American Banker Podcast

Vast Bank in Oklahoma now has an app that allows customers to do their banking and buy and sell eight digital currencies. CEO Brad Scrivner explains his motivations, his comfort level with cryptocurrency volatility and what else the app can do.

The Los Angeles credit union started out by creating a self-service bot it named Royce. CEO David Tuyo discusses Royce's contributions and other ways artificial intelligence is improving efficiency.

Theo Lau and Brad Leimer, authors of "Beyond Good: How Technology Is Leading a Purpose-Driven Business Revolution," discuss financial companies like Sunrise Banks and Tabb Bank that are working toward dual aims of making a better world and turning a profit.

The Birmingham, Alabama, bank has developed artificial intelligence-based systems that can flag suspicious activity and guide customer service representatives. Amala Duggirala, the bank's chief operations and technology officer, describes the AI work she and her team have been doing.

Pressure is mounting on banks to rein in overdraft fees. The behavioral psychologist Wei Ke says there are programs they can put in place that would be fairer to account holders and still generate income.

Distributed ledger projects in banking are few and far between — many have stalled and others remain experiments. Robert Townsend, who has worked with banks around the world and written a book about blockchain technology, explains some of the ways financial institutions could be using it, for instance in small-business lending and supply chain finance.

The average American's financial picture is bleaker than government data suggests, according to the former comptroller of the currency. Research from his new organization, the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, has found that unemployment is higher and household wages are lower than reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Vanessa Colella taught earth science and biology to middle schoolers through Teach for America before becoming Citigroup's new chief innovation officer. Her experience in the classroom still sticks with her today.

Many big companies have made pledges to diversify their workforces, treat minority communities more fairly and clean up the environment to burnish their images, says Meredith Benton, CEO of the consultancy Whistle Stop Capital. But few are willing to share data to prove it's all more than a PR campaign, she says.

Like many banks, TD had to move swiftly to spin up new self-service tools tied to chat channels, e-signatures and PPP lending. Innovation chief Michael Rhodes will continue the faster financial approval and development cycles that COVID necessitated.