American Banker Podcast
The American Banker Podcast offers thoughtful discussions on current topics in banking and financial services, moderated by American Banker editors. Each episode brings expert insight and analysis from industry leaders. The show covers a range of issues affecting the financial sector.
Episodes
Crypto banks are safer than insured banks: Bitgo's CEO
The crypto companies getting trust charters hold 100% reserves and thus are lower risk than traditional banks that hold fractional reserves, Mike Belshe argues.
Why big banks bet on Besu
Citi, DTCC and others are quietly using Hyperledger Besu as neutral, enterprise-grade rails for tokenized deposits and collateral. Daniela Barbosa, general manager of decentralized technologies at the Linux Foundation, explains why.
What's life like after crypto firms get trust bank charters?
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has conditionally approved several national trust bank charters for crypto companies. Fabian Dori, head of asset management at Sygnum Bank, a digital asset bank based in Zurich that has operated as a crypto bank for more than six years, shared what happens after the charter.
'Credit access is absolutely a problem': Upstart's Paul Gu
The company's new CEO, and long-time chief technology officer, shares his views on why some banks are stuck in old ways of determining creditworthiness, how Upstart has been modifying its underwriting models and the objections people sometimes have to AI-based lending.
Is AI the way to get credit to the underbanked?
Rodney Hood, former acting Comptroller of the Currency and former chair of the National Credit Union Administration, says the credit scoring system is broken and AI can fix it.
What a 'moral architecture' for AI in banking would look like
Surjit Chana, a board member of Beneficial State Bank, a Harvard Fellow and a tech committee member of the Global Alliance for Banking Values, explains why there's a need for what he calls a moral architecture for AI
Solana 101: What it is and why some banks use it
JPMorganChase, Citi, Bank of America and Anchorage Digital are among the banks that are using or planning to work with the Solana distributed ledger and network. Solana Policy Institute CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine explains how it works.
Grasshopper's taking AI beyond the 'confident intern' stage
Peter Chapman, chief technology officer at Grasshopper Bank, initially saw AI as "the best intern that you could ever have." Today the technology is taking on more advanced work at the bank.
How Clearview FCU's CIO gets employees to use and trust AI
"AI may not take your job, but somebody who knows AI will," says Raymond George, CIO of Clearview Federal Credit Union.
What is Ethereum and why should you care? Paul Brody at EY
JPMorganChase, Citi, Vantage Bank and Custodia Bank have all chosen Ethereum as the underpinning for blockchain projects such as tokenized deposits. The chairman of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance explains its appeal.
Thread Bank's Chris Black sees opening in bank charter boom
Some traditional bankers are unsettled by the wave of crypto and fintech banks getting bank charters. This Nashville bank CEO sees opportunity.
How banks can reap revenue from AI: Accenture's Mike Abbott
The company's recently released 2026 trends report is about "moving and changing the narrative from being Eeyores to being Tiggers," Abbott said in the latest American Banker podcast.
'Optimism is a moral duty': Paul Achleitner
The former Deutsche Bank chair and Goldman Sachs partner shares some of the leadership principles in his new book.
From day-trading bar mitzvah cash to founding Hiro: Ethan Bloch
The founder of Digit explains how he got into fintech and why he built an AI-meets-personal-finance app that launched in October.
From day-trading bar mitzvah cash to founding Hiro: Ethan Bloch
The founder of Digit explains how he got into fintech and why he built an AI-meets-personal-finance app that launched in November.
'Policy leaders are being shown a rosier picture': Ludwig
Former controller of the currency Eugene Ludwig has written a book called The Mismeasurement of America that lays out the shortcomings of the standard economic data that U.S. government and businesses use to make decisions, and how this data obscures the truth about how low-income Americans are actually faring.
'The household balance sheet is fragile': Sarah Biller
The co-founder of Fintech Sandbox says fintech entrepreneurs will figure out how to help Americans struggling with economic stressors.
Anchorage COO is a fan of the Fed's 'skinny' master accounts
Rachel Anderika, chief operating officer at Anchorage Digital Bank, sees the Federal Reserve's proposal to give crypto companies limited access to its payment rails as "a really great signal to the market."
'Crypto will always be a target for scammers': Amanda Fischer
Amanda Fischer, is policy director and chief operating officer at Better Markets and former chief of staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission has some concerns about stablecoins.
How banks can mitigate AI workslop and errors
The former banker Bradley Leimer now advises financial institutions on AI projects, and shared some of his tips for achieving accurate results and a return on AI investments.
'That's a lawless way of proceeding': Cordray on CFPB cuts
Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says the Trump administration seems intent on shutting the agency down, even though it has a legal mandate to exist.
