Podcasts on Dashdevs. sci-tech crew.

Euro Stablecoin: Built by Europeans for Europe, with Jan-Oliver Sell, Qivalis | FG Podcast 175

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Jan-Oliver Sell, CEO of Qivalis, opens with the number that frames this entire episode: almost every stablecoin transaction today settles in US dollars, even though roughly 25% of global stablecoin activity is initiated from inside Europe. That mismatch, demand without a liquid euro to meet it, is what Qivalis was built to solve.

Digital euro and euro stablecoin are not the same thing

Jan-Oliver draws a clear line between two projects that get conflated. The ECB’s retail digital euro is a cash-like instrument for consumer use, and it won’t run on a blockchain. What Qivalis issues is an electronic money token, a euro-denominated stablecoin backed 1:1 by reserves held in treasury, designed specifically to let euro-based financial activity happen on chain.

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

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Omar El Gammal, EVP of Global Business Development at Paymob, opens by rejecting the umbrella term most founders use. In his framing, treating the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the rest of the Gulf as one market is the first strategic mistake: different dialects, different population composition, different regulatory frameworks, and different national visions all mean a strategy built for one rarely transfers cleanly to another.

UAE vs. Saudi Arabia: two fundamentally different plays

Omar draws a sharp contrast between the two largest markets. The UAE’s diverse, international population rewards a hiring strategy built around matching merchant nationalities and languages. Saudi Arabia is more locally concentrated and nationalistic in its business culture, and typically requires more funding given its regulatory scale. Neither market rewards a copy-paste strategy from the other.

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

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 04:00:00 +0000

At Paysafe, integrating artificial intelligence into core engineering requires far more than adopting new tooling. It demands a structural overhaul of operational workflows and risk management. Ahu Chhapgar, CTO at Paysafe and former executive at PayPal, Mastercard, and Citi, walks through what that actually looks like when the product is payments, not a sandbox.

The reality behind 64% AI-generated code

Chhapgar highlights a pivotal benchmark: in July, 64% of the software his engineering organization shipped was generated by AI. However, he emphasizes a critical caveat often overlooked: accelerating code generation does not eliminate the necessity for functional requirements, regulatory oversight, or security validation. It simply shifts where operational effort is concentrated. Custom fintech software development still has to carry those constraints, whether a human or a model wrote the first draft.

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

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 04:00:00 +0000

From showing your balance to predicting your future: Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea open this episode with what they call the central leap happening in digital banking right now: institutions moving past simply displaying transactions and balances toward actively budgeting, forecasting, and advising on a user’s money. Dumitru points to his own past work on a UK savings-focused product as an early example of this shift, one built entirely around the idea that a thriving customer is a customer with money left over to spend on premium features. That product lens is familiar from Chip’s saving and investment app, where the product succeeds when the customer actually keeps money.

Real Time Is Just a Marketing Concept, with Yuliia Komaryn

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 04:00:00 +0000

“Real time” is a marketing concept, not a technical one. Yuliia Komaryn, Business Analytics Team Lead at DashDevs, opens with a distinction that reshapes the rest of the conversation: real time isn’t a technical requirement, it’s a marketing and stakeholder-facing concept. A fraud alert genuinely needs millisecond response. A monthly profit metric doesn’t. The real design question isn’t “can we make this instant,” it’s “what’s the right time for this specific metric to reach the person who needs to act on it.”

Should You Launch a Bank? With Igor Tomych and Arthur Bedel

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

DashDevs CEO Igor Tomych sat down with Arthur Bedel, Advisor for Connecting the Dots in payments and founder of Monyz, to talk through why every SPV, enterprise, and startup seems to be launching a digital bank right now — and why so many collapse fast.

The cultural gap between a digitized branch and a real digital bank

Igor argues the failures aren’t mainly technical. Legacy banks built their culture around physical branches and silos over centuries; simply putting that same product logic into a phone doesn’t make it a digital bank. The companies pulling off insane valuations, in his view, succeed because at their core they’re software companies that happen to operate in financial services, not banks that bolted on an app.

What the GENIUS Act Actually Does to Stablecoins

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For a law that got mocked for its name, the GENIUS Act may end up being one of the more consequential pieces of financial regulation in years. In this special hosts-only episode, Dumitru Condrea and Igor Tomych spend an episode on what it actually does, not what the headlines say it does.

What the GENIUS Act actually requires

Before the act, stablecoins were minted and redeemed globally with no consistent oversight of what backed them. The GENIUS Act changes that: a company can only issue a US dollar stablecoin if it’s licensed, supervised, and fully backed 1:1 by approved reserves — cash, Federal Reserve balances, insured bank deposits, short-dated Treasury securities, and a handful of other qualifying liquid assets. Redemption, transparency, and AML and sanctions compliance are now baked into the law rather than left to “trust me” self-regulation.

Pay by Bank Is Coming for Cash, Not Cards, with Johannes Kolbeinsson

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Everyone assumes account-to-account payments are coming for cards. Johannes Kolbeinsson, Co-Founder and CEO at Paystrax and a card acquirer with over 20 years in the business, argues the opposite: A2A’s real target is cash — and it is still losing to cards because it simply takes too many steps.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, he walks through why pay by bank has not broken through the way the industry keeps predicting, how friendly fraud is quietly reshaping merchant incentives, and why a parallel banking system is forming around stablecoins.

