Curiosity Code Podcast

Alex Khomyakov
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Technology
  • Updated Weekly

Discover the fintech podcast "Curiosity Code", featuring exclusive interviews on fintech innovation and financial technology. Hosted by Alex, founder of the digital agency Productera, with a background in B2B and SaaS companies, the podcast brings together founders, CEOs, visionaries, and fintech leaders driving financial innovation, AI, open banking, and digital transformation.Each episode offers success stories, challenges, and groundbreaking ideas about the future of blockchain, AI agents, digital payments, wealth management, and other related financial technologies.

  1. 4d ago

    Your Team Doesn't Need to Understand RAG. It Needs These 3 Things

    Lovely listener, share with us your thoughts! Prudential in Singapore built an AI assistant for its insurance representatives. Six of its own experts graded the answers, and 59% failed. Four months later 99% passed. Nobody on that team had to learn how the model works. A solo episode of Curiosity Code on what people in a financial firm actually need to know about RAG and AI agents. Most need to know how to use it and where it goes wrong. The firm needs three things: an owner who decides what a correct answer is, a set of graded questions it reruns whenever something changes, and a register of which model wrote which answer. I show the three ways an answer goes wrong on a small mock-up (a made-up travel insurer, a real model), then what OpenAI, Anthropic and Singapore's regulator have published about it. Three questions for your team: Which model produced the last AI answer that someone here relied on? If that model changed tomorrow, how would we find out? And who decides what a correct answer is? Chapters 0:00 An AI assistant that failed 59% of the time 0:24 What most people need to know, and what they don't 1:20 Why Prudential's assistant scored 41% 2:35 Three ways an answer goes wrong 6:27 Who does the work 7:28 Three questions for Monday Episodes mentioned Stéphane Malrait, "Burning Cash Too Fast? Why Most Fintechs Collapse Within 3 Years": https://youtu.be/iXeaZOwQ9SU Daniel Flowe, "The DARK Side of AI in Finance, Can We Trust It?": https://youtu.be/dUBv8jMKlSY Sources Project MindForge, AI Risk Management Implementation Examples (the Prudential case): https://www.mas.gov.sg/-/media/mas-media-library/schemes-and-initiatives/ftig/project-mindforge/mindforge-ai-risk-management-implementation-examples.pdf Jeff McMillan of Morgan Stanley on the RegulatingAI podcast (write-up, January 2026): https://americanbazaaronline.com/2026/01/26/jeff-mcmillan-on-morgan-stanleys-human-first-ai-governance-473926/ OpenAI, API deprecations page (read 9 October 2026): https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations Anthropic, "A postmortem of three recent issues" (17 September 2025): https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/a-postmortem-of-three-recent-issues Monetary Authority of Singapore, Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence Risk Management (October 2026): https://www.mas.gov.sg/-/media/mas-media-library/regulation/guidelines/bd/guidelines-on-artificial-intelligence-risk-management-for-financial-institutions/guidelines-on-artificial-intelligence-risk-management.pdf 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ePKf2qCLzcKATS7o6w2U5 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1797349967 The mock-up in this video is an illustration: the insurer and its policy wording are made up, the model output is real (Claude Opus 5.5, 9 October 2026). Music: "Soundbed" by Blue Saga, via Epidemic Sound. 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/curiosity-code 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-curiosity-code-podcast/id1748596092

  2. Oct 6

    Programmable Self-Custody for Crypto | Frank Hepworth

    Lovely listener, share with us your thoughts! Frank Hepworth breaks down programmable self-custody, an onchain model where clients own their crypto accounts and a manager can trade in them but never withdraw from them. Self-custody crypto, onchain asset management, and why most crypto still sits with exchanges and custodians. 🔑 Key Topics & Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 1:12 What holding crypto on an exchange really costs you 4:49 Why banks entering crypto won't offer liquidity pools 6:32 Programmable self-custody explained with one key vs two 9:09 How the three-key system protects client withdrawals 11:56 Who decides the whitelisted protocols clients can trade 13:33 Why withdrawals are capped and reviewed carefully 16:33 Who the clients are and why trust comes first 20:14 Why the customer relationship matters more than the rails Frank Hepworth is the Founder and CEO of New Market Trading, an onchain asset manager built on self-custody. Each client owns their own account, and New Market Trading can trade in it but cannot withdraw from it. Before founding the company, Frank was a securities regulatory attorney working in digital assets, and later spent three years building Yieldschool, a crypto education company. Connect with Frank: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankhep X: https://x.com/frank_hep New Market Trading: https://newmarkettrading.com/ 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ePKf2qCLzcKATS7o6w2U5 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1797349967 This episode covers crypto asset management, self-custody, and what it takes to run client money onchain without holding it. For fintech founders, wealth and asset managers, family offices, and anyone building in digital assets who wants to understand programmable self-custody and onchain crypto trading. 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/curiosity-code 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-curiosity-code-podcast/id1748596092

  3. Oct 2

    Wise Owns Its Rails. Remitly Rents Them. Who's Winning?

