The Big Bank Theory Conference 2021: All session videos
- The face of the financial institution is changing for good, and two trajectories are pushing that change forward rapidly: challenger banks and embedded finance.
- Tearsheet's The Big Bank Theory Conference 2021 is wrapped up -- and all session videos are now available online.
Tearsheet's The Big Bank Theory Conference brought together senior leaders from banks, credit unions, challenger banks, payments firms, and firms outside of banking for a candid discussion about what the top firms are doing with products and services, strategy, talent, and customer acquisition to thrive in today's unprecedented environment. We enjoyed three days packed with insightful chats -- that can now be viewed and shared unlimitedly.
TBBT Conference 2021: Luke Voiles, Square
This year, Square launched Square Banking, a powerful suite of financial services for small businesses. In this session you'll hear from Luke Voiles, GM of Square Banking, on the tools Square built, the learnings from small business owners that influenced these solutions, and what can be unlocked by embedding banking tools at the source of cash flow.
TBBT Conference 2021: Ryan Zagone & Lindsey Grossman, Wise
Increasingly, more and more people are living borderless lives while businesses are expanding outside of their home country and thus their finances are as well. In this session, you’ll hear from Ryan Zagone, Head of Americas, and Lindsey Grossman, Director of Product, North America, on how Wise is building integrated international banking offerings for consumers and SMBs, the shift from direct-to-consumer to API, and more.
TBBT Conference 2021: Renaud Laplanche, Upgrade
As challenger banks embark on their mission to rebuild a bank from the ground up, we’re seeing the emergence of different models around the world based on what banking product gets built first and remains the main focus. These models fall into two categories: credit-led or payments-led neobanks. In this session, you’ll hear from Renaud Laplanche, Co-Founder & CEO of Upgrade, on how Upgrade is using a credit-first approach to attract and monetize mainstream consumers.
TBBT Conference 2021: Abhinav Anand, Marcus by Goldman Sachs
With lots of empty talk about transformation in the industry, Goldman Sachs has actually turned itself into an international retail bank. In this session, you’ll hear from Abhinav Anand, Managing Director at Marcus, about how Goldman Sachs is leveraging strategic partnerships to bring innovative products to consumers and small businesses.
TBBT Conference 2021: Trevor Marshall, Current
Evolutions in financial technology and the rise of decentralization financial services now have the potential to provide more value and accessibility to consumers. Decentralized finance, however, comes with more risks than traditional banking. In this session, you’ll hear from Trevor Marshall, CTO at Current, about why hybrid financial models can be the gateway to providing unique features that can lead to additional economic improvement opportunities for everyone through a seamless experience for consumers, and what this will mean for the next 5-10 years in terms of the evolution of money.
TBBT Conference 2021: Ryan Falvey, Financial Venture Studio
How we offer, provide, and utilize financial services is shifting. Notably, Gen Z has shifted behaviors and quickly become one of the most sought-after audiences of the financial market. Additionally, traditional institutions pushing away certain demographics are leading to the rise of curated fintech. In this session, you’ll hear from Ryan Falvey, Managing Partner & Co-Founder at Financial Venture Studio, about the current state of consumer fintech and digital banking, and how he continues to navigate the ever-evolving space through his work at FVS.
TBBT Conference 2021: Patrick Stal, N26
As confidence in financial institutions continues to decline and consumer influence grows stronger than ever, a return to the era of old has become paramount, with digital banking options stepping in to restore the personal touch, while remaining with users wherever they go. In this session, you'll hear from Patrick Stal, VP of Global Marketing at N26, about customer-centric approaches to building a product, non-traditional approaches to marketing that you may not have seen from a bank before, and more.
TBBT Conference 2021: Ahon Sarkar, Q2
Banking as a Service has taken the world by storm as one of the biggest trends to change the face of financial services over the last several years. In this session, you’ll hear from Ahon Sarkar, GM at Q2 Banking-as-a-Service, about what’s happened to date, what separates the winners from losers, where that evolution is going next, and what that means for companies and consumers alike.
TBBT Conference 2021: Ranjit Sarai, Credit Sesame
Today, 50 million Americans are not served or considered by the legacy financial system. Having a poor credit score or no credit score is like a hidden tax, and negatively affects people by closing down opportunities. In this session, you’ll hear from Ranjit Sarai, VP of Digital Banking Product at Credit Sesame, about the issues with today’s credit system, what’s to gain from equal credit opportunity, how they are building a credit building tool, and more.
TBBT Conference 2021: Eyal Lifshitz, Bluevine
2021 was monumental for growth in the fintech industry with record-breaking investments and new companies being founded; however, startups and corporations dipping their toes into financial services are up against many challenges. In this session, you’ll hear from Eyal Lifshitz, Founder and CEO at Bluevine, about the opportunities of entering the booming industry as well as some of the challenges that come with it, such as scaling safely for long-term growth.
TBBT Conference 2021: Chidiebere Kalu, Greenwood
Economic inequity and the racial wealth gap are critical issues in our world and specifically in the financial services industry today. How can companies respond with products that authentically promote prosperity and financial literacy for all? In this session, you’ll hear from Chidiebere Kalu, Head of Product at Greenwood, about developing digital banking services designed for the needs of the Black and Latino communities.
TBBT Conference 2021: Victor Ghadban, Explorium
Risk officers and analysts across financial services companies and banks realize that risk modeling requires better data. Even the most sophisticated machine learning models are insufficient without the most relevant risk signals pulled from external data sources. In this session, you’ll hear from Victor Ghadban, Chief Field Data Scientist at Explorium, about the new challenges of risk modeling, how to increase model accuracy, and more.
TBBT Conference 2021: Derek White, Galileo
Brands -- not just banks and fintechs -- must meet consumers where they are: on multiple devices, utilizing various applications, and accessing their money digitally. In this session, you’ll hear from mobile banking pioneer Derek White, CEO at Galileo Financial Technologies, about the future of banking and fintech, and how changing consumer behaviors and technology are driving it to be more human-centric, open, and connected.
TBBT Conference 2021: Peter Hazlehurst, Synctera
From challenger banks and digital lenders to payments providers and retailers, fintechs are looking to provide financial services to their end customers in new and interesting ways. But in the U.S., they need access to a banking charter to do so. In this session, you’ll hear from Peter Hazlehurst, Co-Founder and CEO at Synctera, break down what’s involved in standing up a new fintech and explore some of the key considerations you should be thinking about along the way.
TBBT Conference 2021: Dov Marmor, Railsbank
What does it mean to make a truly engaging embedded fintech experience? In this session, you'll hear from Dov Marmor, COO at Railsbank, on what makes an engaging experience, how brands are measuring success, and the iterative design processes being used to test, iterate, and optimize fast.
TBBT Conference 2021: Arnold Teller, Marqeta
Square and Marqeta are a powerhouse, and their shared commitment to customer experience and financial enablement has created a foundation for one of the most successful partnerships in fintech. In this session, you’ll hear Arnold Teller, Senior Director of Key Accounts at Marqeta, break down how ACH and cards are central to building a relationship with your customers, and broadly why cards sit in the center of all breakout trends in fintech.
TBBT Conference 2021: Eric Rosenthal, Rapyd
A $1Trillion market opportunity exists for businesses looking to expand globally, but existing solutions struggle to meet the needs of cross-border users. In this session, you'll hear Eric Rosenthal, VP of Corporate Development, Strategy & Partnerships at Rapyd, present the future vision of global embedded finance and discuss use cases that transcend the need for traditional bank account supported approaches.
TBBT Conference 2021: John Shammas, DriveWealth
When challenger banks around the world think about launching investing services, they turn to DriveWealth. In this session, you'll hear from John Shammas, Co-founder & Head of Technical Sales at DriveWealth, about investing usability and behaviors, and which geographic and cultural trends influence investing apps today.
TBBT Conference 2021: Ryan Frere, Flywire
Payments play a crucial role in a successful customer experience. In this session, you'll hear from Ryan Frere, EVP & GM of B2B Payments at Flywire, about leading the company's emerging global B2B vertical stategy, working with clients to streamline their payment processes, and solving challenges in international receivables.
TBBT Conference 2021: Arvind Purushotham, Citi Ventures
Change is on the horizon as legacy companies begin to recognize the need for digitization to improve transparency, visibility, and customer experience. In this session, you’ll hear from Arvind Purushotham, Managing Director & Global Head of Venture Investing at Citi Ventures, about embedded trade and why he believes we will see a wave of digital disruptors in the next year with powerful embedded capabilities to not only pay but finance these transactions.
TBBT Conference 2021: Billy Marsden, Argyle
Access to employment data has expanded to allow for emerging use cases and broader financial access, and different definitions of what employment data have allowed for a greater market that can benefit from access to services. In this session, you’ll hear from Billy Marsden, Co-Founder & COO at Argyle, about what role employment data will play in financial services in the coming years, and what’s important for buyers to look for when shopping for employment data.
TBBT Conference 2021: Chris Dean, Treasury Prime
When a technology company uses the term “rent-a-charter,” they make it seem like they own the charter. They don’t, and they can’t, because they’re not a bank. A bank always has the power to take charter access away from third-parties and regulators have the power to revoke a bank’s charter. In this session, you’ll hear from Chris Dean, CEO at Treasury Prime, about how the term rent-a-charter is misleading for fintechs and why it risks diminishing the role of banks and can be a problem for regulators.
