Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Q2, a digital banking software company, to create a four part podcast series on the interplay between banks and fintechs. The world of embedded finance, and Banking as a Service in particular, are made up of three pillars: banking, product, and platform. To make a truly good BaaS product, each one should be delivered by its own expert: the bank, the fintech, and the technology provider, respectively. When each entity gets to focus on what they’re best at, the fourth and central entity wins: the end-customer. In this episode, Tearsheet's Zack Miller spoke with Ahon Sarkar, who currently serves as the GM of Q2’s Banking as a Service division.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m your host, Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. This following is part of a new series we’re running. It’s called the Big Bank Theory, and it’s all about the future of banking. We see three options going forward: in the march towards digital, people will gravitate towards the digital arms of incumbent banks, give their business to new upstart challenger banks, or the biggest opportunity, which is to bank with the brands they love. Through embedded finance, people are increasingly turning to companies they frequent often -- whether it's a big retail player like Walmart or SMB accounting software like QuickBooks -- to plan, store, and move money around. The following series includes content from Tearsheet’s Big Bank Theory Conference, held in November 2021. We had three full days with the top companies and professionals defining what banking looks like today and into the future. We heard from large incumbents like Bank of America and innovative startups like Current. Behind many of today’s top fintech firms sit important partners. A lot of them are pure technology firms. Other partners hold charters. But Cross River combines both tech and banking to power brands like Affirm, Coinbase, Upstart, Upgrade, and Stripe. The firm’s chief strategy officer, Karan Mehta, joined us at The Big Bank Theory Conference this November to discuss how Cross River’s technology is enabling the delivery of innovative financial solutions to millions of consumers and businesses. We discuss Cross River’s growth, the building of an ecosystem around its proprietary, real-time core, and how fintech partners are plugging into this one-stop-shop to enable payments, banking, and merchant acquiring at scale.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. While we use the term challenger bank to refer to many of today’s top competitors in digital banking, the truth is very few are actually chartered banks. They are a user experience layer on top of an incumbent bank’s infrastructure. Not Piermont Bank. Started in 2019, Piermont is a fully chartered commercial bank. It uses a combination of technology and human interaction to serve businesses founder and CEO Wendy Cai-Lee says still aren’t serviced. These are businesses with more complexity with accounts receivables and payables, with employees, looking for loans of $750,000 to $10 million -- not the solopreneurs and microbusinesses supported by other challenger banks. Wendy Cai-Lee joins me on the podcast to talk about how Piermont uses its hybrid delivery model to serve this market. We also discuss Piermont’s strategy around providing direct to business commercial banking as well as a banking as a service platform targeting fintechs that want to bank a similar customer. Wendy Cai-Lee is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m your host, Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. This following is part of a new series we’re running. It’s called the Big Bank Theory, and it’s all about the future of banking. We see three options going forward: in the march towards digital, people will gravitate towards the digital arms of incumbent banks, give their business to new upstart challenger banks, or the biggest opportunity, which is bank with the brands they love. Through embedded finance, people are increasingly turning to companies they frequent often -- could be a big retail player like Walmart or SMB accounting software like QuickBooks -- to plan, store, and move money around. The following series includes content from Tearsheet’s The Big Bank Theory Conference, held in November 2021. We had three full days with the top companies and professionals defining what banking looks like today and into the future. We heard from large incumbents like Bank of America and startups like Current. Zack 1: Square is one of the next generation technology companies that is absolutely part of the fabric of the future of banking. With a seller ecosystem of millions of merchants and the popularity of its Cash App, Square received a banking license in 2021. I spoke with Luke Voiles, the firm’s newly appointed general manager of banking. I’ve spoken to Luke in the past, where he led Intuit’s foray into embedded finance and lending. We discuss Square’s roots and ethos, diving into the firm’s founding story. Luke shares where the firm sees opportunity to provide financial services for its users -- now and into the future. Here’s my talk with Square’s Luke Voiles.

