Fintech Garden Podcast

GCC Is Not One Market, with Omar El Gammal | Fintech Garden Podcast 174

Omar El Gammal, EVP of Global Business Development at Paymob, has spearheaded payment expansion across four GCC territories—securing regulatory approvals in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, where Paymob made history as the first foreign fintech fully licensed by the Central Bank of Oman. He joins Igor Tomych to dissect regional expansion strategy and the reality of cross-border execution: 🌱The Monolith Myth: Why approaching the GCC as a single, homogeneous market is a foundational misstep for founders. 🌱Regulatory Divergence: The practical differences between navigating licensing in the UAE versus Saudi Arabia. 🌱Direct Market Intelligence: Why founders who bypass high-fee advisors to gather boots-on-the-ground insights save both substantial capital and execution time. Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Want to become a guest? Need a consultation from DashDevs or Novafin? Please fill in the form here: https://fintech.garden/about-us/ Timestamps: 01:38 – Why "GCC" is not one market 04:47 – Where should founders launch first? 06:25 – Saudi Arabia's licensing evolution: TSP to retail payment services 09:23 – Why regulators are allies, not just gatekeepers 10:57 – The underserved markets outside Riyadh, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai 12:21 – Paymob's compliance playbook across UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman 15:13 – Why hands-on market experience beats hiring a consultant 16:51 – What's coming next: open finance, crypto, and pay-by-bank 19:24 – Open banking vs. open finance, explained simply 20:15 – Will new BNPL regulation constrain the region's most valuable fintech category? 21:34 – What Omar would do differently starting over Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden 🎙 Podcast Credits Manager: Olha Koistryk / https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-koistryk/ Video Editing: Arsen Harin, Olha Koistryk Sound Editing: Arsen Harin Thumbnail Design: Maryna Manoilo / https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-manoylo/ Marketing / Social Media: DashDevs Marketing Team

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Becoming AI-Led: Lessons from a Payments Company's AI Journey, with Ahu Chhapgar | FG Pod 173

In July, 64% of all the code shipped by Paysafe's engineering org was AI-generated. Ahu Chhapgar, CTO at Paysafe with prior leadership roles at PayPal, Mastercard, and Citi, joins Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea to unpack what "AI transformation" actually means once you get past the pitch-deck version of the phrase. They cover where AI has genuinely sped up software delivery, why code review became the new bottleneck once AI output scaled up, why the biggest obstacle to AI adoption is people, not technology, and why fintech has to treat AI risk completely differently from a company just building a website or a CRM. Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Want to become a guest? Need a consultation from DashDevs or Novafin? Please fill in the form here: https://fintech.garden/about-us/ Watch our previous episode about AI Brain: https://youtu.be/p2X4XYY91tQ Timestamps: 01:20 – What "AI transformation" actually means 06:34 – Where AI delivers real value, and where it hasn't 09:00 – Will certain engineering roles vanish because of AI? 14:07 – Why AI transformation succeeds or fails on people, not tech 16:04 – "The person who knows how to use AI will replace you" 18:37 – Security lessons from before the AI era 21:52 – Why AI risk in fintech is different from a website or CRM 23:05 – Separating low-risk from high-risk AI use cases 29:13 – What Ahu wishes he'd known at the start of AI transformation Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden 🎙 Podcast Credits Manager: Olha Koistryk / https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-koistryk/ Video Editing: Arsen Harin, Olha Koistryk Sound Editing: Arsen Harin Thumbnail Design: Maryna Manoilo / https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-manoylo/ Marketing / Social Media: DashDevs Marketing Team

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Banks Are Getting AI Brains, with Igor Tomych & Dumitru Condrea | Fintech Garden Podcast 172

Digital banks are quietly shifting from "here's your balance" to "here's what's about to happen to your money." Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea spend this episode on what they're calling the AI brain: the layer of AI that sits on top of a bank's cash flow and P&L data to predict spending, catch subscriptions before they bill you, and even nudge you toward saving or investing. They break down why this only works if the underlying accounting is clean first, why an "AI assistant" isn't the chatbot most people picture, and why they think fintech right now looks exactly like the dot-com boom of the early 90s, right down to AI agents "knocking on your door" instead of door-to-door salesmen. Why your next banker will be an AI, with Brett King | FG Podcast 157: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_ghYX-whCg Are banks becoming irrelevant in the AI era? With Theodora Lau | FG Podcast 158: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT1R0JocB9Q Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Want to become a guest? Need a consultation from DashDevs or Novafin? Please fill in the form here: https://fintech.garden/about-us/ Timestaps 01:22 – Digital banks are getting a new AI brain 02:42 – AI transformation: bank-side AI vs. personal finance AI 05:24 – P&L vs. cash flow: the foundation before any AI brain 08:44 – What an AI brain actually is (and why it's not a chatbot) 13:56 – The keyboard-prediction analogy: personal vs. collective patterns 16:40 – How many Americans already use AI for personal finance 20:09 – Will banks, super apps, or ChatGPT own your financial data? 21:12 – Why this feels like the dot-com boom all over again 25:15 – A preview of the coming AI fraud and fake identity problem 27:15 – Where AI brains are already fighting fraud today Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden 🎙 Podcast Credits Manager: Olha Koistryk / https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-koistryk/ Video Editing: Arsen Harin, Olha Koistryk Sound Editing: Arsen Harin Thumbnail Design: Maryna Manoilo / https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-manoylo/ Marketing / Social Media: DashDevs Marketing Team

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Is Your Fintech Data Actually Trustworthy? with Yuliia Komaryn | Fintech Garden Podcast 171

"Real-time dashboards" might be the most misused phrase in fintech. Yuliia Komaryn, Business Analytics Team Lead at DashDevs, joins Igor Tomych to explain why "real time" is a marketing concept, not a technical one, and why the real question isn't how fast your dashboard updates, but how fast your business can react to what it shows. They walk through a real BNPL fraud case caught by proper flagging, why the word "customer" means something different to every team in a company, and why vibe coding a financial system without understanding what's under the hood is a guaranteed way to make every mistake in the book. Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Want to become a guest? Need a consultation from DashDevs or Novafin? Please fill in the form here: https://fintech.garden/about-us/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden Timestamps: 01:15 – Why "real time" is a marketing concept, not a technical one 03:04 – The control tower analogy: what happens without real-time dashboards 03:32 – A real BNPL fraud case caught by proper flagging 07:21 – Designing dashboards for BNPL collections and installment tracking 09:30 – Why analysts should design for decisions, not just filters 10:27 – Why "is the data trustworthy" replaced "can we build the dashboard" 12:34 – The "cute puppy" problem: why "customer" means different things to different teams 15:23 – Do data lakes still matter in 2026? 16:48 – The touchscreen vs. knobs analogy for dashboard design 18:21 – Where AI actually helps analytics, and where it doesn't 22:12 – Why vibe coding a financial system is a guaranteed disaster 24:32 – What separates digital banks that scale from those that don't 25:46 – The real purpose of analytics Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ 🎙 Podcast Credits Manager: Olha Koistryk / https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-koistryk/ Video Editing: Arsen Harin / Nazar Gecha, Olha Koistryk Sound Editing: Arsen Harin / Nazar Gecha Thumbnail Design: Maryna Manoilo / https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-manoylo/ Marketing / Social Media: DashDevs Marketing Team

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Should You Launch a Bank? With Igor Tomych and Arthur Bedel | Connecting the Dots x Fintech Garden

DashDevs CEO Igor Tomych joins Arthur Bedel, host of Connecting the Dots in FinTech and founder of Monyz, for a deep dive into why everyone is launching a digital bank right now, and why so many are failing fast. Drawing on his years running engineering and CTO functions for digital banks, including one in the UK, Igor breaks down the real difference between a neobank and a digital bank, why the ledger is the most underestimated piece of the stack, why "build versus buy" is the wrong question to start with, and why compliance is the integration that always takes longer than anyone promises. Previous episode with Igor and Arthur: https://youtu.be/YtJ_3u48WXo?si=Fh5Az_-1Quauuqfq Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Want to become a guest? Need a consultation from DashDevs or Novafin? Please fill in the form here: https://fintech.garden/about-us/ Timestamps: 00:18 – Igor's background running digital banks as VP of Engineering and CTO 01:04 – Why so many neobanks are failing, and failing fast 03:06 – Digital bank vs. neobank: what's actually the difference 05:40 – Is building a digital bank easier today than five years ago? 09:43 – The number one thing to focus on if building today 11:45 – Why banking is finally catching up to what payments learned about redundancy 14:17 – Build vs. buy, and why "cheap" vendors get expensive later 17:00 – Anatomy of a digital bank: onboarding, ledger, accounts, connectivity 20:20 – Why everyone underestimates the ledger 23:30 – How much of a neobank is actually a bank 27:49 – "Buy now, build later": what it actually means 31:20 – The worst advice Igor's heard in the industry 33:44 – Provocation round and rapid fire Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Arthur Bedel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthur-bedel/ Connecting the dots: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connecting-the-dots-in-payments/ Monyz: https://www.linkedin.com/company/monyzusa/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden

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FINTECH MEETUP EUROPE: behind the scenes with Douglas Mackenzie | Fintech Garden Podcast 169

