Climate First Bank's plans to expand nationwide

The Florida bank has emerged from de novo status and can now offer its solar loans in a larger geographic footprint.

Foundational models like GPT-4, the large language model behind ChatGPT, have hoovered up content from publications like The New York Times and social media sites like Reddit and OpenAI, and it faces several lawsuits because of this. John Thompson, global head of artificial intelligence at EY and author of the book Data for All, has set up what is believed to be the largest private, secure generative AI environment in the world, with focus on keeping internal data protected.

Proof of identity is critical for many things, including being able to open a bank account, get a job, or obtain health care. Yet proving one’s identity is getting harder in a world of frequent data breaches. We asked Mariana Dahan, founder of the World Identity Network and chair of the Universal ID Council, what she thinks will solve this problem.

Custodia Founder and CEO Caitlin Long says the Federal Reserve has rewritten the rules around accessing the government's payments system. The central bank and a federal court judge disagree. Editor’s note: This conversation was recorded on April 17. On April 26, Custodia Bank filed a notice of appeal, signaling that it will challenge the district court decision in favor of the Federal Reserve.

Banking as a service is expensive, it takes time and onboarding has to be done carefully, says the founder of Bancorp Bank, who now runs a venture capital firm that invests in fintechs. 

Cloud-based tech giants like Amazon, Google and Uber are changing the economy, and not for the better, asserts Yanis Varoufakis, a former finance minister of Greece and a professor at the University of Athens, who has written a book about the dangers of what he calls the "cloudalists."

Financial technology startups have developed some useful technology for consumers, such as automated savings, says Tescher, who founded the Financial Health Network 20 years ago. But some fintech innovations are more questionable. 

Geraldine Fleming, financial task force manager at United for Wildlife and Jonny Bell, director, EMEA, LexisNexis Risk Solutions explain how banks around the world are helping to catch criminals who illegally mutilate, kill and sell rhinoceroses, elephants, donkeys and other animals.

Eric Siegel, author of the book The AI Playbook, explains what it takes to take traditional and advanced artificial intelligence projects from idea to execution.  

The neobank doubled its membership to five million consumers and hired 200 people last year. Founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche explains how it fared during a time when many fintechs struggled.