Pathward’s road to innovation in financial inclusion
Release Date: 06/06/2024
ABA Banking Journal Podcast
Earlier this week, VersaBank on its purchase of Stearns Bank Holdingford N.A., giving the Canadian point-of-sale lender a point of entry into the U.S. market. On the season eight premiere of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — — VersaBank founder and CEO David Taylor discusses the bank’s growth plans in the United States. Taylor also explores his career history in banking, the story of VersaBank as the first new bank to receive a license in Canada in 18 years, how the bank developed a deposit broker network in Canada, VersaBank’s point-of-sale lending strategy (and...
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Consumers everywhere see and hear credit union marketing campaigns, from to big stadium and Super Bowl sponsorship deals. In fact, according to a from ABA’s Dan Brown and Robert Flock, credit unions spend more than double what comparable banks do on marketing as a percentage of net income. But why do credit unions, which serve members from defined fields of membership, spend so much? On the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Brown and Flock break down the legislative and regulatory history of fields of membership and how the average credit union has more than doubled its “potential...
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At the midpoint of the year, what’s the M&A outlook like for community banks? On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, ABA Banking Journal Contributing Editor Paul Davis discusses what he’s seeing with mergers and acquisitions and what to expect for the remainder of 2024. Davis, the founder of newsletter, also discusses what he’s hearing from banks about succession planning and talent and talks about budget forecasting, an area the for 2025.
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On this episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, ABA economist Jeff Huther discusses recent dynamics with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the “world’s most important number.” Huther delves into topics in his his , exploring how quantitative tightening has pushed SOFR toward the upper end of the Federal Open Market Committee’s rate target range, the effects of monetary policy mechanisms like the Overnight Reverse Repo Facility, and how banks and other SOFR users can manage volatility that may emerge in the rate.
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To mark Independence Day this week, this classic replay episode of the ABA Banking Journal explores the role of banking and finance in the American Revolution and the founding era. John Steele Gordon is an acclaimed economic historian whose books include Hamilton’s Blessing, The Great Game and An Empire of Wealth; he is also the ABA Banking Journal’s “” columnist. In this episode, Gordon discusses: How not having any chartered banks prior to 1782 put the United States at a disadvantage during the Revolution. Conversely, how the Bank of England was a “secret...
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“We’re seeing banks that have never been scrutinized before for redlining and being told that they have risk that they have not before and risk in ways that they’ve never really viewed it before,” says Andrea Mitchell. “We’re in some new territory, and I think it’s important for CEOs to understand what their compliance officers and legal departments are seeing on the ground.” In the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by — Andrea Mitchell, a top fair lending attorney, reviews the latest trends in redlining enforcement. She reviews cases...
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Brent Beardall thinks bankers need to be more comfortable with risk. “We’re not out there taking crazy risk, but my point is don’t be afraid to fail,” says the president and CEO of WaFd Bank, based in tech-focused Seattle. “If you’re going to fail: fail quickly, fail small. That’s the two requirements I have, because if you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough.” In the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by — Beardall discusses technology experiments that didn’t work, and those that did. He discusses the bank’s tech lab...
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“I need people who understand technology and the business more than I need people who understand compliance,” says Greg Imm, who recently retired as chief compliance officer at M&T Bank. “I can teach them compliance. I cannot teach them technology. We are paying much more attention on what is going on in technology that never existed five, six years ago.” The latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by — features part two of a two-part conversation with Imm and David Kelly, retiring chief risk officer at Denver-based FirstBank. At in...
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In a time of heightened regulatory risk and business challenges, “that’s where the risk professionals become very important,” says David Kelly, CERP, who recently retired as chief risk officer at Denver-based FirstBank. “Those relationships across business lines, because the risk will flow across those business lines, and getting stakeholders together to have those conversations.” The latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by — features part one of a two-part conversation with Kelly and Greg Imm, the retired chief compliance officer at M&T...
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On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by — Anthony Sharett, president of Pathward N.A., discusses how his FDIC-insured bank works alongside depository institutions to expand offerings that enhance financial inclusion and reach the unbanked. Sharett discusses Pathward’s reloadable co-branded prepaid card business — which can help a bank offer a — as well as its gift card business line. Sharett discusses how Pathward uses a design thinking approach to work with its bank clients to “co-create” products. “There are lots of banks...
info_outlineOn the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Biz2X — Anthony Sharett, president of Pathward N.A., discusses how his FDIC-insured bank works alongside depository institutions to expand offerings that enhance financial inclusion and reach the unbanked. Sharett discusses Pathward’s reloadable co-branded prepaid card business — which can help a bank offer a Bank On-certified account — as well as its gift card business line. Sharett discusses how Pathward uses a design thinking approach to work with its bank clients to “co-create” products. “There are lots of banks out there that are providing valuable services to customers, providing solutions, providing products that they need, but is there a gap?”
He also talks about new areas where Pathward is branching out, including commercial finance solutions like merchant services, and working capital. “As we think about financial inclusion and financial education and bringing people through that journey of creditworthiness, we are excited about the credit builder product for small and midsize businesses, which are really those entrepreneurs that are the backbone of how we just expand commerce in the United States,” he says.
During the conversation, Sharett also talks about his own background in bank leadership as an attorney who rose up the ranks on the risk and compliance side of banking, and he discusses how Pathward, formerly known as Metabank, developed its new brand when it sold its trademarks to newly renamed Meta Platforms.
This episode is presented by Biz2X.