One of the missing pieces for personal finance managers is that many of them require a lot of work. From categorizing spending to acting on any of the analysis, there’s typically a big enough cognitive lift that limits their use. Tally wants to change that. At the heart of its personal finance tools is automation — the company offers an automated debt manager that helps people save money, manage their cards, and pay down their balances faster. When you speak with Tally’s co-founder and CEO Jason Brown, you quickly understand that his ambitions to bring automation extend way beyond paying down debt. Jason sees an opportunity to roll automation out to many of our personal finance challenges and pain points. He describes this evolution as the third wave of consumer fintech — where we move beyond mobile tools into complete financial automation where we don’t need to carry the emotional or functional burden of managing our finances. Jason Brown is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Credit Karma built a wonderful business providing almost 100 million people with free products to help them manage their debt. It was inevitable that they move into the asset side of their customers’ personal balance sheets. Last week, the firm announced a new savings account. Jagjit Chawla, Credit Karma’s general manager for tax and savings, joins us on the show to discuss the decision to move into banking services. Like most players, Credit Karma didn’t become a bank but chose to launch a product in partnership with a licensed entity. We talk about the product spec of the new savings account and how this new product fits into the greater Credit Karma ecosystem for users. Jagjit provides some early feedback from customers and provides an inkling into CreditKarma’s future product plans on the asset side. Jagjit Chawla is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. Before we jump into the interview, I wanted to invite you to Tearsheet’s latest event, The Embedded Conference. A big theme on this program and in our reporting has been about how financial services are showing up everywhere — in B2B software platforms, in retail, in transportation and travel. The Embedded Conference brings together financial services, fintech, and vertical industries looking to create new financial products. We’ve got a great speaker lineup — register today at early-bird prices by going to our website and clicking on the Embedded Conference button at the top right of your screen.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. In the wake of investment firms Vanguard’s success, robo-advisers continued to usher in the era of indexed, passive investing. Titan is a contrarian investment platform which offers investment strategies used by hedge funds for retail investors. Titan co-founder and co-CEO Clayton Gardner joins us to discuss why he built a financial technology firm centered around active investing and what type of investors and clients this approach appeals to. Titan has also grown using organic and referral customer acquisition strategies which combine incentivizing users to share Titan with their friends by reducing the AUM fees clients pay Titan — sometimes down to zero. Titan’s users are unusually active and involved in investing, even if they count on Titan to make their allocation and investment selection decisions. Clayton Gardner is my guest today on the Tearsheet podcast. Before we jump into the interview, I wanted to invite you to Tearsheet’s latest event, The Embedded Conference. A big theme on this program and in our reporting has been about how financial services are showing up everywhere — in B2B software platforms, in retail, in transportation and travel. The Embedded Conference brings together financial services, fintech, and vertical industries looking to create new financial products. We’ve got a great speaker lineup — register today at early-bird prices by going to our website and clicking on the Embedded Conference button at the top right of your screen.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Whether you’re a new immigrant, an expat moving for work, or a foreign student, getting issued credit when your credit history resides in another country is frustratingly difficult. That’s changing as incumbents and fintech startups continue to work on coming up with a solution. American Express is announcing it has joined forces with a cross-border credit reporting startup, Nova Credit (https://www.novacredit.com/), to launch a first-of-its-kind digital capability that enables newcomers to the U.S. to share individual credit reports from five international bureaus when applying for an American Express U.S. Personal Card and potentially get approved instantly. This makes American Express the *first global payments company to offer immigrants and expats to the United States the ability to use Nova Credit’s Credit Passport technology* to instantly translate certain international credit reports into a U.S. equivalent credit report and score during the online Card application process. Sara Milsten, svp of new member acquisition for U.S. consumer services at American Express, is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. Before we jump into the interview, I wanted to invite you to Tearsheet’s latest event, The Embedded Conference. A big theme on this program and in our reporting has been about how financial services are showing up everywhere — in B2B software platforms, in retail, in transportation and travel. The Embedded Conference brings together financial services, fintech, and vertical industries looking to create new financial products. We’ve got a great speaker lineup — register today by going to our website and clicking on the Embedded Conference button at the top right of your screen.