Talking Banking Matters

Jeremy Fox-Geen, CFO of Circle, oversees USDC issuance and treasury for a blockchain payments firm. He discusses stablecoins’ role in cross-border flows, how regulation like the Genius Act can unlock enterprise use, network effects versus closed consortia, and futuristic use cases such as streaming micropayments and AI-mediated agent economies.

The longtime business payments company seeks to transform B2B money movement and related activities, creating new revenue streams and better cashflow.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

As digital payments make up a growing share of money movement, payments fraud is becoming more frequent and complex, requiring a broader range of ever-more-powerful security tools. SardineAI seeks to meet that need with an AI-powered fraud prevention and compliance platform that uses device intelligence, behavior-based analytics, and machine learning to protect financial services, fintech, and e-commerce businesses. In this episode, SardineAI cofounder and CEO Soups Ranjan speaks with McKinsey partner and payments industry expert Roshan Varadarajan about Ranjan’s experience leading financial crime prevention at Revolut and Coinbase before starting Sardine; the future of payment fraud prevention, given the emergence of agentic commerce; and the growth of the payments security industry. Related insights The 2025 McKinsey Global Payments Report: Competing systems, contested outcomesGuardrails for growth: Building a resilient payments systemThe stable door opens: How tokenized cash enables next-gen paymentsGlobal Banking Annual Review 2025: Why precision, not heft, defines the future of bankingAfter the surge: Tien‑Tsin Huang on the future of paymentsThe future of the payments industry: How managing risk can drive growth Follow our banking and payments sector insights: Talking Banking Matters Read our Financial services blog: Banking & Securities Matters Discover our latest insights with our LinkedIn community of 9,000+ financial services professionals: McKinsey Financial Services Find all of our Financial Services insights on McKinsey.com See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy informationSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

As more retailers and other consumer-facing companies look to offer customer loyalty payment cards with rewards and easier shopping experiences, the co-branded card company Imprint seeks to simplify that process and offer it to a broader range of companies. In this episode Daragh Murphy, cofounder and CEO of Imprint, speaks with McKinsey partner and payments industry expert Roshan Varadarajan. Imprint was started with backing by Thrive Capital, whose partner Gaurav Ahuja also is a cofounder and serves as chair of Imprint. In this interview, Murphy discusses how the company got its start, why building their tech stack from scratch was important, and the future of co-branded credit cards. Related insights Riding the storm: How consumer finance companies can survive and thriveTravel invented loyalty as we know it. Now it’s time for reinvention.Airline retailing: How payment innovation can improve the bottom lineGlobal payments in 2024: Simpler interfaces, complex realityUnlocking value from technology in banking: An investor lens Follow our banking and payments sector insights: Talking Banking Matters Read our Financial services blog: Banking & Securities Matters Discover our latest insights with our LinkedIn community of 9,000+ financial services professionals: McKinsey Financial Services Find all of our Financial Services insights on McKinsey.com See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy informationSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

The fraud and financial-crime prevention company’s machine-learning approach uses adaptive behavioral analytics to identify and root out improper payments.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

One of the key challenges finance departments face is connecting the various bits of data generated when money moves into or out of the business. This is especially true for small and midsize businesses. Although a profusion of digital payments providers has cropped up to help such companies, many systems generating data from money movement don’t talk to a company’s other systems—at least not well. In this episode of Talking Banking Matters, McKinsey payments sector leader Roshan Varadarajan speaks with Cosmin Pitigoi, CFO of Flywire, which offers a digital payment system has along with software integrations for linking payments to companies’ other systems.   Related insights  Global payments in 2024: Simpler interfaces, complex reality Unlocking value from technology in banking: An investor lens Extracting value from AI in banking: Rewiring the enterprise How to get a core banking transformation right: Eight mistakes to avoid  Follow our banking and payments sector insights: Talking Banking Matters  Read our Financial services blog: Banking & Securities Matters   Discover our latest insights with our LinkedIn community of 9,000+ financial services professionals: McKinsey Financial Services   Find all of our Financial Services insights on McKinsey.com  See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In the payments industry, open banking and account-to-account payments have faced slower adoption in certain markets as they compete with card-based and peer-to-peer systems. In this episode McKinsey payments sector leader Roshan Varadarajan speaks with Johan Tjärnberg, the Group CEO of the open banking and account-to-account company, Trustly, about breaking down barriers to commerce and money movement.    Related insights Global payments in 2024: Simpler interfaces, complex realityUnlocking value from technology in banking: An investor lensExtracting value from AI in banking: Rewiring the enterprise  Follow our banking and payments sector insights: Talking Banking Matters Read our Financial services blog: Banking & Securities Matters Discover our latest insights with our LinkedIn community of 9,000+ financial services professionals: McKinsey Financial Services Find all of our Financial Services insights on McKinsey.com See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy informationSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this engaging discussion, Bhavin Turakhia, Co-founder and CEO of Zeta, shares his vision for transforming banking technology. He highlights the massive challenges banks face with outdated core systems and introduces the concept of an 'omnistack' as a solution. Turakhia delves into the potential of AI in optimizing decision-making and enriching customer interactions. He also offers insights on how to build successful businesses through a structured four-stage framework and emphasizes the importance of effective management and talent retention strategies in a diverse workforce.

Embedded finance is one of the fastest-growing areas of financial services and e-commerce globally, yet it is still a nascent concept. In this episode McKinsey payments sector leader Roshan Varadarajan speaks with Pedro Silva, CEO and cofounder of the embedded-finance platform company Alviere about this growing field.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Throughout his 40-year career, Nathan Bostock has seen the financial services industry change in big ways—and has used these changes to his advantage to usher in the next era of banking. He has led multiple full-scale transformations across several companies, including during his tenure CFO and CEO of Santander UK and during his time as chief revenue officer and CFO of the Royal Bank of Scotland. In this episode of Talking Banking Matters, McKinsey partner Basab Mitra sits down with Bostock to discuss transformations in banking and how digitalization plays a part in these changes, and what C-suite leaders should consider when approaching these initiatives. An edited version of their conversation follows. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information