While financial services is undergoing a fundamental technological transformation enabling completely new business models, the downside is that many new terms are being thrown around without a common framework for how to discuss these new business models. Banking-as-a-Service, Banking-as-a-Platform, API Banking, and Marketplace Banking all sounds great, but what do they mean and how are… Read More

As payments technology continues to be one of the biggest focus areas for financial services companies, quite a few solutions have come out to help banks and other card issuers fight debit and credit card fraud. Two of the largest French banks, Societe Generale and Group BPCE, are launching one potential solution from Oberthur Technologies.… Read More

After a few weeks of flexing its muscles against Wells Fargo, LendUp, and Navy Federal Credit Union, the CFPB has suffered a setback of its own. The US Court of Appeals for D.C. declared that the structure of the CFPB is unconstitutional stating that the director of the CFPB had “more unilateral authority than any… Read More

It has been three weeks since the CFPB fined Wells Fargo for illegal sales practices, but the drama is still in the early innings. CEO John Stumpf was in front of the House yesterday, testifying for some four hours. While much of the Congressional hearings have an undercurrent of political posturing, there are some more… Read More

…ok, maybe not exactly. But Representative Patrick McHenry  (R., N.C.) has been pretty active in introducing bills as part of his “Innovation Initiative” that is bringing fintech into the limelight on Capitol Hill. Most of the time “fintech” is discussed within government circles, it seems to be focused on consumer protections around marketplace lending; McHenry’s… Read More

I attended FinovateFall last week. I will dig in to some of the trends in a future issue, but in short the conference was great! In addition to having 70+ fintech companies to connect with, the attendee list is a Who’s Who in financial technology, so the opportunity to connect with founders, investors, thought leaders,… Read More

I wanted to see if I could draw any insights from the presenter list for Finovate next week. As one of the largest fintech conferences with 70+ companies presenting, it provides a good overview of the general fintech landscape. It is not perfect since the organizers do try to keep a good diversity among presenting… Read More

Happy Friday! As we approach September, conference season is in full swing. As the Finance Capital of the world, New York offers a high concentration of fintech conferences next month. Whether you work for a startup, VC firm, or finserv incumbent, take time to get out of the office and interact with others in your… Read More

Marketplace lending, arguably the most public and profiled sector of fintech, has spent the better part of 2016 sliding down Gartner’s Technology Hype Cycle. However, other sectors are a bit behind in gaining the same initial traction, including Insurance Tech, despite hopeful entrepreneurs and plenty of VC funds exploring the market.   I talked to… Read More