Bank Nerd Corner

Kiah Haslett

Our perception of money is changing rapidly, and banks are at the center of all of it. From how we access it to how we buy to how we trust that our money will be there when we need it. Here on Bank Nerd Corner, Kiah Haslett brings on a rotating cast of expert bankers, economists, academics and more to sit down and talk about the complex dynamics shaping financial services today. Banks exist at the crossroads between risk and safety, private business and public policy and new technology and some of the oldest laws we have. If we can understand what is changing and what probably won’t, we’ll be in a better position to respond strategically. And, hopefully, we’ll understand the strange creature that is financial services a little bit better.  Subscribe to Bank Nerd Corner to get the latest episode every Thursday!

  1. Oct 1

    Talking Consumer Sentiment with CBA President Lindsey Johnson

    Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Lindsey Johnson, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association, for a conversation about consumer health and the group’s priorities for the year ahead, recorded live last week at the CBA Committee Summit. CBA represents the retail banking industry, with members ranging from midsized regionals to the country's largest banks. Kiah and Lindsey open with a deep dive into the state of the American consumer. CBA's research shows a persistent disconnect between how consumers feel about their finances and how they're actually doing. Lindsey believes that gap reflects more than income and expenses, it's about assets and ownership too. She also shares an exclusive preview of new CBA research showing that wages, which had climbed steadily over the past six to eight years, are starting to flatten out. Looking ahead, Lindsey reflects on a landmark 2026 for CBA, why fraud remains her biggest concern, and her hope that banks can be agents of change in the agentic commerce era, not bystanders waiting for the rules to catch up. --- Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/⁠⁠⁠ Follow Kiah: LinkedIn:⁠⁠⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/⁠⁠⁠ X/Twitter:⁠⁠⁠ https://x.com/khaslett

    Talking Consumer Sentiment with CBA President Lindsey Johnson
  2. Sep 28

    Fintech Takes Banking x Parlay Finance presents Agent of Record: Overseeing the AI Agent Org Chart (Episode 6)

    Agent of Record is a 12-episode limited series podcast that explores artificial intelligence in financial services.  In this episode, cohosts Kiah Haslett of Fintech Takes Banking and Parlay Finance CEO Alex McLeod welcome Patrick Slain, a banker and a builder. Patrick shared what happens when a risk-trained banker decided to start automating his personal life — and hasn’t stopped. What began as a single low-risk task automation has grown over 15 months into a personal agentic system with more than 100 scheduled automations organized under a structured org chart. He explained how he designed his systems and leveraged his banker mentality, often seen as a source of institutional drag, to build in resiliency, redundancy, governance and security. --- This episode is brought to you by Parlay Finance. Small business and SBA lenders lose hours chasing documents and checking eligibility before a deal ever reaches underwriting. Parlay Finance's AI-native Loan Intelligence System (LIS) cuts manual work to qualify a deal by 80% — automating intake, document processing and deal structuring upstream of the Loan Origination System (LOS) — so lenders can close more loans without sacrificing credit quality. See how at www.parlay.finance   --- Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Follow Alex McLeod on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcleodalexandra/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Kiah: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/khaslett⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to Kiah: ⁠⁠⁠https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/⁠

    Fintech Takes Banking x Parlay Finance presents Agent of Record: Overseeing the AI Agent Org Chart (Episode 6)
  3. Sep 24

    Taking the Pulse of Americans’ Financial Health

    Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Taylor Nelms, Vice President of Research and Insights at the Financial Health Network (https://finhealthnetwork.org). The Financial Health Network is a nonprofit think tank that works with banks, credit unions, fintechs, employers and other organizations to improve the financial health of American consumers. The Financial Health Network Pulse Survey measures consumer financial health across four pillars — spending, saving, borrowing, and planning and protecting — to generate a FinHealth Score. This metric captures a household's financial life: cash flow, liquidity, debt manageability, long-term savings progress and insurance confidence. Taylor shares some sobering high-level results and three forward-looking warning signs emerging from the 2026 survey. They then dig into why financial institutions should care. It turns out that a socially responsible strategy can also build loyalty and growth with financially healthy consumers. Financial Health Pulse® 2026 U.S. Trends Report: https://finhealthnetwork.org/research/financial-health-pulse-2026-u-s-trends-report/ --- Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/⁠⁠⁠ --- Follow Taylor on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-nelms/ Follow Kiah: LinkedIn:⁠⁠⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/⁠⁠⁠ X/Twitter:⁠⁠⁠ https://x.com/khaslett⁠⁠