Why Fast Rails Aren't the Hard Part, with Marwan Forzley

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Everyone in fintech is chasing the same headline: instant settlement, cross-border payments in seconds, stablecoins moving money in real time.

Marwan Forzley, CEO and co-founder of Veem, has spent over a decade building the infrastructure behind exactly that. His take on the industry’s obsession with speed runs against the grain.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, he joins Dumitru Condrea to explain why the rail is the easy part — and why compliance, risk, and user experience decide whether a transaction actually clears.

Ghost jobs are real, with Nadia Edwards-Dashti

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For three and a half years, fintech hiring has run in one direction: down. Redundancies outpaced growth roles, and the people who kept their jobs often ended up doing two or three of them.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast turns to Nadia Edwards-Dashti, Chief Customer Officer at Harrington Starr, whose agency runs close to 1,000 interviews every quarter across fintech, payments, and financial services. In conversation with Igor Tomych, she explains why 2026 finally looks different, and what companies got wrong along the way.

AI vs AI: the race with no finish line, with Jerry Floros

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Most of the current AI conversation runs on two tracks.

The optimistic track — abundance, productivity, cures for disease. The apocalyptic track — job displacement, existential risk, doom.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, Jerry Floros steps off both tracks and does something rarer. He walks through the actual numbers.

The economics of AI development. The physical constraints on data centre buildout. The political dynamics around Europe’s sovereign AI push. The mental health cost that is already visible in the labour market.

Cash rich, credit poor — the customers fintech keeps missing, with Kristy Kim

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Roughly 30 million Americans have no credit history.

Not because they cannot afford one. Because the credit system does not know how to read a customer whose financial life pattern is saving rather than borrowing.

That is the entire market TomoCredit was built for.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, Kristy Kim — CEO and co-founder of TomoCredit — sits down with Igor Tomych for one of the more grounded founder conversations in fintech this year.

Stablecoins are the pathfinder for digital assets, with David Birch

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Stablecoins have been circulating in the fintech conversation for two years. Blockchain has been around for more than ten. The signal-to-noise ratio in the discussion is close to zero.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, recorded at the Fintech Garden Budapest studio, host Igor Tomych sits down with David G.W. Birch — author, consultant, and one of the longest-standing pattern recognisers in digital money and digital identity. Birch steps back from the current news cycle and applies 40 years of experience to the question: what is actually happening, and what does history suggest happens next?

Fintech communities are broken — here's the data-driven fix, with Stavros Psyllos

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Fintech talks constantly about ecosystems. Less is said about how those ecosystems actually get built, who builds them, and why most attempts fail.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, host Igor Tomych sits down with Stavros Psyllos — VP of Enterprise Solutions at OpenPayd and Founder and Chairman of the Cyprus Fintech Society — for the first conversation on the show dedicated specifically to the human layer of the industry.

What MENA gets right about open finance, with Samer Soliman

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For most operators outside the region, MENA’s open banking story is not the one being covered in the European trade press.

It should be.

The UAE has issued Open Finance Licenses. Bahrain has been operating an open banking framework regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain for several years. And the model — regulator-driven, deliberately scoped, designed for the broader open finance perimeter from day one — is producing results that look meaningfully different from the European and UK experience.

80% of organised crime hides in corporate structures, with Adam McLaughlin

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For most of the last twenty years, AML and financial crime compliance was structured around a single question: did you have the systems and processes in place? KYC, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, SAR generation. If the boxes were ticked, the institution was compliant.

That model is ending.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, host Dumitru Condrea sits down with Adam McLaughlin — Director of Financial Crime Product at Fenergo, former UK police detective at City of London Police, former AML compliance lead at JP Morgan, and former Global Director of Financial Crime Strategy at NICE Actimize — to unpack what has actually changed.

Are banks becoming irrelevant in the AI era? With Theodora Lau

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For most of the last decade, the question facing digital banks was operational. Better app. Faster onboarding. Lower cost-to-serve.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, Theodora Lau argues the question has moved. The competitive frontier in 2026 is no longer between banks. It is between the entire banking industry and the AI tools that customers now use as their first financial advisor.

JD Power’s most recent data: 53% of US consumers have asked AI for financial advice in the past three months.

Why your next banker will be an AI, with Brett King

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +0000

The challenger bank era is largely settled. The interesting question is what comes next.

Brett King has spent fifteen years writing the framework for that question — four books in the Bank series, with the fifth out in November. In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, he walks through what he expects the next ten years to look like.

The summary, in his words: banking becomes like electricity. Embedded in the world. Invisible. Surfaced through whichever AI happens to be managing the user’s moment.

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

Tue, 26 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For most of the last five years, UK open banking has lived under a recurring criticism: capability without consumer-facing impact. APIs were live, regulations were in place, and sandboxes were busy. None of it produced the consumer payment alternative the original PSD2 narrative implied.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast steps into the moment that is starting to change.

