Droopy

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast, where we explore financial services together with an eye on technology, innovation, emerging models, and changing expectations. I'm Tearsheet's editor in chief, Zack Miller.

We've been covering AI in financial services for a while now—chatbots, generative AI, fraud detection models. But something fundamental is shifting. We're moving beyond AI as a tool that assists humans to AI as an actor that takes action on our behalf.

Agentic AI is no longer a research project. It's live. Capital One has AI agents helping consumers buy cars. Visa is letting AI agents spend your money. RBC has agents executing trades, learning and adapting in real-time to market conditions.

It's already here. The question is: what does it take to make this work at scale? What infrastructure do you need when an AI agent is handling real financial transactions at 2 AM? How do you architect for reliability when there's no human in the loop?

My guest today is Kevin Levitt, who leads global business development for financial services at Nvidia. Before Nvidia, Kevin spent years inside fintechs like Credit Karma and Roostify. At Nvidia, he's working with firms like Capital One, Visa, and RBC as they deploy agentic AI in production—not pilot programs, actual live systems processing real transactions.

We're digging into the case studies, the computational demands of multi-agentic systems, the security challenges when agents control money, and what financial institutions need to be thinking about now.

Nvidia's Kevin Levitt is my guest today on the podcast.

AI agents in production: Nvidia's Kevin Levitt on infrastructure for live banking systems

The GENIUS Act brings regulatory clarity to stablecoins, but Conduit CEO Kirill Gertman argues that clarity alone won't guarantee success. Banks face a choice between building their own infrastructure or becoming the pipes for others.

Kirill Gertman has watched the stablecoin industry evolve from multiple angles. He spent nearly two decades in financial services before founding Conduit in 2021, including six years in crypto and a stint as VP of product at BRD, which became Coinbase Wallet. His company grew 16x in 2024 by solving a practical problem: businesses in emerging markets were accumulating stablecoins to hedge against local currency volatility but couldn't use those balances in their day-to-day operations. Conduit now works with tier-one banks and multinational corporations, processing billions in cross-border payments. And with the GENIUS Act bringing the first comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States, Gertman argues the legislation's passage raises as many strategic questions as it answers—particularly for banks that have been sitting on the sidelines.

Today, we'll explore why the GENIUS Act matters, the critical difference between stablecoins and deposit tokens, what strategy banks should actually pursue, and where Gertman sees the industry heading as major players race to build vertically integrated stacks.

Why every bank now needs a stablecoin strategy (whether they like it or not)

We're back! Sam has been away for a while, so in this episode English Dan, Chris, Andrés and Santi B catch him up on what he's missed, which includes River Plate and Independiente not being very good, Boca Juniors and Racing being rather better, San Martín and Godoy Cruz being relegated and Rosario Central being awarded a championship no one knew was being contested. So nothing out of the ordinary for Argentine football ...

Episode 547: an unexpected 'title' for Central and plenty of catching up to do

This week Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Santi B review the first round of the Torneo Clausura playoffs, which saw ... um, champions? ... Rosario Central knocked out by Estudiantes following a controversial guard of 'honour' that broke a rule that didn't actually exist and has now seen Estudiantes president Seba Verón and several of their players suspended. Elsewhere, Racing are through after a wonderfully flawed win over River Plate, Boca Juniors saw off Talleres and there was plenty more besides.

Episode 548: Estudiantes in hot water as the Clausura playoffs begin

This week Sam, English Dan and Andrés review last weekend's Torneo Clausura quarterfinals and look forward to Sunday and Monday's semis, which see an all-Big Five clash in the Bombonera between Boca Juniors and Racing and a clásico platense between Gimnasia and Estudiantes. There's also news of a thumping win for Argentina's women's team in the CONMEBOL Liga de Naciones (whose name also contains the totally unnecessary word 'Femenina') and listeners' questions (and our answers to them).

Episode 549: two clásicos in the Clausura semifinals

Community and regional banks operate in an environment of perpetual tension. They need to grow deposits and drive lending profitability while managing operating costs that threaten to overwhelm smaller institutions. They must also prevent increasingly sophisticated fraud while delivering customer experiences that match Amazon and Netflix. And they need to do all of this while building technology foundations that won't become obsolete before the implementation is complete.