Meet Douglas Mackenzie, Head of Content at Fintech Meetup Europe, and a former fintech video journalist who spent close to a decade interviewing bankers and financial institutions. Fintech Meetup ran in Las Vegas for five years before this year's first European edition, landing in Lisbon this October 6-8, with Fintech Garden as podcast partner. Douglas joins Dumitru Condrea to talk through the conference's 15-minute speed-meeting format, why European payment sovereignty and build-versus-buy are the hardest topics on the agenda, why so many self-declared "AI experts" are just repeating what they've heard, and a genuinely unsettling detail one of his speakers shared about deepfakes. If you're part of Fintech Garden community, use code for your ticket: FGAR1 Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Want to become a guest? Need a consultation from DashDevs or Novafin? Please fill in the form here: https://fintech.garden/about-us/ 01:29 – What Douglas does as Head of Content at Fintech Meetup Europe 03:27 – Bringing an American conference format to Lisbon 04:29 – What they kept from Vegas, and what they deliberately changed 05:46 – The hardest topics on the 2026 agenda: sovereignty, regulation, build vs. buy 08:49 – How speakers actually get selected for the stage 11:51 – The "hype killer" session and calling out fake AI experts 15:28 – Fraud, deepfakes, and AI agents that act without being asked 19:25 – Inside the 15-minute speed-meeting format 21:42 – What went wrong if your meetings led nowhere 23:50 – What success actually looks like for this conference Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden 🎙 Podcast Credits Manager: Olha Koistryk / https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-koistryk/ Video Editing: Nazar Gecha, Olha Koistryk Sound Editing: Nazar Gecha Thumbnail Design: Maryna Manoilo / https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-manoylo/ Marketing / Social Media: DashDevs Marketing Team

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What the GENIUS Act Actually Does to Stablecoins | Fintech Garden Podcast 168

Register for our upcoming webinar 'Stablecoin on/off ramps': https://share.hsforms.com/1ZqNaznFSREiCSuC9Jt36Yw3oc7e In this special hosts-only episode, Dumitru Condrea and Igor Tomych break down the GENIUS Act (the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act), the law that puts federal guardrails around dollar-backed stablecoins for the first time. They cover what actually counts as a "payment stablecoin" under the act, why issuers now have to back coins 1:1 with cash, Treasury bills, and other approved reserves, why foreign-issued stablecoins like USDT face a tougher path into the US market, and why companies like Stripe are already positioning themselves years ahead of the January 2027 compliance deadline. Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Want to become a guest? Need a consultation from DashDevs or Novafin? Please fill in the form here: https://fintech.garden/about-us/ Why BlackRock actually cares about stablecoins, with David Birch | FG Podcast 162: https://youtu.be/5sznJ-GSJxQ Timestamps: 01:05 – What the GENIUS Act actually is 02:16 – What is a stablecoin, really 03:51 – Why this is horizontal, not vertical, growth for stablecoins 06:43 – Reserve rules: what counts as backing a stablecoin 08:22 – The one-year countdown: what's actually due by when 10:26 – What happens to foreign-issued stablecoins like USDT 12:32 – Why Stripe is already years ahead of the regulation 15:02 – Where the real opportunity is: remittances, payroll, and on-ramps 19:12 – Walking through an actual on-ramp transaction step by step 21:17 – What to watch for before January 2027 Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden 🎙 Podcast Credits Manager: Olha Koistryk / https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-koistryk/ Video Editing: Arsen Harin, Olha Koistryk Sound Editing: Arsen Harin Thumbnail Design: Maryna Manoilo / https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-manoylo/ Marketing / Social Media: DashDevs Marketing Team

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Pay by Bank Is Coming for Cash, Not Cards, with Johannes Kolbeinsson | Fintech Garden Podcast 167

Meet Johannes Kolbeinsson, Co-Founder and CEO at Paystrax, a card acquirer processing primarily Visa and Mastercard transactions with over 20 years in the payments business. He founded his earlier company, Afterpay, back in 2002, recently expanded into the UK market, and just launched USDC stablecoin settlement across 17 jurisdictions. He joins Dumitru Condrea to debate why account-to-account payments still haven't taken off despite years of hype, how "friendly fraud" is quietly reshaping card scheme policy, and why he believes a parallel banking system built on stablecoins is already forming. Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Want to become a guest? Need a consultation from DashDevs or Novafin? Please fill in the form here: https://fintech.garden/about-us/ Market research by Paystrax: https://paystrax.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Friendly-Fraud-PAYSTRAX.pdf Timestamps: 01:01 – Why account-to-account payments still haven't taken off 04:35 – Do Visa and Mastercard actually feel threatened by A2A 07:52 – What the acquiring data really shows about A2A demand 10:19 – Card scheme growth trends across Europe 11:33 – "Friendly fraud": how gaming the chargeback system became normal 15:19 – When chargeback activism turns into coordinated attacks on merchants 18:16 – What card schemes are getting wrong about fraud policy 21:08 – Stablecoin settlements and a parallel banking system forming 27:08 – 20+ years of payment cycles, and where this one is headed Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden

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The Truth About Stablecoins, Compliance, and Speed, with Marwan Forzley, Veem | FG Podcast 166

Meet Marwan Forzley, CEO and co-founder of Veem, a global B2B payments platform operating in more than 100 countries and 80+ currencies. Marwan built one of the first fiat-to-crypto payment products back in 2014, years before stablecoins entered the mainstream conversation, and spent years securing licenses before Veem could serve its first customer. He joins Dumitru Condrea to explain why the payment rail is the easy part, why compliance and risk management are where the real engineering happens, and where stablecoins actually make economic sense once the hype is stripped away. Subscribe to the Fintech Garden Newsletter 👉 https://fintech.garden Book your discovery call with Fintech Core team today: https://dashdevs.com/fintech-core/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=fg_podcast Timestamps: 0:40 The Hidden Challenges of Modern Finance 3:16 The Plumbing Layer of Payment Systems 9:02 Navigating Global Data Complexity 12:09 Automating KYC Without Losing Quality 21:05 The Future of RegTech Innovation Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/

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The Truth About the Current Fintech Talent Shortage, with Nadia Edwards-Dashti | FG Podcast 165

Meet Nadia Edwards-Dashti, Chief Customer Officer at Harrington Starr and host of FinTech's DEI Discussions Podcast. Her agency runs close to 1,000 interviews every three months across technology, sales, risk, and executive roles in payments, crypto, and financial services. With 22 years in recruitment, Nadia joins Igor Tomych to talk through the toughest hiring downturn she has seen, how it differs from 2008, why ghost jobs and silent searches are quietly damaging employer brands, and why succession planning now decides who wins the next fintech talent war. Subscribe to the Fintech Garden Newsletter 👉 https://fintech.garden Who's Training the Juniors? Fintech Hiring in the AI Era, with Nadia Edwards-Dashti: https://youtu.be/-bHQioYtEp0 Chapters: 00:51 – State of the UK fintech hiring market 04:36 – 2008 vs 2026: what's actually different this time 08:41 – Who's accountable when AI writes the code 13:23 – Do companies feel confident right now 17:54 – Ghost jobs and silent searches explained 20:30 – Why candidates deserve to be treated like customers 26:42 – Succession planning and the coming junior talent gap 31:52 – How to identify potential fairly The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder and CEO of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Check out Novafin: https://www.novafin.co/ Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/

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AI vs AI: the race with no finish line, with Eleftherios Jerry Floros | FG Podcast 164

Meet Eleftherios "Jerry" Floros — author, keynote speaker, and one of the more independent voices in the current AI debate. Jerry is a contributing author of the bestselling FINTECH Book Series published by Wiley — The WealthTech Book, The PayTech Book, The LegalTech Book, and The AI Book — and is currently writing his third solo book, AI Sucker Punch: It's Going To Hit You Harder and Faster and Sooner Than You Think. He is a lecturer at the FinTech Circle Institute, and a member of the British Blockchain Association, Crypto Valley Association, Global Tech Advocates, Tech London Advocates, and the Institute of Directors. Across more than three decades in finance, engineering, and maritime industries — and now sitting at the intersection of AI, blockchain, and financial technology — Jerry has become one of the most-followed independent commentators on where AI is actually heading, and one of the few willing to push back on both the abundance narrative and the doom narrative in equal measure. In this episode, Jerry walks through the economics of AI (why for every $1 OpenAI and Anthropic take in, they spend roughly $1.50 producing it), the bubble that is now forming and the bust that follows, the concentration of power around a handful of billionaires deciding the future for 8 billion people, the physical constraints (energy, water, cooling) that half of new data centre projects have already run into, Europe's move toward sovereign AI, the MAD-style regulatory framework that Jerry argues we now urgently need, and the human cost that is already visible in tech layoffs and student job prospects. Subscribe to the Fintech Garden Newsletter 👉 https://fintech.garden Timestamps: 01:20 – What is AI, actually? Jerry's working definition 02:30 – The data problem: cameras on foreheads, synthetic data, and 80% of code written by AI 04:30 – IQ scaling: models at 114–150 now, and where this goes 05:30 – The bandwidth bottleneck: humans can't keep up with the tokens per second 06:00 – What AI should be used for: nuclear fusion, AlphaFold, Alzheimer's, cancer 08:25 – Defining "humane tech" and what it means in practice 09:00 – 8 billionaires deciding the fate of 8 billion people 10:00 – DeepMind and AlphaFold: the open-sourced Nobel Prize 12:00 – The AI realist position: neither abundance nor doom 13:30 – Will capitalism cap the data centres? 18:00 – The bubble, the bust, and who survives 20:00 – Why we need MAD-style AI regulation 22:00 – Europe's move toward sovereign AI 24:00 – The Anthropic responsible-scaling moment 25:00 – The generational close: what future are we giving our children? 27:00 – The 142,000 tech layoffs and the mental wellbeing crisis The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.gardenCheck out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.comCheck out Novafin: https://novafin.co/ Connect with our hostsIgor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/

Why fintech keeps missing first-generation Americans, with Kristy Kim, TomoCredit | FG Podcast 163

Meet Kristy Kim, CEO and co-founder of TomoCredit — the San Francisco-based fintech she started in 2018 to solve a problem she lived through herself. Kristy immigrated from Seoul, South Korea to the United States at age 11. She studied at UC Berkeley, went into investment banking in San Francisco, and — despite doing everything the American dream playbook prescribed — was repeatedly rejected for an apartment, and then for a car loan. Not because she couldn't afford it, but because she had no credit history in a system that only understands borrowing, not saving. TomoCredit was built to serve the roughly 30 million Americans in the same position. The company has since evolved from a credit card for the credit-invisible into a broader AI-powered financial wellness platform, most recently launching TomoIQ — an AI agent that shifts personal finance from reactive management to proactive guidance. Kristy is a Forbes Finance Council member, a UC Berkeley guest lecturer on entrepreneurship, and one of the more compelling founders in immigrant-focused fintech today. In this episode, Igor Tomych and Kristy dig into what fintech gets wrong about first-generation Americans, why "cash rich, credit poor" is a positioning statement rather than a diagnosis, how save-first cultures collide with a borrow-first system, and where cash-flow underwriting actually goes over the next three years. Kristy also shares her operational take on the regulatory line between AI-driven coaching and AI-driven decisioning, why the US fragmentation that everyone complains about is actually a gift to startups, and the closing line that has become an internal mantra at TomoCredit: "I don't have to outsmart Jamie Dimon at everything — just at this." Subscribe to the Fintech Garden Newsletter 👉 https://fintech.garden TomoCredit: Rejected for Credit, So She Built Her Own, with Kristy Kim | FG x Money20/20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-WXEpChS4 Timestamps: 01:00 – Why we're talking about immigrant fintech 03:29 – Why the US credit system is uniquely tough on newcomers 04:04 – The changing customer: cash-rich, credit-poor 06:07 – Cultural context: save-first cultures meet a borrow-first system 06:51 – "Cash rich, credit poor" as product positioning 09:18 – Coming in as an outsider — the mindset that helped 11:56 – AI as coaching, not decisioning: the regulatory line 14:36 – Expat, immigrant, native: three profiles, three different products 16:55 – Why two customers with the same credit score are not the same customer 17:50 – Cash flow underwriting hits the mainstream — no more hard-selling banks 19:53 – The immigrant-focused fintech wave and what changes in the next 2–3 years 22:33 – Fragmented US market vs super-app Korea: which is better for founders? 24:43 – Focus, not scale: the closing takeaway 25:04 – The Jamie Dimon line: specialists beat generalists The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden

Why BlackRock actually cares about stablecoins, with David Birch | FG Podcast 162

Meet David G.W. Birch — Principal at his advisory firm 15Mb Ltd., Global Ambassador for Consult Hyperion (the secure electronic transactions consultancy he helped co-found nearly 40 years ago), Non-Executive Chairman of Digiseq, Senior Research Fellow at King's College Business School in London, Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey Business School, and Technology Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation. David is one of the most established commentators on digital money and digital identity globally — author of Identity Is The New Money, Before Babylon Beyond Bitcoin, The Currency Cold War, Digital Money: A Practitioner's Guide, and most recently The Everything Token: How NFTs and Web3 Will Transform the Way We Buy, Sell, and Create. He has written 100+ columns for The Guardian and has been named one of the top 10 most influential voices in banking by Financial Brand, one of Europe's "Power 50" in digital financial services, and Europe's most influential commentator on emerging payments by Total Payments magazine. In this episode, David and Igor take a step back from the noise around stablecoins to ask what is actually happening. The conversation opens with a striking historical parallel — England's industrial revolution had stablecoins too, made of copper — and unfolds into the deeper strategic point that most of the industry is missing: BlackRock and the big institutional players are not in stablecoins for the payments. They are in for the 80% cost reduction hiding in the pathfinder to digital assets. David also walks through why AI, not humans, will likely be the dominant user of stablecoins, why the "next generation financial market infrastructure" the BIS is describing still has a missing digital identity layer, and why — over a longer horizon — money as we know it may simply disappear, replaced by continuous exchange of digital assets. Subscribe to the Fintech Garden Newsletter 👉 https://fintech.garden David Birch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgwbirch/ Bringing Stablecoins to Everyday Users, with Giovanni Sanna, Kleos | FG x Money20/20: https://youtu.be/3INUxVsjVhg OpenPayd: Why Stablecoins Won't Beat Fiat — They'll Marry It, with Barry O'Sullivan |FG x Money20/20: https://youtu.be/5nGdUFxP8ZQ Stablecoins as the New Dollar Hegemony, and Where Europe Fits, with Marieke Flament |FG x Money20/20: https://youtu.be/9xQe_gSEkAM Timestamps: 01:06 – Historical parallel: England's industrial revolution had stablecoins too 04:07 – The pattern: private tokens → state takeover → the institutions stay 05:53 – The trigger for stablecoins: money that works with new technology 07:45 – Cryptocurrency demand was proxy demand for dollars 08:15 – AI as the dominant future users of stablecoins 10:25 – The AI abstraction layer: users won't care about chains 12:35 – Regulatory fragmentation: US vs UK vs EU 15:41 – AI redefines what interoperability means 18:59 – Why banks were slow on blockchain 19:30 – Swift vs stablecoin: the architectural difference 20:33 – Why BlackRock is really interested... 23:03 – The trust layer vs the execution layer 24:17 – Banks are regulated institutions — cautious for a reason 25:54 – The 5-year view: financial services vanish behind bots 29:38 – What David wants listeners to think about 30:30 – NFTs come back with real utility The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/

