American Banker Podcast

If Web3 is real, where do banks fit in — if they do? Alex Tapscott, managing director of the digital asset group at Ninepoint Partners and co-author of the book Blockchain Revolution, explains how the internet has evolved and how banks might take advantage of the latest iteration of it.

About 75% of military recruits arrive at a training base with no bank account and have to be bussed to a local bank to open one, says Jill Castilla, CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond. The bank's team is building a platform that will help service members save and build credit.

Technology has turned the art of deposit pricing into a science, say Betty Cowell and Rohan Shah, experts at Simon Kucher & Partners. They also predict when the large banks will raise their rates.

Half of Americans haven't saved enough to cover three months of expenses. Personal finance expert Orman says everyone should have 12 months of emergency savings, and she's working with a fintech, SecureSave, to help workers build a nest egg.

"Animal welfare scores low in priority at many financial institutions" in the U.S., says Merel van der Mark, animal welfare and finance program manager for Sinergia Animal, an organization based in Brazil that has been maintaining a ranking of how banks around the world perform on several measures of ethics with regard to animals.

Consumer Bankers Association president and CEO Richard Hunt is retiring from the organization this summer, and in a wide-ranging interview he offers his thoughts on the future of the banking industry, the direction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and what how banks can compete against less-regulated fintechs.

DJ DiDonna, founder of The Sabbatical Project, says the breaks help companies avoid staff burnout and recruit and retain high-performing employees. That may be why double the number of Best Fintechs to Work For offer sabbaticals this year.

Ian Khan, futurist and author of the forthcoming book "Metaverse for Dummies," shares a vision of virtual workplaces where young developers, designers and other talented staffers will want to meet.

One reason: lack of digital IDs, say Mary Ellen Iskenderian of Women's World Banking and Janet Truncale of EY.

The acquisition of the small-business lending marketplace Boefly and partnerships with the loan software company nCino and the construction lending fintech Built are among the efforts helping the New Jersey bank compete with fintechs that have gotten good at serving niche markets, says Frank Sorrentino, its CEO.