    Lovely listener, share with us your thoughts! One remittance company owns its payment rails and keeps 52 cents of every $100. Another rents them, keeps about $2, and grew faster last year. So does owning the pipes decide who wins? A solo episode of Curiosity Code. I work through a question I've already answered twice on LinkedIn, in two different ways: crypto as the experiment where the rails couldn't be owned, what my guests Colin Butler and Elena Shiltseva said, Wise vs Remitly by the numbers, and what it means if you're building or backing a payments business in emerging markets. Plus the question I can't answer yet: in much of Africa, neither owns the last mile. The telco does. Chapters 0:00 Owning the rails vs renting them 0:44 Why remittances are worth fighting for 1:48 Crypto already ran this experiment 2:46 What my guests said 4:03 Where I land 4:38 Nuvei, Payoneer and distribution 5:29 The case for owning the rails: Wise 6:23 The case for renting them: Remitly 7:25 What it means if you're building 8:26 Who owns the last mile? 8:46 The question I can't answer yet Episodes mentioned - Colin Butler, "Crypto Won. So Where Did the Money Go?": https://youtu.be/VSVZj-sTb04 - Elena Shiltseva, "Stablecoins & DeFi: Banking's Future": https://youtu.be/9fIgozO80fY My LinkedIn posts - July 2026, on Nuvei and Payoneer: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexkhomyakov_fintech-paymentsindustry-mergersandacquisitions-activity-7489026193694961664-YjWN - September 2026, on build vs buy: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexkhomyakov_every-fintech-founder-asks-should-we-build-activity-7502697981754707968-73d6 Sources - Wise Group plc, FY2026 results (25 June 2026): https://owners.wise.com/news-releases/news-release-details/wise-group-plc-reports-full-year-2026-financial-results - Remitly Global, Form 10-K for FY2025: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1782170/000162828026009038/rely-20251231.htm - Nuvei to acquire Payoneer for $2.75 billion (15 June 2026): https://www.nuvei.com/posts/nuvei-to-acquire-payoneer-for-2-75-billion-creating-a-leading-global-platform-for-local-and-cross-border-commerce - World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, Issue 54 (Q3 2025): https://remittanceprices.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2026-04/RPW_main_report_and_annex_Q325.pdf - Benji Fernandes (NALA) on Money Code: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/money-code/id1837743368 - NALA, "Why are payments in Africa still 1% built?" (22 March 2024): https://www.nala.com/blog/why-are-payments-in-africa-still-1-built-introducing-rafiki-api - Safaricom PLC, 2026 Annual Report (M-Pesa active customers): https://africanfinancials.com/document/ke-scom-2026-ar-00/ 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ePKf2qCLzcKATS7o6w2U5 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1797349967 Every payments company decides what to own and what to rent. In cross-border payments that choice shapes margins, speed and growth, and in emerging markets the last mile may belong to neither side. Music: "Radar Focus" by Blue Saga, via Epidemic Sound. 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/curiosity-code 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-curiosity-code-podcast/id1748596092

