Fintech One•On•One

Africa is quietly becoming one of the hottest areas for fintech investment. I am overdue to focus on Africa here on the podcast, so when the chance to interview the CEO of the largest African fintech presented itself, I jumped at the opportunity. In a similar way to Latin America, Africa has leapfrogged from offline financial infrastructure to mobile-centric and the one company that has made much of this leapfrog possible, at least when it comes to payments, is Flutterwave.My next guest on the Fintech One on One podcast is Olugbenga Agboola, who goes by GB, the CEO and Founder of Flutterwave, the most valuable fintech in Africa. I think of Flutterwave as a cross between Stripe, Shopify and Wise, and the technology they have built has revolutionized cross-border payments in Africa. It is hard to overstate how important this one company has been to the growth of fintech in Africa.In this podcast you will learn:What drove GB to found Flutterwave.A short history of fintech innovation in Africa.How he describes Flutterwave today.The geographic footprint of Flutterwave.How they enable African small businesses to accept cross border payments.The evolving payment behaviors for both consumers and small businesses.What they are ultimately solving for in Africa.What GB means when he says “payment is partnership”.How the money moves internationally.Why they decided to rebuild the entire stack of their API suite.How they are ensuring compliance across their wide network.How they incorporate financial inclusion into their company goals.Why they are an inaugural partner of the Circle Payments Network.How they are investing in cybersecurity and anti-fraud tools.How they are supporting the next generation of African fintech leaders.GB’s vision for the future of payments in Africa and for Flutterwave.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Streamlining international B2B payments is a complex undertaking. TreviPay has been taking the complexity out of this process for several decades now. In my conversation with CEO Brandon Spear, we explore TreviPay's transformation from MSTS, its rebranding inspiration, and its global reach across 30 countries.Our discussion highlights TreviPay's various services, including trade credit management and cross-border payment infrastructure, and its partnerships, such as with HSBC, to expand into complex markets like China and India. Our conversation also delves into the role of AI in enhancing productivity and customer experience, as well as the challenges and opportunities in the B2B payments landscape.In this podcast you will learn:How Brandon describes TreviPay today.What companies need to think about when they look to expand across borders.How TreviPay takes the complexity out of cross border invoices.What TreviPay has done well that banks have not been able to do.Some of the big brands they are serving today.The different geographies they serve.Why B2B payments is 5-10 years behind the consumer space.How they are staying ahead of the new payments innovators.How TreviPay is using AI both internally and in a customer facing way.What they are doing in their partnership with HSBC.The impact that the new tariff uncertainty is having on their business.Why they did the rebrand from MSTS to TreviPay.Brandon’s vision for TreviPay.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

In this episode, Anthony Soohoo, CEO of MoneyGram, shares his vision for transforming one of the world's largest global payments networks through what he calls a "refounder mindset." Drawing from his experience leading digital transformations at major companies like Walmart and CBS, Soohoo discusses how MoneyGram is modernizing its platform while leveraging its incredible assets: a network of 450,000 retail locations spanning over 200 countries and 20,000 payment corridors.He explores the company's strategic partnerships with Plaid for seamless bank connectivity, collaborations with Visa and Mastercard, and their thoughtful approach to cryptocurrency through stablecoin partnerships with Stellar Foundation and Circle. Perhaps most ambitiously, Soohoo outlines his five-year goal of positioning MoneyGram not just as a remittance company, but as a global payments powerhouse with the scale and recognition of Visa or Mastercard, all while maintaining the company's core mission of democratizing finance for consumers worldwide.In this podcast you will learn:The three things that attracted Anthony to the opportunity at MoneyGram.How he describes MoneyGram today.The most popular remittance corridors for US consumers.The attributes of a typical MoneyGram customer.Anthony’s concept of re-founding and how he is bringing that mindset to MoneyGram.The lessons he has learned in his first six months as CEO.How the money actually moves internationally.How they are partnering with Plaid, as well as Visa and Mastercard.Why MoneyGram believes the future of finance is crypto.How Anthony views the alternative payments rails being developed.The biggest challenge for MoneyGram today.His vision for the next five years.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Michele Alt, Co-Founder of Klaros Group, draws on her 22 years of experience at the OCC to discuss the evolving landscape of bank charters for fintechs. She highlights a 'golden age' for fintechs seeking charters under the new administration. Michele explains two pathways for obtaining charters—acquisition vs. de novo formation—and shares insights on the unique appeal of ILCs in Utah. She also examines the rise of specialized charters like those for crypto companies, and the impact of major tech firms venturing into banking.

Moving money internationally is mission-critical for many businesses in the world, particularly those outside the U.S. But, today, for businesses using traditional banks, moving money across borders is often expensive, slow and a terrible user experience. Wherever you have that combination you can be sure a fintech company is attacking the problem aggressively, which is certainly the case here.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Ravi Adusumilli, the President and GM of the Americas for Airwallex. They have built their own payments rails, as an alternative to SWIFT, to serve businesses who want to move money and accept payments internationally. How they have done that makes for a fascinating conversation.In this podcast you will learn:The target market for Airwallex in the Americas.How they help businesses expand internationally.Why they decided to build their own payments rails as an alternative to SWIFT.How the money moves exactly.The percentage of their payments that move in real time.What was behind their acquisition of MexPage in Mexico.Why they decided to build a business themselves in Brazil.How they are working with Brex.How Airwallex is able to serve smaller businesses.How they help tech companies offer embedded global payments as a profit center.How their multi-currency wallets work.Ravi’s perspective on stablecoins and other alternative payments rails.His view on the future of embedded finance and global payments.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Vince Passione, CEO and Co-Founder of LendKey, discusses innovative solutions for community banks and credit unions. He delves into network lending technology that alleviates customer concentration issues. The conversation highlights the evolution of digital lending and the expansion into home improvement loans. Vince also shares insights on changing education financing trends influenced by the CARES Act and emphasizes the importance of engaging younger generations through modern financial strategies. His expertise sheds light on the future of lending in a competitive landscape.

