Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Banks are hearing from their customers that they want better experiences — better experiences in banking, borrowing and in payments. Joining me today on the podcast is Finastra’s global head of payments, Paul Thomalla. The banking software provider recently launched a new product that makes it easier and quick for mid and small-tier banks in Europe participate in real time payments. Paul describes how smaller banks can maintain a competitive edge in payments. Paul Thomalla is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. My guest today is Stuart Rubinstein, CEO of Akoya. A spin out of Fidelity, Akoya is a financial data aggregator that lets the customers of financial institutions grant and revoke third party access to their financial data safely. Akoya facilitates this access and eliminates the need for consumers to share their user IDs and passwords. Stuart talks about Akoya’s roots and how he’s been thinking about data aggregation for years. He discusses the need for APIs, to move beyond the era of screen scraping. Rubinstein also shares his view of open finance and Akoya’s future. Stuart Rubinstein is my guest on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. As chat platforms have eclipsed the size of the largest social networks, businesses are increasingly using them to service their customers. Some financial institutions are even enabled for customers to transact over chat. Pieter de Villiers, co-founder and CEO of Clickatell, joins me on the podcast to talk about his vision 20 years ago for mobile experiences. Now the firm covers more than 220 territories, 1000 networks, and 85% of the world’s population, with an SMS reach of more than 5 billion users. Pieter and I talk about banks embracing chat apps, like WhatsApp, to reach their customers. With chat banking, customers can get digital banking customer support, account management, and bill payment services from within chat. Pieter de Villiers is my guest today on the Tearsheet podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet’s editor in chief, Zack Miller. The first era of next generation financial companies focused on the bank account as the store of information and value for consumers’ and business’ financial lives. That’s changing, as fintechs and data aggregators go deeper into payroll data and payments. The topic is becoming more urgent since the PPP rollout earlier this year. Ben White from Plaid's policy team has recently authored a report on the value of payroll data and he joins me on the podcast to discuss what payroll data access is, why it matters, and the opportunity it presents for future fintech innovation. A link to the whitepaper is included in our article on our website. Ben White is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Embedded finance is powering the launch of all kinds of new companies and products around the world. Brazil-based Conductor is a digital banking and payment platform. It processes 1 billion payment transactions annually, totalling over $20 billion in payment volume and serves over 250 clients with more than 85 million cards. The company is expanding throughout Latin America and just raised a $150 million investment round. Chief Strategy Officer Marcelo Jacques joins me on the podcast to discuss the company’s expansion plans throughout the region, including how it will compete against foreign embedded finance platforms entering Latin America.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Embedded Finance is becoming more competitive. New platforms are launching and existing platforms are expanding into new products and geographies. My guest today has seen it all. Dov Marmor has helped build some of the leaders in banking as a service, including Currencycloud, Green Dot, and now Railsbank. Railsbank’s chief operating officer for North America, Dov Marmor joins me on the podcast to talk about the embedded finance field — where the market is headed and who’s best positioned to take more marketshare. Railsbank is launching in the U.S. with its credit cards as a service solution to both fintech and brand customers. Dov Marmor is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. We’ve been talking for a long time about big tech’s move into finance. We’ve seen Apple’s launch of a credit card, Amazon and Shopify’s lending to merchants, and Facebook move deeper into payments on its messaging apps. News hit this week that gave us more insight into Google’s moves in banking. The company is launching Plex accounts, smarter and simpler bank accounts within a redesgined Google Pay app. Google isn’t becoming a bank — these accounts are launched in collaboration with chartered banks, like Citi and BBVA. Seattle Bank also landed a partnership with Google. The sub-$1 billion community bank in the pacific northwest will also work with Google to launch a Plex account. I spoke with John Blizzard, Seattle Bank’s president and CEO about the move and what it means for the community bank. We discuss if other small firms can and will replicate these types of partnerships with big tech. John shares his vision for the future of small banks and technology. John Blizzard is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The acceleration of digital banking that took hold during the pandemic allowed for continued adoption of Goldman Sachs’s consumer banking product suite. Marcus by Goldman Sachs, which launched four years ago, had $96 billion in deposits as of the third quarter of 2020. With personal loans, savings accounts, and Marcus Insights, its personal finance analysis tool, Goldman is building a comprehensive product suite. The bank has fully integrated the capabilities of the Clarity Money app, which it acquired in 2018. “The long-term objective of what we're setting ourselves to do in consumer is to create a complete business that has a very robust platform on which millions of consumers will be able to control their financial destiny either through their own balance sheet or cash flow,” said Stephen Scherr, chief financial officer at Goldman Sachs, speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Future of Financials Conference this month. “Our ambition is to grow out the product set that's there, including in 2021, seeing checking and a wealth module to again grow out that platform in a more profound way.” On today’s podcast, we speak with Melissa Manne, who is vice president and head of product at Marcus Digital Storefront. She was previously vice president of product management at Clarity Money and director of software product management at American Express. Manne reflects on her journey from Clarity Money to Marcus by Goldman Sachs and the next steps for Marcus.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. Today’s guest on the podcast is Experian’s Chief Product Officer, Gregory Wright. Listening to Greg, you get a feeling for how the role of credit bureau is changing — to the point of even who they serve is evolving. We discuss fintech trends, like cloud, APIs and alt data, and how they’re impacting Experian’s ecosystem. Greg shares his thoughts on expanding credit to more people and how the credit score is changing with the times. Gregory Wright is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

The past few years have shown that business banking customers no longer have to wait days or weeks to apply and receive loans to open bank accounts and transact. Many new options are being offered by fintech firms that don’t have to deal with large legacy technology stacks and legacy thinking. This frees them up to focus on servicing small business needs and delivering good banking experiences. Large incumbent banks don’t have this luxury. HSBC Kinetic is a bold move by the 6th largest bank in the world. It’s an app-only digital bank servicing small businesses, but for the financial institution established in the 1860s, it’s much more than that. With Kinetic, HSBC is building experience in agile development environments, in the cloud, and with a branchless app that offers automated onboarding, in-app overdrafts, a controllable debit card and a range of personal financial management budgeting and cashflow tools. The following was produced by Tearsheet Studio. We worked with fintech software provider Strands to create a visual and audio case study about HSBC’s transformation as a bank for small businesses.