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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
  • Fintech Recap: Open Banking, BaaS Island, and GENIUS Act Updates

    Fintech Recap: Open Banking, BaaS Island, and GENIUS Act Updates
    Sep 3 2025
    Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I’m Alex Johnson, joined (as always) by my partner-in-recapping, Jason Mikula. First up, the open banking saga continues with a new 13-paged ANPR (Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) that reopens every fight. From whether “representatives” can access your data, if banks can charge cost-recovery fees, how liability hides under “security,” what counts as privacy vs. secondary use, and whether deadlines can be punted at all. With Chevron overturned and Corner Post wiping out time limits, every rule is now a lawsuit waiting to happen (even Visa has suddenly decided U.S. open banking isn’t worth the headache). From there we head to our old friend BaaS Island, where Synapse’s implosion has left customers stranded. The CFPB’s novel UDAP claim and a symbolic $1 penalty may unlock redress, but only after years (while distressed-debt investors eye Evolve and Mercury). And then it’s on to Congress’s GENIUS Act, which hands stablecoins their first federal framework but also plenty of landmines. We discuss winners and losers, why Section 16(d) supercharges state preemption, and how Wyoming’s state “token” exploits the gap. Plus, in our Can’t Let It Go corner, it’s finance-as-casino: Chamath’s new American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp SPAC, Robinhood suing Nevada and New Jersey to push prediction markets, and a Polymarket bettor who called Taylor’s engagement early and banked about $3,500 (the kind of thing that’d be called insider trading anywhere else!). 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 12 mins
  • Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 2: Context is King

    Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth Episode 2: Context is King
    Aug 29 2025
    Hello, and welcome back to Source of Truth, the new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO. This series is about information asymmetry (the enemy of financial services; especially lending). In Episode, we tackled truth vs. trust. And in Episode 2, we explore history vs. overconfidence, which goes something like this: In 1995, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac effectively mandated the use of FICO scores in mortgage underwriting. Almost overnight, credit scores went from a niche tool in bankers’ back rooms to the market’s law of the land. Joining me to unpack that history and its consequences is Martin Kleinbard, Founder of Granual Fintech (and author of the great research report How Cashflow Data Can Diffuse the Credit Score Time Bomb, which I was proud to publish at Fintech Takes). Highlights include: What began as an additive tool for underwriting quickly became a substitute for judgment (lenders skipped the W-2s and leaned entirely on the number) The three pillars of credit: Willingness to pay (FICO’s wheelhouse), ability to pay (cash flow, income, assets), and product risk (loan terms that can themselves trigger default) – the financial crisis showed what happens when you ignore the latter two! Second-order risk today. From BNPL quirks to payment hierarchy surprises (why personal loans sometimes get paid before mortgages), context still matters more than any one score This episode explores what happens when we reduce everything to a single number: lenders miss nuance, consumers get misread. A credit score can predict repayment, but only context explains it. And in the end, context is king. Subscribe now and catch the rest of Source of Truth … we’re just getting started! This miniseries is brought to you by SOLO. SOLO resolves and connects customer data across silos — so teams stop rekeying the same customer info for the hundredth time and finally move forward. Break the cycle at SOLO.one - That’s SOLO dot o-n-e. 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 Martin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-kleinbard-6122aa1a/ We also chat about his new piece in Open Banker (on AI for consumer bankers), which you can read here: https://openbanker.beehiiv.com/p/aiforconsumerbankers Learn more about SOLO here.
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    57 mins
  • Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth. Ep 1: Is Truth Enough to Unlock Trust?

    Fintech Takes x SOLO Presents Source of Truth. Ep 1: Is Truth Enough to Unlock Trust?
    Aug 28 2025
    Hello, and welcome to Source of Truth, a new podcast miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at SOLO. This series is about information asymmetry (which is *the* enemy in financial services — especially in lending). Information asymmetry (the gap between what the customer knows and what the financial service provider knows) explains most inefficiencies. It’s the reason why qualified applicants get declined for loans or approved for loans at rates much higher than they should have to pay. And it’s the reason why borrowers and human underwriters spend a mind-numbing number of hours locating, aggregating, and verifying information. We’ve added APIs, alternative data, and automation. Yet, the core process of collecting and trusting information still looks much like it did decades ago. Why is that? And what can be done to reshape that process in a more fundamental way? These are the questions that Source of Truth will explore. In Episode 1, I’m joined by Georgina Merhom, Founder & CEO of SOLO. Georgina, a data scientist by training, unpacks how lending data is collected, verified, and (too rarely) reused. Highlights include: What the old-school branch lending process got right that digital still misses Why banks still burn through $30B each year on manual collection despite APIs The difference between standardized inputs (useful) and standardized outputs (misleading) This opening episode tees up the larger theme of the series: building systems that don’t just capture truth but create trust. Because when information can be reused and verified, lenders and borrowers stop starting from zero. Subscribe now and catch the rest of Source of Truth. This miniseries is brought to you by SOLO. SOLO resolves and connects customer data across silos — so teams stop rekeying the same customer info for the hundredth time and finally move forward. Break the cycle at SOLO.one - That’s SOLO dot o-n-e. 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 Georgina: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginamerhom/ Learn more about SOLO here.
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    53 mins
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