What it would take for FIs to embrace DeFi by Tearsheet

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Fiserv, a financial services technology company, to create a four part podcast series on the role and changing nature of data aggregation in the financial industry. You can read and listen to the first episode on the Tearsheet website. In this episode, we spoke with Paul Diegelman, VP of Fiserv side by side with the president and COO of Save. The companies are working closely together to power a new type of savings account that combines savings with investment technology to give higher FDIC-insured returns. There’s a sea of sameness when it comes to banking apps. And with really low interest rates, there’s little to differentiate between all the plain-vanilla offerings. Save is different -- it uses a creative combination between savings accounts and investment technology to give its customers higher returns on their savings and rewards on their cards. I spoke with Adam Watts, the president and COO of Save.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. I’m excited to share with you some news about our upcoming online conference, The Big Bank Theory. This year, we’ve combined two of our tent pole events: Challengers and Embedded into a single event, November 10-12. We’ve assembled the top companies and professionals creating and scaling this generation and next generation of digital banks. Those may be traditional financial brands, like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, or new banking brands, like N26 and Current. Or, in the future we may just bank with the brands and software we resonate with -- like a driver banking with Uber, a retail customer with Walmart, or a small business owner with Intuit. Go to Tearsheet and click on conferences to register for free to this year’s The Big Bank Theory. This year’s conference is sponsored by Publicis Sapient, Explorium, Argyle and Twilio. I spoke with Twilio’s Bijan Mehta recently. He runs the firm’s work in financial services. I’m sharing some of the most important parts of our discussion on the power of embedded communications tools in today’s financial ecosystem.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. During the pandemic, many for-profit companies and startups started creating digital tools to help people manage and save their money -- things like getting access to products and services that support their financial health, like financial coaching. At the same time, underserved and low-income consumers -- typically left out of traditional banking -- are increasingly gaining access to mobile and online technology, creating opportunities for nonprofits to participate in fintech. Sarah Keh, vice president of inclusive solutions believes that nonprofit fintechs provide critical services to underserved communities that have otherwise been marginalized. She joins me on the podcast to talk about the impactful work that’s going on in the sector. We discuss how they’re combining revenue sources through enterprise customers in order to grow and scale their business without solely relying on philanthropic funding, which can be unreliable. Sarah shares more about her role at Prudential and the work her firm is doing in the space. Sarah Keh is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Twilio sits behind the scenes of today’s slick onboarding and login experiences. The tech firm gives its customers the ability to embed communications into their offerings. Twilio’s few lines of code help with two factor authentication -- where you receive an SMS to your phone after logging into an app or website, all the way to, more recently, a broad omnichannel engagement platform. Bijon Mehta leads financial services at Twilio. I first met him years ago at our first Tearsheet conference. He was at J.P. Morgan then and now leads Twilio’s work in financial services including the firm’s go to market strategy and the channels it uses to reach customers in the industry. Bijon joins me on the podcast to discuss how short form communication is being used in the financial services industry for authentication and increasingly, in communications in general. We talk about how the firm’s clients use Twilio technology to improve their customer experiences. Here’s my talk with Twilio’s Bijon Mehta.

Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient, is our guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. As the head of a multinational organization working with top financial services brands like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, Nigel has seen digital transformation up close. He's written a book about it, too -- Digital Business Transformation: How Established Companies Sustain Competitive Advantage From Now to Next. The financial services sector is facing unprecedented digital disruption. New entrants with agile processes and modular technologies are raising customer expectations. It’s essential that legacy financial institutions understand what’s driving these changes. By embracing digital business transformation and changing the way financial services institutions think, organize, operate and behave, they can turn threats into opportunities while maintaining their competitive edge. Successful fintech startups knew banking was ripe for disruption. Now it’s time for established financial institutions to learn from these innovators. They can start by taking stock of four forces of connected change that are reshaping financial services today: customer behaviors, new technologies, evolving business models and societal impact. Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient, is our guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Fiserv, a financial services technology company, to create a four part podcast series on the role and changing nature of data aggregation in the financial industry. Data is the foundation of the financial system, making the smooth aggregation of it an imperative task. It means streamlining the sum of an individual’s financial life into a single view, and creating a user experience that uplifts the data to benefit both the individual and the bank -- while simplifying the complex, and keeping it all secure.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. On the podcast and on our site, we’ve explored the world of employment data that’s opening up -- it’s opening up to allow new forms of lending and financial services that use employment data as a major input. So, imagine a lender wanting to loan money to an Uber driver who doesn’t have a traditional income source. But what if the payroll firm didn’t supply just data to 3rd parties? What if the payroll provider got into fintech itself? That’s exactly what Ceridian is doing with its Dayforce Wallet. The company processes $300 billion yearly in paychecks and it’s helping its clients and their employees tap into their salaries earlier and more frequently than the traditional pay cycle. Seth Ross is the new GM of Dayforce Wallet and Consumer Services at Ceridian. I first met Seth when he was at Green Dot, heading up the firm’s banking as a service platform. He joins me on the podcast to talk about Ceridian’s move into financial services and more broadly, to chat about the potential of embedded financial services. Seth Ross is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The following was produced by Tearsheet Studios. We worked with Q2, a digital banking software company, to create a four part podcast series on the interplay between banks and fintechs. Partnership with fintechs through Banking as a Service has given financial institutions an opportunity to capture new markets and revenue opportunities. The success of this partnership depends on each side bringing in what they’re best at; and especially the banks being willing and able to do things differently, in order to better serve and effectively grow their customer base. In this episode, I spoke with Paul Walker, who’s been with Q2 for the past 15 years, and currently serves as the GM of Q2’s Banking as a Service division.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. As humans, we’re just not wired to save money well. And over the years, creative financial institutions have figured out ways to incentivize saving with chances to win money. Prize-linked savings has been a mainstay in the UK and is the largest form of savings. In the US, challenger bank Yotta offers periodic chances for its customers to win money prizes. The more you save, the more chances you have to win. Yotta’s co-founder and CEO Adam Moelis joins me on the podcast to talk about the mechanics of prize-linked savings and how Yotta uses this model to differentiate itself from the competition. We discuss some of the viral components the firm’s built and how it acquires new customers. We also look out into the future for the firm’s product and expansion plans. Adam Moelis is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

One of the major challenges in scaling digital finance solutions is handling old school paper. Even with all the automation and digitization, documents still need to be processed and in many cases, humans need to be looped in. Sam Bobley is the co-founder and CEO of Ocrolus, which works with firms like BlueVine, Brex, and PayPal to analyze financial documents in any format. Sam joins me on the podcast to talk about the challenges of balancing speed and accuracy in data extraction in fintech and how the Payroll Protection Program really highlighted the leaders in the space based on their ability to scale up quickly. Sam shares his view on what it takes for the financial industry to move beyond paper to a fully automated ecosystem. He also shares some insights on where he thinks the market is headed as well as Ocrolus’ product road map. Sam Bobley is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.