Advice on coping with stablecoins: Anchorage CEO McCauley
Crypto-as-a-service, stablecoins and tokenized deposits all present opportunities for banks, according to Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital.
JPMorganchase's Waldron, Starion's Rogstad on new projects
The banks have invested in gen AI and embedded finance, respectively.
Tariff unease 'puts everybody on their back foot': Flushing Bank CEO
John Buran shares how his New York bank and its small business customers are faring with tariff uncertainty — and how some have quickly changed suppliers and modified business plans — in the latest American Banker podcast.
The digital asset opportunities opening up for banks
Staking activities and stablecoins are two of the possible ways banks could have a role in decentralized finance, said Margaret Butler, head of the financial services practice at the law firm Baker Hostetler and Kristiane Koontz, director of Treasury Services and Payments at Zions Bank, in interviews recorded at the Digital Banking Conference in June.
'Failures across the board': Dara Tarkowski on Synapse case
Tarkowski, managing partner at Actuate Law, shares a legal perspective on the lawsuit that Yotta, a savings app provider, filed against Evolve Bank & Trust, in September and recently amended.
Can banks beat the 80/20 rule for generative AI?
Sid Khosla, EY Americas banking and capital markets Leader, predicts that over the next two years, 20% of generative AI cases will drive 80% of the value across financial institutions. In this podcast, he explains what those use cases are and how banks can make the most of them.
What will AI-driven banking look like in the future?
Theo Lau, co-founder of Unconventional Ventures and author of the new book Banking on Artificial Intelligence, shares a vision of how banks could help consumers navigate financial uncertainties.
'You can't make it a side gig': Brett Pharr on banking as a service
It takes $50 million to $100 million dollars, three to five years of losses and a complete commitment from the board to make it as a banking-as-a-service bank, the CEO of Pathward bank says in the latest American Banker podcast.
How J.P. Morgan is helping to build connected cars
Rob Abrams, CEO of Mobility Payment Solutions at J.P. Morgan Payments, is overseeing the development of in-car wallet systems that turn cars into rolling credit cards. He explains his vision of what connected cars could look like and do in the future.
Banks struggle to keep up with threat of AI deepfakes
Valerie Abend, Accenture's financial services cybersecurity lead, explains what banks get wrong about fending off AI-based threats and what they should do instead.
'It can eliminate things we don't like doing': Vlad Lukic on AI
Generative AI will remove toil from our day to day jobs, argues Lukic, who is managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group.
Could industry standards prevent the next Synapse-style mess?
"We want to put banks in the risk management driver's seat," says Sima Gandhi, co-founder of the Council for Fintech Ecosystem Standards, which has worked with a group of fintechs to create risk and compliance standards banks can use to evaluate their fintech partners.
'It's a tremendous priority': Huntington CFO Wasserman on AI
Software code generation and knowledge management are two of the places the bank has begun using generative AI to improve efficiency.
How one New York bank is getting younger people to save
Thomas Rudzewick, CEO of Maspeth Savings Bank worries about the growing crisis of low savings among millennials and Gen Z. He believes banks like his can help reverse this trend with financial literacy and innovative savings tools.
East West Bank's CEO on how the bank coped with LA wildfires
The bank, which is headquartered in Pasadena, had to quickly switch to remote work for many employees and come up with relief programs for customers whose homes and businesses were destroyed by fire.
Where Citi Ventures is placing its fintech bets in 2025
Arvind Purushotham, head of Citi Ventures, shares where he and his team see opportunities and how they vet tech startups.
Why banks keep failing at money laundering
A lack of resources is one common cause of AML penalties, says consultant Aaron Ansari.
The banks that implement AI well, from titans to mavericks
Some banks are "punching above their weight," according to Dan Latimore, chief research officer at The Financial Revolutionist. Here's how they do it.
The case for a human crime officer in every bank
Ian Mitchell, founder of The Noble, an organization that works with law enforcement and with banks to fight human crime trafficking, explains some of his group's recent work and why banks need someone dedicated to human crime.
AARP's Jilenne Gunther has advice for banks on elder fraud
Elder financial exploitation has been a problem for banks for years, and it's getting worse. Gunther offers practical suggestions for what banks should do when they suspect an older customer is a victim.
Southern Bancorp's answer to the home affordability crisis
The Arkansas community development financial institution has an ambitious goal of making $500 million worth of mortgages in rural, minority and low-income neighborhoods.
'Job satisfaction will go up': How generative AI is changing work
The technology will take on routine, dull work, says Alenka Grealish, principal analyst at Celent.