In conversation with David Parker — founder and CEO of Polymath Consulting, Lead Ambassador to The Payments Association, and one of the longest-standing voices in UK payments — the focus is on cVRP: Commercial Variable Recurring Payments. The first open banking scheme was designed specifically to compete with card-on-file and direct debit.

CBDC: What you need you know?

Tue, 19 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Most people working in fintech cannot answer a simple question: in how many forms can €100 exist right now?

The honest answer is five. Cash. Retail bank balance. Electronic money institution balance. Stablecoin. Central Bank Digital Currency.

Each one operates under a completely different model of custody, regulation, and risk. And the fifth — CBDC — is about to change how the other four relate to each other.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast steps away from the usual interview format. Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea sit down for a structured explainer on CBDC: what it is, where it is, and what the next three years actually look like.

European payments enter execution mode: PSD3, Wero, DORA, with Andréa Toucinho

Tue, 12 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For most of the past decade, European payments were a story of accumulation. New regulations are layered on top of older ones. New initiatives announced alongside unfinished ones. New acronyms are entering the vocabulary faster than operators can integrate them.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast marks the moment that the pattern starts to break. In conversation with Andréa Toucinho of Partelya Consulting, the focus shifts from what is being proposed to what is being deployed.

Why behavioral science is the missing layer in fintech, with Anna Nyvelt & Noemi Molnar

Tue, 05 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For most of the last decade, fintech has been built around the assumption of a rational user. A user who reads the terms, compares the rates, weighs the risks, and clicks the right button.

That user does not exist.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast, Anna Nyvelt and Noemi Molnar of BeHive walk through what financial product teams keep missing, and what behavioral science actually changes when it moves from the marketing department into product and engineering.

Product vs Engineering: The Hidden Bottleneck in Fintech Teams

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Fintech delivery breaks when teams optimize separately

Product and engineering misalignment is one of the most common reasons fintech delivery slows down.

The issue is rarely that one team is wrong. More often, each team is optimizing for a different outcome. Product focuses on customer value, growth, and market fit. Engineering focuses on feasibility, architecture, stability, and technical quality. Compliance focuses on risk, licensing, and regulatory obligations.

In fintech, these priorities cannot be managed separately.

Agentic payments explained: the next fintech shift already started

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000

A shift from interaction to delegation

Fintech products have historically been designed around interaction.

Users initiate actions, confirm decisions, and move step by step through payment flows. Even as interfaces improved, the core model remained unchanged. Humans stayed at the center of execution.

[Agentic payments] (https://dashdevs.com/blog/agentic-payments-explained-how-ai-agents-make-autonomous-transactions/) introduce a different paradigm.

Instead of interacting with systems, users delegate to them. They define objectives, constraints, and limits. Systems execute within those boundaries, making decisions when required.

Why fintech is moving from speed to trust, with Ezequiel Canestrari

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For years, fintech rewarded speed. Launch faster. Ship earlier. Capture users before incumbents react.

That playbook worked in a market where access to infrastructure was limited and user expectations were still forming. Being first created momentum, and momentum often compensated for imperfections.

That environment no longer exists.

In today’s fintech landscape, infrastructure is more accessible, APIs are more standardized, and users are significantly better informed. The constraint has shifted. It is no longer about getting to market first. It is about staying in the market without breaking under pressure.

AI in fraud is no longer offense vs defense, with Andre Isoni

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For years, fintech has been defined by acceleration. Faster onboarding. Real-time payments. Automated compliance. The industry has consistently rewarded speed and efficiency.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast reframes that trajectory. In a conversation with Andre Isoni, Chief AI Officer at AI Technologies, the focus shifts from acceleration to resilience. The question is no longer how fast systems can operate, but how well they can withstand adversarial pressure.

The discussion centers on a structural shift already underway.

Fintechs sell products. Banks absorb responsibility, with Ronel David

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:00:00 +0000

For years, fintech has been defined by disruption. Faster products. Better interfaces. New ways to serve customers. The assumption was clear: better technology would outperform legacy systems.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast challenges that assumption. In a conversation with Ronel David, the focus shifts from disruption to integration. The question is no longer how fintech replaces banks, but how it works with them.

The discussion reframes where friction actually exists.

Great technology dies if it can’t speak to humans, with Greg Palmer

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 05:00:00 +0000

For years, fintech has been defined by acceleration. Faster onboarding. Smarter automation. AI-driven everything. The industry rewarded whoever could build, ship, and scale the quickest.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast shifts that lens. In a conversation with Greg Palmer, host of Finnovate, the focus moves from capability to alignment. The question is no longer how much technology can do, but whether it is being applied in the right direction.

AI systems do not hallucinate. Humans hallucinate, with Tony Fish

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:00:00 +0000

The rapid rise of AI has created a governance challenge that many organizations are only beginning to understand. In this conversation between Igor Tomych and fintech investor and advisor Tony Fish, the discussion explores why AI governance is becoming a structural issue for financial services. Rather than focusing only on regulation or model explainability, the episode examines deeper tensions between how banking systems operate and how modern technology platforms evolve.

Digital euro is not crypto. It is digital cash, with Rainer Olt

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For more than a decade, payments innovation has been defined by convenience. Faster checkouts. Invisible wallets. Seamless cross-border flows. The market rewarded whoever reduced friction the most.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast shifts the lens. In a conversation with Rainer Olt, Head of Payments and Settlement Systems at Eesti Pank, the focus moves from speed to sovereignty. The digital euro is not introduced as a product upgrade. It is presented as infrastructure designed for continuity.

Credit inclusion is not a niche problem, with Noah Buchman

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For years, fintech progress has been measured by speed to market. Faster launches, lighter licenses, and deeper reliance on banking partners became the default playbook. The assumption was simple. Build the technology, plug into a bank, and scale.

This episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast questions that assumption. In a conversation with Noah Buchman, Co-founder of Propel and President of Propel Bank, the focus moves away from product features and toward the structural limits of non-bank fintech. After more than 15 years building credit infrastructure, Propel reached a conclusion many fintechs avoid. To go further, it had to become a bank.

Africa's Fintech: Local belief changes everything, with Germain Bahri

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0000

For more than a decade, global fintech has been shaped by playbooks developed in Silicon Valley and refined across Europe. Product-led growth, rapid iteration, design-first experiences, and license portability are often treated as universal rules. This Fintech Garden episode challenges that assumption by examining what happens when those models are applied in African markets, where infrastructure, regulation, and trust operate under very different conditions.

Drawing on the experience of Germain Bahri, co-founder at Zazu, the discussion makes a clear point. Fintech success in Europe does not automatically translate to emerging markets, because the problems being solved are not the same.

Security is only as strong as the weakest link, with Dennis Winter

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Cybersecurity rarely makes headlines when it works, but when it fails, the consequences are immediate and expensive. In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, hosts Igor Tomych and Dmytro Kondratenko speak with Dennis Vinta, Chief Security Officer at Börse Stuttgart Group and CTO of Börse Stuttgart Digital, about how security has evolved from an IT safeguard into foundational infrastructure for digital finance.

Why cybersecurity is now a board-level priority

Igor, Dumitru, and Dennis explore how the threat landscape has evolved over the past decade. As financial systems moved to cloud environments, SaaS platforms, and digital assets, complexity increased significantly. Identity access management, third-party tooling, and distributed teams introduced new risks that cannot be addressed with perimeter defenses alone.

Stablecoins are popular because they solve a real problem, with Chris Mason

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Fintech Garden was built around the evolution of financial infrastructure, and few topics illustrate that shift more clearly than the rise of stablecoins in cross-border payments. In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, host Igor Tomych speaks with Chris Mason, founder and CEO of Orbital, about how stablecoins moved from fringe experimentation to real-world payment infrastructure used by global businesses.

Why stablecoins gained traction in cross-border payments

Igor and Chris unpack why stablecoins found adoption first in cross-border and high-friction markets rather than domestic payments. The conversation traces the long-standing limitations of correspondent banking, from delayed settlement and opaque fees to liquidity constraints that disproportionately affect businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions. Stablecoins emerge not as a speculative asset, but as a response to customers being locked out of efficient access to US dollars.

Stablecoins without the volatility, with Kebbie Sebastian

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Fintech Garden was built around the evolution of financial infrastructure, it’s impossible to ignore how stablecoins have moved from experimentation to real-world deployment. In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, host Igor Tomych sits down with Kebbie Sebastian, CEO of Merge, to unpack how stablecoins are reshaping B2B cross-border payments.

Why stablecoins moved into the mainstream

Igor and Kebbie explore why stablecoins have rapidly shifted perception, from a niche blockchain experiment to a serious payments instrument used by fintechs, banks, and global businesses. The conversation points to three major drivers: regulatory progress in markets like Europe and the US, the technical advantages of blockchain without crypto volatility, and long-standing friction in correspondent banking.

Classic lending isn’t dying. It’s evolving. With Svitlanka Sergiichuk.

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Successful fintechs excel at delivering platforms that simplify regular financial operations. However, just because it looks simple to the end user, doesn’t mean it’s simple in the background. That’s where the magic happens. Svitlanka Sergiichuk, CEO and co-founder of Novafin Solutions, joins our host, Igor, to hold a mirror against the backstage work it takes to put together formidable lending, BNPL, and embedded finance systems.

Lending Isn’t Going Anywhere. It’s Just Changing Shape.

Term loans and credit cards might not sound exciting, but they’re still the backbone of how businesses and consumers operate. Most ambitious projects don’t happen because someone had spare cash lying around. They happen because financing makes them possible.

Criminals don’t steal money. They steal identities. With Dan Feaheny.

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Having our entire mission revolve around fintech and finance, we’re bound to discuss how banking evolved in the recent years. Even more so, we’re likely to address the issue of security. In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, our own Igor Tomych sits down with Dan Feaheny,

From mobile banking to real-time finance

The two fintech experts trace how banking evolved from branch-based, paper-heavy processes into mobile-first, real-time systems. Dan and Igor reflect on the early fintech wave that followed the rise of smartphones, when challenger banks redefined customer expectations around convenience, cost, and speed.

Scaling Without Illusions with Nikolay Popandopulo

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0000

What happens when two technical fintech executives go all-out in a conversation about scaling and team management?

