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Tedd Huff & John Gordon, CEO of ValidiFI, explore key shifts in Fintech and focus on Account Validation Technology. The focus is on account validation, fraud detection, and customer risk. With over 25 years in financial services, Gordon shares insights from his work at TransUnion and ValidiFI. 

He explains how behavioral signals like multiple emails, landlines, or shared accounts—can trigger higher risk. Gordon also breaks down why ACH transactions remain dominant, and how high-risk accounts show 11.5x more return failures. The episode covers challenges with virtual bank accounts, especially from neo banks, and how lenders can better identify stable users.

John highlights how linking emails, phone types, and account behavior to reduce fraud and improve onboarding. He shares how AI and alternative data fill gaps left by outdated credit models, especially for BNPL users or consumers without full credit files.

He predicts a rise in consumer control over financial data and warns that limited access may hurt repayment assessments. For fintech founders, his advice is clear: look at the full data picture account history, contact info, and usage to make better, faster decisions.

Key Highlights

🔹 Email Addresses Could Be Warning Signs

🔹 Landlines Are Worse Than You Think

🔹 Your Phone Type Says More

🔹 Fake-Looking Behavior That’s Actually Fraud

🔹 One Account, Too Many Users

🔹 Why Some Banks Get You Declined

🔹 ACH Still Beating Flashy Options

🔹 Manual Processes Are Still Everywhere

🔹 Stopping Fraud Without Losing Good Users

🔹 The Risk Hiding in Screen Scraping

Takeaways

1️⃣ This One Banking Habit Is Costing You

2️⃣ What ACH Return Rates Are Hiding

3️⃣ Why Neo Bank Users Are Getting Watched

4️⃣ Most Used Accounts Still Miss the Full Picture

5️⃣ The $100 Pizza You Didn’t Know About

Links:

John Gordon

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfgordon/

ValidiFI

Website: https://validifi.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/validifi/

X: https://x.com/validi_fi

Fintech Confidential

Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen

Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential

X: https://x.com/FTconfidential

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential

Supporters

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ClearingWorks

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HAWK

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About:

Guest

John Gordon - John Gordon is CEO of ValidiFI with 25+ years in financial tech. He helps companies reduce fraud, assess risk, and validate accounts using real-time data strategies.

ValidiFI - ValidiFI provides account and payment intelligence to help businesses verify bank accounts, reduce fraud, and improve approvals using real-time, bank-sourced data.

Tedd Huff: Tedd Huff is the Founder of Voalyre.com, a professional services advisory firm focused on global payments and DD3 Media.

Over the past 26 years, he has contributed to FinTech startups as an Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder, and Chief Experience Officer, providing strategic and tactical direction for Global Payments OpenEdge, Heartland Payments, Nuvei, and TSYS, among others, focusing on growth while delivering innovation, process improvements and user experience-driven value to simplify the complexity of payments.

Diamond D3, Media: A media creation, management, and production company delivering engaging content globally