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Fintech Takes

Fintech Takes

By: Alex Johnson
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 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 2025 Alex Johnson Economics Personal Finance Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Facing Credit: Pressure Points

    Facing Credit: Pressure Points
    Dec 10 2025
    Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Dave Wasik (Partner at 2nd Order Solutions) for our new series, Facing Credit, where we unpack what’s happening in lending right now. First, we kick off with the big picture in December 2025, starting with delinquency rates. TL;DR: Things don’t appear to be improving, and if you squint, they may be eroding. Next, credit cards and BNPL. Dave explains why cards hold up, thanks to their clear value prop, rewards stickiness, and issuer concentration (the top 10 issuers control 82% of cards). Minimum payments are flexible and low, helping riders through cash-flow crunches. On the other hand, BNPL has shifted from big ticket items to everyday spending like groceries and restaurants (we discuss why the shift raises concerns, especially with limited bureau reporting). Finally, auto, student loans, and the thing at the top of Dave’s worry board: private credit. It’s enormous, growing rapidly, and hard to manage (there’s no data to either corroborate or refute the risks; leverage plus interconnected bets can turn a small shock into a cascade). Plus, we’ll close each Facing Credit episode with our guest’s take on one trend shaping the industry. This time: what does the breakdown of FICO as the standard mean for credit scoring and underwriting? Tune in for Dave’s take! This episode was brought to you by Marqeta. Don’t sacrifice agility for stability. With Marqeta, launch payments experiences that perform at scale and flex with your business. Learn more at https://marqeta.com/ftt 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 Dave Wasik LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davewasik/ 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 4 mins
  • Fintech Recap: Open Banking, Digital IDs, and Green Dot’s Split

    Fintech Recap: Open Banking, Digital IDs, and Green Dot’s Split
    Dec 3 2025
    Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my Jason Mikula, my partner in recapping — who I’ve been lucky to see a lot of lately, which makes recording this over the internet feel oddly impersonal? First up, open banking updates. JPMC has updated data-access contracts with Plaid, Yodlee, Morningstar, and Akoya; covering, reportedly, 95% of data pulls on its systems (but is silent on players like Finicity, Stripe, Trustly, and MX). Meanwhile, the CFPB wants to finalize its 1033 rule by year’s end, possibly skipping key steps like the small business panel. The rule may allow data fees tied to “cost recovery,” but what counts as cost (and who has the leverage to charge it) is still very much in play. Then it’s onto digital IDs. Apple now lets users create an identity credential in Wallet from a passport, using NFC and a liveness check. Jason tested it. It works, but usage is limited to select TSA checkpoints. And adoption faces the same slow climb as Apple Pay, but with higher risks if it fails. Identity credentials aren’t like payments: you don’t want them glitching at airport security! From there, Green Dot (which some might describe as an OG fintech company) is going private and splitting up. Smith Ventures is buying the non-bank side, while CommerceOne (also backed by Smith) takes over the bank and folds it into a new holding company. It’s a move that looks like extraction (pulling the combo out of public markets that never knew how to value it), which raises questions for other banks trying to thread the same needle. Plus, in our Can’t Let It Go corner: Jason dives into the latest lawsuit against Meta, where internal docs reveal the company blocked safety features that threatened growth, ran a 17-strike policy before removing sex traffickers (described as a very, very, very high threshold), and drew its own comparisons to Big Tobacco. And I flag a podcast moment so surreal it sounds fake: the CEO of Roblox endorsing prediction markets for kids (as long as they’re framed as “educational”). Thanks for listening! This episode was brought to you by Marqeta. Don’t sacrifice agility for stability. With Marqeta, launch payments experiences that perform at scale and flex with your business. Learn more at https://marqeta.com/ftt 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 Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/ Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnsonTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 4: The Role of Banks (with Jackie Reses at Lead)

    Fintech Takes x Fundbox presents Engineering the SMB Capital Stack Episode 4: The Role of Banks (with Jackie Reses at Lead)
    Nov 28 2025
    Welcome back to our Engineering the SMB Capital Stack, sponsored by our friends at Fundbox. In this four-part series, we’re exploring small businesses, small business lending, and the forces shaping how small businesses access capital. I’m joined by Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox, as cohost. In Episode 4 (our finale!), we turn to the role of banks (and how they fit into an increasingly unbundled lending ecosystem), and what collaboration between banks and fintechs really looks like in 2025. To unpack it all, we’re joined by Jackie Reses, CEO of Lead Bank (and former Head of Square Capital, a pioneer in embedded capital for SMBs, particularly for B2C SMBs). Highlights include: How Square Capital redefined micro-lending, serving millions of U.S. businesses under traditional bank thresholds Why embedding loans in software (not branches) rewrote the risk model for SMB credit The rise of unbundled lending: fintechs, balance-sheet partners, and the capital markets “maturity curve” How banks like Lead are re-bundling infrastructure to power fintech lending safely and at scale The regulatory horizon (from agentic commerce to stablecoins and the next wave of small-business oversight) From unserved salon owners to national infrastructure shifts, Jackie reminds us why access to capital is still deeply human, and why technology wins when it’s built with empathy for the entrepreneur. If you want to understand where banks truly fit in the future of SMB lending, this finale is essential listening. This episode was brought to you by Fundbox. As a leading capital infrastructure provider behind the digital SMB economy, Fundbox is focused on enabling platforms to embed financial tools directly into their user experiences. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4o1cWVG 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 Prashant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fuloria/ Follow Jackie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-reses-938b7850/Learn more about Fundbox here: https://bit.ly/4o1cWVG
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    51 mins
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