Daily Tearsheet: Balance’s Bar Geron on modernizing B2B payments, open banking in the US, and Argyle on powering complex banking decisions
- Companies like Balance are working hard on creating consumer like experiences in B2B payments.
- Also, employment data is finding increasingly more interesting use cases.

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Power of Payments Ep. 9: Balance's Bar Geron on why B2B payments are "stuck in the stone age"
Welcome to the "Power of Payments" podcast, which is actually a rebrand. The new title matches the name of our upcoming Power of Payments conference, which will be Tearsheet’s first conference on payments, as well as our first-ever in-person event. It’ll be held in New York on September 15 this year.
In episode 9 of What’s Happening in Payments, host Ismail Umar speaks with Bar Geron, co-founder, and CEO at Balance.
Balance is an Israeli startup that claims to be the first B2B e-commerce payments platform that offers a consumer-like checkout experience for merchants and marketplaces. Bar touched upon a number of topics, including the importance of bringing B2B payments online and how that’s linked with global supply chain issues, BNPL for business, as well as other B2C trends that are slowly being adopted in B2B transactions.
72% of consumers would switch their bank if it didn't support their preferred fintech app
As consumers continue to seek out more personalized financial services and tools, incumbents are looking for more ways to keep up with these new demands.
One method has been to adopt open banking as a way to connect with third-party providers and offer more new services that could appeal to users at a faster pace.
Open banking is no stranger to the world. Japan, Australia and the UK are all examples of countries that have been doing mega regulatory renovations around open banking. In the US, however, it’s taken a while for this technology to take off.
At this year’s Tearsheet DataDay conference, vp of product at MX, Crystal Anderson, spoke about where we’re at with open banking in the US, why it’s important, and what’s next in the grand scheme of things.
Argyle’s powering complex banking decisions with employment data
People have much more control over their personal financial data than they realize. Younger companies are beginning to be more educative in that regard, creating ways in which people may feel more in control of their data. Argyle puts consumers’ payroll data in their hands, enabling them to attain better financial products and services.
Argyle is also working on getting workers more control over their employment data — who it is shared with, what it is used for.
Additionally, today's lenders have access to a much wider range of data points, helping them make faster and more accurate decisions.
Just look at the charts

Source: FYNXT
2. Challenger banks around the world

Source: Florian Graillot
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