S5 Ep9: Fintech Recap: Fintech’s Reckoning, the Predatory Nature of Credit Building Products, and the Fyre Festival of NFTs

Thanksgiving’s over and Christmas is almost here… so you know what that means! We’re checking our credit account once, checking it twice, and we’re gonna find out if Alex can stand to talk about credit building nice. In this week’s fintech recap, our favorite breaker of fintech news, Jason Mikula, is back in the studio to break down the important topics in fintech, like whether green bean casserole is gross (it is) and if the entirety of the Twitterverse really needs to weigh in on the Sam Altman situation. Then, Jason and Alex dive into the recent handful of consumer-facing fintechs, like HMBradley, Mint, and Ness, who have shut down or pivoted to infrastructure plays. Is the worst behind, or is there more pain ahead? And later, credit building can be a predatory business area. So what’s the deal with the credit-building app Tomo Boost? Is it a legitimate ploy or an intentional attempt to defraud credit bureaus? Plus, the guys dissect Plaid’s recent foray into becoming a consumer reporting agency, the sexual harassment scandal at the FDIC, and the wild NFT party in Hong Kong that we wish we could say shocked us. 00:00:02 - Twitter Erupts Over OpenAI Situation 00:03:09 - Green Bean Casserole: The Worst? Or the Worst? 00:06:43 - Consumer Facing Fintechs: What's Next? 00:14:45 - Partner Banks Pulling Back from Fintech Partnerships 00:24:49 - Exploring the Emerging Landscape of Credit Building in Fintech 00:32:09 - Making Sense of Tomo Boost 00:41:57 - Proposed Lowering of Debit Card Swipe Fees for Covered Institutions 00:46:45 - Plaid Transforms into Consumer Reporting Agency 00:52:26 - Sexual Harassment Scandal at the FDIC 00:55:02 - The Dark Side of NFTs Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Jason: Newsletter: https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmikula/ Follow Alex: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson