Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

Welcome to Tearsheet’s Outlier Briefing. This subscriber-only content is exclusive for our Outlier members. We go deeper with subject matter experts, to take actionable steps that can impact your business and practice. With all the new entrants to banking and financial services, there’s a sea of sameness around certain parts of the industry. Branding can take a product surrounded by competition and really make it memorable. But to do that, everyone needs to be on the same page. Marketing, PR, product, sales — there’s a consistency great brands have that underlies everything they do. Today’s guest is MJ Mueller, CMO of Frontify. The Swiss software company provides a brand management platform, working with large financial brands all over the world to build powerful brand experiences. MJ discusses how top financial brands — whether they’re incumbents or digital-only — make remarkable impressions and why collaboration and consistency are so important. We talk about the challenges the pandemic has posed for top and emerging brands. Lastly, MJ touches on the future of branding in the financial space. To hear the full audio and to access all of our exclusive, member-only material, head on over to tearsheet.memberful.com/join

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. A few years back, there was a race to embed payments into the browser. It makes sense, too. Most people who access the web through their computers use a browser to shop and bank. While the noise has died down, the Opera browser has continued to work on integrating financial services. Opera has 380 million users globally, with 50 million active European users. The firm is launching an app that gives its users cashback on purchases made through partner websites via the Opera browser. Users can also use the new app to open a current account and get a virtual debit card to shop online and off. The firm plans to offer savings, credit and investment opportunities in the future. Joining us on the podcast today is Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers & EEA Fintech at Opera.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller, Tearsheet’s editor in chief. A lot is going on the issuing side. New players are entering, competition is crossing borders, and existing players are expanding into new products. Marqeta is making perhaps the biggest expansion of its platform since it’s launched. I’m joined by Chief Product Officer Kevin Doerr to talk about the firm’s new credit card issuing platform. We talk about what that means for the firm, its customers, and its competition. Doerr joined the firm last year and it’s been a wild one — he shares his experiences that show a company in growth mode coping with the changes of organic expansion, as well as challenges of dealing with the pandemic. Kevin Doerr is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

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.