American Banker Podcast

Meghji only made it a year as chief innovation officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. before leaving in recent weeks. He describes the obstacles to new ideas within federal banking agencies and banking itself.

Yasaman Hadjibashi, who formerly worked at Citi and Barclays, and Keith Armstrong, a co-founder of Abe.ai, have created a fintech startup that helps people coming home from prison find work, obtain a bank account and re-enter society.

The digital-only bank, which is due to launch March 1, is trying to develop an Amazon-like banking experience for the most finicky of clients: tech startup founders, says CEO Mike Butler.

In her last week in office, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chair discusses why she worries about the dwindling number of community banks and minority-owned banks, why she has made serving low-income communities a priority during her tenure, and what she might do next.

Traditional banks could be forced to add cryptocurrency product offerings in 2022 to compete with fintechs that are taking advantage of blockchain innovations, according to Diogo Mónica, co-founder and president of Anchorage.

Banks and credit unions need to do more for (and assume less about) customers who are over 50, says Theo Lau, founder of the advisory firm Unconventional Ventures.

Regulators have joined the call for banks to change their approach to overdraft. But simply getting rid of the fees is impractical for many banks, according to Leo D'Acierno and Betty Cowell, senior advisors at the strategy and marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners.

Startups focused on embedded banking, small-business finance and health care insurance will prosper in the year ahead, predicts Alex Lazarow, partner at the San Francisco global venture capital fund Cathay Innovation.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire argues that Gary Gensler’s association of stablecoins with gambling doesn’t match how they're used, the way they're regulated or their potential benefit to the financial system.

Brett King, founder of Moven, host of the radio show “Breaking Banks” and co-author of the forthcoming book “The Rise of Technosocialism,” has strong opinions about how technology is changing finance and the world. His forecast includes more automation, fewer jobs and the emergence of central bank digital currencies.