American Banker Podcast

American Banker's Rob Blackwell and Marc Hochstein discuss the pushback from state regulators and consumer advocates to the OCC's proposed charter; Chris Skinner and Jim Marous hold forth on fintech.

Kosta Peric, deputy director of digital payments and financial services for the poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses his efforts to expand access to low-cost financial services in developing countries. Peric, who joined the foundation in 2013 after more than two decades at Swift, also talks about creating interoperability between mobile money systems across borders; the foundation's answer to the challenges of AML and KYC; why bitcoin doesn't fit the bill yet; and more.

A freewheeling discussion (over beers) about the future of branches with Tom Brown of Second Curve Capital and Dave Martin of BankMechanics at the Trump National Doral hotel in Miami during American Banker's Retail Banking 2017 conference.

At last week's conference in London, host Brett King took time away from speaking and judging startup pitches to talk to some of the main presenters, including Ruth Wandhöfer, Citi's global head of regulatory and market strategy.

Researchers studied misconduct data for all 1.2 million financial advisers registered in the U.S. from 2005 to 2015 and found that, following an incidence of wrongdoing, female advisers are 20% more likely to lose their jobs and 30% less likely to land new jobs compared to male advisers. Women face harsher punishment despite engaging in less costly misconduct and despite a lower propensity towards repeat offenses. Mark Egan, assistant professor of finance at the University of Minnesota, explains the double standard to Penny Crosman, editor at large of American Banker, and Bonnie McGeer, executive editor of American Banker Magazine.

Starling Bank in the U.K. is building from scratch. Unlike other neobanks, Starling sees its future as a hub of financial products, not necessarily the generator of every product. CEO Anne Boden explains.

Mary Mack, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo, took over the retail banking business last year, shortly before the company was fined $185 million for opening 2 million unauthorized accounts for customers on her predecessor's watch. Mack's challenge is to rebuild consumer trust and transform the retail branch network's culture from a sales-oriented to a service-driven one. On March 23, she gave a progress report on her mission at American Banker's Retail Banking 2017 conference in Miami, discussing how employees reacted to its new incentive pay plan, why the bank stopped calling its branches "stores," how it now prevents salespeople from impersonating customers, and more.

Derek Corcoran of Avoka discusses how banks have embraced digital marketing but still struggle with digital sales. Author Randy Pennington talks about building corporate cultures that adapt and foster innovation.

Richard Hunt, the head of the Consumer Bankers Association, sits down with Rob Blackwell, American Banker's Washington Bureau Chief, to talk reg reform, the chances for a rollback of the Durbin amendment and more.

This week, Breaking Banks' Brett King talks to Rachel Schneider, senior vice president of Center of Financial Services Innovation, about her new book "The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty" and on potential solutions to income volatility problems. The book is based on the U.S. Financial Diaries study, which follows the lives of more than 200 low- and middle income-families over the course of the year. Also: Travis Dulaney, chief executive of Push Payments, talks instant payments; Mary Wisniewski of American Banker discusses the week's news, including the OCC's fintech charter, data aggregation battles and alternative data.