In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych talks to Nikolay Popandopulo, CPO, Kaspi.kz — eGrocery division. The conversation serves as a switch of pace from the usual conversation taking place throughout the podcast. Starting with the guest’s educational background, to a journey through his earlier professional experiences, Tomych helps highlight how Popandopulo established methods that later led to Kaspi’s success.

Crypto's ”Valley of Death”

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Igor Tomych speaks with Lex Fisun, CEO & Co-Founder of Global Ledger, about how trust is established in crypto markets and why compliance has become a prerequisite for institutional adoption. Drawing from Global Ledger’s work with blockchain analytics, the conversation examines how transparency, monitoring, and regulation are reshaping the relationship between crypto and traditional finance.

Rather than treating crypto as an isolated ecosystem, the discussion positions it as a financial layer that must now operate under similar expectations to banking, payments, and capital markets.

Podcast 135: AI vs Fraud: Inside Device Fingerprinting

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our host, Igor Tomych, speaks with Catherine Woneis, VP of Product at Fingerprint, about how fraud detection works in a world where banking, commerce, and identity increasingly live inside browsers and mobile apps. Rather than theorizing regulation, the conversation focuses on the real mechanics of device intelligence, AI, and how trust is established digitally.

Woneis brings two decades of experience in analytics and fraud prevention, offering a practical view on how signals from devices and browsers are used to identify risk without turning fraud detection into user tracking. The episode explores where privacy boundaries should sit, and why intent matters more than any single data point.

Busting Credit Union Myths

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This week, our hosts, Igor and Dumitru, are taking a different approach to expanding their knowledge when it comes to finance. As we’ve had the pleasure of hosting global experts in the world of finance and fintech, it felt like the right time to look at how things work for funnel-end users.

Amber Harsin, Vice President of Credit Unions at Mambu, sheds a light at how credit unions in the United States operate, who their main customers are, and what challenges they face on the regular. As an eye-opening experience, Harsin shows how while credit unions lag behind modern-day fintechs, they are bound to duplicate many of their strategies and technologies.

Future of Real-Time Payments in Europe

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Igor Tomych sits down with Domenico Scaffidi, Member of the Bank of England Standard Advisory Panel and CEO of DS Payments to discuss the present and future of real-time payments. The two executives highlight the major changes in Europe’s fintech regulatory environment and how it reflects on the current and future states of payments.

Real time payments are no longer “just a new rail” but a full transformation.

Domenico explains that instant payments require orchestration across legacy systems, ISO 20022 migration, real time AML, liquidity, and verification of payee. Most PSPs are not equally integrated and the system only works when both sides operate at the same level. This shift makes real time payments a new way of banking, not a plug and play upgrade.

How Automation is Transforming Tax in Fintech

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this week’s episode, our host, Igor Tomych, interviews Roman von der Höh, Managing Director at RAQUEST Switzerland GmbH. The conversation this time around is about taxes, a topic not discussed often enough in fintech. However, the chat does put into perspective how the taxation system in Europe is due for an upgrade and Roman is bringing forth a unique solution to the challenge.

Withholding tax is outdated, fragmented, and becoming more complex

Tax processes are still manual and paper driven, even as cross-border investing grows and new assets like crypto emerge. Most retail investors and many banks have low tax literacy, and upcoming regulations like EU FASTER will increase compliance demands while pushing the industry toward full digitalization.

Banks, Future of Compliance and Web3

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Podcast 131: Is compliance a fintech product or a set of navigational instructions?

Our hosts, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea, address the topic of compliance in fintech. Considering the rise of KYC and KYB in fintech development, Condrea recognises their potential as part of fintech offering packages. On the other hand, Tomych recognises the importance of compliance within fintech, how it helps companies navigate the legal complexities of the financial world, but he sees it as just that, a set of navigational instructions.

Banking Transformation, Core Infrastructure, and Human-Centered Service

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Podcast #130: David M. Brear on Banking Transformation, Core Infrastructure, and Human-Centered Service

In this episode, hosts Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea speak with David M Brear, Group CEO of 11:FS Holdings, about the future of banking. David reflects on his professional journey in fintech and explains how his background in athletics shaped his leadership philosophy, emphasizing resilience, discipline, and strategic focus.

The discussion explores why scale is no longer the dominant competitive advantage in financial services and why true value comes from delivering exceptional service rather than simply building more products. David explains how modern fintech companies use technology to create contextual, proactive, and personalized customer experiences, making the type of service once reserved for private-banking clients accessible to the wider market.

Rukayyat Modupe Kolawole on the Behaviour and Culture Behind Wealth Management

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Podcast #129: Rukayyat Modupe Kolawole on the Behaviour and Culture Behind Wealth Management

Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea team up on this special episode of the Fintech Garden Podcast to interview a one-of-a-kind fintech entrepreneur, Rukayyat Modupe Kolawole. As the founder of PaceUP Invest GmbH and Executive Board Member in the European Women Payments Network (EWPN), Kolawole provides a unique perspective on how technology and empathy can finally coexist in wealth management.

The Future of Wealth Management: Tech, Trust & AI

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Podcast #128: Rob Lunn on What AI Can and Cannot Do in Treasury, Accounting, and FX.