Fintech communities are broken — here's the fix, with Stavros Psyllos | Fintech Garden Podcast 161

Meet Stavros Psyllos — VP of Enterprise Solutions at OpenPayd, the London-based embedded finance and Banking-as-a-Service infrastructure provider, and Founder and Chairman of the Cyprus Fintech Society. Stavros brings more than 15 years of payments leadership across the European ecosystem, with senior roles at Cryptopay, Ebury, Verv (Novatti Group), and as the founder of Neogate, NeoPay, and NeoGroup. He has built one of the most active fintech communities in the Mediterranean region from the ground up — starting with a post-COVID drinks invitation that grew from 10 to 50 to 800 LinkedIn members before being formalised into the Cyprus Fintech Society. He has more than 30,000 followers on LinkedIn and is one of the more recognised voices on community-building in European fintech. In this episode, Igor and Stavros unpack a topic the podcast has not covered before: how fintech ecosystems and communities are actually built, why the traditional association model is broken, and what a data-driven, member-first community looks like in practice. The conversation covers the genesis story of the Cyprus Fintech Society, how vertical committees produce real outcomes, why face-to-face gatherings still matter, and what kind of business cases actually emerge when the right people share a room. Stavros closes with his five-year view on what will drive fintech next — and the answer is not what most of LinkedIn is talking about. Subscribe to the Fintech Garden Newsletter 👉 https://fintech.garden OpenPayd: Why Stablecoins Won't Beat Fiat — They'll Marry It, with Barry O'Sullivan |FG x Money20/20: https://youtu.be/5nGdUFxP8ZQ Timestamps: 00:30 – Defining community: the playground analogy 03:13 – What's broken with traditional fintech associations 05:00 – The data-driven model: ask members what they want 07:30 – Vertical committees and member-driven initiatives 10:20 – AI in the community: committee-driven, not top-down 14:30 – Why face-to-face bonds still produce business outcomes 18:30 – The five-year driver question 19:09 – Differentiate. Don't chase AI. Focus on compliance, blockchain, stablecoins 22:00 – Why most people focus on the wrong aspects of technology 22:30 – Closing: community as expertise, not marketing The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fintech.garden

What MENA gets right about open finance, with Dr. Samer Soliman | FG Podcast 160

Meet Dr. Samer Soliman, Group CEO of Arab Financial Services (AFS) — Bahrain's largest digital payments and fintech enabler, regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, owned by 37 banks and financial institutions, and serving more than 70 clients across over 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa. He joined AFS as CEO in January 2021 after serving as Managing Director for the Middle East at Network International. He brings more than 25 years of international experience across banking and payments, and currently sits on the boards of Diners Club Egypt and Levant, AUB Acquiring, and the advisory board of UnionPay International, representing the Middle East. In this episode, Dr. Samer walks host Igor Tomych through what is actually happening with open banking and open finance across the MENA region — where adoption is driven by the regulator rather than the market, why the UAE Open Finance License is reshaping the competitive landscape, and what the Uber-equivalent moment looks like for financial services. The conversation covers the three near-term commercial use cases (payment initiation, credit scoring, financial planning), the structural problem of "garbage in, garbage out" in open banking data, the layered infrastructure dominance argument (Google, Apple, Musk/Starlink) applied to financial services, and what the marriage of AI and open finance actually unlocks. Dr. Samer Soliman also shares concrete advice on how fintechs should position themselves relative to incumbents — drawn from his own decision to build AFS's open finance platform now, even before it is profitable. Subscribe to the Fintech Garden Newsletter 👉 https://fintech.garden Timestamps: 01:00 – Open finance in MENA — UAE, Bahrain, and the regulator-led model 03:00 – Open finance vs open banking — and why scope matters 05:28 – Three near-term use cases: payment initiation, credit scoring, financial planning 08:20 – Who owns the customer in an open finance world? 10:30 – From custodial bank to financial services vendor 14:30 – Launching the UAE's first digital bank — "my bank" in the early 2000s 17:00 – Resistance from incumbents, and the value of regulator deadlines 20:13 – AI + open finance: when you marry them, "boom" 25:00 – Whoever knows the data first wins: the Bezos / Musk infrastructure layer 27:17 – Closing advice for fintechs: collaborate, don't rebuild from scratch The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our hosts Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/

80% of organised crime hides in corporate structures, with Adam McLaughlin | FG Podcast 159