  4. Sep 29

    AI Agents: Who's Accountable for Mistakes? | Erich Barlow

    Lovely listener, share with us your thoughts! AI governance for AI agents in financial services: when an agent makes a mistake at computer speed, who is accountable? Erich Barlow says the organization that deployed it, not the system and not the vendor. "Regulators and customers will not accept that the AI did it." In this episode he walks through where agents are already acting on their own in financial services, how much harm a simple chatbot can really do, whether a permission written into a system prompt counts as an access control, what AI certifications like ISO 42001 actually tell you, what auditors see that engineers miss, and his research into what he calls synthetic intelligence. 📌 Key Topics & Timestamps: 0:00 Cold open 0:29 Introduction 1:42 Are AI agents already acting on their own? 3:42 Who is responsible when AI makes a mistake? 6:03 Does it change if the agent came from a vendor? 6:37 Running agents week to week 7:56 Managing an agent like an employee 9:34 When an agent hits its goal and still causes harm 13:15 How much harm can a chatbot really do? 15:12 The governance layer for customer-facing AI 16:45 Third-party AI: blame the cook, not the cow 18:44 Assistant vs autonomous agent in payments 20:04 What an agent should never decide 21:28 Are system prompts access controls? 23:16 Prompt governance and data loss prevention 25:46 AI certifications: tick box or trust? 29:07 What auditors see that engineers don't 31:42 Synthetic intelligence vs artificial intelligence 35:46 Is synthetic intelligence already here? 37:26 Where to find Erich About the Guest: Erich Barlow (MIS, CITP, FBCS) is a Chartered Fellow of the BCS working in cybersecurity and AI governance, and a doctoral researcher studying how AI standardization should be built for South Africa. He writes about synthetic intelligence: machine intelligence as its own real thing, arrived at by a different route, the way a synthetic diamond is still a diamond. Connect with Erich Barlow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erichbarlow/ On X: https://x.com/erichbarlowllc Website: https://www.erichbarlowllc.com 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ePKf2qCLzcKATS7o6w2U5 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1797349967 A practical conversation on AI governance for anyone deploying AI agents in banks, payments and fintech: who carries the risk, what controls survive an audit, and where the accountability sits when something goes wrong. 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/curiosity-code 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-curiosity-code-podcast/id1748596092

  5. Sep 22

    Crypto-Backed Lending Explained | Himanshu Sahay

    Lovely listener, share with us your thoughts! Himanshu Sahay, Co-Founder of Arch Lending and a former engineering leader at Snapchat, Tinder, and Bird, breaks down how crypto-backed lending works, from bitcoin-collateralized loans to no-liquidation borrowing, currently available to institutional borrowers and rolling out soon for retail clients. This episode dives deep into the mechanics of institutional and retail crypto lending, cost of capital, and the future of bitcoin-backed finance. 📌 Key Topics & Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 8:33 Why people still aren't educated on how to use bitcoin 11:47 No-liquidation loans: available to institutions now, rolling out soon for retail 15:02 Lending mechanics: where Arch's cost of capital comes from 19:37 What happens to Arch if Bitcoin drops 50% 22:09 Why rates have dropped significantly for retail and institutional borrowers Himanshu Sahay is Arch Lending’s Co-Founder. Before Arch, he led engineering at Snapchat, Tinder, and Bird. At Arch, he leads Arch’s institutional lending and structured-products business, helping companies and funds access tailored Bitcoin-backed financing. Connect with Himanshu Sahay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/himanshusahay/ 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ePKf2qCLzcKATS7o6w2U5 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1797349967 This conversation is essential viewing for fintech founders, crypto investors, and banking innovators looking to understand how bitcoin-backed lending is reshaping consumer and institutional finance. Learn how Arch structures crypto collateral, manages risk during market volatility, and builds compliant infrastructure for the next generation of digital asset lending. Whether you're exploring bitcoin loans, DeFi-adjacent lending models, or crypto compliance strategy, this episode of The Curiosity Code Podcast delivers actionable insight. 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/curiosity-code 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-curiosity-code-podcast/id1748596092

  6. Sep 18

    AI Agents in Fintech: Are They Out of Control?

    Lovely listener, share with us your thoughts! Are AI agents out of control, or are most companies just governing them with suggestions? A solo episode on agentic AI in banking and fintech: who is in control, and who is accountable when an agent gets it wrong. In July, hundreds of AI agents inside an OpenAI test broke into Hugging Face. Meanwhile TD Bank cut a mortgage step from fifteen hours to under three minutes with an agent. Same technology, opposite outcomes. This episode looks at why, what my podcast guests disagree on, and why US bank model-risk guidance still excludes agentic AI by name. Chapters 0:00 Hundreds of AI agents broke into Hugging Face 0:50 Risk or productivity tool? 2:15 What my guests said 3:42 My take: prompts are suggestions, not controls 5:36 The evidence on both sides 7:52 What it means for banks and fintechs Episodes mentioned Parul Kaul-Green on AI in insurance claims: https://youtu.be/foiPOGZbqMA Krista Griggs on trust and technology in digital banking: https://youtu.be/BNuzc0k-5SA Christie Kristensen on open banking APIs: https://youtu.be/X-ELxbqyN78 Sources Hugging Face technical timeline: https://huggingface.co/blog/agent-intrusion-technical-timeline OCC Bulletin 2026-13, model risk management: https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/bulletins/2026/bulletin-2026-13.html METR study on AI tools and developer speed: https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/ 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ePKf2qCLzcKATS7o6w2U5 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1797349967 Agentic AI is moving into lending, fraud and payments faster than the rules that govern it. For anyone running technology at a bank or fintech, the question is where your agents' limits actually live, and who owns them. 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/curiosity-code 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-curiosity-code-podcast/id1748596092