How banks' use of generative AI has evolved over the past year
Financial institutions have dramatically increased their investment and trust in large language models since 2023. Kartik Ramakrishnan, Capgemini's deputy CEO of Financial Services and head of banking and capital markets, shares the results of a recent report that analyzed these changes.
Upstart's CEO Dave Girouard explains brighter outlook for rest of 2024
Advances in the company's AI-based lending models have made them better at predicting risk, which has led to growth, he says.
'These models will always hallucinate': Seth Dobrin on LLMsDek
Dobrin, founder of advisory firm Qantm AI and former global chief AI officer at IBM, warns that popular generative AI models were trained on the whole of the internet and hallucinate at an unacceptable rate.
'Fraud is pervasive throughout the entire industry': Crypto insider
Jake Donoghue, author of the book Crypto Confidential, shares some of the worst practices he saw as a founder of a cryptocurrency company.
Some banks are making a Faustian bargain with fintechs: Karen Petrou
Karen Petrou, the managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics and a long-time observer of banking and regulation, says banks need to do far more due diligence on potential fintech partners and exert more control over these relationships.
What military members need from their banks
Two veterans and executives at Armed Forces Bank – Tom McLean and Jodi Vickery – share the challenges they see their customers face and new products the bank has rolled out this year to better serve them.
Regulators are wise to be more careful' after Chevron ruling
Gene Scalia, the banking lobby's lawyer on retainer for a potential challenge to Washington's capital reform effort, discusses the state of administrative law after the overturning of a key legal precedent.
Climate First Bank's plans to expand nationwide
The Florida bank has emerged from de novo status and can now offer its solar loans in a larger geographic footprint.
Can data ownership be preserved in generative AI?
Foundational models like GPT-4, the large language model behind ChatGPT, have hoovered up content from publications like The New York Times and social media sites like Reddit and OpenAI, and it faces several lawsuits because of this. John Thompson, global head of artificial intelligence at EY and author of the book Data for All, has set up what is believed to be the largest private, secure generat
What might digital identity look like in the future?
Proof of identity is critical for many things, including being able to open a bank account, get a job, or obtain health care. Yet proving one's identity is getting harder in a world of frequent data breaches. We asked Mariana Dahan, founder of the World Identity Network and chair of the Universal ID Council, what she thinks will solve this problem.
"The law was very clear" inside the Fed master account debate
Custodia Founder and CEO Caitlin Long says the Federal Reserve has rewritten the rules around accessing the government's payments system. The central bank and a federal court judge disagree. Editor's note: This conversation was recorded on April 17. On April 26, Custodia Bank filed a notice of appeal, signaling that it will challenge the district court decision in favor of the Federal Reserve.
'There are risks': Betsy Cohen on banking as a service
Banking as a service is expensive, it takes time and onboarding has to be done carefully, says the founder of Bancorp Bank, who now runs a venture capital firm that invests in fintechs.
Is 'technofeudalism' killing capitalism?
Cloud-based tech giants like Amazon, Google and Uber are changing the economy, and not for the better, asserts Yanis Varoufakis, a former finance minister of Greece and a professor at the University of Athens, who has written a book about the dangers of what he calls the "cloudalists."
'Not all fintech is good for people': Jennifer Tescher
Financial technology startups have developed some useful technology for consumers, such as automated savings, says Tescher, who founded the Financial Health Network 20 years ago. But some fintech innovations are more questionable.
How banks are helping the fight against illegal wildlife trading
Geraldine Fleming, financial task force manager at United for Wildlife and Jonny Bell, director, EMEA, LexisNexis Risk Solutions explain how banks around the world are helping to catch criminals who illegally mutilate, kill and sell rhinoceroses, elephants, donkeys and other animals.
'Don't fall for the sales pitches': Advice on deploying AI
Eric Siegel, author of the book The AI Playbook, explains what it takes to take traditional and advanced artificial intelligence projects from idea to execution.
How challenger bank Upgrade grew during a dismal 2023
The neobank doubled its membership to five million consumers and hired 200 people last year. Founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche explains how it fared during a time when many fintechs struggled.
How generative AI could reshape financial services in 2024
Mike Abbott, global banking lead at Accenture, shared some of his predictions and opinions for the year ahead.
Has the fintech movement lived up to its promise?
The fintech revolution has been more successful at working with banks than at trying to replace them, points out Gene Ludwig, former Comptroller of the Currency, chair of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, and co-founder of Canapi Ventures. Those with "must have" products will fare far better in 2024 than those with "nice to have" tools, he says.
What to expect from VCs in 2024: Amy Nauiokas, Anthemis Group
It's been a rough year for fintechs and for the venture capital firms that fund them. Venture capital flows into financial technology companies dropped by 36% year over year to $6 billion in the third quarter of 2023. But Amy Nauiokas, founder and CEO of Anthemis Group, is optimistic about 2024.
