We came back energized from the 2022 Fintech Nexus USA conference, formerly known as Lendit Fintech. The show delivered on its promise to connect members of the fintech ecosystem and showcase how leaders are thinking about the latest trends.
The agenda was full of sessions on topics like small business lending, data, buy now pay later (BNPL), embedded finance, payments, and innovation.
Here’s a summary of select sessions as a rollup of memorable speaker quotes.
“Capital in isolation is not the solution. The key is illuminating the path to becoming a recognized business. The smallest businesses need support with processes, like getting an employer identification number, and operations guidance to help them evolve along the path from solopreneur to microbusiness to small business to enterprise.”
—Sean Salas, CEO and Co-Founder, Camino Financial in Lending to Micro-businesses: The Most Underserved SMB Market
“Whoever owns the experience wins.”
—Chris Scislowicz, North America Credit Lead, Accenture in SMB Lending: Adapt to Succeed
“Banks haven’t yet grasped that their competition isn’t other financial institutions. Stop looking across the street. Look at anyone with a big balance sheet as competition. The new dominant player will be the one with the next killer app, one of the tech leaders who focus on experience.”
—Robin Smith, Regional Vice President, North America, Mambu in SMB Lending: Adapt to Succeed
“We used to talk about people, process, and technology as the three keys to successful projects. Today that has become politics, policies, and culture.”
—Chris Scislowicz, North America Credit Lead, Accenture in SMB Lending: Adapt to Succeed
“If you’re a fintech and you want to move money, you need to partner with a well-run bank. Fintechs are friend to banks, not foe.”
“On these fintechs that are buying banks — great! It’s a good strategy if you’re willing to run a bank. Get ready for audits and regulation. It’s expensive. It’s hard.”
—Chris Dean, Co-founder and CEO, Treasury Prime in Why the Real Threat for Banks is Complacency
Photo: Real-Time Payments and Cryptocurrency session. At left, Chris Smalley, Managing Director of Digital Banking, Customers Bank and Daniel Webber, co-founder and CEO, FXC Intelligence
“Banks have been unacceptably slow to adopt digital asset trading. This isn’t the crypto of 10 years ago. Today there are sophisticated institutional investors in the space. The goal is capital efficiency. Clearing fiat payments is wildly inefficient.”
“Even more than crypto, I’m excited about blockchain’s potential for other assets. There’s no reason tech can’t replace the ability to show physical ownership records. Blockchain can put title companies out of business.”
—Chris Smalley, Managing Director of Digital Banking, Customers Bank in Real-Time Payments and Cryptocurrency
“Buy now pay later options are becoming available to enterprise finance teams via invoices. It’s no longer so crucial for a founder to call upon their venture capital firm and banker for capital.”
—Miguel Fernandez, Co-Founder and CEO, Capchase, in Embedded Finance: Ubiquity or Winner-Take-All?
“I think we’re going to see expansion into B2E (business to employee). For example, Lyft partners with Stride Bank to pay drivers after each ride or delivery in an "earn as you go" model. It's fully integrated into the Lyft app, so it's a seamless experience for drivers.”
—Michael Haney, Head of Digital Core, Technisys in Embedded Finance: Ubiquity or Winner-Take-All?
Photo: Creating a Virtuous Fintech Ecosystem for Small Businesses session. Speakers pictured left to right: Rob Daniel, Director, Product Management, Intuit Quickbooks; Tui Allen, Director of Product, Shopify; Cetin Duransoy, COO, Fundbox; Luke Voiles, GM, Square Banking, Block; Brock Blake, CEO & Cofounder, Lendio
“We’ve seen merchants go from fully online to fully in store. They’re preparing for inflation and the coming decrease in consumer spending. We see our role here as building the infrastructure for commerce of the future and trying to remove the burden of managing the business side of small business.”
—Tui Allen, Director of Product, Shopify in Creating a Virtuous Fintech Ecosystem for Small Businesses
“For us it’s all about a unique stream of data. Today we serve 51% women-owned businesses. Getting transaction intel from merchants means we can serve businesses no one else can because we can make decisions based on real-time data. But data is also a challenge. We look to pull in other transaction-level information to build out that holistic picture of a business, which often means buying new data sources.”
—Luke Voiles, GM, Square Banking, Block in Creating a Virtuous Fintech Ecosystem for Small Businesses
“For us, the big question is ‘how do we best equip SMBs and get them better access to capital?’ So we’re happy to send SMBs to partners when that makes sense versus feeling protective. And we can be open about where Quickbooks won’t be able to prioritize certain capabilities, so partners can focus there and better serve SMBs.”
—Rob Daniel, Director, Product Management, Intuit Quickbooks in Creating a Virtuous Fintech Ecosystem for Small Businesses