  7. Sep 16

    Crypto Won. So Where Did the Money Go? | Colin Butler

    Lovely listener, share with us your thoughts! Colin Butler spent 2022 to 2025 as Global Head of Institutional Capital at Polygon Labs, where his team ran every major institutional launch on the chain. In this episode he goes back through four years of his own calls and says where he was wrong: why stablecoins were crypto's first product-market fit but not its only one, why the value never accrued to the infrastructure layer he was building, and why it went to the firms that already had the customers. 📌 Key Topics & Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 0:40 Where crypto actually found product-market fit 4:29 Why value didn't accrue to the infrastructure layer 10:32 Securitize and the economics of the application layer 19:22 Why blockchains are rethinking their business models 20:43 Are digital asset treasuries dead? 26:07 Why stablecoin growth stalled, and where it goes next 32:35 Leaving crypto for AI, and the problem of governing agents Correction at 22:21, from Colin after recording: when mNAV is below 1, a digital asset treasury sells tokens and buys back its own stock. About the Guest: Colin Butler was Global Head of Institutional Capital at Polygon Labs from 2022 to 2025, and most recently EVP of Capital Markets at Mega Matrix. He is now leaving crypto to build in AI, at a company currently in stealth. Connect with Colin Butler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-p-butler 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ePKf2qCLzcKATS7o6w2U5 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1797349967 A candid look at tokenization, stablecoins and institutional crypto from someone who helped build the infrastructure, for fintech founders, investors and anyone in capital markets working out where the value in digital assets actually sits. 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/curiosity-code 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-curiosity-code-podcast/id1748596092

  8. Aug 21

    Will Open Finance Democratize Banking? | Jose Luis Navarro

    Lovely listener, share with us your thoughts! Open banking is evolving faster than most traditional banks can keep up with — so where should they even start? In this episode, Jose Luis Navarro Llorens, Strategy lead for Open Banking at BBVA, breaks down what open banking, open finance, and embedded finance really mean for the future of the financial industry. ⏱️ Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 9:13 Why open banking is more than just screen scraping 14:35 Where traditional banks should begin amid rapid open banking evolution 18:19 How embedded finance and open banking are redefining entire industries 21:46 Will open finance be remembered as what democratized financial services? 24:19 Open banking and open finance exist to serve the customer About the guest: Jose Luis Navarro Llorens leads Open Banking Strategy at BBVA, one of the world's most innovative global banks. With deep expertise in open finance and embedded finance, he shares an insider's perspective on how traditional banks can adapt and thrive in an API-driven financial ecosystem. Connect with Jose Luis Navarro Llorens on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-luis-navarro-llorens/ This conversation dives deep into open banking, open finance, and embedded finance trends shaping the future of banking innovation. Whether you're a fintech founder, banking executive, or PE/VC professional tracking payments and financial technology disruption, this episode offers a first-hand look at how BBVA is navigating the shift toward customer-centric open finance. #OpenBanking #OpenFinance #EmbeddedFinance #Fintech #BankingInnovation 🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on fintech, AI, and innovation 🌐 Website: https://curiositycodepodcast.com/ 📱 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhomyakov/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/curiosity-code 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-curiosity-code-podcast/id1748596092

    Will Open Finance Democratize Banking? | Jose Luis Navarro
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About

Discover the fintech podcast "Curiosity Code", featuring exclusive interviews on fintech innovation and financial technology. Hosted by Alex, founder of the digital agency Productera, with a background in B2B and SaaS companies, the podcast brings together founders, CEOs, visionaries, and fintech leaders driving financial innovation, AI, open banking, and digital transformation.Each episode offers success stories, challenges, and groundbreaking ideas about the future of blockchain, AI agents, digital payments, wealth management, and other related financial technologies.

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Khomyakov
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    64
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Curiosity Code Podcast
  • Show Website
    Curiosity Code Podcast