Fintech One-On-One

[Editor's note: This interview was recorded on November 13 and in the fast-moving transition to a new administration, some items discussed here as possible or unlikely have already come to pass.]The new Trump Administration is going to have a dramatic impact on leadership at Federal banking regulators as well as on the new rules impacting fintech. So, I thought it would be useful to bring on an expert to tease out this impact and how fintechs can adapt to the changing of the guard.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Armen Meyer, the Co-Founder of the American Fintech Council, the former head of public policy at LendingClub and a public policy expert. We cover a lot of territory on this show as Armen prognosticates on what the change of administration could mean for fintech.In this podcast you will learn:Armen's history with fintech and forming the American Fintech Council.What changes we are likely to see at the top of the regulatory agencies.Why the Federal Reserve will see a lot of noise under Trump.Why the CFPB will not focus their attention on Section 1033.What might happen with the new BNPL rules.The future of the credit card late fee rules.What might happen with EWA, overdraft rules and regulating big tech.The impact on BaaS bank consent orders.How the state regulators may react to the changes at Federal agencies.How the pendulum swing back and forth between Democrats and Republicans impacts banking and fintech.What the end of the Chevron Doctrine might mean for fintech.Whether we will see some kind of new limited fintech or payments charter.Why Armen is optimistic for the new Trump Administration.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

The consumer lending space has seen a great deal of innovation in the past decade or more. But the number of completely new lending concepts that cross my desk has reduced to a trickle in the past couple of years. That is why I was excited to see an idea that was completely original and compelling.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Veetahl Eilat-Raichel, the CEO and Co-Founder of Sorbet. While you could think about Sorbet as an unsecured consumer lender, because that broadly defines them, they have discovered a completely untapped niche: PTO (Paid Time Off). Most employees accrue PTO that has real value and Sorbet has figured out how to tap into that value to create a lending product.In this podcast you will learn:The founding story of Sorbet.The size of the unused PTO marked in this country.The percentage of employees that accrue PTO.How their PTO advances work.How they integrate with payroll systems.When the issued their first loan.Their unique capabilities to underwrite PTO.What they consider to be their technological moat.What happens if someone uses all their PTO and then leaves their job.The two types of personas that uses Sorbet.The average loan size and the range of interest rates charged.What they have learned in the data so far.How they are going to market.How they are educating the market on the concept.What they learned from the earned wage access space.The three revenue streams they have.Their biggest challenge in growing the business today.How they are funding their loans.The early pivot they made that transformed the company.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

When you have been covering fintech as long as I have you get to know others in the space doing similar things. Zack Miller, the founder and managing editor of Tearsheet, was writing about fintech and interviewing people as I was getting serious about fintech lending back in 2012.Since I no longer own a fintech media company, we are no longer competitors so I wanted to get him on the show to talk about Tearsheet. He has done a great job building it up into one of the leading media companies in the industry today.In this podcast you will learn:How Tearsheet went from a passion project to a fintech media business.How they started doing small-scale high-end events.What they found out in their Gen-Z working group.The different components of Tearsheet and how they make money.How they decide what goes into their content.How to build trust with the largest financial institutions.The trends that Zack is looking at most closely.What banks have learned from their fintech partnerships.Why he is still a big fan of blockchain.What the future holds for Tearsheet.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Account payable automation software is one of those areas of fintech that doesn't get as much coverage as it should. Creating an efficient accounts payable system is a pain point for pretty much every company, but particularly for those businesses occupying the middle market. This is the opportunity that our guest today seized upon when starting his company nearly 25 years ago.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Michael Praeger, the CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder of AvidXchange. Mike founded his company all the way back in April 2000 and it is been through several phases in its growth to where it is today. It took them 10 years to get to $10 million in revenue but in the following decade they went from $10 million to $400 million. And then he took the company public. How he was able to do this makes for a really interesting discussion.In this podcast you will learn:The catalyst that led to the founding of AvidXchange in 2000.How they were able to grow over 30% a year for 12 years in a row.What excites Mike is the business today.Why they decided to raise a large amount of money in 2015.How he describes the different components of their business.The huge number of accounting systems they integrate with.Why they focused on the middle market and have not gone after small businesses.The core benefit they are bringing to the table.How Avid Pay Direct is able to enhance a standard ACH payment.Why cross border payments is not a major part of their business.Why middle market companies are not focused on speed of the payment.Examples of how they are using AI in their systems today.How being a public company has changed AvidXchange.Why he decided to start his own podcast and what it is about.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

While there are tens of millions of Americans still struggling with their financial health the reality is that fintech is starting to have a significant impact here. Some companies are reaching scale and are helping those people living paycheck to paycheck save huge amounts of money in aggregate particularly when it comes to punitive bank fees.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Zuben Mathews, the CEO and Co-Founder of Brigit. As a college student, he lived the challenges of not having enough money and was motivated to do something about it. Today, Brigit is helping over one million people become more financially healthy, and in the process saving them over $1 billion in overdraft fees.In this podcast you will learn:The problem Zuben had in college that led to the founding of Brigit.How he got the company off the ground.His thoughts on the impact of overdrafts and NSF fees.What Brigit's app provides and how it helps consumers.Why they decided to make subscriptions their primary revenue stream.The top use cases for their wage advances.How they are measuring their impact on the financial health of their users.The mechanics of how their advances work.The data they look at in their underwriting process.How their users are becoming more educated about financial health.How their credit building system works and why it is different.How they help people earn more income.The astounding amount of revenue they are earning per employee.Why they decided to call the company Brigit.Zuben's vision for Brigit.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Roberto Salcedo, Co-founder and CEO of Baubap, leads a microlending revolution in Mexico, leveraging mobile data and AI to serve the underserved. He discusses the unique challenges of providing unsecured loans in a cash-driven economy. Discover how Baubap rapidly delivers loans through an intuitive app and their data-driven underwriting models. Roberto shares insights on improving approval rates to 40% while maintaining low default risks. He also reveals the innovative referral program that engages users, enhancing profitability and promoting financial inclusion.