At FIS's Emerald 2025 conference in Orlando, Peter Boyer, head of banking at FIS, and Craig Focardi, principal analyst at Celent, discussed how financial institutions are navigating these competing demands. Focardi and Boyer discuss how modernization is now a continuous process of adaptation, and that the institutions most likely to succeed will focus on enabling agility rather than chasing specific technologies.

"If you really take a step back and think about regional and community banking, there's a couple headwinds or tailwinds, that are driving how banks are thinking about the market," Boyer explained. "One is deposit growth and profitability growth through lending. Every bank right now is thinking, how do I grow? What is my sweet spot in my segment? Thing two is operating costs. How do they continue to drive a more efficient bank? AI is a big topic on that particular solution. And thing three is fraud. How do you protect the banking ecosystem? You put those three together and you've got a meaningful amount of where the energy is in the market today."


How community banks are balancing urgent pressures with long-term modernization

Commercial banks are confronting a rapidly shifting landscape as private credit markets grow toward $3.5 trillion and fintech competitors accelerate their offerings with AI-powered tools. Rather than retreating, traditional institutions are doubling down on technology investments and reimagining their commercial lending strategies to compete in this new environment.

"Banks are not short-term thinkers," says Héctor Pagés, SVP and Head of Global Commercial Lending at FIS. "We're not seeing a slowdown in terms of interest or investment from our institutions, in terms of advancing and changing the ways that they're working."

The response from banks has been multifaceted, according to Pagés. Some retail-focused institutions are shifting resources toward commercial lending, while smaller commercial banks are expanding into more complex lending products. Others are adopting an "originate to distribute" model, partnering with private credit firms to spread risk while generating fee income.

This strategic evolution is happening against a backdrop of regulatory uncertainty, tariff fluctuations, and the continued expansion of non-bank lenders into territory traditionally dominated by banks.

Listen to the podcast to learn about how banks are transforming their commercial lending operations through unified technology platforms, the role of AI in automating credit decisions and underwriting processes, and why cloud infrastructure is becoming essential for global scalability. 


Banks reclaim commercial lending through technology and strategic partnerships

Financial institutions are rethinking loyalty at a critical moment. Credit card spending sits at record highs, but economic uncertainty looms. For banks aiming to stay relevant, loyalty can no longer be an afterthought – it needs to be embedded into every customer experience from the start.

At FIS's Emerald 2025 conference in Orlando, Mladen Vladic, general manager of loyalty services at FIS, sat down to discuss how the loyalty industry is evolving beyond traditional card-based rewards. His central argument: Financial institutions need to shift from chasing share of wallet to capturing share of mind first.


How FIS is helping financial institutions evolve loyalty beyond rewards

This week Sam, English Dan, Andrés, Chris and both Santis review two rather boring Torneo Clausura semifinals which saw Estudiantes and Racing advance to Saturday's final. We also look at the draw for next year's group stage and try to explain why the AFA and various clubs have had their offices raided by investigators.

Episode 550: Racing and Estudiantes edge two dull semifinals and the 2026 Liga takes shape

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast, where we explore financial services together with an eye on technology, innovation, emerging models, and changing expectations. I'm Tearsheet's editor in chief, Zack Miller.

For fintechs, cracking the credit union market is notoriously difficult. It's relationship-based, insular, and requires a fundamentally different approach than banking. Many try and fail. But when done right, it opens up distribution to institutions serving over 140 million Americans. Today I'm joined by Brian Kaas, president and managing director of TruStage Ventures, the corporate VC arm of TruStage—a $5.5 billion annual revenue insurer that works with 92% of credit unions nationwide. 

Since 2016, TruStage Ventures has deployed $400 million across 50 portfolio companies and facilitated over 3,000 partnerships between credit unions and fintechs.

We first spoke with Brian in 2021 when the fund was just gaining traction. Four years later, the portfolio has matured with companies like Ethos, Current, and SmartAsset, and Brian's team has become essential connective tissue between innovative fintechs and credit union distribution. 

We'll dig into what makes credit union partnerships different, why so many fintechs struggle to break in, and why stablecoin solutions have become the number one request Brian's hearing from credit union CEOs.


How TruStage Ventures built connective tissue between fintechs and credit unions

Up and coming professional record producer and recording artist Jacob Loder. Hear original songs and projects Jacob is currently working on on his soundcloud here! Oh yea brother!