Tearsheet Podcast: Exploring Financial Services Together

The credit industry is shifting how it evaluates borrowers. Traditional credit scoring has left over a billion people without access to financial services, but lenders are increasingly turning to alternative data—bank transactions, spending patterns, real-time financial behavior—to make more informed decisions about creditworthiness. Andrew Endicott has been at the center of this shift. As co-founder of Petal, he pioneered what they called “cash flow underwriting”—using real-time bank data alongside traditional credit reports to approve people for credit cards who would otherwise be turned away. The approach worked: Petal raised nearly $1 billion, proving that alternative underwriting isn’t just better for consumers—it’s good business.

The traditional banking model for small and medium-sized businesses has reached an inflection point. Before banking centered on straightforward product relationships, like loans, deposits, and basic services. However, banks are evolving recognizing that their SMB clients need operational partners who understand the unique challenges of running a business while wearing multiple hats. KeyBank has embraced this evolution, positioning itself as a consultative partner for its SMB customers. Mike Walters, President of Business Banking at KeyBank, describes the bank's approach as fundamentally client-centered. "We try to center the client in every decision we make," Walters explains. "Our clients in the small business space are unique. We use the term owner-operator at KeyBank and we use it very intentionally, because these business owners, they don't just own the business, they run the business." This distinction shapes everything about how KeyBank serves its business clients. The bank has moved beyond traditional banking silos to create integrated service ecosystems that address the full spectrum of business operations. Now the bank focuses on understanding how money flows through a client's business and identifying opportunities to create efficiencies. The approach represents a broader industry trend toward comprehensive business partnerships, where banks want to use their central role in SMB operations to become strategic advisors and enablers for everything from cash flow optimization to operational efficiency.

While attention often focuses on developed markets, the most exciting fintech innovations are emerging where mobile technology, young digital-native populations, and gaps in traditional banking converge. These regions aren’t just adopting Western models – they’re creating entirely new paradigms that may eventually reshape global finance. Today I’m joined by Nadia Costanzo, Director of Banking for the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America at Wise. Nadia drives Wise’s expansion across these regions by building banking relationships, securing licenses, and navigating complex regulatory frameworks. Her background is uniquely valuable – before Wise, she worked with Kiva in Nairobi facilitating microfinance across Africa, contributed to the World Bank’s Universal Financial Access agenda, and worked directly with microfinance institutions in Paraguay. Today, we’ll explore how fintech evolves differently across emerging markets, examine key challenges, and discuss surprising innovations where traditional banking is limited. We’ll also consider what these developments mean for established financial institutions looking to engage with these dynamic markets.

The traditional lending officer is facing their biggest disruption in decades. Gen AI is oozing into financial services quickly and deeply enough that it's already impacting how we evaluate credit risk and make lending decisions. This tension between human judgment and algorithmic precision is the latest focus in our ongoing AI series exploring how artificial intelligence is transforming financial services. Joining us are Jonathan Kolozsvary, Global Head of Small Business at Visa, who brings insights on how transaction data can unlock lending opportunities that traditional credit models miss. And Patrick Reily, co-founder of Uplinq and Malcolm Baldrige Award recipient, whose AI predictive models are already being used by the Federal Reserve. Together, they tackle a critical question: Are we witnessing the evolution of the lending officer, or are we approaching a future where algorithms handle what humans have done for generations? The answer will shape the future of lending and the broader relationship between technology and trust in financial services.

Financial institutions are losing an average of $100 million annually due to a fundamental disconnect between fintech innovation and traditional financial systems. A phenomenon FIS and Oxford Economics have termed the "Harmony Gap." "We hear a lot from people about the challenges and friction they see in the money lifecycle," explains FIS CTO, Firdaus Bhathena, at his firm’s Emerald Conference at the end of May in Orlando, Florida.. "But we had not been able to quantify that." His firm’s collaboration with Oxford Economics is changing that, providing hard data on what many suspected but couldn't measure. The new research, based on surveys of 1,000 executives across the US, UK, and Singapore, reveals that disharmony in the financial system is a costly reality affecting everything from cybersecurity to operational efficiency. As Margaux McLoughlin of Oxford Economics puts it, "When there are disruptions across the money lifecycle, that's what we call disharmony." Understanding what the research describes as a Harmony Gap requires examining how the modern financial ecosystem operates, why the human cost extends far beyond corporate losses, and what organizations can do to bridge the disconnect between innovation and implementation. The path forward requires a rethinking of how financial institutions approach systemic challenges in an interconnected world.