American Banker Podcast

Nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, Plug and Play is the world's largest tech accelerator. Sometimes called University 165, it has given early homes to some of the greatest tech success stories like Google, Paypal, and Logitech. Known for pairing startups with larger companies needing their solutions, this year, Plug and Play ran 11 "verticals" with 90 participants that all expect to leave the program with investment and a pilot deal. The organization invited Breaking Banks to profile its fintech vertical. We find out the history of Plug and Play and the focus on fintech through Scott Robinson, its fintech VP. Then we talk to three of the presenters who are participating to get a flavor of the scope and diversity of places that Plug N' Play is investing: Flutter Wave CEO Iyinoluwa Aboyeji; BigID CEO Dimitri Sirota; Zumigo CEO Chirag Bakshi

Tom Michaud, the president and CEO of Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a top matchmaker for bank mergers, explains why large banks will soon return to dealmaking after a long absence. He also discusses the case for starting a new bank in today's environment, the enduring value of retail branches, and more.

We are celebrating our 200th episode today! Brett is hosting Chris Skinner, Dave Birch, and Sam Maule (all show regulars) to discuss how much has changed since we launched in May of 2013 and how much has stayed the same. On the discussion table are: alipay, Jack Ma, blockchain, AI, building a true digital system, payments, financial inclusion, and favorite guests and lessons from the previous 199 episodes. It is all wrapped up in a Moment of Snark from Ron Shevlin.

To date, capital curbs have limited their participation in U.S. collateralized loan obligations, but Chinese banks and insurance companies are sophisticated investors with a big appetite for yield. Tricia Hazelwood, managing director and head of structured products at MUFG Securities, explains how China views US CLOs and how this new and potentially large source of capital could impact both deals and the leveraged loans used as collateral.

Today, Brett is joined by Penny Crosman of American Banker to discuss ICOs. Then, he talks with Carl Ryden, CEO of Precision Lender, to talk about his new book "Earn It: Building Your Bank's Brad One Relationship at a Time", and the principles that lenders need to adhere to to build trust and community. Also, Felipe Echandi Lacayo, the Founder of PanaFintech, helping to build a fintech ecosystem throughout Latin America. And for the last half the show, we have Sam Shawki, the CEO of Magic Cube, who are using both hardware and software systems to ensure cyber security.

This episode of Breaking Banks was sponsored by NTT DATA… They get stuff done. We were guests at the Money 2020 conference, and had the chance to do lots of amazing interviews. The theme of the conference was Fintech Superheroes, and this show highlights just 4 of many Fintech fighters that are working to make the system better, smarter, faster, cheaper, and more honest. First we meet Neobank hero- Norris Koppel, the founder of Monese, which was started out of his own need to as a migrant to open a bank account. Like many heroes, he decided to solve the problem for everyone after him! Next, we meet Frederic Nze, whose Oakam is transforming microlending in London, strengthening communities and giving opportunity to the financially underserved. Then we go to Marta Piekarska at the bright star of Hyperledger, working on blockchains that could solve problems of trust, transparency, and tranfers forever. And last, but hardly least, is our own Fintech "Q", Steve Kirsch. As CEO and Founder of Token, he is solving the problem of banks accuracy, agility, and speed. In coming weeks, we will bring you more stories from the conference…

Dr. Dan Geller, behavioral economist and author of the book Money Anxiety, explains why Americans are more stressed about their finances than ever before and how fear affects their decisions about financial products and banks. Due to the July 4 holiday, the next American Banker podcast will air July 11.

Why does it cost so much to move money? If every record is computerized, if all the movement is recorded electronically- then why the fees to get money out of a different banks atm? Why the fees to spend your money in another country? Is it that expensive to move money? And does it need to be anymore? On today's show, Brett King hosts Bill Barnhydt of Abra, and Shachar Bialick of Curve- two fintech companies trying to solve this issue, making it better, cheaper and smarter to use your money where you are and how you need. Also, Penny Crosman joins from American Banker, to give the news overview.

Next month, the credit bureaus will have to drop information about tax liens and civil judgments from credit scores unless they can independently verify the data. Eva Wolkowitz, manager of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, and Sarah Davies, senior vice president of VantageScore, share their take on what this means for the credit scores lenders use.

No one can decide if ICOs have caused cryptocurrrencies to really "arrive" or if this is just a cryptocurrency bubble. Today, we have people to help us make sense of it all. Dave Birch, Author of Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin is going to tell us why Bitcoin is not the savior we think it is, but it kinda is. We have on Charlie Shrem and Anthony Di Iorio from Jaxx Blockchain Interface- a multi-token blockchain wallet to take us through the ICO madness, and what we can expect in the near future. And we have Marc Hochstein from American Banker on to talk about why he was wrong about bitcoin. Also- Marc Andrews, VP of Watson Financial Services Solutions explains how the famed AI- IBM Watson- is going to augment and fix with their new regtech cognitive solutions suite.