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Fintech Takes

Fintech Takes

By: Alex Johnson
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Summary

 Fintech moves fast. But here at Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson and his rotating panel of guests move faster so that you can stay on top of the latest and greatest news in the industry without breaking a sweat. Welcome to Fintech Takes—the place where fintech’s biggest nerds come to sit back, relax, and completely geek out. Join Alex and a lineup of fintech’s brightest minds as they dissect what’s happening in fintech and banking. Each week, Alex and his guests recap the most interesting developments in fintech and explore the industry’s most pressing questions, diving headfirst into the intricate workings of some of the industry’s most ground-breaking business models and unpacking the emerging players that promise to shape fintech’s future. From riveting conversations with fintech’s most relevant operators to comprehensive recaps of the month's most compelling news stories and in-depth analyses of the latest regulatory developments, Fintech Takes is your one-stop-shop for navigating the fintech universe. Subscribe now to join fintech’s nerdiest podcast around!Copyright 2026 Alex Johnson Economics Personal Finance Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Fintech Takes x Chime presents Banking on Primacy Ep 2: The Bifurcation of Rewards

    Fintech Takes x Chime presents Banking on Primacy Ep 2: The Bifurcation of Rewards
    May 14 2026
    Welcome to Banking on Primacy, a four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by Chime. The series orbits one question that has become the most contested in consumer finance: what does it take to earn (and hold) the most important relationship in someone's financial life? In Episode 2, I sit down with Vineet Mehra, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Chime, to dig into the rewards economy in banking. Americans deposit ~70% of their income into checking accounts, but that account returns almost nothing. Meanwhile, the most valuable rewards in consumer finance have migrated to the credit side (and increasingly to a narrow tier of premium cardholders who can afford to play the game). Vineet walks through how Chime is trying to collapse that bifurcation with Chime Prime, and why the primary account relationship is the right place to start. Why did credit cards become a prestige product while the checking account stayed a utility? What does it mean to design rewards for usage rather than breakage, and why does a payments-driven business model make that easier to commit to? How does brand building work differently when your target isn't a premium cardholder but the 200 million Americans who feel underserved by traditional banks? This episode is brought to you by Chime. For most Americans, their primary bank account is their most important financial relationship. Traditional banks held that position and took it for granted. Chime was built differently: fee-free, built to succeed when members do, and now America’s #1 banking choice with roughly 10M active members. Chime Prime takes that further: 5% cash back, savings rates up to 9x the national average, premium travel perks, no fees. See how at https://www.chimeprime.com/ Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Vineet: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vineetmehra1/ Learn more about Chime here: https://www.chimeprime.com/
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    55 mins
  • The Rise of Sports Gambling

    The Rise of Sports Gambling
    May 13 2026
    Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Danny Funt, author of the book Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling. This episode isn’t really about sports. It’s about how sports gambling evolved in the U.S. from a patchwork of legal quirks, a highly coordinated state-by-state lobbying campaign, and a set of product dynamics that, over time, became increasingly adversarial to the customer. Danny and I walk through the key inflection points: from the 1992 PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) federal ban, to the fantasy sports exemption that gave FanDuel and DraftKings their head start, to the widely misunderstood 2018 Supreme Court ruling, to the rise of VIP host programs and affiliate-driven media incentives. And finally, to prediction markets, which in Danny’s view look a lot like a compressed replay of the same playbook. For anyone in financial services watching gambling and investing collapse into each other in real time, this conversation has a lot to say about where that's heading. Check out Danny’s book here: https://a.co/d/04liSaKI This episode is brought to you by Persona. The best fintechs expand what's possible for users. Persona does that for fraud prevention. Their recently upgraded link analysis tool surfaces connections in real time, letting you spot deepfakes, identity farms, and fraud rings during onboarding and investigations. They just published their Fraud Leader's Guide to Link Analysis, a practical look at today’s top risk signals, automating decisions, and scaling link analysis for fraud prevention. Download it now: http://withpersona.com/ftt-fraud Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Danny: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-funt-2695b4a3/ Follow Alex Johnson: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonX: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Fintech Takes x Chime presents Banking on Primacy Ep 1: The Fight for Primacy

    Fintech Takes x Chime presents Banking on Primacy Ep 1: The Fight for Primacy
    May 11 2026
    Welcome to Banking on Primacy, a four-part podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by Chime. The series orbits one question that has become the most contested in consumer finance: what does it take to earn (and hold) the most important relationship in someone's financial life? In Episode 1, I sit down with Mark Troughton, President at Chime, to dig into primacy. We kick things off with a structural argument most banks won't make: the checking account is the front door for traditional banks, but for Chime, it's the product. That single distinction shapes where you invest, what you build, and who you're actually building for. From there, Mark walks through the “silent switch”, the hierarchy of consumer financial needs, and why Chime is currently opening 50% more checking accounts than Chase in the mass market. What does it take to win a primary relationship in 2026? What does trust look like when you're building it without branches? What does a financial institution owe the customers it's trying to keep? This episode is brought to you by Chime. For most Americans, their primary bank account is their most important financial relationship. Traditional banks held that position and took it for granted. Chime was built differently: fee-free, built to succeed when members do, and now America’s #1 banking choice with roughly 10M active members. Chime Prime takes that further: 5% cash back, savings rates up to 9x the national average, premium travel perks, no fees. See how at https://www.chimeprime.com/ Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson Follow Mark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matroughton/ Learn more about Chime here: https://www.chimeprime.com/
    Show More Show Less
    47 mins
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