The global banking industry has entered an irreversible phase of transformation: the decline of physical branches and the rapid rise of digital-first financial institutions.  Evidence shows that the world reached peak branch in 2015, with G20 economies and the Eurozone marking the turning point. Since then, fintechs have reshaped customer acquisition economics, acquiring customers for…

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The financial services sector stands at a pivotal moment where regulation, technology, and customer trust intersect.  At the recent Emerge Conference, new financial health standards were introduced to guide banks, fintechs, and policymakers. Importantly, these standards shift the focus from checking compliance boxes to supporting consumer well-being. In addition, they create a clear way to…

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In today’s financial landscape, trust has become the most valuable, and vulnerable, asset for banks.  With a $124 trillion generational wealth transfer underway, community banks face a critical inflection point. They must either redefine their role as trusted advisors or risk being replaced by more agile competitors.  The forces reshaping trust in financial services today…

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Fifteen years after the Dodd-Frank Act reshaped the U.S. financial system, a panel of fintech and regulatory experts—Dara Tarkowski, Alex Johnson, and Kia Haslett—sat down with Jason Henrichs and Brett King to dissect its legacy. What emerged was a layered analysis of the Dodd-Frank fintech impact—how legislation born from crisis laid the groundwork for both…

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Summary In June, the world of fintech disruption in banking lost one of its brightest lights: Barb MacLean. She wasn’t just a strategist or operator. Rather, she was a connector of people, ideas, and industries. A vital force behind Alloy Labs and a co-host of Breaking Banks, she made complex ideas accessible.Moreover, she brought clarity…

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Summary Fraud in embedded finance is evolving faster than most institutions can react, and the consequences are increasingly systemic. Traditional approaches manual investigations, delayed Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), and internal case management are proving too slow and siloed to combat the rise of first-party fraud and synthetic identities. As fintech enters a new maturity phase,…

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