In This Episode This week on Breaking Banks, Money in the 21st Century, a special episode from sister podcast Breaking Banks Asia Pacific. Listen as Breaking Banks Asia Pacific host Charis Palmer sits down with economist and professor of economics Richard Holden to chat about his new book: Money in the 21st Century and why he believes that the US Fed needs to get going with a 'Fedcoin'. They also cover the global economics of #crypto #cbdcs #mobilemoney and #cheapmoney, and how we’ll all transact in our future cashless world. Enjoy the episode! https://youtu.be/q0uNPddxiDo

In This Episode Excitement over new technologies, new capabilities, new business models, and new companies often turns to hype, but what goes up, must come down. We seem to be working through hype cycles faster and faster, but what’s on the other side is rarely a return to the status quo. In this episode, Simon Taylor,  Fintech Brainfood, Jim Marous, The Financial Brand and Theo Lau, Unconventional Ventures join hosts Brett King and JP Nicols to share insights and debate what upward and downward forces will most impact fintech and banking in the next 12 months, and what that new reality looks like. https://youtu.be/V-7Mo6x9rpE

In This Episode 2023 was the hottest year on record in terms of temperature. ESG, sustainability, clean tech / green tech and corporate responsibility have been hot topics. Are we at war with climate? This week we feature Brett King's recent sit down in Bangkok, Thailand with former banker, fintech investor and now venture capitalist, Paul Ark, with The Radical Fund, an early-stage VC fund investing in founders who are delivering climate resilience for Southeast Asia. Where are investment dollars going? Climate mitigation (how to prevent the world from getting warmer) and climate adaptation (dealing with a warmer world) and what it means for infrastructure resilience and food insecurity, to name some areas of concern, are top of mind. Climate is a complex systemic issue and requires a buffet of technologies to address, improve and help us reclaim our environment. It's an enlightening conversation with The Futurists! https://youtu.be/o2C0X1E8oEw

In This Episode Should you increase your social media savviness to sell products? With digital acquisition reshaping financial services it's certainly something to think about for your organization's benefit. In this episode, host Brett King speaks with Dr. Robin Kiera, Founder and CEO, Digitalscouting about his book, Attention Hacking: The Power of Social Media Selling in Insurance and Finance. Listen as Dr. Kiera delves into the topic and shares industry examples, opportunities and his belief that you need to position yourself and your organization as influencers among your target market. The premise is simple, you need to be where your customer is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uGvauRU2s4

In This Episode Identity, and the future of it, continues to be a hot topic as digital adoption increases in all aspects of our lives. When you are verifying your identity, you want to do it with as little friction as possible and expect it to be fast, secure and compliant. In this episode, host JP Nicols speaks with Incode Technologies' Domingo Guerra, EVP of Trust, and industry veteran with a strong background in cybersecurity and data privacy, about the latest innovations in verifying identity. User expectations are bigger than ever. Positive user experiences and biometric acceptance can make what once seemed scary less so, but are all biometrics created equal? https://youtu.be/pDr66sLB8Jw

In This Episode Iceland is a small country doing big things in fintech, but also in healthtech, renewable energy, gaming, and the ocean-based blue economy. Few countries fared worse during the 2008 global economic crisis, which had a profound impact on the country’s financial system, currency, and overall economy. The economy gradually recovered, and by the 2010s, Iceland experienced steady economic growth. Today Iceland has a high standard of living. Its citizens enjoy access to quality healthcare and education with a relatively low level of income inequality, and it is the global leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion. JP Nicols visited Reykjavik to meet with some of the people innovating to drive these outcomes, including the country’s First Lady who is proud of her country’s achievements, yet declares that “good enough, is not good enough”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atOEvLoB8dQ

In This Episode Does financial services ever have an off-season? Is now the time to update your playbook? . Today, host JP Nicols tackles a few of these questions and then speaks with James Anderson, Paze's Managing Director, about a new launch on track for early next year. Paze is a new digital bank wallet from Early Warning Services, the fintech company that brought us Zelle several years ago and is owned by some of the largest banks in the US. A completely separate venture focused on e-commerce payments, Paze no doubt benefits from learnings in creating Zelle. The US payments world is complicated, Paze aims to be ubiquitous on both consumer and merchant sides, the piece in the middle connecting financial institutions, providing better outcomes, and making purchases more convenient and secure. Launching with more than 1,000 banks, Paze is 100% online payments focused, offered by participating banks and credit unions, built to simplify and secure checkout by tokenizing credit and debit card numbers so users never have to enter card data, usernames or remember passwords. A new product, a new year and the next era of banking just around the corner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJYx8wG_5fs

In This Episode This week we begin our episode with the third in our special series on fintech visionaries reimagining the future of finance. Brett King is joined by Jayesh Patel, CEO of Wio Bank, and Thomas Kuncheria, EEMEA Senior Vice President for Advisors Client Services at Mastercard. Wio, the UAE's first platform bank with a mission to transform banking in its region, is focusing on three core capabilities -- digital banking applications, embedded finance and BaaS. Through partnership with Mastercard, Wio is helping customers thrive in this digital world, offering personalized features and seamlessly integrated services with a goal to make banking simple, transparent and secure, offering customers access to tools to manage their finances effortlessly and at lower cost than other alternatives. It's another interesting piece in the series spotlighting the benefits of partnership and empowering partners to disrupt and revolutionize. Then, are non-traditional loan underwriting criteria -- i.e. market, environmental, community data -- important when painting a picture of a SMB loan applicant? JP Nicols speaks with serial entrepreneur Ron Benegbi, Founder & CEO of Uplinq Financial Technologies who believes so, and whose latest venture, a global credit assessment platform for SMB lenders, has built, in part taking a page from his own personal story. a platform to empower lenders to distill different kinds of data and information for credit decisioning that might enable SMB lenders to approve and manage risk on loans that they might have otherwise declined based on traditional loan underwriting criteria. https://youtu.be/ikalSI19V6A

In This Episode Opening Minds and changing legacy behaviors can be challenging. This week JP Nicols connects with Jim Perry, Senior Strategist, Market Insights about new perspectives young cohorts bring to money in the digital age, not just in practice but in ways the industry can better align its leadership with today's general demographics. Rechanneling, retooling and meeting customers where they are today, to better represent our ecosystem, across the entire spectrum, can make for a more engaged workforce and help financial institutions stay relevant. By setting the bar where it needs to be, bringing value through DEI and sharing different perspectives, financial institutions can also increase stickiness in customer relationships. Then, JP continues the thread of new perspectives and ways of doing things in his recent conversation with Brandon Spear, CEO, TreviPay. When it comes to trade credit for business customers, and the associated complexity that is inherent in the B2B space with multiple stakeholders, applying some B2C principles to B2B can make for a better payment experience, easing and expediting business across geographies, systems and risk profiles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2lxAgRFtVU

In This Episode Want to wow your family over the holidays with your fintech and banking knowledge? We offer a helpful primer for Thanksgiving table conversations as Breaking Banks' Jason Henrichs gathers with industry notables and friends Kiah Haslett, Bank Director; Alex Johnson. Fintech Takes; Jason Mikula, Fintech Business Weekly; and Mary Wisniewski, Cornerstone Advisors to talk banking turkey, give thanks, and share the nerd things they'll be talking about around their dinner tables. Happy Thanksgiving from Breaking Banks!