perspective. In our conversation today, Jessica discusses the current state of adoption of real-time payments in the US, and how the launch of FedNow – the Federal Reserve’s instant payment service – is going to impact the banking industry. She also talks about how SMBs can use real-time payments to improve their day-to-day operations, and the overall impact that RTP adoption will likely have on banks, businesses, and consumers in the coming years. Listen to the full episode and get the transcript here: https://tearsheet.co/power-of-payments-podcast/power-of-payments-ep-24-talking-fednow-and-real-time-payments-with-bottomlines-jessica-cheney/

Get the full transcript here: https://tearsheet.co/podcasts/surveying-global-banking-and-niche-payments-with-standard-chartereds-anand-natarajan/ Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. An interesting thing is starting to happen with partner banks. What began as the purview of some smaller, regional players is now becoming interesting to some of the largest global banks. For example, we spoke a couple of weeks ago to Citi about its plans to provide partner bank services for global firms. That means a brand or fintech with global aspirations could work with a single bank in each market, instead of partnering with different local players on the ground. Standard Chartered is already supporting its clients with its own extensive footprint in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. I spoke with Anand Natarajan, who covers the technology, media and fintech segments for the firm’s treasury services. At a conversation that began in Las Vegas in 2022 and continued into the beginning of 2023, Anand shares his view on a wide range of topics including evolving merchant ecommerce experiences, social commerce, gaming payments, CBDCs and more. It was an engaging conversation – hope you enjoy it. Here’s my talk with Anand Natarajan.

Link to the full transcript: https://tearsheet.co/podcasts/are-we-at-the-digital-tipping-point-for-payments-yet-deloittes-zachary-aron/ Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. My guest today is Zachary Aron. At Deloitte, Zach heads the payments practice globally and co-leads the US. We spend quite a bit of time trying to understand the move towards payments modernization. Of course, the current economic challenges influence how Deloitte’s clients are thinking about things like RTP and ISO20022 – Zach sees some FIs taking advantage of the opportunities to both streamline payments operations and products with an eye on future competitiveness. Zach also shares why he thinks payroll is one of the first use cases of real time payments. I first met Zach at Money 2020 in 2022 and this episode is a continuation of the conversation that was started in Las Vegas. Zachary Aron is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome back to the Power of Payments podcast. I’m your host Ismail Umar, and in today’s episode, we discuss Elon Musk’s payments plans for Twitter, and Cash App’s new savings feature. We also talk about Gen Z’s changing preferences when it comes to sending and receiving money digitally.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller, Tearsheet's editor in chief. My guest today is Brett Pharr, CEO of Pathward Financial. You might not have heard of Pathward – it’s more likely you have heard of Meta Bank, which recently rebranded to Pathward. I spoke with Brett about the community bank and payments legacy the firm has and how it impacted the decision to rebrand in 2022. Link to the full transcript: https://tearsheet.co/podcasts/behind-the-pathward-rebranding-with-ceo-brett-pharr/ I always find it interesting and insightful to hear about these stories – about how an established financial institution decides on and aligns around a rebranding. It’s a big deal to change your name – Brett gives us insight into how the firm is positioning itself for future growth. Brett Pharr is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Link to the full transcript: https://tearsheet.co/podcasts/theres-been-a-shift-in-what-banks-want-to-work-on-versus-what-consumers-are-driving-mambus-robin-smith/ Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller, Tearsheet's editor in chief. Robin Smith is vice president of North America for banking software provider, Mambu. Robin has been in the fintech space for over 30 years, leading teams at Oracle, FIS, and Fiserv. Robin’s got a wealth of experience and knowledge over what’s happening in the core banking software industry, and at banks in general. Our conversation spans current trends, banks’ challenges and opportunities with going digital, the partner ecosystem Mambu has built in the US to support its customers, and more. Robin Smith is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Link to the full transcript: https://tearsheet.co/payments/power-of-payments-ep-22-frankly-the-most-important-asset-for-smb-owners-is-time-chases-brad-brodigan/ Welcome back to the Power of Payments podcast. I’m your host Ismail Umar, and today, I’m joined by Brad Brodigan, managing director and global head of SMB payments at Chase. Brad says he has a passion for working at the intersection of payments, technology, and small business. He’s spent the last 15 years using innovations in payments technology to provide SMB owners with more efficient ways of running their business. Over the last decade, Brad has held a variety of roles at firms including PayPal, Dosh, and BlueVine. In our conversation today, Brad discusses the most important trends he’s seeing in SMB payments right now, the kinds of attributes that SMBs look for in a payment processor, and how their needs differ from those of enterprises and retail customers. He also talks about how current macroeconomic challenges are affecting the demands and expectations that small business owners have from their financial providers.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller, Tearsheet's editor in chief. I don’t know what they serve at the snack bar at Intuit, maker of QuckBooks and the financial ecosystem around it, but when you speak to senior leadership, they seem almost maniacal about serving SMBs. And what the firm has done over the past few years is make its bookkeeping software the center of a financial services ecosystem that includes payments, lending, and banking.  Now, Intuit is looking to take its ecosystem and tools to midmarket and B2B firms with the launch of the QuickBooks Business Network which creates one of the largest B2B networks and automates B2B payments, improving overall cash flow for this particular user set I’m joined by Juliana Berger, the director of payments for QuickBooks. You’ll hear the passion she has for serving SMBs. We talk about the breadth and depth of Intuit’s SMB offering. Juliana shares the pain points SMBs are feeling in this economy and what the software firm is doing to address them. There’s a lot of talk about invoicing and payments flows with an increasing amount of automation mixed in. Her excitement about the space is infectious. Intuit’s Juliana Berger is my guest today on the podcast.

We’re in a transitional period when it comes to how banks and fintechs partner. If 2022 was the year of launching partnerships between FIs and tech firms, this year is more about fine-tuning them. Partner banks are seeing more scrutiny as more banks have chosen the route of serving fintechs.  At Money 2020 this year, Tearsheet Editor-in-Chief Zack Miller sat with Chafic Haddad, Citi’s global head of fintech within the firm’s transaction bank. When he said that one of the largest international banks was really trying to align and position itself as a global partner bank to top fintechs, Miller told Chafic he had to join us on the podcast to talk about what all that means. Chafic shares the mandate of his new role within the firm and why non-bank partnerships have been the fastest growing segment over the past few years. We discuss what Citi offers fintechs and the challenges and opportunities in providing these firms with global transaction and trade capabilities.

In the fifth and final episode of the Steez podcast, we talk about how Gen Z views sustainable investing. They are not just investing to align with their values. They are actively driving change with every purchasing preference and transaction. Our host, Rebecca Cohen, is joined by Jessica Matthews, Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainable Investing at J.P. Morgan, Jean-Louis Warnholz (CEO and Co-founder), and Eunice Jung (Head of Partnerships) from Future.

Welcome to the first Power of Payments podcast episode of 2023. For our first episode of the year, we’re doing something a little different. Instead of doing a round-up of recent news in the world of payments, this week we’re going to talk about what the near future looks like for the payments industry. To kick off my payments coverage for 2023, I wanted to hear from people in the industry about what they believed would be the most important trends in payments this year. I asked a number of experts from across the payments spectrum to share their thoughts with me and predict what trends we can expect from the industry in the next 12 months. Based on those predictions, I’ve compiled 10 trends that are likely to shape the payments landscape this year. Important themes for 2023 – in no particular order – involve B2B payments, M&A activity, real-time payments, digital wallets, fraud, sustainability, and more.