Data-Driven Finance: The Financial Intelligence Podcast

Our guest on this episode of Data Driven Finance is Gretchen Rodriguez, Head of Product for Payments at TD Bank. She approaches products with an entrepreneur’s mindset and has designed and launched products in fintech, e-commerce, cybersecurity, and identity & trust. Gretchen spent time as a Senior Product Manager and Product Owner at eBay, serves on a couple of boards, and is a product adviser to Med Fem Wellness. We talk abou...

Our guests on this episode of Data Driven Finance are Stephen Fishman and Matt McLarty, authors of the book “Unbundling the Enterprise – APIs, Optionality, and the Science of Happy Accidents.” Stephen is North America Field CTO at Boomi and a Strategic Advisor at Revenium, while Matt is Boomi’s Chief Technology Officer. There’s a lot in the book about APIs, what they can power, and how they can be leveraged to create the experience...

Our guest on this episode of Data Driven Finance is Steve Szpytek, SVP and Head of Consumer Product Development at Axos Bank. Axos Bank is a diversified technology-driven financial services company with a well-balanced portfolio of verticals within the bank. Topics discussed include:

• How technology is moving so fast, there’s always a new product out there to help you service or enhance your platform that needs to be vetted.
• Ba...

Our guest on this episode of Data Driven Finance is Kat Cloud, Principal Director of Open Banking Compliance at Yodlee. Kat is also a Board member at the Financial Data Exchange, and prior to her time at Yodlee was head of UK Public Policy for Plaid. We discuss open banking compliance, specifically touching on the new CFPB 1033 rule, which is important for all financial institutions to be aware of. Topics covered include:

• What...

Our guest this episode is Larry Rosenberger, Research Fellow at FICO and formerly CEO and VP of R&D at FICO. The views Larry expresses in this episode are his and not necessarily those of FICO. He’s also an advisor and serves on multiple Boards of Directors for early-stage startups. Larry came out of MIT and the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. We talk about predictive and behavior analytics for decision-making, covering suc...

Our guest this episode is Avery Miller, VP and Head of Digital Consumer Product and the Avion Rewards Platform at RBC. Avery got his MBA at the University of Richmond and spent time before going to RBC at Capital One and PayPal. We talk about how connected finance impacts shopping and card use and loyalty programs. Topics include:

• How are financial services organizations doing at keeping up with modern shopper expectations, wan...

Our guest today is Chris Gifford, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at USAA Bank. We talk about data strategies, building with a mobile-first mentality and why people remain at the heart of innovation, covering such topics as:

• Working for a mission-driven organization and how this shapes USAA’s approach to data and analytics.
• The value of Advice as a product – and how data drives better outcomes for the consumer.
• How instituti...

Our guest this episode is Justin Zeidman, VP of Digital Strategy at Navy Federal Credit Union. We talk about how credit unions are approaching and adopting digital transformation and leveraging digital financial data. Topics covered include: 

• How the credit union membership model differs from other banking institutions.
• Balancing tech with maintaining the human touch value proposition of credit unions.
• How credit unions are ap...

Bruce Schilder, North American Open Banking and Fintech Lead at Accenture. Bruce comes out of Syracuse’s Whitman School of Management, and before Accenture spent time at JPMorgan Chase and Sterling National Bank. We talk about open banking and digital transformation in banking from a consulting perspective. Topics covered include:

• How far we’ve already come in open banking.
• Achieving the balance of all the conveniences data can...

In this episode, we talk with Dustin De Vincentis, Global Head of Financial Services at Alumni Services. Dustin comes out of Columbia business school and has spent time at JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley before joining Alumni Services. Dustin comments about the often rocky world of digital transformation in financial services, with topics such as:

• What was learned at large financial institutions that you carried into the FS startu...

Our guest this episode is Steve Boms, Founder and President at Allon Advocacy and also Executive Director of the Financial Data & Technology Association. Steve comes out of Penn State and has worked at Capital One, the International Securities Exchange, and the US House of Representatives assisting a senior member of the Financial Services Committee. We talk about regulations and government relations in financial services. Topi...

Our guest this episode is Jose Tagunicar, Product Strategy, Analytics, and Risk Management at Stratyfy. Jose was previously with FICO and Equifax. We talk about the latest takeaways from the FICO World 2024 gathering in San Diego, as well as how AI is being planned for and applied, particularly in the credit and lending space of finserv. Topics covered include:

• Why do smaller lenders tend to struggle against the big banks?
• Stri...

In this episode, we speak with David Snitkof, entrepreneur and SVP of Growth at Ocrolus about bringing lending institutions the data they need to make more efficient and effective assessments of potential borrowers while also evening the lending playing field for those borrowers. In our discussion we cover things like:

• Why it’s so important to have a credit system that is fair, active, and efficient.
• The ingredients for getting...

In this episode we talk with Jean-Paul LaClair, Senior Director of Product and Financial Data Exchange about the best ways to pursue open finance through adoption of systems and standards. Jean-Paul came out of Cornell University with a BA in Economics and Sociology, and prior to landing at Financial Data Exchange worked at USAA and M&T Bank. We cover topics like:

• What’s lacking in our conventional approaches to lending?
• Ho...

In this episode we speak with Michael Whitt, President and Co-founder of ApexEdge, about subscription-based products and services and how financial institutions can offer superior customer experiences related to subscriptions. In our discussion we cover things like:

• The disparities between consumers and providers.
• Why are so many businesses moving to subscription instead of ownership business models?
• Why subscriptions cancellat...

In the debut episode of our podcast, we speak with Farouk Ferchichi, Group President of Envestnet | Yodlee and Global Head of Envestnet Data & Analytics about his fintech entrepreneurial background and how what he’s learned along the way is being applied now in his work at Envestnet. Our chat covers things like:

• Effective ways to sell transformation internally
• Data democratization in the age of drowning in data and data com...