In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, host Igor Tomych speaks with Rob Lunn, Fintech Product Leader at Fnality, to explore the boundaries of what artificial intelligence can truly achieve in financial treasury, accounting, and FX operations.

With over 25 years of experience in payments and treasury across both banking and fintech, Rob brings an unfiltered view of AI’s impact on how institutions manage liquidity, reconcile transactions, and forecast risk. The conversation delves into both the technical and human aspects of automation, questioning how far we should allow machines to go in financial decision-making.

What Makes or Breaks a Startup: An Investor’s POV

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Podcast #127: Michele Mattei on How Fintechs Secure Funding and the Perspective of a Product Owner

In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych chats with Michele Mattei, a product owner at Bunq and investor with Syeew, about the factors that make fintech startups stand out to investors. Mattei started his career in mergers and acquisitions, and eventually found his calling in fintech. Now, he mentors with multiple incubators to bring his expertise as a product owner and as an investor.

Organizing Life Through Fintech: Fraser Stewart on Building Lyfeguard

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Podcast #126: From Legacy to Lyfeguard—Fraser Stewart on Building a Secure Future for Financial Data

In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych sits down with Fraser Stewart, founder of Lyfeguard, to explore how fintech can help people organize, protect, and share their most valuable asset: personal and financial information.

Born from a deeply personal story, Lyfeguard began when Fraser’s father struggled to settle two friends’ estates after their passing. Eighteen months of confusion revealed a painful truth: people don’t have a single, secure place to manage life-critical information. That experience became the foundation for Lyfeguard, a digital vault for managing everything that matters, from financial data to personal documents and family access.

Rajesh Savji Parmar on Embedded Finance, Mobile Money, and Africa’s Fintech Future

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 05:00:00 +0000

In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych speaks with Rajesh Savji Parmar, founder of Indelible, about Africa’s unique path to financial inclusion and why embedded finance is the next frontier for the continent. Rajesh’s journey from building remittance startups to launching Pay2Nature reflects not only Africa’s fintech evolution but also the growing role of sustainability in shaping financial services.

From Remittances to Embedded Finance

Rajesh has spent more than 17 years in African fintech. His career began with a remittance startup in collaboration with senior telecom executives from Ghana and Nigeria, just as M-Pesa was transforming Kenya into the birthplace of mobile money. With African roots and European experience in Barcelona and London, he witnessed firsthand how telcos leapfrogged traditional banks by embedding payments into everyday life.

Lex Sokolin on Robo-Advisors, MetaMask, and Stablecoins

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0000

In Episode 124 of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych welcomes Lex Sokolin—fintech entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader—to unpack the evolution of digital finance over the last 15 years.

Lex’s Journey Through Fintech

Lex shares how he moved from Wall Street at Lehman Brothers to launching one of the first U.S. robo-advisors in 2009, years before the wealthtech boom. He later co-founded AdvisorEngine, acquired by Franklin Templeton, and went on to lead research and product at ConsenSys, helping scale MetaMask to more than 100 million users.

Revolut’s $75B Valuation and Europe’s Payments Reset

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0000

The fintech industry is entering a decisive phase. In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea unpack two of the most important updates: Revolut’s $75 billion valuation and the launch of the European Payments Initiative (EPI Wero). Together, these stories highlight where the next wave of digital banks and payment innovation is heading.

From Fintech Startup to $75B Powerhouse

Revolut’s growth story continues to redefine Fintech Europe. What began in 2014 as a simple travel card has become a super app offering payments, trading, lending, and wealth management.

The Great Unbundling — When Fintech Banks Start Looking Like Banks Again

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0000

The fintech revolution began with simplicity. Wise (formerly TransferWise) made cross-border transfers seamless, Revolut gave users instant access to FX, and Monobank in Ukraine reshaped retail banking. These companies weren’t banks. They were lean personal finance apps, agile alternatives to traditional high street banks.

But the story didn’t end there. Over time, these fintechs started adding layers: investments, crypto, insurance, wealth management, and even stablecoin banking. With Revolut obtaining a banking license and Wise expanding into full-service offerings, the industry is witnessing a major shift: fintechs transforming into fintech banks.

Blueprint for AI-Native Fintech: Smarter Systems, Smarter Strategy

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Blueprint for AI-Native Fintech: Building Smarter Foundations

In Episode 121 of the Fintech Garden podcast, hosts Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea explore the architecture, regulation, and real-world implications of building AI into the very foundation of fintech—what it really means to be AI-native.

Most fintechs treat AI as an add-on. For instance, they may incorporate a more advanced chatbot or a sophisticated fraud detection model. But truly AI-native platforms are different—they’re designed from day one with intelligence at their core.

Stablecoins, Trust and the Future of Payments

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 05:00:00 +0000

In Episode 120 of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych sits down with Rutger van Faassen, Founder & CEO of Informationbanker, to explore one of the most transformative trends in modern fintech: stablecoins.

With over 25 years of experience in both banking and fintech—on the side of traditional financial institutions and solution providers—Rutger offers unique insights into how trust, regulation, and real-world use cases are finally converging to bring stablecoins into mainstream finance.

How Tally’s Mission Struggled to Take Root

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Planted Wrong A short-form series by Fintech Garden

Planted Wrong explores where once-promising fintech ideas went off track — and what today’s founders, builders, and operators can learn from the roots they left behind.

No blame. No postmortems. Just honest insights from ideas that didn’t bloom — and why that still matters.

When $172M Isn’t Enough — The Rise and Fall of Tally

In our debut episode, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea unpack a crucial question:

Built for Change: Inside tbi Bank’s Challenger Strategy with Petr Baron

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 04:00:00 +0000

In Episode 118 of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych sits down with Petr Baron, CEO of tbi fs, to uncover the story behind one of Southeast Europe’s most unconventional and successful digital banks.

From its roots as a consumer finance arm of a Dutch-Israeli group to becoming a hybrid digital-first bank operating across Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, tbi’s evolution has been anything but traditional.

Petr shares his firsthand experience navigating the post-2008 financial crisis, building out a digital strategy long before it was popular, and leading tbi through shareholder transitions, regulatory shifts, and digital reinvention.

From Dollar to Digital: Building Trust in the Age of Stablecoins

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 23:00:00 +0000

In Episode 117 of the Fintech Garden podcast by DashDevs, Igor Tomych is joined by Ayo Ojerinola, Founder & CEO of Nobo, to explore how stablecoins are transforming the future of money—from cross-border payments and DeFi lending to tokenized assets and mass adoption.

Ayo Ojerinola is a fintech entrepreneur and product strategist building Nobo, a Web2.5 neobank that bridges traditional finance (TradFi) with blockchain-based innovation. With deep experience across payments, digital banking, and financial services, Ayo is focused on making Web3 technology intuitive and accessible for everyday users.

E-Wallets, Big Tech, and the Future of Payments: What’s Next?

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

In Episode 116 of the Fintech Garden podcast by DashDevs, Igor Tomych is joined by fintech product strategist Sam Boboev for a forward-looking discussion on the role of e-wallets, tokenization, and big tech in reshaping the global payments landscape.

Sam Boboev is a fintech product leader and enthusiast, passionate about crafting simple, intuitive solutions to complex financial problems. He has successfully launched multiple products in the payments and fintech space, helping early-stage startups grow rapidly and optimizing product experiences for more mature ventures.

T-Shaped Experts in Fintech: Buzzword or Backbone?

Wed, 28 May 2025 23:00:00 +0000

In Episode 115 of the Fintech Garden podcast by DashDevs, host Igor Tomych welcomes Jeremy Takle, CEO of VEMI and co-founder of Pennyworth, for a powerful conversation on what it truly means to build teams with T-shaped experts.

As a chief executive and senior advisor, Jeremy works with companies that are building, scaling, and digitally transforming financial services. He has a proven track record of delivering transformational growth, sustainable performance improvement, and interdisciplinary team leadership. His focus spans:

AI, Ethics, and Credit Scoring in Fintech

Wed, 14 May 2025 23:00:00 +0000

How Bias in Machine Learning Affects Credit Scoring

In the latest episode of the Fintech Garden podcast by DashDevs, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea explore a pressing topic in modern financial technology: the ethical risks associated with using artificial intelligence and machine learning in credit scoring.

As fintech companies increasingly rely on automated decision-making systems, questions around fairness, transparency, and unintended discrimination are becoming more urgent. This episode provides a grounded, real-world look into how these systems can behave unpredictably—even unfairly—despite being built by human hands.

How to Build a High-Performing Tech Team in Fintech

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 21:00:00 +0000

In the latest episode of the Fintech Garden podcast by DashDevs, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea share hands-on strategies for assembling and scaling high-performing tech teams in the fintech industry. The discussion focuses on aligning team structure with business needs—laying the foundation for long-term growth, agility, and technical excellence.

Defining Roles, Responsibilities, and Structure

The conversation opens with a critical insight: great teams don’t form by accident—they’re intentionally designed. Igor and Dumitru stress the importance of clearly defining each team member’s role using structured tools like

How to Launch a Payment Orchestration Platform

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 22:00:00 +0000

In the latest episode of Fintech Garden podcast by DashDevs, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea explore essential insights into launching and scaling payment orchestration platforms (POPs), a critical and evolving topic in the fintech industry. The episode outlines key strategies, motivations, and technical considerations necessary to effectively enter the fast-growing payments orchestration market.

The Rise of Payment Orchestration Platforms

The conversation starts by examining the primary market drivers propelling the adoption of POPs. Igor Tomych identifies two pivotal trends:

Understanding Digital Money: E-Money vs. D-Money

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 23:00:00 +0000

Episode 111 of the Fintech Garden podcast, hosted by Igor Tomych, features a compelling discussion with fintech expert Jonny Fry, delving into digital currencies and exploring their implications for the future of payments.

Defining Digital Currency: What is the Difference Between E-Money and D-Money?

Igor begins by addressing a common misconception: people frequently believe they’re already using digital money because they have banking apps and digital wallets. Jonny clarifies this misconception by differentiating electronic money (E-money) and digital money (D-money).