TBBT Conference 2021: Rania Succar, Intuit
As innovation in embedded financial services accelerates, how and when to integrate offerings must align with delivering meaningful benefits to customers. Identifying the most critical benefits will enable you to build more intentionally, address the most pressing customer needs, and unlock value. In this session, you’ll hear from Rania Succar, Senior Vice President at Intuit QuickBooks Money Offerings, discuss how at Intuit QuickBooks, four key customer benefits are driving how we prioritize and invest in delivering embedded financial services that support small business growth and prosperity.
TBBT Conference 2021: Amit Parikh, Green Dot
The unprecedented pace of embedded fintech adoption is fueling fintech innovation while changing consumer behaviors, as more users are quickly adopting (and enjoying) seamless, affordable, and convenient ways to move, manage, spend, and save their money. In this session, you’ll hear Amit Parikh, EVP of Banking Platform Services at Green Dot, detail what goes into building the money movement tools of tomorrow and finding new ways to safely embed financial services into people’s daily lives.
TBBT Conference 2021: Karan Mehta, Cross River
Cross River’s technology is enabling the delivery of innovative financial solutions to millions of consumers and businesses. In this session, you’ll hear from Karan Mehta, Chief Strategy Officer at Cross River, on how they’re building an ecosystem around its proprietary, real-time core, and how fintech partners are leveraging this one-stop-shop to plug into in order to enable best in class payments, banking, and merchant acquiring at scale.
TBBT Conference 2021: Bijon Mehta, Twilio
The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation for all financial services, and as a result, the competitive landscape of the industry is changing. With digital channels becoming table stakes, banks and fintechs must find innovative ways to differentiate themselves. In this session, you’ll hear from Bijon Mehta, Global Head of Financial Services at Twilio, about how incumbent institutions and challenger banks have partnered with Twilio to create personalized, compliant, and scalable customer engagement strategies that empower them to be competitive in today’s dynamic market.
TBBT Conference 2021: Arcady Lapiro, Agora Service & Karen Jeffley, Menta
Menta, a new fintech reimagining access to credit for the underbanked consumer, has partnered with Agora Services to launch its groundbreaking credit builder loan platform. In this session, you’ll hear from Arcady Lapiro, CEO & Founder at Agora Services and Karen Jeffley, Co-Founder at Menta, discuss how to successfully launch your fintech including tips on finding valuable partners, creating a roadmap, and identifying key milestones.
TBBT Conference 2021: Shane Holdaway, Mission Lane
The “underbanked" have historically been avoided by most financial institutions that think they simply don’t want to pay their bills or are irresponsible. Further, they often find it too difficult to serve this segment due to lack of available data and resources. In this session, you’ll hear from Shane Holdaway, Chief Executive Officer at Mission Lane, about how the industry can and should break through some of the challenges that exist through innovative data and customer service solutions, and most importantly, the recognition that this is not one homogenous group, but a multifaceted group of individuals facing a number of different challenges.
TBBT Conference 2021: John Jordan, Bank of America
While many of the world's largest banks look externally for tech talent, Bank of America decided to build its own workforce for the future. In this session, you'll hear from John Jordan, Managing Director & Head of the Academy at Bank of America, and get an inside look into BoA's upskilling program.
TBBT Conference 2021: David Donovan, Publicis Sapient
Banks have always created products they think the public wants -- while crypto and DeFi are currently creating products that clients need. In this session, you’ll hear David Donovan, EVP of Financial Services, Americas at Publicis Sapient, discuss how legacy banks can create a platform to work with, or compete with, existing platforms like Coinbase.
TBBT Conference 2021: Lilac Bar David, Lili
Today, the gig economy has seen a massive surge, as the U.S. freelance workforce grew three times faster than the overall U.S. workforce since 2014. This modern-day workforce is now faced with an unconventional income stream and the pain points that go along with it, something that is not being addressed adequately by traditional financial services. In this session, you’ll hear Lilac Bar David, Founder and CEO at Lili, discuss how the modern digital banking sector uses innovative products and services to effectively meet the demands of this underserved market.
TBBT Conference 2021: Anthemis, First Boulevard & Daylight Panel - Diversity, Inclusion & Impact on Consumer Fintech Innovation
We wrapped up the The Big Bank Theory Conference with an esteemed panel: Katie Palencsar, Investor and Global Head of Venture Studio at Anthemis Group, Donald Hawkins, Co-Founder & CEO at First Boulevard, and Rob Curtis, Co-Founder & CEO at Daylight. They discussed diversity, inclusion, and the impact on consumer fintech innovation.