    Taking the Pulse of Americans’ Financial Health
  4. Sep 14

    Fintech Takes Banking x Parlay Finance presents Agent of Record: Building Builders - How AI Unlocked Creativity at FHLBank Topeka (Episode 5)

    Agent of Record is a 12-episode limited series podcast that explores artificial intelligence in financial services.  In this episode, cohosts Kiah Haslett and Alex McLeod welcome Steven Townsend, SVP and Head of Strategy and Innovation at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka (https://www.fhlbtopeka.com). Townsend shares his experience spearheading AI adoption at FHLBank Topeka over the past year. FHLB Topeka stood up an innovation lab stocked with development workstations that are off the bank network, allowing employees to experiment, and hosted hackathons that paired developers with business staff who had never written a line of code. The concept has resonated with FHLBank staff. Steven discusses model interchangeability, evaluation frameworks and why breaking risk concerns into discrete, addressable problems works better than trying to resolve everything at once. For institutions weighing where to start, Townsend's takeaway is direct: get the tools in front of people, make them drive, and let word of mouth do the rest. --- This episode is brought to you by Parlay Finance.  Small business and SBA lenders lose hours chasing documents and checking eligibility before a deal ever reaches underwriting. Parlay Finance's AI-native Loan Intelligence System (LIS) cuts manual work to qualify a deal by 80% — automating intake, document processing and deal structuring upstream of the Loan Origination System (LOS) — so lenders can close more loans without sacrificing credit quality. See how at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.parlay.finance⁠⁠⁠⁠  --- Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Follow Steven Townsend on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-townsend-cfa/ Follow Alex McLeod on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcleodalexandra/⁠⁠⁠ Follow Kiah: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/khaslett⁠⁠ Subscribe to Kiah: ⁠⁠https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/⁠

    Fintech Takes Banking x Parlay Finance presents Agent of Record: Building Builders - How AI Unlocked Creativity at FHLBank Topeka (Episode 5)
  5. Sep 10

    Can AI Replace Personal Financial Advisors?

    Bank Nerd Corner welcomes Melissa Koide, founder and CEO of FinRegLab (https://finreglab.org), to discuss the research organization’s latest project focused on personal financial agents. FinRegLab is working with companies and nonprofits that are building financial agents to track real consumer outcomes over time. The project is in response to trends that indicate consumers are already turning to large language models like ChatGPT and Claude for financial advice, bypassing their own banks and advisors.  These AI agents not only inform consumers, but have the potential to act on their behalf. Melissa and Kiah walk through the liability questions, alignment challenges, and deposit-flight risks that arise when AI moves money on a consumer's behalf. They also discuss how to define what good outcomes might look like, whether standard financial health metrics are adequate for non-deterministic AI tools and the complicated, emotional reality of personal finance. Learn more about the FinRegLab project here: https://finreglab.org/research/ai-enabled-personal-financial-agents/ Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/⁠⁠ --- Follow Melissa on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-koide-43219393/ Follow Kiah: LinkedIn:⁠⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/⁠⁠ X/Twitter:⁠⁠ https://x.com/khaslett⁠

    Can AI Replace Personal Financial Advisors?

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Our perception of money is changing rapidly, and banks are at the center of all of it. From how we access it to how we buy to how we trust that our money will be there when we need it. Here on Bank Nerd Corner, Kiah Haslett brings on a rotating cast of expert bankers, economists, academics and more to sit down and talk about the complex dynamics shaping financial services today. Banks exist at the crossroads between risk and safety, private business and public policy and new technology and some of the oldest laws we have. If we can understand what is changing and what probably won’t, we’ll be in a better position to respond strategically. And, hopefully, we’ll understand the strange creature that is financial services a little bit better.  Subscribe to Bank Nerd Corner to get the latest episode every Thursday!

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