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Pricing pressure on commissions isn’t new in the brokerage and equity trading space. But it does feel like it’s accelerating. Just over the past few weeks every major brokerage — Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and E-Trade, eliminated commissions over a span of a couple of days. JMP Securities’ Managing Director Devin Ryan joins us on the show to talk about all the moves in pricing in the investment industry and more importantly, where this is all headed. We discuss how investment firms will compete if not on cost and what the impact will be of many new competitors in the space. Devin Ryan joins me today on the Tearsheet Podcast. Before we jump into the interview, I wanted to invite you to Tearsheet’s latest event, The Embedded Conference. A big theme on this program and in our reporting has been about how financial services are showing up everywhere — in B2B software platforms, in retail, in transportation and travel. The Embedded Conference brings together financial services, fintech, and vertical industries looking to create new financial products. We’ve got a great speaker lineup — register today by going to our website and clicking on the Embedded Conference button at the top right of your screen. The following disclosures are applicable to SCHW: JMP Securities currently makes a market in the security of The Charles Schwab Corporation.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Smaller financial institutions are finding a way to compete in a world of too big to fail banks. The Central Bank of Kansas City is an interesting case study. The bank is one of a small number of FIs in the US certified by the Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution, serving people of modest means who may not have had the benefit of affordable and accessible financial products. A little over five years ago, the company launched Central Payments, a division that leads the bank’s nationwide presence in the payments industry. Trent Sorbe is the president of Central Payments and joins us on the podcast to talk about how his firm has been able to punch above its weight in issuing activities, headquartered near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Central Payments recently announced the creation of its Falls Fintech accelerator and Trent describes how the new program will continue to service the ecosystem Central Payments is building. We also discuss the company’s new Open API platform, CPX and how that fits into all the moving pieces. Trent Sorbe is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. Before we jump into the interview, I wanted to invite you to Tearsheet’s latest event, The Embedded Conference. A big theme on this program and in our reporting has been about how financial services are showing up everywhere — in B2B software platforms, in retail, in transportation and travel. The Embedded Conference brings together financial services, fintech, and vertical industries looking to create new financial products. We’ve got a great speaker lineup — register today by going to our website and clicking on the Embedded Conference button at the top right of your screen. Here’s my interview with Trent.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. Moven was founded in 2011 by Brett King. It was really early in the move to standalone digital banks, what we like to call Challenger Banks. Without branches and transacting via a telephone, the company was an early pioneer. Fast forward to 2019 and Moven is now lead by Marek Forysiak and has added on a new part of its business: Banking as a Service. Moven Enterprise powers digital banking functionality for traditional financial institutions around the world, like TD Bank and Westpac. CEO Marek Forysiak joins us on the podcast today to talk about Moven’s evolution as a digital bank and how its customers — both retail and now increasingly enterprise — have changed over time, as well. We talk about Moven’s customer acquisition strategy and what the firm is cooking up for the future. Marek Forysiak is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. We’re kicking off a new series here on the podcast called Blocks. In this series, we’re turning to entrepreneurs and professionals who are building the next generation of financial services leaders to understand better how they did it. How did they start with an big audacious idea and execute on it? What were the techniques and tools they used to take their businesses to the next level? We want to drill down and understand the building blocks of their business — from their first target audience, to building the tech, to acquiring customers, making partnerships and expanding internationally. Our first guest is MoneyLion’s founder and CEO ,Dee Choubey. MoneyLion’s roots were in personal finance management and the firm rode its early success into an expansion into general banking services. Dee discusses how he determined what would be his initial target audience and where the opportunity was to serve them. We talk about how important this early focus is and how it helps serve the business as it grows. MoneyLion’s Dee Choubey is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. We’ve interviewed quite of few large incumbent financial firms about their innovation programs. They may be structured differently with different activities, metrics, and incentives, but they all have one thing in common: an attempt to combine the best internal and external resources to improve the evolving customer experience. That’s true at Aflac, as well. Th firm’s VP of US innovation Keith Farley joins us on the podcast today to talk about how the insurer’s defines innovation and how the structure of the program helps them achieve their objectives. We discuss the Hatch Lab that the company runs and how its relationships with local universities contribute to the innovation program. Lastly, Aflac has a corporate venture arm and we talk about its activities and the types of companies it invests in. Keith Farley is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. Before we jump into the podcast, we’re winding up submissions for our Tearsheet Innovation Program Awards. We’re looking to hear about the best and most creative innovation programs that are more than just innovation theater. Does your organization have a good story to tell? Head on over to our website and click on the Awards button to let us know.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. On the heels of a closing of a $250 million credit facility, LendingPoint’s Tom Burnside joins us on the show today. The consumer lender has originated $1.4 billion in loans to individuals, targeting an underserved population of people with FICO scores in the range of 580-680. Tom talks about the growth potential in servicing this population. We also discuss the firm’s point of sale loan product and how that’s expanded their reach and broadened the definition of LendingPoint’s target borrower. Tom Burnside is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.