The Client-Vendor Playbook: Product, Outsource, and Outstaff Explained

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In Episode 110 of Fintech Garden, Igor Tomych sits down with Artem Boboshko, VP of Business Development at DashDevs, to dissect the client-vendor relationship in fintech. They break down outsourcing models, vendor accountability, and the benefits and risks of external partnerships. This episode is a must-listen for fintech startups, product managers, and CTOs navigating the complexities of software development, product management, and financial technology innovation.

Defining the Different Engagement Models

The discussion starts with the different types of vendor engagement models, crucial for fintechs building and scaling digital products. Artem highlights six key models:

AI & ML in FinTech

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the latest episode of Fintech Garden by DashDevs, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea dive deep into the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in fintech. The discussion explores key distinctions, real-world applications, and the future of AI-driven financial services.

Understanding AI vs. Machine Learning in Fintech

The conversation kicks off with a crucial differentiation between AI and ML. Artificial intelligence is a broader concept referring to machines programmed to mimic human intelligence, whereas machine learning is a subset of AI that relies on algorithms trained with historical data to make predictions and automate processes.

BaaS in the Wild Nature

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the latest episode of Fintech Garden by DashDevs, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea dive into one of the most debated topics in fintech: What’s the difference between Banking as a Service (BaaS), core banking, and embedded finance? These terms are often used interchangeably, but they serve very different functions.

This episode will clarify concepts such as banking as a service, core banking, and embedded finance solutions. Let’s review the key takeaways.

The Art of Building Strong Fintech Teams

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In Episode 107 of Fintech Garden Podcast, hosts Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea welcome special guest Anna Kovalenko, VP of HR at DashDevs, for an insightful discussion on team building in fintech. They explore the key principles of creating high-performing teams, the biggest challenges in hiring, leadership strategies, and common mistakes managers should avoid.

Defining What Makes a Strong Team

Anna opens the conversation by emphasizing that a team is more than just a group of people - it requires shared trust, vision, and motivation. She differentiates between functional groups that simply execute tasks and true teams that collaborate effectively and drive innovation. Igor and Dumitru add their perspectives, stressing that a team requires leadership, alignment, and emotional intelligence to succeed.

Banking as a Service: Redefining Financial Solutions

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the sixth issue of the Fintech Garden by DashDevs podcast! In this insightful episode, our host, Igor Tomych is joined by a special guest, Mehmet Burga Kaya, Vice President of PaybyMe. Together, they dive into Banking as a Service (BaaS), exploring its impact on the fintech landscape and how it compares to traditional banking models.

This episode offers a comprehensive guide to understanding BaaS, from the advantages of modular financial solutions to the challenges of licensing and regulatory compliance. Mehmet brings his expertise to the table, sharing valuable insights from his journey in the fintech industry.

Fintech 2024: A Year in Review

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the fifth issue of the Fintech Garden by DashDevs podcast! In this special episode, hosts Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea take you on a journey through 2024, reflecting on key trends, innovations, and milestones in the fintech world.

From groundbreaking advancements in blockchain technology to the rise of digital identity solutions and success stories like Kaspi Bank’s $18B IPO, this episode encapsulates the essence of fintech in 2024. Igor and Dumitru discuss the challenges, triumphs, and the ever-evolving regulatory landscape that shaped the year.

Embedded Finance: The Next Big Step in Digital Transformation

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Embedded finance is no longer a buzzword—it’s a transformative approach that’s changing how businesses operate and connect with their customers. In this episode of the Fintech Garden by DashDevs, Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea break down what embedded finance really means, how it’s applied, and why it’s becoming a cornerstone of modern business strategies.

Through compelling examples like Amazon and Apple Pay, you’ll see how companies are leveraging embedded finance to increase efficiency, build customer loyalty, and unlock new revenue streams.

Startups vs Old-School Players: The Fintech Landscape

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea are back with the third issue of the Fintech Garden by DashDevs podcast, diving into a fascinating topic: startups in fintech vs. old-school fintech players.

This episode unpacks the distinct dynamics between innovative fintech startups and established financial corporations, shedding light on their unique approaches to growth and success. While startups enter the market with disruptive ideas and agile innovation, legacy institutions focus on scalability, sustainability, and effective risk management to maintain their edge.

Blueprints for fintech

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea are launching a second issue of the podcast, this time focusing on fintech regulations.

The main points of the discussion will cover the regulations in different regions, including the EU, the UK, and, briefly, the US.

Dumitru and Igor discuss how different the regulations are, how you, as a business owner, can start looking into this topic before working with an advisor, and how to navigate a complex landscape of jurisdictions and legislations.

Appeal and the challenges faced by fintech startups

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We are happy to announce our podcasts!

The experts of the show are:

Igor Tomych, the expert who launched over 20 fintech products during 15+ years of hands-on experience in the niche.
Dumitru Condrea, a seasoned fintech professional with 15+ years of practical experience in finance.

In the first episode, they covering a must-know 101 for fintech entrepreneurs regarding the fintech startup.

Launching a product in fintech requires a comprehensive knowledge of the market, regulations, adaptability to modern technology, and the specifics of B2B and B2C products. From Igor’s and Dumitru’s conversation, you will learn what makes the fintech niche different and how to adapt to it to achieve the same level of success that Revolut, Klarna, and others have achieved.