Most fintech companies, and increasingly banks, rely on API integrations to run their business. Yet, building and maintaining these integrations can be time consuming and complex, particularly when it is only a part of what an engineering team does. Today, you can outsource these integrations to companies that specialize in this type of connectivity with a unified API platform.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Shensi Ding, the CEO and Co-Founder of Merge. She saw the challenges of API integrations in a previous role and decided this was a problem worth solving. She has built Merge to specialize in helping companies with their API integrations, leveraging one API to add hundreds of integrations.In this podcast you will learn:The problem she saw that led to the founding of Merge.What a unified API is and how Merge offers this.The core categories where they are focused.Why AI is such an important category for Merge.Why large banks and fintechs trust Merge to manage their API integrations.The number of integrations they are working with today.What is involved in adding a new integration.How they make sure these integrations don't break.How they work with custom integration requests.What is needed to get these integrations up and running.How Merge is helping Ramp for their HR integrations.Their experience working with banks.Why they like working with companies that are having challenges with integrations.How they work with the non-technical customer success teams.Why the human element is so critical for Merge's success.The process in adding a new integration into the system.How they are using AI internally.How they work with companies that don't have a robust API yet.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Welcome back to the occasional series on the podcast called Fintech Revealed. This is a sponsored show where we take a deep dive on one topic with a couple of industry experts.Today, we have Nico Simko, CEO and Co-Founder of Clair and Dan Loomis, the General Manager and Head of Product for the Money Group at Gusto. The topic we are doing a deep dive in today is Earned Wage Access (EWA) - one of my favorite fintech innovations of the last decade. We cover a great deal of territory on this show as we delve into embedded finance and the evolution of EWA (for reference I interviewed Nico on the show last year). In this podcast you will learn:Why Clair focuses on being embedded with HR and payroll companies instead of going direct to consumer or direct to employers.What piqued the interest of Gusto to offer EWA.What was involved in getting Clair up and running at Gusto.The two pieces that had to be in place at Clair to be able to embed their tech at Gusto.What employees are using EWA for at Gusto.How EWA is presented to employees in the Gusto app.How Clair worked with Gusto to determine how exactly to integrate EWA into their wallet.How the roll out has been going.What Gusto users are telling them about EWA.How fast a user can get money to their card if they have never used EWA before.Why Clair took the regulatory approach of treating EWA as a loan.What resistance, if any, employers have to offering EWA.What is stopping more payroll companies from signing up for EWA.Some of the limitations of the direct to consumer EWA model.What it is going to take for EWA to become ubiquitous.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

There are not many US-based fintech companies that are global from day one. Nearly every company starts in the domestic market, gets established and after a few years starts looking at overseas markets. That was not the case for today's podcast guest. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is John Mitchell, the CEO and Co-Founder of Episode Six. John started the company, which is based in Austin, in Hong Kong in 2015 and they are global-first, currently operating in 40 countries around the world. What they do is provide next generation payments infrastructure to large banks and non-finance brands. In this podcast you will learn:The founding story of Episode Six.Why they decided to start the company in Hong Kong.The financial infrastructure that they provide today.How they built their technology to work in any region of the world.Why it was so important to build their systems to evolve.How their infrastructure is able to interface with legacy banking cores.Why, in ten years time, legacy banking cores will still be in production in most places.The number of countries where Episode Six is working today.How easy it is to embed card issuance today.Why applying for a credit card form a large bank is still basically the same as it was 20 years ago.Why Episode Six mostly works on new programs when working with traditional banks.How they are working with Japan Airlines and why the airline invested in Episode Six.What John thinks about the new payments rails that are developing.Why he is bullish on programmable money.The work they are doing in instant payments.What he has learned from other countries that could be implemented in this country.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Most of us have heard the term "AI agent" but it is only the minority of banks and fintechs that have done any kind of implementation. This is partly because it is not a trivial task and there are real risks to getting this wrong. What is needed is some kind of framework that helps reduce these risks and provides best practices for implementing AI agents in financial services.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Simon Taylor, the Head of Strategy and Content for Sardine and the author of the Fintech Brainfood newsletter. Today, Sardine has released a white paper, titled The Agentic Oversight Framework - Procedures, Accountability, and Best Practices for Agentic AI Use in Regulated Financial Services. It is a how-to document for implementing AI Agents into your bank, credit union or fintech. We unpack the white paper in this podcast, with as little jargon as possible, making it approachable for any risk or compliance executive.In this podcast you will learn:Simon's background and why he joined Sardine in 2022.How banks are approaching BSA/AML compliance today.What Sardine is trying to achieve with this new white paper.What concerns people in financial services have about hiring an AI agent.How AI agents interact with humans in compliance departments.How much more effective AI agents can be.The six different processes in the Agentic Oversight Framework (AOF).How you manage the risk of hallucination in your LLMs.How you can scale the AOF beyond BSA/AML into other areas.Some examples of the AOF in action.If you are starting at zero how you start working with AI agents.Why you should jump in now even though the models will continue to get better.Why data security is such a critical component of the implementation of AI agents.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes