The Future of Identity

Nick Thomas: Finicity’s Journey from Personal Finance App to $985M Acquisition for their Open Banking Platform

Feb 7, 2024

Nick Thomas, co-founder of Finicity and EVP at Mastercard, discusses Finicity's journey from app to data aggregator. He shares insights on open banking, verifiable credentials, and parallels between fintech and IDtech. The podcast explores industry collaborations, disruptive innovations, and challenges in digital identity infrastructure.

38:21

Episode guests

Nick Thomas

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Industry standardization is crucial for digital identity growth, drawing parallels to Bluetooth's success in creating unified standards.

Government involvement is essential in shaping digital identity infrastructure, akin to its role in developing physical infrastructure like roads.

Deep dives

Phoenicity's Journey and Lessons in Digital Identity

Nick Thomas, co-founder of Phoenicity and now the executive vice president of Global Open Finance Innovation at Mastercard, discusses Phoenicity's evolution from a consumer application to a major data aggregator, emphasizing their disruption strategy in open banking. The podcast delves into Phoenicity's work with verifiable credentials, highlighting the challenges faced in rolling it out into production, offering insights on the intersection of FinTech and IDTech.

Introduction

2min

Evolution of a Tech Company from Modems to Digital Identity: A Journey Through Innovation

2min

Evolution from Budgeting App to Data Connectivity Service

3min

Exploring the Relationship Between Finicity, Open Banking, and Reusable Identity

16min

Exploring Past Experiences, Speculating on Digital Identity Infrastructure Ownership

4min

Navigating the Complexities of Digital Identity

12min

Today we talked with Nick Thomas, cofounder of Finicity, which was acquired by Mastercard, where Nick went on to be the EVP of Global Open Finance Innovation. Nick has a fascinating career that has paralleled digital identity for a long time, as a cofounder of Bluetooth and FDX, the major open banking standards body in the US. These are both organizations that brought an industry together around common standards to grow the market far bigger for everyone involved—and we talk lessons learned and how this applies to identity.

Nick shares a deep look into Finicity’s story starting as a consumer application and eventually becoming a major data aggregator. Then we dive into Finicity’s journey disrupting themselves by pushing into open banking. We explore the work Finicity did with verifiable credentials as an issuer, and the big challenge that prevented them from rolling it out. You’ll appreciate all of his takes on the parallels between fintech and IDtech.

To learn more about Nick you can find him on LinkedIn.

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The Future of Identity

Nick Thomas: Finicity’s Journey from Personal Finance App to $985M Acquisition for their Open Banking Platform

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Phoenicity's Journey and Lessons in Digital Identity

The Significance of Standardization in Digital Identity

Government's Role in Digital Identity Infrastructure

Future Trends and Challenges in Identity Technology

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts