The last time I wrote about pay by bank, I observed: An easy way to spot emerging trends is to look for examples of market incumbents overreacting. It’s not a common occurrence. Indeed, much of the modern theory of disruption is premised on the idea that market incumbents tend to underreact rather than overreact when […]| Fintech Takes
Editor’s Note — We are republishing this deep dive essay, which was initially published in October of 2024. If anything, the topic (the importance of balanced BaaS partnerships) has become even more relevant, and the essay has been updated to reflect this. My thanks to Fifth Third Bank for sponsoring this deep dive essay and […] The post Building Sustainable Bank-Fintech Partnerships appeared first on Fintech Takes.| Fintech Takes
I’ll be honest with you. Of all the terms I run across in my job, one of the ones that I understand the least is customer lifetime value, or LTV for short. And yet … the term is essential to understanding the recent past and, more importantly, the future of fintech and banking. Every company […]| Fintech Takes
Editor’s Note — This article is sponsored by SOLO (and just so you know, I also do some advising work for them, which is totally unrelated to this piece, but just FYI.) As with all sponsored content in Fintech Takes, this article was written, edited, and published by me, Alex Johnson. I hope you enjoy […] The post How Would You Design a Credit Bureau in 2025? appeared first on Fintech Takes.| Fintech Takes
Editor’s Note — This article is sponsored by Byline Bank. As with all sponsored content in Fintech Takes, this article was written, edited, and published by me, Alex Johnson. I hope you enjoy it! Five years ago, fintech founders treated the search for bank partners the same way that they treated the search for every […]| Fintech Takes
Last month, I spoke at an event hosted by the Federal Reserve. The theme of the event was “Unleashing a Financially Inclusive Future”. Within the first 15 minutes of my panel, we hit upon a key idea: “inclusion” might not be the right word to describe the problem that we are dealing with. After all, […]| Fintech Takes
Editor’s Note — This article is sponsored by Marqeta. As with all sponsored content in Fintech Takes, this article was written, edited, and published by me, Alex Johnson. I hope you enjoy it! The interesting thing about embedded finance is that not all aspects of embedded finance are created equal. Take payments as an example. […]| Fintech Takes
Lending is a relationship business. However, I believe one of the enduring frustrations in lending is that consumers and lenders are rarely in the same place in the relationship at the same time. Think about the consumer credit lifecycle. You start out in marketing. Consumers sift through a range of similar-looking options via comparison sites […]| Fintech Takes
We should start by saying the use of cash flow data in lending is not new. Perhaps the two most obvious questions to ask when considering whether or not to loan someone money are, “How much money do you have today?” and “How much money will you have in two weeks?” Lenders have been asking […]| Fintech Takes
There’s something poetic about Chime’s newest commercial, featuring former NBA star, coach, and TV announcer Mark Jackson. Depending on your point of view, you might think of Mark Jackson as an indelible part of recent basketball history; a great player with a sneakily influential style, an important coach who helped nudge the Warriors towards their […]| Fintech Takes
An hour before a scheduled procedural vote in the U.S. Senate on the GENIUS Act, which would establish a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins, the President and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), Rebeca Romero Rainey, issued a statement. The statement begins: On behalf of the nation’s community bankers, ICBA urges the […]| Fintech Takes
According to the New York Fed’s Liberty Street Economics blog, more than 9 million student loan borrowers will soon start to see substantial declines in their credit scores. Those declines will be larger for higher-score segments, with those in the 760 – 850 range seeing an average drop of 171 points: That’s a big deal. […]| Fintech Takes
Lawyers and accountants might disagree with this statement, but I’ve always thought that the process of becoming a public company is, primarily, a storytelling exercise. You are trying to engineer the best possible response from public market investors while complying with all the regulatory requirements for accurate business and financial reporting, which requires a very […]| Fintech Takes
I have reached a stage in my life where I have very little need for my credit reports. I am paying a mortgage on what I hope is my forever home. I have a minivan that I am planning to drive into the ground (this is a flex … listen to this podcast for the […]| Fintech Takes
