Fintech Firsthand

A monthly masterclass in BaaS and fintech from fintech experts, fellow bankers, and solution providers.

About the show

When bankers want to launch or grow BaaS or Fintech projects, they need access to peers – CEOs with firsthand experience – to reduce unknown unknowns. The hard part is finding them, and getting time on the calendar to learn from them.

We’ve done that work for you.

Erik Skovgard, a community bank CEO who helped launch Square, Acorns, and other prominent fintechs, interviews BaaS bankers to bring you their stories and experiences.

Episodes

  • Bankwell's Ryan Hildebrand: What's Next for Banking as a Service?

    June 21st, 2024  |  56 mins 26 secs
    ai, baas, bank, compliance, credit union, embedded finance, financial institution, small business

    How do bankers get started in banking as a service or embedded finance? Hear from Ryan Hildebrand, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Bankwell Bank, New Canaan, Conn., about the development of innovation in banking. We also learn about Bankwell's new fintech, Casca (cascading.ai), an AI-assisted loan origination system, and Ryan's perspective on the future of BaaS.

  • The Future of Core Banking and Embedded Finance

    May 3rd, 2024  |  1 hr 5 mins
    baas, compliance, core banking, embedded finance, financial institution, unit

    In this episode, we talk with Itai Damti, CEO of Unit, about the history and future of embedded finance. In their early days, banking-fintech relationships required multifaceted innovation. Fintech products and services were already novel in some way, and then a bank and fintech would innovate again—through partnership—to bring those novel services to market. Itai and Erik talk about how technology is addressing what can become a friction-filled and clunky relationship. What does it mean for the future embedded finance or BaaS?

  • Coastal Community Bank CEO Eric Sprink: Launching a Thriving BaaS Division

    March 1st, 2024  |  1 hr 7 mins
    baas, banking, banking as a service, bluevine, ccb, coastal community bank, erik skovgard, fintech, regulation, walmart, walmart one debit

    Want to launch and grow banking-as-a-service? Here's how Coastal Community Bank developed the acumen to serve One (Walmart's fintech), Bluevine, and other prominent fintechs.