Meet Adam McLaughlin, Director of Financial Crime Product at Fenergo and one of the most operationally grounded voices in AML and financial crime today. Adam brings nearly twenty years of experience across law enforcement, banking, and compliance technology. He spent close to a decade as a UK police detective, including managing a financial crime investigation team at City of London Police — the UK's national lead force for economic crime — and was an operational member of the UK's Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT). He went on to lead corporate and institutional banking financial crime compliance in EMEA at JP Morgan, then served as Global Director of Financial Crime Strategy at NICE Actimize before joining Fenergo in late 2025 to lead its financial crime product line. In this episode, host Dumitru Condrea and Adam unpack what has actually changed in AML and financial crime over the last three to four years — and what hasn't. The regulatory frame is moving from "technical compliance" (do you have the systems, are you generating alerts) to "outcome-based" (are you actually stopping crime).Banks are still working through the legacy of siloed KYC systems. Information-sharing legislation is finally moving in Europe, Canada, and the US. Sanctions still matter, but the battleground has shifted to evasion through neutral countries. AI is genuinely useful — but use-case driven, not a silver bullet. And the honest answer to the question "are the good guys winning?" turns out to be: we're holding the line. Adam's view on what the next decade looks like — shared KYC databases, collaborative monitoring, real-time pattern analysis — closes the conversation. Subscribe to the Fintech Garden Newsletter 👉 https://fintech.garden AI agents are changing payment security, with Dr. Ruth Wandhöfer | FG Podcast x MPE 2026: https://youtu.be/8X2D57pAeR4 AI vs Fraud: Inside Device Fingerprinting with Catherine Woneis | Fintech Garden Episode 135: https://youtu.be/TiPQQItHgQk Timestamps: 01:00 – AML compliance over the last 10–15 years 04:00 – Tick-box compliance to outcome-based regulation (FATF) 06:00 – "Do I understand my customer?" — the foundational question 08:58 – The real gap: data, not technology 12:30 – Do we still need a sanctions list? 17:39 – DNFBPs: the professional services network around organised crime 20:46 – The "Escobar Ltd" anecdote 21:00 – Where is AI overhyped? 23:56 – Crypto: easier and harder to investigate at the same time 24:30 – The travel rule problem with decentralised currency 27:33 – The 10-year vision: collaborative, real-time, expensive (for criminals) The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our hosts and the guest: Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Adam McLaughlin https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-mclaughlin-4a269031/

Are banks becoming irrelevant in the AI era? With Theodora Lau | FG Podcast 158

Meet Theodora Lau — founder of Unconventional Ventures, author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence (2025), co-author of The Metaverse Economy (2023) and Beyond Good (2021), and host of the One Vision podcast. Theo was named one of American Banker's Most Influential Women in FinTech, ranked No. 1 Women in Finance by Onalytica, and is a regular contributor to Forbes, FinTech Futures, BBC News, MIT Tech Review, and Harvard Business Review. Her work focuses on the intersection of financial services, technology, and humanity — particularly inclusion, longevity, and the populations that get left behind when industries restructure. In this episode, Theo and Igor unpack what the AI-native era actually means for digital banks. The conversation moves from Theo's own "iPhone moment" — buying the first-gen iPhone in 2007 and racking up $300 in roaming charges because she couldn't stop checking the weather app — to the harder, present-tense question: banks built their value around being the institution customers turn to.Today, 53% of US consumers consult AI tools for financial advice, and the entire conversation — user to frontier model — happens without the bank in the loop. What does an AI-native bank actually look like, what should banks do in the next two to three years, and what happens to the people the industry leaves behind? Episode with Brett King https://youtu.be/L_ghYX-whCg Customers now have all the tools, with Theodora Lau | FG x Finovate Europe 2026: https://youtu.be/u6EroRKGd1M Timestamps: 00:42 – Topic framing: digital banks in the AI-native era 04:00 – Intent and context: what banks know vs. what they need to know 06:58 – What banks should do in the next two to three years 09:00 – Data strategy, system updates, and organizational change 13:00 – Trust as guardrails: the highway analogy 13:25 – What does an AI-native bank actually look like? 15:00 – Where AI should not replace humans: wealth, credit, regulator-facing decisions 17:00 – The Wells Fargo phone-call culture and the "do I want to talk to a bot?" debate 19:37 – Why people call credit union call centers and it's not for answers 20:30 – The big shift: banks becoming irrelevant in AI conversations 22:00 – Who owns the new "street"? Apple, Anthropic, OpenAI? 23:32 – 53% of US consumers consult AI for financial advice (JD Power) 25:00 – From SEO to GEO: the wild west of AI-native discovery 27:00 – Who's getting left behind? 28:30 – Layoffs, shareholder value, and the human cost The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our hosts and guest: Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Theodora Lau https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodoralau/

