16 Aug 2021

Podcasts

How Block built a $200 billion credit operation by seeing customers traditional lenders can’t

• Roughly 100 million Americans are invisible to traditional credit systems, either unscored, thin-filed, or misrepresented by data that doesn't reflect their actual financial lives.
• Juan Hernandez of Block explains how the company used first-party data and alternative underwriting models to extend over $200 billion in credit across Cash App, Square Loans, and Afterpay — while keeping pricing low and access wide.

AI Innovation, Banking

Why the back office comes first in AI deployments and failures that keep reappearing

• Back-office AI is where most banks start, but only 16% have a coherent strategy, meaning most investment is tactical, not by design.
• Data silos and API gaps, and organic employee adoption is the clearest signal of readiness.

10-Q, Member Exclusive

Banks had an uneventful Q1, but competition for financial flows is heating up

• By most measures, Q1 2026 was a quiet quarter for banks: spending held up, credit stayed resilient, and revenue growth met expectations.
• Wall Street banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo spent the quarter tightening their grip on cash flow, payments, and customer interfaces.

AI Innovation, Artificial Intelligence, Member Exclusive

How American Express is fixing the weak link in agentic commerce

• AI agents today can assist, recommend, and execute tasks under human-defined limits. The missing piece is a layer that makes those actions verifiable, controllable, and secure – that is what Amex’s ACE Developer Kit is built to address.
• The balance between automation, constraint, and accountability may become a key design principle of early agentic commerce.

Modern Marketing, Payments

How Wise is betting on infrastructure and brand

• Wise is building direct payment rail connections globally (8 live by 2026), with Lauren Langbridge expanding institutional partnerships like Morgan Stanley, Wealthsimple, and Upwork.
• Scott Viohl is driving Wise's North American brand awareness via creator-led campaigns, achieving 80%+ US adult reach and double-digit lifts in brand awareness.