About Shamir Karkal: Shamir Karkal is a visionary fintech leader who has helped to shape the fintech industry. As a Co-founder of Simple, the pioneering online bank in the US, he played a pivotal role in revolutionizing the landscape of digital banking. Building on this success, he assumed leadership of the Open Platform at BBVA, continuing his dedication to empowering small businesses. In 2018, he co-founded Sila, where he currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer, dedicated to driving financial innovation forward.

About Wook Chung: Wook Chung is the Chief Product Officer at Varo Bank, the first all-digital, nationally chartered consumer techbank in the United States. As CPO, Wook plays a key role in VaroTech, the company's innovation hub that integrates product, technology, data, and design to create cutting-edge financial solutions aimed at giving consumers living paycheck to paycheck financial power. Wook was previously the VP of Product Design and Engineering at SoFi, and the Head of Product Management Leadership at Facebook.

In this episode, Colin, Shamir, and Wook discuss:

- The evolution of fintech and the emergence of the techbank

- The challenge balancing innovation and sustainable business models in fintech and banking

- The impact of emerging technologies on a vast and regulated industry

- Leveraging AI, ML, and fintech to transform financial services

Key Takeaways:

- By recognizing and addressing the changing financial needs of everyday people with intuitive product solutions, leaders in the fintech industry such as Shamir Karkal and Wook Chung, have transformed the way banking is perceived and experienced, ultimately striving to build customer-centric banks that empower individuals to manage their finances effectively.

- In the quest to revolutionize the financial industry, breakthroughs have occurred through combining innovative product solutions with a sustainable business model. Disruptive change without financial viability will inevitably fail. Technology-driven, cost-efficient, customer-centric fintech companies hold the potential to reshape the future of finance.

- In the ever-evolving world of fintech, real-time payment systems like FedNow and RTP are poised to transform the industry, but the vastness and complexity of financial services mean that even with rapid technological advancements, true disruption will take time to unfold.

- Integrating AI and ML will redefine banks as personalized financial problem solvers, ushering in a future where technology continuously improves individuals' financial well-being.

"What people don't quite realize sometimes is that the financial services industry globally is about a 20 trillion revenue industry out of a global GDP of about 100 trillion a year.....And when you think about it, that makes sense. It also means that it's not really possible to disrupt this industry and change it." — Shamir Karkal

"I think really leveraging technology to help somebody across a long period of time is the only way I think that the industry can build financially inclusive products that truly help people progress in their financial lives." — Wook Chung

Connect with Shamir Karkal:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamirkarkal/

Connect with Wook Chung:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wookchung/

Connect with Varo:

Website - https://www.varomoney.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/varobank/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/varobank

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/varomoney

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/varobank/

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