This week on Breaking Banks, we spotlight our sister podcast, The Bankers’ Bookshelf, hosted by Paolo Sironi.

In this episode, Paolo sits down with frequent Breaking Banks guest Leda Glyptis to discuss her book, “Beyond Resilience: Patterns of Success in Fintech and Digital Transformation”. Drawing from candid interviews with leading entrepreneurs, Leda moves past the typical success stories to uncover the raw realities of building groundbreaking ventures. She offers an honest exploration of digital transformation, including the lessons learned, inevitable mistakes, course-corrections, and the personal and professional growth required to lead through the messiness of digital change.

Leading fintech transformation demands more than sheer resilience: it’s about wielding control amid chaos, maintaining consistency and integrity, and standing firm, whether solo or with a team.

This conversation is essential for anyone navigating the complexities of fintech transformation. Listen now!

What’s your favorite holiday movie? It’s a Wonderful Life? Miracle on 34th Street? Scrooged? Plot twist (literally): These are all banking movies.

This week on Breaking Banks hosts Jason Henrichs and JP Nicols invite you to an Alloy Labs virtual holiday gathering. Joined by Amber Frye, Pam Kaur, and Samer Saab, they share favorite holiday movies with good cheer and a twist — the need to tie the cinematic selections back to banking and fintech.

Tie back to banking and fintech, you say? Think fraud, legal contracts, loan workouts, wealth management, alternative investments, identity theft — you get the picture! It’s a lively and animated conversation.

No spoiler alerts, so let’s get this party started … listen and watch now!!

It’s not too late to check out some of the favorite recommendations and to let us know if you agree with their takes, or have suggestions of your own. We’re listening!!

What if someone told you you’ve been underpaid by more than two million dollars across your career?

In this episode, Jason Henrichs speaks with fintech entrepreneur Tom Sosnoff. You may know Tom from founding thinkorswim and tastytrade, two billion-dollar exits that transformed retail investing. His newest venture, Lossdog, launching this month, focuses onsalary transparency.

Traditional compensation platforms rely on legacy salary benchmarks and anonymous, unverified self-reports that create wide ranges. Lossdog’s approach to compensation data is one that uses AI and verified data sources to deliver personalized valuations rather than vague, crowdsourced ranges. Think of it as whole-person valuation meets Machine Learning — a worth engine combined with AI onboarding surfacing overlooked value in resumes, including skills, certifications, pivots, and even career gaps.

It’s all about fair value and knowing your worth! Lossdog aims to give individuals institutional-grade tools to negotiate salary on equal footing with employers by generating accurate compensation valuations.

Listen, share, and subscribe for more weekly fintech insights from Breaking Banks.

This week, Breaking Banks offers a human interest story from Brett’s conference travels. Listen as Brett connects with Arwa Damon, former CNN reporter based in Istanbul, and current President and Founder of INARA, an NGO working in Palestine.
INARA, International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance, is a humanitarian organization providing rapid response and treatment to refugee children, its mission to ensure every child has the agency to create a dignified life.
Arwa provides a first-hand look at the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and discusses how it impacts the basic needs and access to financial services for people living there.

In this episode of Breaking Banks, hosts Jason Henrichs, Brett King and JP Nicols delve into the transformative impact of AI and technology on the banking industry, and share insights on what institutions must do to not only survive, but thrive as AI rewrites playbooks.

The conversation covers the role of stablecoins, agentic AI, the future of smart contracts, smarter digital infrastructure, and how accelerated innovation cycles are reshaping the global financial system.

They explore the structural changes they see coming and the potential of AI in automating cross-border transactions and business banking platforms, while discussing challenges and opportunities for larger and smaller banks in adapting to new systems of trade.

How best for bankers to get ready for this transition?

All banks, regardless of size, need to get their data house in order, ensuring better access to their data and data capabilities, and need to assess their cultural agility. The banking industry is entering a new era where data fluency, cultural adaptability and use of available AI tools and AI-driven automation will define the competitive frontier and spark innovation. As the hosts remind us, “Adapt or be left behind.”

Listen now to hear how leaders across banking and fintech can navigate the shift and prepare for what comes next.

Today, we turn the show over to our friends at Breaking Banks Europe, as we celebrate their 6th anniversary.

What began as a podcast experiment has grown to over 280 episodes, more than 570 guests, thousands of listeners from every corner of the world, and countless debates.

Over the past 6 years, the show has:

• Shaped conversations around open banking, fintech, DeFi, payments, digital innovation and every trend and highlight you can think of.
• Featured founders, heads of state, college students, academics, executives, regulators, dreamers, disruptors & troublemakers.
• Connected Europe with the Middle East, Africa, Asia, LATAM and beyond
• Helped spotlight voices that deserve to be heard

Today we’re celebrating with a special throwback episode. Host Matteo Rizzi welcomes back Serena Torielli, CEO and founder of WealthHype, who first joined the show back in Episode 3.
In this new conversation, Matteo and Serena dive into Revolut’s explosive growth in Italy, the future of private banking, and how AI, Bitcoin, and gold are reshaping investing. They also explore regulation, stablecoins, and global market shifts, with Serena sharing her optimistic view on innovation in AI, energy, and biotech as drivers of the next financial revolution.

Today on Breaking Banks we feature the newest addition to the Provoke.fm family, Breaking Banks Africa.

In this episode Breaking Banks Africa Host and Executive Producer Matteo Rizzi sits down with Sandra Yao, Ecobank‘s Group Head: Cross Border Remittance, Payments & BaaS (Fintech). With 20 years of experience driving fintech and payment innovation across Africa, Sandra brings a unique “builder’s mindset” into one of the continent’s largest financial institutions, operating in 39 markets.

From pioneering mobile money to tackling fragmented infrastructure and regulatory environments, Sandra shares how interoperability, accessibility, and digital transformation are reshaping the future of payments in emerging economies. Additionally, Sandra reveals how Ecobank is empowering young African talent, forming major tech partnerships (including Google), and creating API-first solutions to help fintech founders scale across borders.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about Africa’s digital growth story, inclusive innovation, and hearing about those turning vision into execution—from Nairobi to the world.

Markets are whipsawing, rate paths are murky, and headlines keep revising “the facts”, but no matter where we are in the economic cycle, the future presses on regardless. Our resident futurist Brett King and our resident “recovering banker” JP Nicols debate what that means for incumbent financial institutions and insurgent fintechs.

We unpack how AI is shifting from pilots to profit (and where it’s still hype), why deposit mobility and funding stability will be the quiet kingmakers of 2026, and how the inevitable continued rise of agentic AI and its insatiable need for energy collide with real world Monday morning priorities.

If you’re ready to retire the 2006 playbook and win in 2026, you’ll want to give this one a listen.