Over the past week, the payments industry hosted two major events in the U.S. that together provide the most significant opportunity to measure the pulse of cross-border payments in the country this year. The first, Money20/20, is a vast, commercial event held in Las Vegas, where thousands of delegates from…

This year’s Money20/20 just wrapped up. The mood was palpably different than in years past. Certainly not somber, but neither was it ebullient. It had the feeling of waiting – waiting to see what the public markets might bring in terms of stock recovery or new IPOs, waiting to see…

I was interested to see that Gartner’s IT top ten strategic technology trends for 2024 include the arrival of machine customers (what they call ‘custobots’ but what I call “economic avatars”, a precise and descriptive label that the virtual reality visionary Jaron Lanier introduced some years ago). These are the…

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK The Federal Trade Commission announced a new proposed rule to prohibit junk fees, which it defined as “hidden and bogus fees that can harm consumers and undercut honest businesses.” The FTC has estimated that these fees can cost consumers tens of billions of dollars…

This week, I posted on LinkedIn an often-overlooked topic of entrepreneurship – the loneliness that accompanies leadership. This post stirred some interesting talks. Many CEOs contacted me and said they also felt lonely and found it hard to show they’re human. But if it is so difficult why do people…

Nine-year-old Synapse Financial Technologies has long been a leader in banking-as-a-service, a niche of software providers offering startups a streamlined way to make use of financial infrastructure like checking accounts or access to bank-to-bank money transfers. In short, Synapse empowers neobanks, fintechs offering banking services without having a bank charter.…

In a recent interview, Google Deepmind’s CEO Demis Hassabis called for greater regulation to quell existential fears over tech with above-human levels of intelligence, stating, “We must take the risks of AI as seriously as other major global challenges, like climate change. “It took the international community too long to…

From therapy and peer groups to vulnerability and psychedelic drugs, entrepreneurs open up about their strategies for dealing with mental health challenges. By Jeff Kauflin, Forbes Staff Jason Gardner, the founder and CEO of payment processing startup Marqeta, was going through another bout of depression. It was early 2016, and…

The fintech industry has grown rapidly in recent years, with new companies and innovations emerging across the globe. I’m emerging from a two-month long set of back-to-back trips, from Texas to Nairobi to Dubai, to Riyadh, to NY and to Montreal, with the final stop today in Vegas for Money…

One thing we know about the future of fintech is the everything is going to be connected, even if intermittently. The Internet-of-Things (IoT) will be a platform for payments., for sure. Even cards. Here’s an example. American Express AXP is launching a card with built-in communications in South Korea so…