Barefoot Innovation Podcast

In this special episode recorded live at the Annual Conference of the National Bankers Association in Washington, D.C., Jo Ann speaks with three innovators working to help Minority Depository Institutions modernize their technology to continue serving communities of color.

Generative artificial intelligence is sure to be a hot topic for regulators and financial innovators on the upcoming conference circuit. Here is how attendees can get the most out of events likely to be a harvest of new ideas.

Lisa Rice, Head of the National Fair Housing Alliance, discusses the persistent issue of credit discrimination, hidden bias in lending practices, the racial wealth gap, and the impact of residential segregation on access to credit. She also explores the potential of technology in eliminating bias in lending while emphasizing the need for fair and equitable systems.

Following the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Velocity TechSprint, the official leading the agency's conservatorship and fintech strategies joins Jo Ann to discuss all the ways the mortgage market is ripe for a technology overhaul.

Most agencies focus largely on how technology affects the industries they oversee, but the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority's innovation approach is also inward-focused. Jessica Rusu and Nathalie Lowe, two leaders driving the FCA's strategy, discuss the regulator's achievements.

Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, joins Jo Ann for a discussion on the upsides and downsides of technologies designed to expand access to homeownership and small business capital.

Banka helps lead the World Bank's initiative to make payments interoperable and fast. In this episode, he discusses the launch of Project FASTT, the principles that make fast payments work and how to meet key financial inclusion goals.

Hand, the Director of Financial Fairness Advocacy at Consumer Reports, leads the magazine's initiative to evaluate new fintech products to give customers greater awareness of the rapidly changing financial services market. The ratings system could be a game-changer for pricing and product development.

It has been quite a ride since our first episode in 2015. Over more than eight years, this show helped mark AIR's founding, unpacked what the pandemic and other events meant for financial regulation, and hosted so many enlightening discussions about disruptive technology.

In this episode, Jo Ann interviews the most famous generative AI. The chat is "unsmart" but it gave responses to complex questions that were accurate and displayed the ability to grasp subtle issues.