2023 was a rough year for bank regulators. What might 2024 bring?
Over the past year, the national bank regulators' oversight of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Silvergate Capital and other banks that failed has been criticized. Reports of a toxic workplace at the FDIC have come to light. And the OCC hired a Deputy Comptroller and overseer of fintech who had easily discoverable falsehoods on his resume. Michele Alt, cofounder and managing director at Klaros
What fintechs think of the CFPB's proposed data-sharing rule
Penny Lee, president and CEO of the Financial Technology Association and Steve Boms, executive director of FDATA NA, explain what their members like about the proposed regulation and what they would change.
How community banks can use tech to stay relevant
Community banks sometimes feel that they lack the budget and staff to compete with larger banks and fintechs on things like mobile and online banking, virtual assistants and most recently generative AI. Jim Perry, senior strategist at Market Insights, suggests steps they can and should take to stay relevant technology wise.
What might the Sam Bankman-Fried trial mean for banks?
The case is not really about cryptocurrency but about fraud, points out Seoyoung Kim, department chair and associate professor of finance and business analytics at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. But regulators and lawmakers are watching and the outcome of the trial will have repercussions throughout finance.
Citizens' plans for using generative AI ethically: Beth Johnson
Johnson, chief experience officer at Citizens Financial Group, shares some of her concerns about advanced AI and plans to use it for purposes including contact center support and coding.
Why Ready Life CEO Ashley Bell is buying a Utah bank
Bell, an attorney, founded Ready Life to help reduce the racial wealth and homeownership gaps by showing lenders that credit-score-less consumers have been responsible with their money, based on their daily transactions. Now he and Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, are buying a community bank just outside of Salt Lake City.
Are subprime cards a raw deal for people living paycheck to paycheck?
What are the best options out there for people living on the edge financially who have an emergency expense? The Global Black Economic Forum and the Center for Business and Economic Research recently completed a study called the 2023 Cash Poor Report that dives into this question.
Partner Insights from ExtraHop: Catching cyber criminals in complicated banking networks
Financial institutions can trade billions of dollars per day and handle sensitive data for millions of customers across the globe, which make them enormously attractive targets for cybercriminals. Their defenses must be top notch and ever evolving to keep up with this threat, but FIs' infrastructures are usually vast and complex, straddling old, legacy mainframes and cutting-edge, cloud-based appl
The unintended consequences of banning ChatGPT at work
Though generative AI has limitations and risks, there is a cost to ignoring it, according to Ryan Favro, a managing principal at Capco.
Remote work, generative AI: Tech trends reshaping work in banks
Immersive technologies and automation are also on the list of technologies that are here, employees want them and companies like banks need to deal with them, says Phil Simon, author of a new book called The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace.
What would it take to close America's racial wealth gap?
Marisa Calderon, executive director of a nonprofit community development financial institution, explains why the wealth gap persists, for instance systemic bias in the appraisal process, and what lenders could do to reduce it.
Should banks put a pause on their AI projects?
Leaders of many of the biggest tech companies recently signed an open letter calling on all AI labs to immediately pause the training of advanced artificial intelligence systems. Seth Dobrin, advisor to the Responsible AI Institute and former chief AI officer at IBM, shares his thoughts on where banks should be careful about using AI.
Can chatbots learn to understand human emotions?
Dr. Aniket Bera, associate professor at the department of computer science at Purdue University, explains how AI can be used in the financial services industry to detect when a customer is angry or depressed or even when an employee is upset or about to commit fraud.
Banking crisis's wakeup call to banks: Risk management needs a refresh
Sumeet Chabria, founder and CEO of advisory firm Thoughtlinks and a former tech executive at Bank of America, explains some of the technology changes every bank should be making to ensure it's not the next victim of a bank run.
What bankers can learn from the 2023 banking crisis
Brian Graham, partner and co-founder of advisory and investment firm Klaros Group, breaks down what went wrong with Silvergate Capital, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and what banks can do to avoid the problems that brought these banks down.
Are big banks spreading misinformation about fintech?
Penny Lee, president and CEO of the Financial Technology Association, is pushing back on some claims banks and their trade groups have recently made about financial technology companies, for instance that fintechs don't meet consumer financial protection standards.
'Fighting evil is not competitive': Banks help detect crime at Super Bowl
More than 50 million people are caught up in modern slavery, according to the U.N. Hidden crimes like human trafficking and elder abuse are more common than most people think. Ian Mitchell at The Knoble, who led crime detection at several financial institutions, works with banks to find signs of abuse and help law enforcement to help victims and catch perpetrators, including among Super Bowl crowd
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