Despite all the advances in fintech lending, the way data has been furnished to the credit bureaus has remained largely unchanged for several decades. We still operate on a 30-day payment cycle with no allowance for real time data. Not to mention all the recent credit innovations such as BNPL and short-term cash advances. This is about to change.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Christian Widhalm, the CEO of Bloom Credit. They have created a system that can work with cash flow data, can work with BNPL, can work with real time payment data, all while staying within the legacy confines of the Metro 2 data format of the credit bureaus.In this podcast you will learn:How Christian helped the founder of Bloom Credit get things going.Why Bloom Credit pivoted from B2C to B2B.What convinced him to join as CEO in 2021.The problems with Metro 2, the 26-year-old credit bureau data format.How their solution works as the intermediary between the bureaus and lenders.How Bloom Credit works with real time payment data.Why they store the payment data themselves.The types of FIs using Bloom Credit today.How Bloom Plus works and how it is different from Experian Boost.How Bloom Plus can help people build credit without taking on debt.The key trade lines from a checking account that are reportable to the bureaus.How new immigrants and new adults can enter the credit system.Why this is such a great opportunity for community banks and credit unions.How winning Finovate Best in Show in May has helped Bloom Credit over the last few months.Christian's vision for Bloom Credit.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

When you think about it, most, if not all, fintech innovation comes via the analysis and application of data. And financial services is more data-dependent now than at any time in its history. But this creates a challenge for brand new startups. How do you get access to data when all you have is an idea? Enter Fintech Sandbox.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Sarah Biller, the co-founder of Fintech Sandbox. This industry non-profit provides free access to financial services data that can be critical for startups as they develop their initial products. As the need for large datasets accelerates an organization like Fintech Sandbox provides ever more critical for the growth of the startup ecosystem.In this podcast you will learn:The driving force in starting Fintech Sandbox.How they persuaded their first data providers to provide free access to data.Some of the companies providing data for them today.How they go about finding new data sources.What their Data Access Residency program is and who it is for.How the types of companies they see have evolved over the last decade.The impact of AI on the demand for data from their new cohorts.Some of the companies that have been through their program.How open banking is going to impact fintech once the new rules are implemented.What is happening at Boston Fintech Week (Oct 14-18) this year.Why it is important for Fintech Sandbox to be a non-profit.How they are funded.How Sarah is thinking about the next 10 years of Fintech Sandbox.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Today, the back office for many lenders and originators is still very manual and human-intensive. We are talking lots of emails, reading contracts and processing Excel files. In some cases these processes have been in place, pretty much unchanged since the 1990s. That is because there has never been a comprehensive solution available to automate the capital markets process for originators and lenders.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Stu Wall, the CEO and Co-Founder of Setpoint. They call themselves "the operating system for capital markets" because their system can replace the manual processes that have been in place with state of the art technology that takes advantage of automation and standardization. While they started in the real estate space they are now making real inroads into other lending verticals.In this podcast you will learn:The founding story of SetPoint.The mission and vision of the company.What they mean when they talk about the "operating system for asset-backed lending".How they replace the existing processes based on Excel and email.How SetPoint has earned the trust of the market.Their response to the build-buy-partner conversation.The biggest challenges in capital markets for asset-backed lenders and originators today.Why they started in the real estate space.The different lending verticals where they operate.Some of the originators they are working with today.Why this will likely be a winner take most market.How they were able to get Citi and Wells Fargo to back their company.Their biggest challenge in getting deeper market penetration.Some of the features that are on their product road map.What is involved in onboarding a new lender or originator.Stu's vision for the future of SetPoint and the automation of capital markets.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

"AI is probably the most talked about and least understood topic within financial services today," said John Sun, the CEO and Co-Founder of Spring Labs (previously, I had another co-founder of Spring Labs, Adam Jiwan, on the show back in 2020). The company is at the cutting edge of AI innovation in financial services with several interesting use cases in production today.The Spring Labs team decided that what the industry needed was a new event focused on AI applications beyond just the use of chatbots. So, they created the AI-Native Banking and Fintech Conference, happening in Utah on October 7. Tickets will be available here right up until the show kicks off.In this podcast you will learn:How Spring Labs has evolved since its founding in 2018.Where they are focused today.What Gen AI applications they have in market today.The key markets they are focused on.The first use cases they deployed for their Gen AI product.How they are inserting AI tools into existing workflows.The outputs that come from these tools.Why they decided to start an AI-focused fintech conference.Why they chose Salt Lake City as the location for this first event.Who is attending the event.The AI topics they will be covering.What John is personally looking forward to on the agenda.How people can get tickets to the event.John's vision for Spring Labs.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes