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Website compliance, ADA accessibility lawsuits, and privacy law enforcement are creating real financial exposure for small and mid-sized businesses. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Michael Williams, co-founder and CFO of Clym, to unpack the growing wave of website regulation hitting SMBs and why most operators have no idea they are at risk. Watch episode here Over 5,100 federal ADA lawsuits were filed in 2025, up 30% from the prior year, with 78% targeting small businesses. Twenty US states now have active privacy laws, GDPR fines hit $1.2 billion globally, and California's CCPA issued a record $1.35 million penalty. Michael breaks down how enforcement works based on consumer location rather than business headquarters, why third-party scripts and chatbots create hidden liability, and how compliant websites saw roughly 30% more search visibility over the past year. New HHS enforcement requires healthcare organizations to meet elevated accessibility standards, with fines up to $150,000 per incident starting within weeks. Find out more 1️⃣ Audit every third-party script, tracking pixel, and embedded tool on your website to identify consent gaps before a plaintiff's attorney does. 2️⃣ Map your customer traffic by state and match it against the 20 active US privacy laws to build compliance around your actual footprint. 3️⃣ Run accessibility and privacy fixes through your marketing budget since compliant sites rank higher and capture customers competitors are losing. 4️⃣ Profile your own business first, including headcount, revenue, locations, and data collected, before evaluating any compliance vendor. 5️⃣ Require audit-ready, timestamped consent records from day one so you have receipts when a regulator or attorney comes knocking. GUEST LINKS Michael Williams LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-williams-clym/ COMPANY LINKS Clym Website: https://www.clym.io/ Clym LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clym Learn More: https://fintechconfidential.com/climb FINTECH CONFIDENTIAL Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential SUPPORTERS Under.io streamlines application and underwriting by digitizing PDFs for digital signature: under.io/FTC Skyflow is a zero trust data privacy vault delivered as an API, covering PCI, CCPA, GDPR, SOC 2, and beyond: skyflowsecure.com DFNS provides wallets as a service that is API first, multi-chain by design, and secured with MPC: fintechconfidential.com/dfns Hawk AI offers real-time payment screening, AML transaction monitoring, and dynamic customer risk rating: gethawk.com ABOUT THE GUEST Michael Williams is the co-founder and CFO of Clym. He started his career as a state and local tax attorney at Ernst & Young before serving as CFO of a global travel management company, where a failed $100,000 GDPR consulting engagement inspired the creation of Clym in 2018. Michael holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law. ABOUT CLYM Clym is an all-in-one website compliance platform founded in 2018 that covers 160-plus regulations, catalogs over 1,200 third-party services, and integrates with WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Magento, and other major platforms. ABOUT THE HOST Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential. Produced by DD3 Media, Fintech Confidential brings you the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid. CHAPTERS 00:00 Episode Highlights 01:03 Welcome to Fintech Confidential 01:12 DFNS: Wallets as a Service (sponsor) 02:30 Meet Michael Williams and Clym 03:41 Why Compliance Gets Ignored 05:24 SMB Lawsuit Reality Check 06:49 ADA CCPA and GDPR by the Numbers 08:21 How Big Is the Problem Really 09:13 Consumer Location Based Enforcement 10:12 Third Party Script Risks 11:55 Compliance as a Growth Lever 14:19 Restaurant Menus Losing Customers 15:16 New ADA Enforcement Wave 17:27 Will Enforcement Follow FTC Pattern 18:36 Why Clym Goes Broad 20:25 Clym Origin Story 22:52 Staying Ahead of 160 Regulations 24:32 Beyond Basic Cookie Banners 26:38 Skyflow: Zero Trust Privacy Vault (sponsor) 27:40 Edge Cases and Flexibility 28:38 Company Intake Profiling 29:54 Five Minute Setup Promise 30:52 Ecommerce Platform Gaps 32:34 Vibe Coding Compliance Risks 33:49 Why Copying Big Brands Fails 35:42 Trusted Advisor Partnerships 37:29 Compliance as a Service Response 39:05 Lawsuit Economics and Dress Shop Story 40:45 Audit Ready Litigation Support 42:25 Shared Liability Hosted Pages 43:28 Third Party Script Tracking 45:51 Enforcement Trends Ahead 47:45 Crystal Ball Future Outlook 49:49 Browser Companies Wont Fix It 51:01 Proactive Compliance Benefits 52:49 Wrap Up and Resources 54:19 Hawk AI: Realtime Fraud Monitoring (sponsor) 55:05 Disclaimer

Cash flow underwriting, explainable AI, and credit risk analytics are changing how lenders approve borrowers and set loan terms. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Jamie Twiss, CEO of Carrington Labs, and Kasey Kaplan, Chief Product and Commercial Officer, to break down how behavioral signals in bank transaction data outperform traditional credit scores. Over 50 percent of loan applicants cannot produce a reliable credit score, leaving self-employed workers, gig earners, and younger borrowers locked out of the system. Carrington Labs uses billions of lines of transaction data to build personalized, explainable machine learning models per lender, per product, and per customer segment. The conversation covers their "control point" approach to AI, lifecycle underwriting beyond origination, open banking friction in the US, and a five-year outlook on embedded, agent-driven lending. FIND OUT MORE 1️⃣ Map analytics to every step of your lending funnel to find exactly where borrowers drop off and why. 2️⃣ Buy best-of-breed origination and servicing tools instead of building proprietary underwriting tech in-house. 3️⃣ Start with off-the-shelf models, lend small, collect performance signal, then shift to custom models fast. 4️⃣ Offer higher loan limits to borrowers who sync more accounts through open banking. 5️⃣ Track how borrowers respond to financial scarcity and build those behavioral patterns into your credit criteria. Guest Jamie Twiss LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-twiss/ Kasey Kaplan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaseykaplan/ Company Carrington Labs: https://www.carringtonlabs.com/ Carrington Labs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/carringtonlabs/ Beforepay Group: https://www.beforepaygroup.com Fintech Confidential Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential About the Guests Jamie Twiss is CEO of Carrington Labs and Beforepay Group. He began his career at McKinsey & Company, held senior banking roles including Chief Data Officer at a major Australian bank, and now leads the development of explainable AI credit risk models for lenders globally. Kasey Kaplan is Chief Product and Commercial Officer at Carrington Labs. With over 15 years across payments, program management, and fintech lending, he leads commercial execution across credit risk scoring, cash flow underwriting, and loan limit solutions. About the Company Carrington Labs is the AI and enterprise software division of ASX-listed Beforepay Group. The company builds explainable AI credit risk scoring, cash flow underwriting, and loan limit solutions for banks and non-bank lenders worldwide, having powered over 4 million loans through its sister business. About the Host Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential. With 25+ years in fintech and payments, he brings entertaining and informative conversations focused on the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid. DD3 Media Fintech Confidential is a production of DD3 Media, a media creation, management, and production company delivering engaging fintech content globally. Chapters 00:00 Episode Highlights 01:04 Welcome to Fintech Confidential 01:13 DFNS: Wallets as a Service (sponsor) 02:34 Meet Carrington Labs 04:48 Casey FinTech Origin 06:05 Jamie Credit Risk Path 07:59 Mission Beyond Scores 10:16 Cashflow Underwriting 13:35 Alternative Data Behaviors 17:37 Built Inside Beforepay 21:01 AI Control Points 24:07 Deterministic Vs Inference 28:35 Keeping Bias Out 34:48 Real Client Turnaround 36:44 Funnel Friction Signals 38:25 Optimizing Drop Off 39:21 Sky Flow: Building Fast and Secure (sponsor) 40:21 Product Specific Risk Models 42:32 From Shelf To Custom 43:34 Model Retraining Workflow 47:05 Siloed Versus Consortium 48:59 Cashflow Behavior Insights 50:25 Feature Engineering Matters 51:41 Macro Shocks In Data 56:07 Lifecycle Servicing Signals 57:36 Limit Management Uplift 58:55 Open Banking Pushback 01:03:53 Crystal Ball AI Lending 01:09:11 Advice And Wrap Up 01:13:24 Hawk AI: Realtime Fraud Monitoring (sponsor) 01:14:10 Disclaimer

Bitcoin Lightning payments, self-custody yield, and stablecoin interoperability are converging on one infrastructure layer, and the companies building it are already seeing massive demand. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Jesse Shrader, co-founder and CEO of Amboss Technologies, to break down how Lightning Network infrastructure is reshaping payment processing, treasury strategy, and compliance for fintech operators worldwide. Card networks charge 2% to 5% per transaction. Lightning brings that to 0.29%. Square just announced zero Bitcoin processing fees for its entire retailer network. The Genius Act is flooding the market with stablecoins, but those assets live on blockchains that do not talk to each other. Jesse explains how Taproot Assets on Lightning can unify fragmented stablecoin systems through cross-asset, in-flight currency exchange. He also walks through how Rails, a self-custodial Bitcoin yield product with over 2,600 on its waitlist, lets companies earn yield from payment routing without giving up custody. The conversation includes real founder lessons on fundraising, board strategy, and preparing for a future where AI systems pay each other. FIND OUT MORE 1️⃣ Lightning payment processing at 0.29% is a 10x reduction from card network fees; run the math on what your business saves annually. 2️⃣ Self-custody yield is now possible on Bitcoin without handing your asset to a third party; Rails automates the infrastructure so you do not need to be an expert. 3️⃣ Build your board with the smartest people you have ever met, and replace anyone who is not fully invested in your success. 4️⃣ Map your fiat compliance obligations into decentralized payment environments now, before a sanctions violation forces the conversation. 5️⃣ Start designing guardrails for AI agents with spending authority; machine-to-machine payments are expected within three to five years. LINKSGuest Jesse Shrader on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shraderjesse/ Company Amboss Technologies: https://amboss.tech/ Amboss Space (Lightning Network Explorer): https://amboss.space/ Rails: https://www.amboss.tech/rails Amboss on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ambosstech Fintech Confidential Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential Supporters DFNS provides wallets as a service that is API first, multi-chain by design, and secured with MPC so you can launch across over 50 blockchains without managing private keys. Request a demo at fintechconfidential.com/dfns Skyflow is a zero trust data privacy vault delivered as an API that lets you collect, secure, and tokenize personal information with built-in features for PCI, CCPA, GDPR, and SOC 2 compliance. Visit skyflowsecure.com Hawk AI provides AI tools for real-time payment screening, ML transaction monitoring, and dynamic customer risk rating to make compliance more effective and help fight fraud and financial crime. Visit gethawkai.com About Jesse Shrader is the CEO and co-founder of Amboss Technologies. He holds a degree in Environmental Resources Engineering from Humboldt State University and previously worked in highway asset management at the Oregon Department of Transportation. His experience handling calls for class action lawsuits against banks exposed him to predatory overdraft practices and pushed him toward building decentralized payment infrastructure. Amboss Technologies is a payment infrastructure and data analytics company built on Bitcoin's Lightning Network, founded in 2021. Its products include Magma (liquidity marketplace), Rails (self-custodial yield), Reflex (compliance automation), and Amboss Space (network explorer). Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and host of Fintech Confidential. Fintech Confidential is a production of DD3 Media, bringing you the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid. Chapters 00:01:02 DFNS: Wallets as a Service (Sponsor) 00:02:20 Welcome to Web3 with FTC 00:02:51 Meet Jesse Shrader and Amboss 00:05:32 Rails Launch and Bitcoin Yield Demand 00:06:37 From Engineering to Bitcoin Infrastructure 00:09:18 Stablecoins, Genius Act, and Interoperability 00:12:39 Self-Custody Yield with Rails 00:16:40 Why Lightning Over Layer One 00:19:08 Amboss Product Suite 00:21:45 Compliance, Sanctions, and Reflex 00:24:15 Skyflow: Data Privacy Vault (Sponsor) 00:25:17 How Rails Generates Yield 00:29:31 Lower Fees and Merchant Adoption 00:35:24 Founder Lessons and Fundraising 00:39:30 Build Your Board Strategically 00:41:50 Crystal Ball: AI Paying AI 00:45:18 Voltage Partnership Announcement 00:47:12 Hawk AI: Fighting Financial Crime (Sponsor) 00:47:57 Disclaimer

Unified commerce and European payments are under pressure as merchants juggle fragmented vendors, local debit schemes, and country-by-country compliance. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Niv Liran, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Unzer, to break down how one platform serves over 85,000 merchants across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark. Niv explains how Unzer consolidated 13 acquired companies into a single system using a one-application-per-purpose rule, why local language sales and compliance expertise outperform global common-denominator approaches, and how open banking and the European Payments Initiative are creating new payment rails. The conversation gets specific on merchant migration tactics, daily workflow savings from eliminating multi-vendor reconciliation, and where AI-powered tools fit for small businesses within the next three to five years. FIND OUT MORE 1️⃣ Gate your best features to the new platform so merchants have a reason to migrate without being forced. 2️⃣ Ask prospects to walk through their daily actions before pitching; let the pain sell the solution. 3️⃣ Set a one-app-per-purpose rule before consolidation starts to prevent political gridlock across acquired teams. 4️⃣ Test every partnership against two filters: does it help the merchant, and will consumers actually adopt it. 5️⃣ Connect directly to local accounting software in each market; it locks in retention and kills reconciliation overhead. Guest Niv Liran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nivliran Unzer: https://www.unzer.com Fintech Confidential Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential Supporters of Fintech Confidential Under.io: Streamlines application and underwriting by digitizing PDFs for e-signature. under.io/FTC Skyflow: A zero-trust data privacy vault delivered as an API covering PCI, CCPA, GDPR, SOC 2, and beyond. skyflowsecure.com DFNS: Wallets as a service, API first, multi-chain, secured with MPC across 50+ blockchains. fintechconfidential.com/dfns Hawk AI: Real-time payment screening, AML transaction monitoring, and dynamic customer risk rating. gethawk.com About the Guest Niv Liran is Chief Product and Technology Officer at Unzer. He entered fintech at Groupon in Berlin solving chargebacks on billions in monthly volume, then held leadership roles at Rocket Internet and AUTO1 Group, where he scaled the tech department from 5 to over 350 employees. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and an MBA from INSEAD. About Unzer Unzer is a payments and commerce platform serving more than 85,000 merchants across Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Luxembourg with unified online, in-store, and back-office solutions through its UnzerOne platform. About the Host Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential. Produced by DD3 Media, Fintech Confidential brings you the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid. Chapters 00:00 Episode Highlights 01:02 Welcome to Fintech Confidential 01:10 DFNS: Wallets as a Service (sponsor) 02:32 Meet Niv Inbar 05:08 Why Unified Commerce Is Hard 07:02 Falling Into Payments 09:46 Unser vs Stripe Adyen 11:30 Localizing Across Europe 12:44 One Platform Consolidation 15:12 Merchant Migration Playbook 17:43 Merchant Day to Day Example 20:21 Skyflow - Your Privacy API (sponsor) 21:18 Taming Local Debit Schemes 23:29 Selling ROI and Reducing Risk 26:29 Partnerships Open Banking EPI 29:20 EPI and Digital Wallet Future 31:06 Market Consolidation Ahead 32:27 Crystal Ball Unified Commerce 35:26 AI Agents for Small Business 37:32 One Sentence Founder Advice 39:11 Wrap Up Key Takeaways 41:03 Hawk AI - Realtime Fraud Monitoring (sponsor) 41:47 Disclaimer

Crypto tax software flaws, IRS audit risk, and data manipulation are putting millions of investors in danger. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Janna Scott, founder and CEO of DeFi Tax and an IRS Enrolled Agent, to break down why the tools crypto investors trust may fail them in an audit. Janna conducted forensic audits of 14 major crypto tax platforms and 53 firms claiming crypto tax expertise. The same 70 transactions produced a $99 gain on one platform, a $2,990 gain on another, and a $351 loss on a third. She explains how platforms allow users to edit immutable on-chain data like dates, currency types, and cost basis, making reports inadmissible in audits the same way the IRS rejects QuickBooks files. Her peer-reviewed research, published in Tax Notes, was shared with the IRS crypto division and SEC FinHub, and contributed to pausing IRS crypto audits. With enforcement expected to resume within months, this is a wake-up call for anyone holding or trading crypto. FIND OUT MORE1️⃣ Screenshot your crypto tax reports now; platforms have silently changed algorithms, producing 25-35% different results on the same historical data without notifying users. 2️⃣ Never edit immutable transaction fields like dates, spot prices, fees, or cost basis; the IRS treats altered reports the same way it treats manipulated bank statements. 3️⃣ Connect every wallet and exchange login you have ever used, including discontinued US exchanges, so transfers are not misclassified as taxable income. 4️⃣ Run your transaction data through multiple products and compare results; if the numbers diverge significantly, get professional review before filing. 5️⃣ Ask any firm claiming crypto tax expertise whether they can manually calculate your transactions and defend the work in front of the IRS before you pay them. Guest Links Janna Scott | DeFi Tax Website: https://defitax.us/ X: https://x.com/defitax_us Fintech Confidential Links Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential Supporters DFNS provides wallets as a service that is API first, multi-chain by design, and secured with MPC so you can launch across over 50 blockchains without managing private keys. Request a demo at fintechconfidential.com/dfns Skyflow is a zero trust data privacy vault delivered as an API that lets you collect, secure, and tokenize personal information with built-in features for PCI, CCPA, GDPR, and SOC 2 compliance. Visit skyflowsecure.com Hawk AI provides AI tools for real-time payment screening, ML transaction monitoring, and dynamic customer risk rating to make compliance more effective and help fight fraud and financial crime. Visit gethawkai.com About the Guest Janna Scott is the founder and CEO of DeFi Tax, an IRS Enrolled Agent, and an MBA with over 20 years of experience in tax compliance, financial analysis, and government finance. Her forensic research across 14 platforms and 53 firms was peer reviewed, published in Tax Notes, and shared with the IRS and SEC. About the Company DeFi Tax is a crypto tax compliance platform that calculates obligations using direct blockchain data, locks immutable transaction fields, traces NFT basis through the chain of custody, and supports users through audit and tax court. About the Host Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential. Produced by DD3 Media, Fintech Confidential brings you the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid. Chapters 00:00 Episode Highlights 01:07 Welcome to Fintech Confidential 01:15 Dfns: Wallets as a Service (sponsor) 02:37 Show Intro and Guest 06:13 Jana Origin Story 09:15 Inside Government View 11:38 John Doe Summonses 15:43 Forensic Platform Audits 22:05 Transfers and 1099 Traps 24:41 Variance and Real Costs 29:04 Taking Findings to Regulators 32:16 Terms Changes and Report Drift 34:07 Building It Yourself 34:59 Why Reports Fail Audits 35:39 Sky Flow: Building Fast and Secure (sponsor) 36:41 Cryto Tax and Quickbooks 38:46 Editing Breaks Credibility 40:27 Defi Tax Guardrails 42:24 Validator Income Burn Fees 43:25 NFT Basis Tracing 45:08 Pricing Sources Averaging 46:29 Self Transfer Verification 48:53 Audit Packets Evidence 49:41 Silent Algorithm Changes 54:00 Enforcement Crystal Ball 56:05 Middle Class Snowball 59:08 Practical Wallet Tracking 01:02:05 Recap And Next Steps 01:05:09 Show Wrap 01:06:18 Hawk AI (sponsor) 01:07:04 Disclaimer

Banking as a service and embedded finance get a practical breakdown as Academy Bank's David Robinson explains how a family-owned Kansas City institution built a BaaS program from the ground up. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, and co-host Stephen Bishop sit down with David to unpack what it takes to launch, staff, and scale an embedded banking practice at a community bank. Find out more at fintechconfidential.com Academy Bank, a subsidiary of Dickinson Financial Corporation, operates alongside Armed Forces Bank with roughly $4.8 billion in combined assets and a stated goal of reaching $6 billion. David walks through why the bank chose Treasury Prime as its middleware provider, how it integrated Lithic for card processing, and why keeping compliance and BSA functions in-house was a non-negotiable. The conversation gets specific about due diligence red flags, deals that fell apart mid-process, fee income versus deposit economics, and what changed internally when embedded banking finally showed up in every team's annual goals. 1️⃣ Prepare for bank meetings like an earnings call; anticipate every compliance question before the first conversation. 2️⃣ Build your AML, BSA, and fraud monitoring team before approaching a sponsor bank, not after. 3️⃣ Bring your operations and compliance leads to early bank meetings, not just the founder. 4️⃣ Treat banker feedback as a data point; show how you tested it and what you changed. 5️⃣ Ask your bank partner if embedded work appears in the annual goals of their compliance, risk, and legal teams. GUEST David Robinson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmrembeddedbanking/ COMPANY Academy Bank: https://www.academybank.com Academy Bank BaaS: https://www.academybank.com/business/banking-as-a-service FINTECH CONFIDENTIAL Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential SUPPORTERS Skyflow: Build fast without breaking privacy. A zero-trust data privacy vault delivered as an API. Visit https://skyflowsecure.com Under: Streamline your application and underwriting process by turning PDFs into smart, signable forms. Get started free at https://under.io/ftc Hawk AI: Real-time payment screening, AML transaction monitoring, and dynamic customer risk rating to fight fraud and financial crime. Sign up for a demo at https://gethawkai.com ABOUT Guest: David Robinson is Director of Fintech and Embedded Banking at Academy Bank. He brings over 20 years of financial services experience across State Street, UMB Bank, and now Academy Bank, where he built the embedded banking practice from the ground up starting in December 2022. Company: Academy Bank is a full-service community bank under Dickinson Financial Corporation, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Named one of Fortune's Most Innovative Companies in 2023, it operates over 70 branches across Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. Host: Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential. The show is produced by DD3 Media and brings you the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid. CHAPTERS 00:00 Episode Highlights 01:24 Skyflow Sponsor Read 02:26 Meet the Hosts 03:39 Introducing David Robinson 04:37 Defining BaaS and Embedded Finance 05:29 Academy Bank Growth Strategy 06:56 Rapid Fire: This or That 08:11 Choosing Treasury Prime 09:22 Future Programs and Segments 09:53 What Stays In-House 12:42 Managed vs. Bank-Owned Compliance 14:35 Marketplace Shift and Multi-Platform 16:53 Partnerships Are a People Business 18:26 Under Sponsor Read 18:56 How Banks Vet Fintech Fit 19:25 Diligence and Fit 20:21 Regulators and Scale 21:30 When Deals Fall Apart 23:23 Greenlights and Redlines 24:23 Advice for Fintechs 26:12 Why Academy Bank 27:49 Top Tips and Misconceptions 29:38 Fees vs. Deposits 30:46 Internal Shift and Speed 35:47 Crystal Ball and Closing 36:54 Final Advice for Founders 38:51 Wrap Up 39:23 Hawk AI Sponsor Read 40:09 Disclaimer

Open banking fees, stablecoin regulation, and AI-first payment systems are reshaping how money moves in the US. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with David Glaser, CEO of Dwolla, to unpack what's changing, what's breaking, and what smart operators are doing about it right now. Find out more JP Morgan's decision to charge for open banking access is forcing the entire industry to rethink how apps connect to bank account data. Real-time payment rails like RTP and FedNow are live but adoption is slow because not every use case needs instant settlement. Dwolla scaled without hiring a single net-new employee in two years by mapping every process into what can be automated and what still needs a human. This episode covers the frameworks, the data signals, and the strategy shifts that matter most if you're building or running anything in payments today. TAKEAWAYS 1️⃣ Build with AI from day one and treat new hires as a last resort, not a first instinct. 2️⃣ Rework your product fast because major AI releases absorb startup features every six months. 3️⃣ Attack your biggest operational bottleneck first, even if you can only automate half of it. 4️⃣ Track every internal handoff to find where delays, errors, and hidden costs are piling up. 5️⃣ Set team values that reward discomfort so your people adopt new tools without waiting for a mandate. GUEST David Glaser: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daglaser COMPANY Dwolla: https://www.dwolla.com Dwolla LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dwolla Dwolla YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/dwollaplatform FINTECH CONFIDENTIAL Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential SUPPORTERS Under.io: Digitize your PDFs and streamline application and underwriting processes. Get started free at under.io/FTC Skyflow: A zero trust data privacy vault delivered as an API covering PCI, CCPA, GDPR, and SOC 2. Visit skyflowsecure.com DFNS: Wallets as a service, API first, multi-chain, secured with MPC across 50+ blockchains. Request a demo at fintechconfidential.com/dfns Hawk AI: Real-time payment screening and AML transaction monitoring to cut false positives. Sign up for a demo at gethawk.com ABOUT Guest David Glaser is CEO of Dwolla with over 25 years of payments experience spanning global leadership roles at Mastercard, Worldpay, CyberSource, and Visa. He grew up in a small coal mining town south of Pittsburgh, originally planned to become a high school math teacher, and has since led teams through some of the industry's biggest deals including Worldpay's $10.4 billion merger with Vantiv. Outside of payments, he's completed multiple Ironman triathlons and 70.3 races. Company Dwolla is a leader in account-to-account payments in the US, offering a full-service platform that replaces legacy technology with a unified solution supporting ACH, Same Day ACH, RTP, and FedNow. Over 500 businesses partner with Dwolla to improve payment security, data visibility, and cash flow. Host Tedd Huff is CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential. With 25+ years in the industry, he brings entertaining and informative content focused on fintech insights, market trends, and stories from leaders, thinkers, and doers. DD3 Media Fintech Confidential is a production of DD3 Media. All rights reserved. CHAPTERS 00:00 Highlights 02:06 Under.io: Streamlining Application Processes 02:35 Introduction to FinTech Leaders One-on-One 02:48 Meet David Glaser, CEO of Dwolla 05:29 Payment Industry Then vs. Now 08:03 Open Banking and AI in Payments 08:55 JP Morgan's Open Banking Fee Announcement 14:06 Payment Methods and Account Access 14:36 Scaling Operations at Dwolla 15:03 Modernizing Homegrown Systems 16:26 AI and Automation in Payments 17:20 Skyflow: Your Privacy API 18:31 Balancing Founder Mindset with Scale 19:22 Automating Back Office Processes 21:52 Identifying What to Systemize Next 29:52 Economic Signals in Transaction Data 31:01 Interest Rate Impact on Fintech 32:43 Predicting Trends with Payment Data 35:04 Centralizing Data for AI Readiness 37:21 Account-to-Account and Real-Time Rails 38:21 Real-Time Payment Use Cases 41:00 DFNS: Wallets as a Service 42:39 Choosing the Right Payment Method 44:09 Orchestrating Across Multiple Rails 46:58 Vertical SaaS and Embedded Payments 48:37 The Future of Stablecoins 50:23 AI and Stablecoins Together 54:21 Advice for Fintech Founders 58:07 Hawk AI: Real-Time Fraud Monitoring 58:52 Disclaimer

AI in customer experience, fraud prevention, and back-office operations is moving fast in banking and financial services, and the firms that fall behind risk losing both customers and competitive ground. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Mamta Rodrigues, Chief Client Officer of Banking, Financial Services and Insurance at TP, one of the largest employers in the world with over 500,000 people globally. Mamta brings decades of hands-on experience across American Express, MasterCard, Visa, and Synchrony, and she holds a patent, a signal that she has spent real time building products, not just advising on them. The conversation covers practical AI use cases in fraud, collections, and compliance, along with what separates clients who get results from those who stall out after a pilot. The pressure on banks and fintechs right now comes from two directions at once. Consumer expectations keep rising because people interact with payment products every single day. At the same time, fraud is accelerating. Every time the industry catches up, fraudsters adapt faster and the cycle resets. That means fraud teams, product teams, and customer experience teams are all fighting for resources and attention at the same time. For treasury managers, CFOs, and compliance leaders, this creates a real tension: how do you invest in AI-powered fraud prevention and still deliver a smooth experience that keeps customers loyal? The numbers from inside TP's client work tell a clear story. Fifty percent of TP's solutions are now AI-led, with the heaviest concentration in back-office operations like fraud, financial crime, and claims management. Mamta describes a recent deployment of TP's AI blueprint, tp.ai fab, layered into an existing client's operations to prevent and predict fraud. The results showed significant improvement in key metrics. On the collections side, predictive analysis now arms agents before a call even starts with propensity to pay, likely timing, expected recovery percentage, and recommended remediation paths. That kind of preparation changes the entire tone of a collections interaction from adversarial to solution-oriented, and the outcome is measurable: increased repayment, stronger loyalty, product expansion, and reduced breakage. One of the clearest signals Mamta uses to gauge whether a client will actually get results versus abandon the effort after a test: the composition of who shows up. When the cross-functional team walks through the door, operations, product, IT, and data leaders together, that's when real progress happens. She describes a design thinking approach where the client provides a problem statement in advance, both sides bring the right people, and in a single day they can shape a solution direction. The typical pattern is that they start with one problem statement and end the session with additional problem statements and new opportunities they had not considered. Clients who send a single department to "explore AI" without bringing the other stakeholders rarely make it past the pilot stage. Looking three to five years out, Mamta expects advanced AI and predictive analytics to fundamentally reshape how customer experience operates, powered by stronger data foundations and more mature tech stacks. She predicts continued growth in AI-led back-office solutions, deeper fraud protection capabilities, and a rising focus on elevating talent rather than replacing it. The human factor, she says, will always remain because both the customers and the agents serving them are still people. Her single piece of advice to fintech executives and founders: "Be comfortable with the uncomfortable." The firms that try, pivot, learn, and avoid the belief that they already know everything will be the ones that pull ahead. Key HighlightsFraud Signals Your Phone Reveals Every mobile transaction generates thousands of hidden data points including gyroscope movement, touch pressure patterns, key press timing, and screen angle behavior that machine learning models use to verify identity. IP address matching combined with geolocation checks can confirm whether the person making a payment is physically located where their device says they are, adding layers of fraud protection most consumers never realize exist. Automation Is Not Replacing Agents TP proposes automation first in every client engagement, yet the goal is augmenting agent performance through AI-powered training, quality assurance, and workforce management tools. Mundane tasks like balance inquiries have already moved to apps, while new roles in data analysis, predictive modeling, financial crime investigation, and fraud prevention are growing faster than the positions being phased out. Consumer Behavior Now Drives Fintech Banking and payments typically lead BFSI adoption cycles because consumers transact with payment products daily, while insurance interactions are infrequent and purpose-driven. That frequency gap means consumer expectations hit banking and fintech firms first, forcing faster response times and creating pressure that insurance companies eventually absorb as a fast follower. Living On Cash Taught Product Thinking One of the sharpest product leadership lessons came from spending an entire month using only cash, no cards, no checks, no electronic payments, to understand what consumers actually experience when they lack access to modern payment tools. That hands-on immersion shaped a framework for understanding customer pain points from the inside out, a method still applied today when onboarding new clients by finding internal employees who already use the client's products. The Real Meaning Of Data The phrase "so what of the data" reframes the entire conversation around why raw data collection means nothing without a clear connection to personalization, spend analysis, and predictive outcomes. Combining multiple data sources with analytics can reveal buying power, transaction patterns, location behavior, and propensity to pay, turning passive information into active intelligence that drives customer engagement and retention. Storytelling Aligns Stakeholders Faster Complex enterprise sales involving operations, product, and executive teams require more than technical specs to move forward, and framing solutions around a clear North Star with a human impact story accelerates buy-in. Using a collections call as an example, the narrative centers on saving a customer relationship rather than recovering a balance, which reframes cost of acquisition against breakage and makes the ROI case emotionally and financially persuasive. Banks Now Seek Outside Perspective A year ago, most banking clients told TP they would solve AI and CX challenges internally within their own teams and systems. In the last twelve months, that posture has shifted sharply toward requesting peer group insights, consortium-style knowledge sharing across 350+ global BFSI clients, and collaborative problem solving that treats the current wave of change as an industry-wide learning curve. Culture Shapes Customer Experience Strategy Three years of living and working in India reinforced that cultural context directly affects how customers respond to service interactions, communication styles, and engagement approaches across different regions. Global CX strategies that ignore cultural layers risk delivering a technically sound but emotionally flat experience, which is why regional adaptation matters as much as the tech stack powering the interaction. Hidden Fraud Detection Through Biometrics Beyond standard two-factor and three-factor authentication, financial services firms are now layering behavioral biometrics that track how a person physically handles their device during a transaction. Screen touch patterns, movement signatures, and Face ID verification create a composite identity profile that runs silently behind every interaction, catching anomalies that traditional password-based security would miss entirely. Meeting People Where They Are Cross-functional leadership across global teams starts with something as simple as asking a new direct report which communication channel they prefer, whether that is Viber, WhatsApp, text, or another platform. That small signal of respect sets the tone for a people-first management approach where multiple perspectives are actively solicited, because the operating principle is that one brain is never as effective as seven or eight working together. Five Key Takeaways1️⃣ Bring Cross-Functional Teams To Every Pilot Sending one department to evaluate AI or data analytics tools is how pilots die quietly after 90 days. Get your operations lead, product owner, IT or data leader, and digital officer in the same room with one shared problem statement before you commit budget. That combination forces the real blockers to surface early, things like legacy system constraints, rule adjustments, and use case selection, so you can design around them instead of discovering them after you have already spent the money. 2️⃣ Use Your Own Products Before Selling The fastest way to understand a customer's pain is to become one. Before pitching a solution or onboarding a new client, find people inside your own organization who already use that client's product and pull them into the conversation. You will learn more about friction points, feature gaps, and real user behavior in one week of hands-on product use than in six months of reading market research decks. 3️⃣ Arm...

Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Nik Milanović, Founder and FinTech Enthusiast in Chief of This Week in FinTech, a global community of more than 200,000 members, and the founder of StableCon, the first conference built exclusively around stablecoins and payments. Nik also serves as a General Partner at The FinTech Fund, where he invests in the next generation of FinTech startups. Stablecoins have spent years being called either the future of money or a passing trend. What's changed isn't just the hype cycle: it's the regulatory foundation underneath it. The passage of the GENIUS Act, the repeal of SEC guidance SAB 121 on crypto custody, and a visible shift in how banks and financial institutions are engaging with stablecoins have moved this conversation from theoretical to operational. Banks that were quietly watching are now building. Companies that had no public stablecoin strategy 12 months ago are now processing stablecoin transactions in more than 150 countries. But here's what's worth paying attention to: the version of stablecoins that actually reaches everyday people won't look like what the original crypto community envisioned. No seed phrases. No self-custody. No libertarian utopia. What mass adoption looks like is a Stripe-powered merchant settlement that runs on blockchain rails while the customer sees something that looks exactly like a credit card transaction. As Nik puts it, "the revolution has to become a lot more boring first." That's not a failure of the original idea. That's how every major technology shift has played out, from radio to the internet. The infrastructure gets built, the guardrails go in, the corporates arrive, and what was once radical becomes routine. The same pattern is showing up in how banks and FinTech companies are working together. The old model of banks acquiring technology companies and absorbing them in-house has largely failed. What's replacing it is a partnership model: tech-forward institutions like FinWise, Column Bank, and Cross River Bank figuring out how to extend their capabilities without overreaching their charters. The tension between "you're either a bank or a tech company" has given way to something more practical. That shift in thinking is exactly what Nik built StableCon around. After six years of running This Week in FinTech and hearing repeated calls to launch a conference, the case for yet another general FinTech or crypto event wasn't there. There are more than 250 conferences globally with FinTech in the title. What didn't exist was a conference sitting at the specific intersection of banking, FinTech, and crypto, focused entirely on stablecoins: not asset price speculation, not blockchain theory, but the actual infrastructure of how money moves. The conference was announced January 17, 2025. It ran May 29 in New York City. That's five months to plan, hire, sell tickets, and pull off an inaugural event in one of the most expensive cities in the world. At the start of May, only 400 tickets had been sold. In the final two weeks, 500 more sold as word spread and people realized they needed to be in the room. Final attendance: more than 1,000. What the event revealed was as important as the numbers. Attendees were so focused on meeting each other that many skipped the general sessions entirely. That's not a failure: that's what happens when you gather a thousand people who are actually working in the same ecosystem and give them a room for the first time. The feedback confirmed it: StableCon filled a gap that BTC Vegas, Token2049, Permissionless, Money 2020, Consensus, Finovate, and FinTech Nexus weren't filling. The next StableCon US is expanding to three days, moving to Washington, DC at the Gaylord at National Harbor, and shifting to September to avoid scheduling conflicts. The goal is to bring in policy participants, regulators, law firms, and accounting firms alongside the operators, reflecting where the stablecoin conversation is actually heading. The current phase of stablecoin adoption has a name: skeuomorphic. Just like early apps made digital wallets look like leather wallets to make them feel familiar, today's stablecoin products largely rebuild what already exists on traditional rails. ACH replaced by stablecoin settlement. Wires replaced by on-chain transfers. The form looks the same; the infrastructure underneath is different. What comes after that phase is where things get genuinely interesting. Programmable payments with instructions built directly into the transaction. Conditional transfers that can't be replicated on analog rails. On-chain escrow, disputes, and chargebacks managed without customer service departments. Collateral composed from tokenized holdings across multiple asset classes, combined into a single deposit without requiring conversion into dollars first. That future isn't fully visible yet. As Nik says, "the coolest products that are built with stablecoins are products that we can't envision yet." What is visible is the direction: stablecoin rails becoming infrastructure people use without knowing it's there. For FinTech founders navigating all of this, Nik closes with one clear piece of advice: don't lose sight of the big picture. It's easy in FinTech to start solving a surface-level problem, discover a deeper infrastructure issue beneath it, and keep drilling down until the original purpose disappears. The work of building better financial products requires holding both: the immediate technical problem and the reason you started solving it in the first place. And, critically, doing it in a way that stays compliant. Key HighlightsBanks Are Finally Moving Banks and financial institutions are actually making inroads into working with digital assets and stablecoins. After the event, we've got the passage of the GENIUS Act. I can only see a path moving forward with that, but the revolution has to become a lot more boring first. The revolution's getting co-opted, and in a way, this is a great thing. 500 Tickets in Two Weeks At the start of May, we had only sold 400 tickets, and then in the last two weeks alone, I think we sold 500 tickets. The Moment FinTech Became Real The attempted Visa acquisition of Plaid in early 2020 forced the entire industry to stop and ask a question nobody had seriously considered before: can a tech company actually become a scaled financial institution? When the deal fell apart, the answer became impossible to ignore. That single moment shifted how investors, founders, and banks looked at what was actually being built. The Deal That Changed Everything Before 2020, the prevailing belief was that building a scaled financial services company required a bank charter, a fund structure, or a major institutional sponsor. The attempted Visa acquisition of Plaid shattered that assumption. When the deal collapsed and everyone started asking why it mattered, the answer was impossible to ignore: a tech company had quietly built something so valuable that one of the world's largest payment networks was willing to pay billions to own it. That single moment rewired how investors, founders, and banks thought about what was actually possible in fintech. Stablecoins Must Get Boring Stable coins, crypto, digital assets, they take off if you actually make them accessible to large institutional owners and corporates and retail investors and mom and pops. But that means that you need to add guardrails, and it's not gonna be like this libertarian Bitcoin vision where you self custody your wallet. It's gonna be a very, very boring mass market vision. 250 Conferences, One Gap With over 250 FinTech-related conferences already competing for attention globally, launching another general event made no sense. The stablecoin space sat at a unique intersection of banking, FinTech, and crypto with no flagship conference to call its own. That gap was the only reason worth building something new. When Disaster Became the Highlight Two high-profile speakers dropped out within 36 hours of the conference. What could have derailed the entire event turned into one of the most talked-about sessions of the day. The unplanned replacement session delivered an hour of raw, unscripted conversation that attendees called the standout moment of StableCon. A Decade of Groundwork Is Paying Off JPMorgan has been running on-chain transaction experiments for close to ten years through its Onyx platform. The technology was never the problem; regulatory clarity was the missing piece. Now that the blessing has arrived, an institution at that scale turning on stablecoin settlement becomes one of the most significant signals in the market. Stripe Flipped in 12 Months In 2024, Stripe had no meaningful public stablecoin initiatives. By the end of 2025, after acquiring Bridge, Stripe had enabled stablecoin transactions for merchants across roughly 150 countries. That shift from zero presence to global stablecoin infrastructure in under 12 months shows exactly how fast this space can move when a major player commits. The Advice Every Founder Needs FinTech founders consistently start by solving one problem, only to discover deeper infrastructure issues underneath it that pull focus further and further from the original goal. The founders who build lasting companies are the ones who stay anchored to the outcome they set out to deliver, even as the technical complexity grows. Keeping the big picture in front of you at every stage of the build is what separates products that matter from ones that get lost...

Banking as a service, community banks, and fintech partnerships are changing how small businesses access financial products. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, along with Stephen Bishop of amBaaSsador and Fintech Confidential, Confidential Informant, sits down with Lindsay Borgeson, President of Partner Banking at Core Bank, to unpack how a community bank in Omaha, Nebraska built a full BaaS platform from scratch without a top-five bank playbook to follow. The BaaS space has had its share of high-profile failures. Consent orders, compliance breakdowns, and program manager implosions have made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Core Bank took a different approach. They spent time reading every consent order before writing a single line of code. They went to their regulators, both the FDIC and the state, before building anything. They presented their strategic plan, invited regulators back multiple times outside of formal exams, and built a reputation for transparency before they ever onboarded a single fintech client. "We are not the biggest name in BaaS," Lindsay admits. "Yet, we certainly aim to be a well-known, respected name, but for the right reasons." That mindset shaped everything about how CoreX, their BaaS brand, was built. They did not try to bolt new capabilities onto an existing tech stack with bubblegum and duct tape. When their initial technology partner did not work out, they stopped, went back to the board, and interviewed over ten vendors before selecting Core Bank as their Side core and Oscilar for transaction monitoring. They later added Cobalt Labs for AI-driven compliance workflows. Each decision was made with long-term strategic alignment in mind, not speed to market. The compliance model at CoreX offers two paths. Fintechs can choose managed compliance, where the bank handles transaction monitoring, KYB, and KYC. Or they can run customized compliance if they have the internal muscle to own those functions themselves. Either way, the expectation is the same: compliance is not a phase, it is a constant. Lindsay puts it simply: "Compliance first. I should probably consider removing it because it's compliance always." What makes CoreX different from other sponsor banks is the focus on who they want to serve. Their ideal customer profile centers on fintechs that support small businesses, particularly vertical SaaS platforms in industries Core Bank already understands. Construction, real estate, property management, unions, aviation, medical, and hospitality are all sectors where the bank already has deep expertise on the traditional side of the house. That knowledge transfers directly into how they evaluate fintech partnerships. The "dinner test" came up more than once. If you would not want to sit down for a meal with a potential partner, you should not get into a contract with them. When things go wrong, and they will, the quality of the relationship determines whether both sides can work through it or walk away bitter. For fintechs considering a community bank partnership, the advice is direct. Know what matters to you before you start talking to banks. Do not compromise on compliance or risk management just because someone promises speed or a lower price. And if a bank says they can have you live in three months and profitable in twelve, something is off. Building this correctly takes time. For community banks thinking about entering BaaS, the message is just as clear. Do not dabble. This is not a side-of-desk project. It requires dedicated people, a separate tech stack, a documented risk appetite, and full alignment from the board down. If your executive team is not excited about it, you will not have the patience to do it right. "It's not for the faint of heart," Lindsay says. "But it is really a great avenue for community banks to thrive." Core Bank is now expanding into embedded lending, aiming to become a full-service partner for fintechs focused on serving the SMB market. They are hiring, growing their team, and preparing for what comes next in a regulatory environment that continues to shift. The episode covers how to build a BaaS program that lasts, how to evaluate tech stack partners, how to structure compliance models, and what separates the banks that survive from the ones that make headlines for the wrong reasons. If you are a fintech founder looking for a sponsor bank, or a community bank executive weighing whether to enter this space, this conversation offers a grounded, practical look at what it actually takes. Key HighlightsSilicon Prairie Is Real Omaha, Nebraska has earned the nickname Silicon Prairie for a reason. Community banks in the Midwest are building serious fintech infrastructure without the spotlight of coastal tech hubs. The talent is there, the regulatory relationships are strong, and the results speak for themselves. Bank Within A Bank Building a BaaS platform means constructing an entirely separate operation inside your existing institution. Different people, different tech stack, different risk frameworks, different regulatory considerations. Most banks underestimate this scope until they are already in it. BaaS In A Box Fails Anyone promising to have you up and running in three months is selling a shortcut that will cost you later. If you are profitable in twelve months, something was built wrong. Speed to market is not the same as sustainability. Read Every Consent Order Before writing any code or signing any contracts, study what went wrong at other banks. Build a gap analysis. Make sure there is not a single stone you have not turned over. The failures in this space are public record for a reason. Regulators Want Transparency First Going to the FDIC and state regulators before building anything changed the entire trajectory. Presenting the strategic plan, inviting them back outside of exams, and maintaining open communication built trust that pays off when questions arise later. Profitable Fast Means Problems If someone tells you profitability comes quickly in BaaS, walk away. This is a long game that requires patience, investment, and a board that understands the timeline. Rushing leads to the same mistakes that made headlines. Your Legacy Vendor Is Lying When existing technology partners say they can handle BaaS requirements, verify it. Many banks learned the hard way that bubblegum and duct tape on old systems does not scale. Interview ten vendors if you have to. Skills Do Not Transfer Automatically The people who excel in traditional community banking may not thrive on the partner bank side. The mindset is different, the pace is different, and the technical demands are different. Evaluate talent honestly before assuming they can make the shift. Know Your Why Before Starting Core Bank got into BaaS to grow deposits. That clarity shaped every decision about which fintechs to partner with, which verticals to serve, and which opportunities to decline. Without a clear why, every shiny opportunity looks like the right one. Fed Skinny Charters Loom Large The rush to new charters and Fed master accounts is noise that could reshape the entire BaaS model. No one fully understands the impact yet, but smart banks are watching closely and preparing to pivot if the landscape shifts. Five Key Takeaways1️⃣ First Call Energy Tells All If you leave a 30-minute intro call feeling drained, that is your answer. Walk away. The right partnerships should energize both sides from the first conversation. 2️⃣ Stop Overcomplicating BaaS It is still banking. The same principles apply: risk management, customer experience, and caring about the businesses you serve. Remove the mysticism and treat it like what it is. 3️⃣ Competitors Will Help You Banks in this space are surprisingly collaborative. They share what works and what does not because everyone benefits when the industry does it correctly. Reach out and learn from them. 4️⃣ Assess Cultural Readiness First Before committing resources, evaluate whether your organization has the mindset to operate a partner bank. Naysayers and internal resistance will slow you down if leadership is not fully aligned. 5️⃣ Community Banks Offer Leadership Access Fintechs get direct access to executive decision-makers at community banks. That level of high-touch partnership is harder to find at larger institutions. Do not assume smaller means less capable. TLDRBanking as a service does not require billions in assets or a top-five bank playbook. Tedd Huff and Stephen Bishop sit down with Lindsay Borgeson, President of Partner Banking at Core Bank, to break down how a community bank in Nebraska built a full BaaS platform from scratch. The focus is on what actually works: reading every consent order before writing code, going to regulators before building anything, and choosing tech partners based on long-term alignment instead of sales pitches. The compliance model offers two paths, managed or customized, but the expectation stays the same either way. Fintechs serving small businesses through vertical SaaS get priority. The dinner test matters more than most banks admit. Speed and price should never outweigh quality. And if someone promises profitability in twelve months, something is wrong. This is the practical breakdown for fintech founders and community bank executives who want to enter sponsor banking the right

