Breaking Banks

In a celebration of six years of impactful conversations, guest Serena Torrelli, CEO of WealthHype and expert in fintech, discusses Revolut's explosive growth in Italy, now boasting 4 million clients. She emphasizes the trust and features driving Revolut's move into private banking. The dialogue spans the intriguing battle between Bitcoin and gold as portfolio hedges, the transformative power of AI in wealth management, and regulatory challenges. Serena remains optimistic about innovation in AI, energy, and biotech, heralding a thrilling financial future.

Sandra Yao, Ecobank's Group Head for Cross-Border Remittance and Payments, shares her 20 years of fintech expertise. She discusses the critical need for interoperability across Africa's payments landscape and how Ecobank tackles challenges in reaching underserved users. Sandra highlights their innovative API-first platform and strategic tech partnerships, including with Google, to empower local talent and support fintech growth. With a focus on embracing startup agility within a bank, she sheds light on the future of Africa's digital finance.

The conversation dives into how AI is evolving from hype to profit, reshaping finance. The hosts explore deposit mobility's critical role and the future of digital banking amidst economic uncertainty. They highlight the energy demands of automation and the need for banks to adopt AI to stay relevant. A generational shift in choosing financial services by app functionality signals a new era of customer expectation. Personalization, practical tech initiatives, and adaptive strategies are essential for banks to thrive in the rapidly changing landscape.

Harriet Rees, the Chief Information Officer at Starling Bank, discusses the bank's groundbreaking collaboration with Google on AI-powered fraud detection. She reveals how the Scam Intelligence tool allows customers to upload images to identify potential scams within seconds, saving billions. They delve into trends from Money 20/20, like stablecoins and agentic AI, while exploring how such innovations can reshape user experiences in banking. Harriet also sheds light on the importance of regulatory engagement and Starling's commitment to evolving AI practices.

In This Episode Inside The Futurists X Summit: Preparing For An AI Powered Future This week Breaking Banks comes to you from The Futurists X Summit in Dubai, the world’s largest gathering of top-ranked futurists. This summit brings together leaders, innovators and policymakers from around the globe for meaningful dialogue on the future of technology, business and society. Tune in as Breaking Banks and The Futurists host Brett King speaks with Mastercard’s J.K. Khalil, EVP and Division President of East Arabia, and Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mastercard. JK and Brett kick off the discussion with JK highlighting Mastercard’s partnership with the Ministry of AI in Dubai and their AI Center of Excellence in the UAE. Mastercard is always talking about the fast and accelerating pace of change and its impact on consumers’ lives. The AI Center of Excellence aims to demonstrate that AI is more than just a buzzword, helping people see the bigger picture and understand the broader implications — how this access to information and AI translates to daily life. The discussion also touches on exploring possible futures and enhancing the human experience. Then, Raja joins Brett to share his perspective on an AI-powered future. As AI improves quality of life, helping to alter the work-life balance — working less, experiencing more — what does the world look like? With AI, chores can be delegated to the machine, you can let go of certain things and have more time for other things. Time to pursue your passions – a long-standing focus for Mastercard is helping elevate lives through experiences. As technology levels the playing field—and everyone feeds similar briefs into the same AI tools—outputs will start to look alike. That’s exactly why this moment could become a new golden age of marketing: a chance to break through the sameness with real creativity, smart risk-taking and unconventional ideas. With advanced tools and the right mix of strategy and imagination, the possibilities are endless. And when you serve consumers with heart while driving revenue, that’s marketing at its best. It’s an engaging and thought-provoking episode from leaders in the field….priceless! Interested in hearing more about The Futurists X Summit? Follow our sister podcast, The Futurists.

In this discussion, Catherine Lynch, the Head of Digital Experience at Citizens Bank, shares her extensive banking background and insights into human-centered design. She pinpoints the three core customer needs: seeing, moving, and protecting money, highlighting how cognitive overload shapes customer expectations. Catherine discusses innovative strategies like partnerships with fintechs and the importance of observational research from their innovation lab. She emphasizes the power of empathy and rapid prototyping to streamline banking experiences in a complex environment.

In This Episode Dr. Antoine Khadige, Senior Partner at Strategy+ GCC, and Mohamed AlSabea, Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer at barq, join host Brett King for a special episode, live from The Money Pot studio at Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Together, they share insights on the Gulf’s fintech transformation and on Riyadh’s growing reputation as the gateway to one of the world’s fastest-moving financial markets, where global players and regional decision-makers come together to build what’s next. It’s an interesting discussion as the trio unpack Saudi Arabia’s dynamic fintech ecosystem and share the success story that is barq. Barq is the fastest growing private wallet / digital bank in the world with 8M users in just 1 year. They share insights on barq’s success, some of its secret sauce and plans for the future. Regulation, digital infrastructure, youthful demographics and public trust have made the GCC a fertile ground for next-generation finance. From embedded finance and AI-driven personalization to the region’s broader Vision 2030 transformation, this conversation captures the determination and optimism fueling Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a global fintech powerhouse. Is the Gulf the “new Europe” for fintech innovation? With determination and bold leadership driving transformation, the region’s financial future is only beginning.

Join banking leader Jim Marous as he sheds light on the crumbling branch model in the U.S. Marous discusses the staggering decline in physical branches since 2008 and reveals how digital transformation is reshaping customer expectations. He contrasts the approaches of big banks versus smaller institutions and explores why some still cling to traditional branches. The chat also dives into emerging technologies like agentic AI and the critical need for banks to adopt digital-first strategies to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving landscape.

In This Episode This week onBreaking Banks, we spotlight the newest member of the Provoke.fm family, Bankers’ Bookshelf, hosted by Paolo Sironi. This episode features Paolo’s interview with Sangeet Paul Choudary, author of the new book, Reshuffle: Who Wins When AI Restacks the Knowledge Economy. Paolo and Sangeet discuss how AI is set to transform the global economy and company operations by redistributing power among key players. Sangeet explores four key tensions driving this transformation: tensions between workers and their software tools; tool providers and the organizations that use them; businesses consolidating power and the industries they disrupt; and empowered individuals and established incumbents. Drawing on compelling examples, historical parallels, and innovative perspectives, this conversation uncovers the opportunities and challenges AI presents—and reveals who stands to succeed or struggle when AI restacks the deck. Don’t get left behind! Listen now!

In This Episode Gyrating securities prices, perplexing consumer confidence numbers, multiple revisions of jobs numbers, varying interest rate forecasts- that’s VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Tim Mahedy is Founder and Chief Economist at Access Macro and serves as the Chief Economist at Alloy Labs, and his perspective, shaped by time at the IMF, as the Chief of Staff at the San Francisco Federal Reserve, and by advising leaders globally, comes at a critical moment. He joins host JP Nicols to reveal why the old banking playbooks are dead, how the “VUCA Bazooka” is reshaping the landscape not just now, but for the foreseeable future, and what bold leaders must do now to turn chaos into their biggest competitive advantage. If you don’t want to be left behind, this is your wake-up call, and your blueprint to winning in 2026 and beyond. JP Nicols and Tim Mahedy will be giving an executive briefing on their findings and recommendations on October 2nd. Learn more and register at AlloyLabs.com/events