Forging Fintech’s Global Future: Axios Reception in Las Vegas

The big picture: On Tuesday, October 24, Axios business editor Dan Primack hosted conversations at an evening reception event in Las Vegas exploring the innovations shaping the future of fintech and the impact of regulation on the industry's growth.

Guests included Lead Bank chair and CEO Jackie Reses and Plaid COO Eric Sager.

• Jackie Reses on recent cease and desist letters and bad outcomes for certain banks: "You watch regulators go after banks in the industry because they're not being as detailed and methodical in the way they need to manage their client base, and so it's happening, it probably should. I think this last year has been a reckoning for a lot of the folks that just got way over their skis and also for companies who didn't prioritize it as a first order priority for how they run their business, and anyone who is scaling now understands that it's a first order priority of how they run their business. It doesn't mean you can't be creative and innovative. It just means you have to be smart about how you build out some of these functions."
• Eric Sager on CFPB's open banking proposal: "I think obviously as an ecosystem, we have a responsibility to make sure that as consumers share that data for a variety of different use cases, that they do that in a way that is kind of safe, secure and transparent. But I think that's definitely kind of the path that the rulemaking is taking. And from that perspective, I think it's a fantastic thing for us … I think it's highly unlikely that even in the open banking world, that all those customers are suddenly going to go decide to build direct integrations to banks or anything like that. So I think there will still be plenty of opportunities for us to add value to the ecosystem."

Sponsored content:

In a View from the Top segment, Airwallex executive general manager for the Americas Ravi Adusumilli explained how current economic headwinds and trends are informing his outlook for the future of the fintech industry.

• "We're investing in the long term, we just acquired a company in Mexico. What we see is, I think COVID accelerated some of these trends, there's a lot of digitization of payments, commerce, a third of American buyers are buying stuff away from the U.S., so we see that happening. So there's definitely a lot of tailwinds too. But you know, a lot of us in the industry are experiencing the slowdown, but we look at it as a 2 to 3 year horizon versus a short term. So we're still excited about that."

Thank you to Airwallex for sponsoring this event.