Stablecoins hit $50 trillion in transaction volume, surpassing Visa and MasterCard combined. Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Keith VanderLeast, General Manager of Americas at BVNK, at FinTech Nerd Con in Miami to unpack what's really happening as blockchain-based payments reshape cross-border infrastructure. The numbers tell a story that's hard to ignore. By the end of October 2025, stablecoin transaction volumes hit somewhere between $46 trillion and $50 trillion. BVNK alone processes about $20 billion in total volume, with the Americas business making up roughly a third of that amount. This isn't about speculative crypto trading anymore. The conversation has shifted to real payment infrastructure that moves money across borders 24/7 without the friction that's plagued traditional rails for decades. Stablecoins offer instant settlement around the clock, transparency that traditional banking can't match, and costs that make high-ticket cross-border transactions actually viable. Banks and payment companies are moving from pilot programs to actual implementation. Payouts have gained more traction early on because companies prefer to test the waters by pushing payments out rather than accepting them in. The gig economy has become a major beneficiary. Companies can now pay workers anywhere in the world without routing through legacy banking systems that charge hefty fees and take days to settle. The compliance conversation gets interesting when you compare on-chain monitoring to traditional banking. With blockchain-based payments, every transaction leaves a permanent record. You can see where funds originated, every wallet they touched along the way, and where they end up. Visa and MasterCard have been testing stablecoin settlements for their issuers and acquirers, primarily in European markets where regulatory clarity arrived sooner. For companies doing high volumes of original credit transactions on weekends, the ability to pre-fund with stablecoins eliminates the need for expensive lines of credit. One surprise in the market comes from the reverse flow. Manufacturers in Latin America want to pay their US suppliers using stablecoins. BVNK converts those stablecoin payments to dollars and pays out through traditional rails. KEY TAKEAWAYS:1️⃣ Train compliance teams on blockchain monitoring tools before piloting stablecoin payments because BSA-AML frameworks work differently on-chain. 2️⃣ Calculate what you spend on lines of credit just to pre-fund weekend settlement accounts and compare that against stablecoin settlement costs. 3️⃣ Set up ongoing monitoring using tools that track transactions after they exit your custody to catch compliance issues before they become problems. 4️⃣ Build infrastructure to accept payments from unexpected directions like Latin America to US and convert to traditional rails on the receiving end. 5️⃣ Use smart contracts to handle escrow requirements in lending situations instead of relying on intermediaries. LINKSGuest Keith VanderLeast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithvanderleest/ BVNK Profile: https://bvnk.com/about-us Company BVNK Website: https://bvnk.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bvnk/ Host Fintech Confidential Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential SUPPORTERSDfns - Wallets as a service offering API-first, multi-chain infrastructure with security, compliance, and blockchain integration for fintech platforms - https://fintechconfidential.com/dfns Sky Flow - Zero trust data privacy vault for collecting, securing, and tokenizing personal information with PCI, CCPA, GDPR, and SOC 2 compliance - https://skyflowsecure.com Hawk AI - Real-time payment screening, AML transaction monitoring, and dynamic customer risk rating tools for fighting fraud and financial crime - https://gethawkai.com ABOUTKeith VanderLeast is General Manager of Americas at BVNK, leading strategy and customer success across the U.S. market for stablecoin-powered payment solutions. With over 20 years in payment infrastructure across Western Union, First Data, American Express, and Cross River Bank, Keith specializes in instant payments, compliance, and helping traditional institutions bridge fiat and blockchain-based payment systems. BVNK is a London-based stablecoin infrastructure platform founded in 2021 that provides enterprise-grade payment services bridging traditional banking and blockchain networks. With over 25 regulatory licenses and processing over $30 billion in annualized payment volume, BVNK offers managed and self-managed payment solutions supporting SWIFT, ACH, SEPA, and major blockchains for fintechs, payment providers, and financial institutions. Tedd Huff is CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and host of Fintech Confidential. Fintech Confidential delivers insights, trends, and stories from fintech leaders. Diamond D3 Media is a multimedia agency founded by Tedd Huff specializing in content creation and production for the fintech industry, producing podcasts, live streams, and video content that simplify complex financial technology topics. CHAPTERS00:00 Episode Highlights 01:08 Dfns: Wallets as a Service (sponsor) 02:29 Interview with Keith: FinTech Journey 04:41 Cross-Border Payments and Stable Coins 09:23 Stable Coins in the Gig Economy 10:40 Managed vs. Self-Managed Solutions 13:41 Sky Flow: Building Fast and Secure (sponsor) 21:21 Future of Stable Coins and Tokenized Deposits 23:43 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 24:19 Hawk AI (sponsor)

Small business cash flow solutions: Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and host of Fintech Confidential, interviews Receives' Founder & CEO Ariel Blum and Lithics' Co-Founder & CEO Bo Jiang on earned revenue access for 34M American businesses. How fintech infrastructure provides instant access to sales revenue without loans, solving payment delays and working capital challenges. Legacy banking systems force business owners to wait days or weeks for funds from completed sales, creating cash flow crises that lead 82% of small businesses to struggle with basic operations. Modern fintech companies are solving this through real-time access to earned revenue, flexible payment infrastructure, and strategic partnerships that eliminate artificial delays built into outdated financial systems. This episode of Fintech Confidential, recorded live from the Money Pot at Money 2020 in Las Vegas, breaks down how small businesses can access working capital faster, why traditional lending models fail Main Street America, and what partnerships between fintech innovators actually look like when building compliant, scalable solutions. TAKEAWAYS1️⃣ Pick partners, not vendors. Look for teams that treat your success as their own. 2️⃣ Build in parallel, not sequence. Run development and compliance at the same time to cut launch timelines. 3️⃣ Get the full customer picture. Visibility into earnings, accounts, and spending drives smarter decisions. 4️⃣ Test options before you scale. Come to partners with presets already tested to speed approvals. 5️⃣ Prepare for what you cannot see. Stay flexible enough to respond when something unexpected hits. LINKS Ariel Blum | Founder and CEO of Receive LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielblum/ Bo Jiang | Co-founder and CEO of Lithic LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boling Receive Website: https://www.nowreceive.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nowreceive Lithic Website: https://www.lithic.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lithic Fintech Confidential Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential SUPPORTERS Under.io – Digitize your PDFs for applications and underwriting. Get started free: https://under.io/ftc Defense (Dfns) - Provides wallets as a service that's API first, multi-chain by design, and secured with MPC fintechconfidential.com/dfs Hawk AI – Real-time payment screening, ML transaction monitoring, and dynamic risk rating for fraud prevention: https://gethawkai.com ABOUT Ariel Blum is the Founder and CEO of Receive. He previously held leadership roles at American Express, Green Dot, and Melio. He built Receive as the first earned revenue access platform for small businesses, helping them unlock cash they have already earned without borrowing. Bo Jiang is the Co-founder and CEO of Lithic. He and his co-founders started building together at age 14 and later founded Privacy.com before launching Lithic. He studied at MIT and leads the company from New York. Receive is a fintech platform that gives small businesses instant access to their earned revenue with no interest, no credit checks, and no traditional underwriting. Lithic is a card issuing infrastructure platform that empowers fintechs to build compliant, scalable payment products through developer-friendly APIs and direct network connections. Tedd Huff is the CEO of Voalyre and host of Fintech Confidential, bringing you the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid. CHAPTERS 00:00 Highlights 01:07 Welcome to Fintech Confidential 01:16 Under.io: Streamline Applications & Underwriting (sponsor) 02:06 Challenges Facing Small Businesses 02:39 Meet Ariel Blum and Bo Jiang 03:26 Breaking Down Barriers for SMBs 04:19 Why the Financial System Is Broken 05:39 Modern Infrastructure for Modern Businesses 07:03 Adapting Fintech to Business Needs 09:46 The Receive and Lithic Partnership 11:40 Modern Businesses Need Modern Infrastructure 14:19 The Democratization of Liquidity 15:26 Compliance and Moving Fast 16:37 DFNS: Wallets as a Service (sponsor) 18:02 Balancing Speed with Regulation 21:08 Lightning Round: Quick Takes 24:27 Stablecoins and Real-Time Money Movement 30:00 Advice for Fintech Founders 30:36 Conclusion: Key Takeaways 31:10 Closing Remarks and Call to Action 32:02 Hawk AI: Fighting Fraud and Financial Crime (sponsor) 32:47 Disclaimer

Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and host of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Fintech Confidential CI, Robert Musiala, Partner at Baker Hostetler and co-leader of their Web3 and Digital Assets team, to break down what made 2025 the most consequential year in crypto regulation. The SEC reversed course, the Genius Act passed at lightning speed, and stablecoins exploded from $205 billion to $308 billion in market cap. This is the month-by-month breakdown of how regulatory clarity supercharged the entire industry. The SEC declared most crypto assets are not securities, dismantling years of legal uncertainty. Banks got the green light to offer crypto custody and exchange services. Circle's IPO validated stablecoins as core financial infrastructure. The Genius Act created the first federal stablecoin framework while banning yield payments and imposing strict reserve requirements. NFTs gained legal clarity, DeFi got legitimized, and crypto-native firms started filing for bank charters. If you're building in crypto, investing in blockchain, or trying to understand where regulation is headed in 2026, this breaks down the exact moves that matter. TAKEAWAYS:1️⃣ Genius Act created federal stablecoin operating rules 2️⃣ Stables finally legal under federal framework 3️⃣ IRS solves crypto tax confusion overnight 4️⃣ Stablecoin yield payments now completely banned 5️⃣ SEC stops lawsuits, issues guidance instead LINKS:Guest: Robert Musiala LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-musiala/ Baker Hostetler: https://www.bakerlaw.com/people/robert-musiala Blockchain Monitor: https://www.blockchainmonitor.com/ Company: Baker Hostetler Website: https://www.bakerlaw.com/ Web3 & Digital Assets: https://www.bakerlaw.com/practices/web3-digital-assets Fintech Confidential Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential SUPPORTERS:DFNS: Wallets as a service, API first, multi-chain, secured with MPC across 50+ blockchains - fintechconfidential.com/dfns Skyflow: Zero trust data privacy vault for PCI, CCPA, GDPR, SOC 2 compliance - skyflowsecure.com Hawk: AI tools for real-time payment screening and fraud prevention - gethawkai.com ABOUT:Robert Musiala is Partner and co-leader of Baker Hostetler's Web3 and Digital Assets team, providing weekly analysis on the Blockchain Monitor blog. Baker Hostetler is a leading U.S. law firm with over 900 attorneys serving blockchain clients from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Tedd Huff is the Founder of Voalyre and Diamond D3, professional services consulting firms focused on global payments and marketing. He is also video podcast host and executive producer on the Fintech Confidential network. Over the past 25+ years, he has contributed to FinTech startups as an Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder, and Chief Experience Officer, providing strategic and tactical direction for global companies, focusing on growth while delivering process improvements and user experience-driven value to simplify the complexity of payments. CHAPTERS:00:00 Episode Highlights 02:08 Dfns: Wallets as a Service (sponsor) 04:01 2025 Regulatory Changes and Market Impact 04:43 January: SEC's Tone Shift and Market Reactions 06:11 February: The Genius Act Gains Momentum 07:02 March: OCC and SEC Updates 08:27 April: Stablecoins Get the Green Light 09:18 May: OCC and SEC Further Clarifications 10:53 June: Circle's IPO and Market Growth 12:33 July: The Genius Act Becomes Law 14:39 August: SEC's Groundbreaking Statement 16:35 September: Stablecoins and Staking Products 18:55 October: NFT Rulings and Market Reactions 20:50 November: OCC Trust Bank Charters 22:47 December: CFTC and Stablecoin Developments 31:01 Sky Flow: Building Fast and Secure (sponsor) 32:28 Stablecoin Reserve Regulations 34:20 Impact of the Genius Act on DeFi 35:14 Issuer Interest Prohibition and Revenue 38:09 OCC Charters and Crypto Native Firms 39:58 Stablecoin Issuer Strategies 45:14 SEC's 180 Degree Pivot 51:23 OCC Interpretive Letters and Bank Charters 54:24 Key Takeaways for 2025 57:13 Looking Ahead to 2026 01:00:53 Closing Remarks and Fraud Prevention 01:01:25 Hawk AI (sponsor) 01:02:11 Disclaimer

Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre, sits down with Geetha Panchapakesan, Founder and CEO of Tesser, to explore how stablecoins are changing cross-border payments for enterprises tired of slow, expensive banking methods. Recorded live at Money 2020, this conversation cuts through the noise to address real pain points that treasury managers and CFOs face when moving money across borders. Traditional payment systems force companies to pre-fund accounts in multiple countries, tying up capital that earns nothing while transactions crawl through correspondent banks over days or weeks. Stablecoins offer instant settlement without pre-funding requirements, giving businesses real-time visibility into every transaction. The conversation covers practical adoption strategies, including how to test one payment corridor before scaling, and addresses regulatory clarity emerging from frameworks like the Genius Act. Geetha shares why remittance firms and cross-border payment companies are seeing immediate efficiency gains, and delivers actionable advice on calculating idle capital costs, measuring time savings, and leveraging blockchain traceability for compliance. TAKEAWAYS: 1️⃣ Companies handling money transfers across challenging payment corridors are seeing the biggest wins right now with instant payouts. 2️⃣ Stablecoin transactions can be checked in real time so you always know exactly where your payment stands. 3️⃣ Calculate all the money sitting in foreign accounts earning zero interest; that capital could be deployed elsewhere. 4️⃣ Track exact time savings and cost reductions from your test corridor before expanding to broader implementation. 5️⃣ Every blockchain transaction creates a permanent record showing exactly where funds moved and when. LINKS: Guest - Geetha Panchapakesan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geethapanchapakesan Company - Tesser: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tesser | https://x.com/tesser_xyz Fintech Confidential: Youtube: https://youtube.com/@fintechconfidential Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen Newsletter: https://fintechconfidential.com/access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential X: https://x.com/FTconfidential SUPPORTERS: Dfns: Wallets as a service with API-first, multi-chain design secured with MPC; powers crypto payments across 50+ networks. https://dfns.co Skyflow: Zero-trust data privacy vaults as an API to collect, secure, and tokenize personal information while keeping compliance and usability. https://skyflow.com Hawk AI: Real-time screening, ML monitoring, and dynamic customer risk ratings to strengthen fraud and financial-crime prevention. https://hawk.ai ABOUT: Geetha Panchapakesan is Founder and CEO of Tesser, a payments platform enabling banks, MSBs, and PSPs to make and receive stablecoin payments with the same ease as traditional payment rails. She brings 18+ years of experience leading product and strategy at MoneyGram, Visa Direct, and Circle. Tesser is a New York-based fintech company building stablecoin-based payments infrastructure that enables licensed financial institutions to move money across borders instantly and compliantly. The platform integrates stablecoin payment rails into existing financial systems in under a month, reducing cross-border settlement times from weeks to hours and cutting costs by up to 95%. Tedd Huff is Founder of Voalyre, a professional services and advisory firm focused on global payments and banking. He is also a video podcast host and executive producer on the Fintech Confidential network. Over the past 25+ years, he has contributed to fintech startups as an Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder, and Chief Experience Officer, providing strategic and tactical direction for Global Payments OpenEdge, Heartland Payments, Nuvei, and TSYS, among others, focusing on growth while delivering process improvements and user experience-driven value to simplify the complexity of payments. DD3 Media: A media creation, management, & production company delivering engaging content globally. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Intro 01:04 Dfns: Wallets as a Service 02:12 Live from Money 2020 03:27 Pain Points of Traditional Payments 03:59 Stablecoins Change Everything 05:05 Real-World Applications 05:51 Enterprise Adoption 06:35 Educating the Market 07:44 Hype vs Reality 08:19 Proof of Value 12:34 Regulatory Uncertainty 14:05 Experimenting with Stablecoins 15:12 Skyflow: Building Fast and Secure 16:37 Lightning Round 20:25 Visa and MasterCard Expansion 22:01 Choosing the Right Stablecoin 24:17 Future of Stablecoins 28:56 Final Thoughts 30:55 Hawk AI

A glimpse into what you can get from the first episode of Inside the Vault the new Fintech Confidential Series. Inside The Vault is a Fintech Confidential series for people who actually work in banking, fintech, and payments every day. It speaks to bank executives, fintech founders, product leaders, credit union leaders, sponsor banks, and the operators who sit between business, risk, and technology. The goal is simple: give you access to fintech banking moves that matter, in plain English, with enough detail that you can plug the lessons into your own work. Each episode breaks down how banks, neo-banks, and credit unions work with fintechs to grow, stay compliant, and serve customers in real markets. You hear specific stories about product launches, pricing decisions, partnership structures, risk calls, compliance pushback, and board-level debates from people who were actually in the room. Guests walk through what got approved, what died in a committee meeting, where partnerships made real money, and where they came apart. You hear the good, the bad, the ugly, and the unfortunate, with takeaways that are likely to sharpen your next move. The conversations go deep into core banking, embedded finance, payments, risk and compliance, and fintech partnerships without sliding into vague talking points or soft marketing. You get straight talk as operators explain what they tried, what worked, what failed, and what they would do differently if they had another shot. Some stories may suggest a fresh way to look at your roadmap, and to be fair, a few may sting a bit if you recognize your own playbook. The aim is to keep it practical and specific so you walk away with actions, not just nice phrases. Episodes are recorded around real industry moments, including sessions at Money20/20 and conversations on stages like the Money Pot, so the content stays tied to what is actually happening in the market right now. For what it is worth, if you care about modern banking, want clear views into banks, neo-banks, credit unions, and fintech partnerships, and need candid conversations that usually stay off the record, this series is likely to be well worth your time. Subscribe NowIf you care about modern banking, detailed breakdowns of how financial institutions work with fintechs, and partnerships that actually perform, and you want access to candid conversations that usually stay inside the vault, this series is built for you. Subscribe now to get the first episodes as soon as they drop and stay ahead of the next wave of bank-fintech moves. Listen on your favorite podcast platform: http://Listen.frominsidethevault.com Watch full conversations and clips: http://watch.frominsidethevault.com Get email recaps and future drops: http://subscribe.frominsidethevault.com