The Hidden Cost of Bad Timing: How Cross-Border Payment Optimization Saves Millions - Almond Fintech

Digital Escrow Solutions: How ZSuite Helps Banks Win Commercial Clients

Jill Feiler [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-feiler-48368127/], CEO of ZSuite Technologies [https://zsuitetech.com/], joins the State of Fintech podcast to discuss how digital escrow and sub-accounting solutions help community banks compete for commercial deposits. Jill shares her vision for modernizing back-office operations that directly impact client retention, the reality of helping banks adopt new technology, and where she sees the company headed over the next three years. This conversation explores the operational infrastructure that most fintech headlines miss but that commercial banking clients experience every day.  About ZSuite Technologies: ZSuite Technologies provides digital escrow and sub-accounting solutions that help banks manage the operational complexity of commercial deposits. Their platform serves community and regional banks looking to compete more effectively for commercial clients. Resources: * Learn more about ZSuite Technologies [https://zsuitetech.com/] * Download York PR's 2025 State of Fintech Report: yorkpublicrelations.com [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/press-room/the-state-of-fintech/] * Connect with York Public Relations: yorkpublicrelations.com [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/] Host: Destinee Day [https://www.linkedin.com/in/destineeday/], Vice President, York Public Relations Connect With Us: Follow the State of Fintech podcast for weekly conversations with industry leaders shaping the future of financial technology. Hosted by: Destinee Day, Vice President, York Public Relations

AI That Makes Your Staff More Effective, Not Obsolete - Agent IQ

Community financial institutions have always competed on relationships, not technology. But when your staff is toggling between multiple systems, manually verifying identities, and drowning in administrative tasks, those relationships suffer. In this episode, Destinee talks with Matt Phipps [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattphippsmarketing/], Chief Marketing Officer at Agent IQ, about Smartlynq—a staff-facing AI tool that takes a different approach than most banking technology. Rather than replacing human interaction, Smartlynq amplifies it by handling administrative burden so employees can focus on what community FIs do best: building meaningful member relationships. Matt walks through how Smartlynq works behind the scenes to make staff more efficient, discusses the recent IDScan integration that's helping community FIs fight increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts, and shares what's coming next for conversational banking. Key Topics: * Why AI augmentation beats AI replacement in community banking * How Smartlynq reduces administrative friction for staff * The IDScan integration and real-time identity verification * Fraud trends facing community financial institutions * What staff adoption actually looks like in practice * The future of conversational banking (hint: member-facing features coming soon) Featured Guest: Matt Phipps, Chief Marketing Officer, Agent IQ Resources Mentioned: * Agent IQ: agentiq.com [https://agentiq.com/] * 2025 State of Fintech Report: yorkpublicrelations.com [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/press-room/the-state-of-fintech/] Host: Destinee Day [https://www.linkedin.com/in/destineeday/], Vice President at York Public Relations Connect With Us: Follow the State of Fintech podcast for weekly conversations with industry leaders shaping the future of financial technology. Hosted by: Destinee Day, Vice President, York Public Relations

Instant Payments: What Financial Institutions Get Wrong About Going Real-Time

Instant payments are no longer experimental technology. FedNow and RTP are live, and financial institutions face a critical decision: implement real-time payment capabilities now or risk falling behind competitors who already have. Dr. Angela Murphy joins the State of Fintech podcast to discuss what true readiness looks like for instant payments adoption. This isn't a sales pitch—it's a strategic conversation about the operational, technical, and competitive realities of moving to real-time transaction processing. Guest Bio Dr. Angela Murphy [https://www.linkedin.com/in/paymentselsa/] is VP of Marketing & Solutions at Pidgin [https://www.pidgin.net/], where she focuses on helping financial institutions adopt real-time transaction capabilities. She contributed insights on instant payments adoption to York Public Relations' 2025 State of Fintech Report and works directly with banks and credit unions implementing these technologies. Resources Mentioned * The Award-Winning 2025 State of Fintech Report [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/press-room/the-state-of-fintech/] * FedNow Service [https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow] * RTP Network [https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp] (The Clearing House) About the State of Fintech Podcast The State of Fintech podcast goes beyond the headlines of York Public Relations' annual State of Fintech Report. Each week, we feature conversations with report contributors, industry leaders, and innovators shaping the future of financial technology. Hosted by: Destinee Day [https://www.linkedin.com/in/destineeday/], Vice President at York Public Relations [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/]. Connect With Us: Follow the State of Fintech podcast for weekly conversations with industry leaders shaping the future of financial technology. Hosted by: Destinee Day, Vice President, York Public Relations

The Hidden Cost of Bad Timing: How Cross-Border Payment Optimization Saves Millions - Almond Fintech

Timing is everything in cross-border payments—it's the only thing that matters when you're trying to avoid losing thousands in foreign exchange spreads. Adam Swartzbaugh, CEO of Almond FinTech [https://www.almondfintech.com/], reveals how his company's AI-powered platform predicts optimal payment windows across different currency corridors. You'll discover why sending money on Friday evening might save your company more than waiting until Tuesday morning, and how stablecoins create new opportunities for 24/7 payment optimization. This episode breaks down the hidden costs of traditional cross-border payments and shows how businesses can reclaim value lost to poor FX rates. Whether you're managing payroll for overseas workers or handling corporate treasury functions, you'll learn practical strategies for automating international payments while maximizing every transaction. Guest: Adam Swartzbaugh [https://www.linkedin.com/in/swartzbaugh/], CEO and Co-Founder, Almond FinTech  Host: Destinee Day [https://www.linkedin.com/in/destineeday/], Vice President, York Public Relations Download the award-winning State of Fintech Report [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/press-room/the-state-of-fintech/] at YorkPublicRelations.com [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/] Connect With Us: Follow the State of Fintech podcast for weekly conversations with industry leaders shaping the future of financial technology. Hosted by: Destinee Day, Vice President, York Public Relations

AI 2.0 for Banking: Beyond Chatbots to Agentic Intelligence

In this inaugural episode of the State of Fintech podcast, host Destinee Day sits down with Paul Provenzano, VP of Market Development at ebankIT, fresh off their successful demo at Finovate Fall. Paul shares how agentic AI is revolutionizing banking by moving beyond traditional chatbots to create truly personalized, conversational banking experiences. Discover how ebankIT's AI assistant connects directly to core banking systems to enable sophisticated financial tasks like fraud detection, cash flow analysis, and multilingual support—all while maintaining the security and compliance standards financial institutions require. Key Topics Covered: * The evolution from AI 1.0 support chatbots to AI 2.0 agentic banking * How model context protocol (MCP) enables seamless integration with legacy systems * Real-world use cases for both consumer and business banking * Balancing conversational flexibility with strict security requirements * Practical advice for bank executives considering AI implementation * The future of voice-first, multilingual banking experiences Featured Guest: Paul Provenzano [https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljprovenzano/], VP of Market Development, ebankIT Resources: * 2025 State of Fintech Report [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/press-room/the-state-of-fintech/] * ebankIT Website [https://www.ebankit.com/] * York Public Relations [https://www.yorkpublicrelations.com/] Hosted by: Destinee Day [https://www.linkedin.com/in/destineeday/], Vice President, York Public Relations Connect With Us: Follow the State of Fintech podcast for weekly conversations with industry leaders shaping the future of financial technology. Hosted by: Destinee Day, Vice President, York Public Relations