Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

In 2015, Bank of Georgia launched a mobile bank. Ever since, it’s been ramping up its digital transformation program. By all accounts, the bank is on to something -- it’s converting customers over to digital channels. Two years ago, Bank of Georgia began its journey toward agile development. It created crossfunctional teams to develop banking products and to design the digital channels The following was produced by Tearsheet Studio. We worked with fintech software provider Strands to create a visual and audio case study about Bank of Georgia's digital transformation.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Simon Black, PPRO’s CEO, is my guest today on the show. The company is off a big fundraising which comes after a 2020, where the local payment company doubled its Q4 transaction volumes year over year. PPRO has also grown its team 60% in the past 12 months, as it expands globally. Simon talks about what why payment companies are so focused on local payments and how his firm differentiates itself in an increasingly competitive market. Simon Black is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. This past year acted as an external shock to financial customers and employees of FIs. As branches shut and employees turned to working from home, workflows were disrupted and redesigned. Enter ServiceNow — it’s a software company that serves digital workflows for enterprises. My guest on today’s podcast is Lauren Robbins, general manager of the firm’s financial services business. Her firm has hundreds of FIs as clients and she joins me to talk about how institutions’ expectations have changed during the pandemic. Lauren describes how financial institutions are working to ensure higher levels of customer service in this newly distributed form of work. Lauren Robbins is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The world of personal financial management is undergoing a change. Stand alone applications are incorporating more banking functionality, getting into money movement and not just advice to have a bigger impact. Banks and financial institutions are being more thoughtful about launching their own tools to help their customers. That’s where Sensibill comes in. It works with firms like JPMorgan Chase to much smaller institutions to help their customers make sense of their finances. Using SKU-level data, Sensibill is also helping the institutions themselves understand their customers better. The firm just launched the Sensibill Platform. Sensibill CEO and co-founder Corey Gross is my guest today on the podcast.

Craft Bank is the first de novo inside the Atlanta perimeter in over a decade. The bank offers a fully digital experience including faster payments and lending in addition to personal relationships. Craft launched in October of 2020 and I caught up with Ross Mynatt, president and CEO of Craft Bank, to talk about his firm’s process developing tools and experiences for today’s customers. Joining us on the podcast is Stacey Zengel, senior vice president of Jack Henry & Associates and president of Jack Henry Banking. 42% of de novos opening for business over the past four years were Jack Henry clients and Stacey shares his views on what it takes to build a modern bank from scratch and launch effectively.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Klarna is such an interesting company as part of our coverage universe. As one of the major buy now, pay later competitors, the firm is gearing up to IPO after hitting 15 million customers in the U.S., more than doubling over a year ago. But the company’s vision is way broader. Today’s guest is Klarna’s David Sykes, the firm’s president of North America. Pay attention to how David describes Klarna’s positioning as a financial services firm supporting its customers shopping experiences — that flows through to banking and payments, but also to shipping and returns. I think Klarna wants to be the bank of shopping. David Sykes is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. It’s not just banking products that bear the fruit of new technology. Banks and other financial institutions are using popular tools like communications platform Slack to collaborate more efficiently internally and in increasing numbers to communicate with customers. Slack works with financial services organizations like TD Ameritrade, HSBC, Intuit and WealthSimple. Slacks’ vice president of customer experience Ali Rayl joins us on the podcast to talk about how leading financial firms are using tools like Slack to develop a new digital workplace — one that allows employees to access information and software tools anytime and anywhere, with Slack as the central hub. Slack’s Ali Rayl is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. On the heels of a $450 million investment round at a $15 billion valuation, Checkout.com (http://checkout.com/) became Europe’s most valuable venture-backed business and fourth largest fintech globally. Bradley Riss, the firm’s chief commercial officer, joins me on the podcast today to talk about the excitement around his firm’s cloud-based payments technology that tripled its processing volume in 2020, adding 500 new enterprise customers including Coinbase, Pizza Hut, H&M, and Klarna. In the U.S., the firm has opened an NYC and Denver office to meet growing demand for enterprise payment solutions. Tearsheet's Acquire Conference brings together marketers from top firms like Goldman Sachs, Schwab, Shopify, Square, N26 and more to talk about growing today's leading financial brands. Join us. Get your tickets here: https://ti.to/tearsheet/tearsheet-acquire-conference-2021 Bradley Riss is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet Editor in Chief, Zack Miller. With the excitement around buy now, pay later, Citizens stands out among a small number of banks with an offering in the space. The firm has been providing point of sale financing since 2016 and has issued over $6 billion to more than 5 million accounts. Citizens Pay is expanding in the U.S. through more partnerships with merchants in new verticals like health and fitness retailers and home contractors. I’m joined on the podcast today by Eric Schuppenhauer, Citizen’s president of consumer lending and national banking. He shares some more insight on Citizens Pay and how the bank is positioned in the space. We discuss trends in the industry and what’s propelling consumers and businesses to adopt this form of payment. Lastly, Eric delves into his expansion strategy for the firm and the bank’s plans to further embed its services into its partners’ businesses in the future. Eric Schuppenhauer is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. It isn’t often that I’m totally out of my league on this show. Our two guests today are scientists focused on quantum computing. IBM's Stefan Woerner & Goldman Sachs' Will Zeng join me on the podcast to discuss some of recent findings they've made in quantum computing's ability to address derivative pricing. While I clumsily navigated my way through the interview, Stefan and Will did a great job explaining why they are so excited about quantum computing's application in financial services and how it will change the rules of the game. And they did it in a way we all can understand. They're making big strides in bringing this technology to market and even though we're still a few years away, a financial ecosystem is already growing up around this massive shift in technology. Hope you enjoy my discussion with IBM's Stefan Woerner & Goldman Sachs' Will Zeng