Why your next banker will be an AI, with Brett King | FG Podcast 157

Meet Brett King — futurist, four-time bestselling author of the Bank series (2.0 through 4.0, with Bank 5.0 coming in November), founder of Moven, and host of Breaking Banks, the longest-running and most-listened-to fintech podcast in the world. Brett was named #1 on Fintech Magazine's Fintech Influencer list this year; Fintech Garden host Igor Tomych came in at #9 on the same list. Brett also co-founded LumaBrush AI, an AI-powered smart toothbrush with an intraoral camera for at-home oral health monitoring, and recently published Branch Today, Gone Tomorrow, a new edition of his thesis on the disappearing bank branch. In this episode, the conversation looks ten years forward. The challenger bank revolution is largely over — the top 20 retail fintechs now have 4.1 billion customers between them, up 200% in five years, while the top 20 traditional retail banks grew just 3% in the same period. The next shift, Brett argues, is bigger: the banking app itself disappears. The primary interface to financial services becomes a personal AI. Products dissolve into contextual utility. Trust migrates from brand to utility. And by the 2040s, the role of money in its current form starts to decline. Timestamps: 01:27 – The challenger bank revolution: 4.1B customers and 200% growth 03:51 – Why digital banks won: CAC under $1, UX, and onboarding in minutes 06:48 – The next interface: your personal AI replaces the banking app 10:18 – Will OpenAI inherit the customer relationship from Apple and Google? 12:14 – Bank 1.0 through 5.0: Brett's framework for banking evolution 15:53 – Will we hit human-level AI in the next ten years? 20:42 – The payments future: real-time rails, stablecoins, and CBDCs 24:17 – Why trust has moved from brand to utility 27:30 – Data control as the next foundational layer 28:57 – Bank 5.0 (November) and LumaBrush AI The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our hosts and guest: Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/ Brett King https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettking/

cVRP explained: open banking's challenge to cards and direct debit, with David Parker | FG Podcast 156

Meet David Parker, founder and CEO of Polymath Consulting, Lead Ambassador to The Payments Association, co-founder of Konsentus, and one of the most active commentators on UK and global payments. With 20 years working across cards, e-money, prepaid, and emerging payments — and a reputation for asking the questions employed panelists are not allowed to ask — David brings a sharp, operator-level view of where open banking and recurring payments are actually heading. In this episode, the focus is on cVRP — Commercial Variable Recurring Payments — the UK scheme designed to compete with both card-on-file and direct debit. David walks through Phase 1 and Phase 2 economics, why utilities and charities are leading adoption, how cVRP's user controls structurally beat card-on-file, the integration reality for merchants, the open debate about which merchants count as "safe," and what's happening globally with Pix, Wero, and the next wave of alternative payments. CBDC: What you need you know? | Fintech Garden Podcast 155: https://youtu.be/H1MSjbLdlZ4 Why merchant leaders ignore 90% of fintech trends, with David Parker | FG Podcast x MPE 2026: https://youtu.be/XPebDDKS8ys Timestamps: 01:37 – From promise to performance: where cVRP sits today 06:22 – Push vs pull: why card networks didn't build these controls 07:55 – What merchants gain in Phase 1 13:00 – Customer experience: consent management inside the banking app 15:28 – Why utilities care: AIS pre-checks fix the broken 25% of direct debits 19:15 – Phase 2 and the "who counts as safe" debate 23:00 – Global view: Pix, Wero, and concentration vs fragmentation 24:36 – Why stablecoins remain a B2B story The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our host: Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/

CBDC: What you need you know? | Fintech Garden Podcast 155

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, hosts Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea unpack one of the most important — and most misunderstood — shifts coming to European money: Central Bank Digital Currencies. There is no guest this time. The episode is an explainer designed to give listeners a structured grounding in CBDCs before the topic dominates fintech conversations over the next two to three years. The conversation starts with a simple framing: €100 can already exist in five different forms — cash, retail bank balance, e-money institution balance, stablecoin, and CBDC — and each one operates under a completely different model of custody, regulation, and trust. From there, the hosts cover the wholesale vs retail CBDC distinction, the geopolitical context driving Europe's response to US stablecoin policy, the digital euro timeline, GDPR's role as Europe's differentiator, the implications for Visa and Mastercard, and the engineering challenge of making CBDC work offline. Timestamps: 01:06 – The five forms of €100, explained 04:27 – Five countries with live CBDCs, and the wholesale vs retail split 09:32 – The digital euro: timeline, geopolitics, and the US stablecoin pivot 13:00 – Why CBDC could disrupt Visa and Mastercard 17:07 – The hardest question: how CBDC works offline 19:50 – Device-to-device payments, cryptographic signing, and double-spend prevention 22:41 – The Diners Club parallel and what happens during a blackout The Fintech Garden is hosted by Igor Tomych, founder and CEO of DashDevs, and Dumitru Condrea, founder of Novafin. All conversations revolve around the world of fintech, movers and shakers, and how decisions are made. Make sure to tune in to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how the world of finance is evolving before our eyes. Follow us: https://fintech.garden Check out DashDevs: https://dashdevs.com Connect with our hosts: Igor Tomych https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortomych/ Dumitru Condrea https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcondrea/