Terry Ammons, Fintech Leader and Partner at Wipfli along with Michael Okwilagwe of the Robinson School of Business at Georgia State join Tommy Marshall to discuss fintech response to the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program. The discussion spans both fintech involvement and bank involvement in lending the first wave approximately $350 billion to small businesses across the United States of America.
Terry Ammons, Fintech Leader and Partner at Wipfli along with Michael Okwilagwe of the Robinson School of Business at Georgia State join Tommy Marshall to discuss fintech response to the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program. The discussion spans both fintech involvement and bank involvement in lending the first wave approximately $350 billion to small businesses across the United States of America.
spk_0: 0:06
Welcome to the Georgia Fintech Academy podcast. The Georgia Fintech Academy is a cooperation between Georgia's FINTECH industry and the university system of Georgia. This talent development initiative addresses a massive demand for fintech professionals and gives learners. The specialized education experience is needed to enter the fintech sector. Hello,
spk_1: 0:28
everybody. This is Tommy Marshall, the executive director of D Georgia Fintech Academy. Welcome to our weekly Georgia Fintech Academy podcast. This is Episode eight on April 23rd 2020. Um, as are frequent listener. You know that we we've been starting these off in the midst of this public health crisis for historical reasons, just recording where we stand globally. Today there's 2.66 million cases in the world. There's 856,000 cases in the United States and in Georgia, where I am today with our guest, we have 21,000 reported cases and interestingly, that is Theo exact same number of cases, roughly the same number of cases that there are in the entire country of India today. Uh, and it's two times the number of cases in Japan that we have here just in the state of Georgia. There has been, I'd say, the beginnings of some some good news out of the New York region. The number of daily reported deaths has been decreasing day over day, So that has but a little bit of hope into the the conversation in the national media today. I'm very excited. Toe have two guests with me, Terry Ammons from Whitley and Michael o clock away from Georgia State, who's engaged with our fintech academy. I want to give you both a chance to introduce yourselves. But let's start with you, Terry Ammons, Tell us about you.
spk_2: 2:21
Well, thanks, Tommy. I appreciate you inviting me on, but as you say, I'm a partner with Whitley. Ah, formally. Pkm We merged in with with Flea on October 1st of last year, but a little bit about my history and career. I started out in public accounting, really? As an auditor financial statement, auditor focused on financial services companies, primarily banks and, um, PKM has always had a heavy financial services in community banking practice, So I started there in the early early nineties. Um, and again, I was a you know, any anybody who has friends in public accounting, they know I audited. I went to financial institutions and we packed up our bad ex before even right at the beginning of the laptop computer days. We used to have these things that look like my mom used to have a sewing machine and I had a personal computer that had a little three inch screen. It seemed like, but anyway, so I started doing that, and I just sort of worked my way up. I'm through that through that through the normal career path there. And as I became a manager and more senior in the firm, that was at the time at the very beginning, where financial institutions were starting to outsource some of their technology. You know, used to be you had a at a, you know, a S 400 or a mid range computer seeing in a glass last room and people ran that ran their their systems up for their and at Advent of again outsourcing some of the big corps providers F I s Fiserv, Jack Henry. They started allowing there are offering their services in the service bureau environment. What we used to call service bureau, but basically remote sort of private cloud, almost you the way you think about it now. So as that as that happened, the kind of the way they did risk management around the T and the systems and the application sort of changed. And I sort of kind of went I sort of was drawn into that, that part of the practice. And, um and of course, those were I guess what? What I think of is kind of the first Finn text as we think of them today. Basically providing they were outsourced service providers. That also was about the time when Sarbanes Oxley came into play. Um, any, um, any outsourced arrangements with big public companies they now make? They now required a different kind of, of of assurance and audit over them. What used to be called sas 70 now sock sock reports as most people who in the space known. So we started focusing on those, and what happened was we happen to be one of the first smaller firms that dealt with small technology companies, focused on banking, and Mike Morris. He was a brand new person with me, and we kind of created some marketing and went out there and sort of were able to get some clients really all over the country. But that was sort of my introduction into Fintech so early two thousands, it continues. It continues to grow. Um, again, I sort of stopped doing the financial statement audit work and start started focusing almost exclusively exclusively on the risk management stuff that we were talking about that I mentioned earlier. And that was through the, you know, 2000. Um, early, mid two, thousands. At the time the de Novo Bank craze was going crazy. We had, if you remember in Georgia we had many 2030 banks a year that were being formed, and every one of them was using outsourced, outsourced service providers. So what happened during that time? We became sort of an adviser not only to the fin text, but to the banks and for how to work together, the whole vendor management management process that that sort of sprung out about around there. The regulators started getting getting involved. And so what we what? We saw ourselves as we grew it, sort of that sort of the connector between the banks and the fin tax. And of course, as we've matured over time, the Fintech practice has become something something of its own on its own. That's that's really exciting. We've developed a team around that so so that so now I sort of not as much in the in the banking space, but Maurin the Fintech space. We continue to try to grow that practice. When we merged in with swiftly, they had a large bank practice. They had somethin text, but we were a little bit of ahead of them in the Fintech space and then the marketing and that sort of developing our expertise. And so when we did, when we joined up with them, they decided that that, you know, they would let me try toe, grow that practice and sort of run it. And so that that sub industry with under financial services is something I'm doing. Of course, Mike's a big part of that, might. More says, You know it is a big part of that. So what we're trying to do is take that take what we've done and sort of use it in other parts of the country where there's a fintech of fintech present Chicago, Philadelphia, Minnesota, there's a couple other market areas where Finn Tex Big and the police footprint and we're gonna We're gonna try, Try to grow it there and again we continue. We continue to do that. And it's an exciting time to be in Fintech is you know what? I'm I'm so glad that you know that you guys at the university system have taken that on as a as a challenge to help educate the next round of Fintech Fintech professionals.
spk_1: 8:24
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. And I'd say particularly my observation has been that this intersection point between fintech providers and the community banks base is one that just seems to be really experiencing a lot of growth right now. And that's been fueled in part by E independent community Bankers of America by by F i s and Fiserv themselves to some degree, Jack Henry, you know not the limit to those providers, but it's really just been and then just the community banks and still is really stepping up and saying Okay, we really see some meaningful opportunities here for us and where, uh, just my sense has been been more open to engaging with the's fintech companies or just to a greater degree than maybe even just two years ago.
spk_2: 9:20
That's absolutely right. So So one of the things that that we have tried to do, um, for a while pkm and now swiftly is to try to educate the community banks, not educate them, but but make them aware of things that are available, you know, new tools news. New new basically helped them grow, help them make money, help them maintain their market share. And and you're right. In the last couple years, I think they've really adapt and and really adopted that that, um that that mind set to say, OK, I don't necessarily know exactly what I need to do, but I need to do something and I need you to get somebody to help me. One of the things in our group in our Fintech group quickly also has a pretty robust strategy group. And part of part of what we do is we work with the strategy team. A lot of the technology. It's almost like strategic planning, but its strategic planning and there's a great team swiftly that was already doing that, and I think we're starting to work with them to try to try to help help the help our bank clients on and prospects, you know, figure out what's the best for them and again, starting with the strategy. Peace, not just throwing technology, you know, in the bank. I mean, there are lots of examples or several examples. I can think it brought out the top my head, where somebody had adopted some technology or robots, bought a system that necessarily wasn't in line with the strategy or or even the risk profile of of the financial institutions. So I think people are stepping back, but they're now they're they're looking at it. This particular situation we're in is gonna really focus some attention on how technology used to serve their clients on. And I think that there's a special. There's an especially significant opportunity with small and medium businesses. I think during all of this again I mean, I think there's gonna be some issues and obviously, uh, depending on the vertical, your end, it's gonna be It's gonna be tough for the next 3 to 6 months. But I think what that this is joining a lie on on on how technology can help those those kind of companies succeed last thing. I'll say it about the technology. Adoption is and I read this, and I've also heard some anecdotal things where the largest uptick in usage of mobile is in that 45 to 65 year old. You know your band, you know people. And I can speak to my mother. You know, I've talked to my mother in law about this and some others where they, you know, they're happy to use Amazon and order, and, you know, they get packages every day. They're happy to do that. They feel fine putting a credit card in there, but for some reason that mobile mobile banking, you know, mobile payments or whatever on their phone has been something they've been a little scared of. But now they're doing it. And I think I think that some things that were happening, I believe, is these things they're going to accelerate. And I think that people will be once the once the smoke clears and who knows how long that will take. But I believe there will be lots of opportunities for applying technology in the small and medium. All are small.
spk_1: 12:44
Let's let's come back to that in a second. But Michael tell us about you.
spk_0: 12:53
Okay? So many was Michael Kellog Way that's enjoyed State University. I'm a rising junior studying computer, information systems and marketing. I currently work during the Internet boxes, exulting groups where I'm helping them implement product called Psych or And then in the summer, I'm going to be headed out to Amazon study. Working in the AWS sector in the cloud computing were really brought me into fintech was my passion for technology and finance, and I went to Nigeria last here, and I saw all of these these companies, all of these payment processing companies in Nigeria, and they were just so many. And that's when I figured and I was burning. Lagos. Nigeria is becoming it's becoming basically the Silicon Valley off Africa, and what's really cool about that is because you get to see so many different startup companies off folks number fintech. So that's what got me to my interest with authentic Academy, and so far it's a tablet. It's been it's probably the best programs have joined in my college this because it connects me with so many. So many people were high level in their careers, which fintech, some able to meet people like Terry. I'm able to meet people like FBI gets just through the connections to things like a Cabinet skated me. So truly has probably been a blessing being in the part of this group because I get to learn more and more about Fintech day by day.
spk_1: 14:21
And you are one of the inaugural members of our Georgia Fintech Academy Student Advisory Council. Thank you for that. Thanks for your commitment to that to that group. And I'm glad you're gonna still have another good year. So working with me on that as we, uh as we continue to evolve the door different academy and this Student Advisor Council is it's a It's really a constituent sounding board for me and the team at the Georgia French Academy to make sure that the different programming we're bringing to light is appropriate and meaningful to students across the university system and that we are doing the right things in terms of getting students introduced to fintech jobs on opportunities in in Georgia in the world, and really supporting the efforts of this entire initiative, which is about workforce development and helping address the massive demand for jobs. Um, let's come back to talk about, um, uh, Legos and the Silicon Valley there. Let's kind of hit on that for a minute. Um, Michael, if that's okay with you, Um, there was say some or about what you've learned about in tech in Nigeria, because this'll is interesting to me because I'd say, you know, through my, um, 2025 year career in Fintech, Africa has come up often, but mostly in the context of the in pacer payments network that was developed. Um, I think well, over in years ago Now, um and and I have ah against that's been a big focus when when the continent of Africa comes up in the context of fintech. But I've just been beginning toe, learn about Nigeria and Legos and what a remarkable economy exists there and how fintech is becoming part of it.
spk_0: 16:48
So, yes, I want to talk about that. So the thing in Nigeria is, I want to say one out of every three adults in Nigeria has a phone. They don't have phones. Technology is really advanced into our economy. It's really rooted into our economy. But the thing that Nigeria lacked most was payment processing. Sending money to people drop Nigeria was very, very hard. So you have all of these countries China, even America, places in Europe. They're all starting. Thinks that companies in Lagos, Nigeria, not only because it's a thriving sector, because Legos is one of the most populated cities in the world. So what's the best place to move? Ah fintech or move a Silicon Valley of African Soon? Lagos, Nigeria. And director packs. For five years, you've seen China, China countries and China started offensive cos you seen countries, even American started back up. Please, I know of me. You connect me with somebody started a yellow pain pinsight company Cons yellow card that was basically started and brought illegals Nigeria. And you see, that's not the first. If you see people brig know the expense of companies Nigeria. I think this is the start of something new. That's that's much this mystery
spk_1: 18:12
guy really answer marble. And some of you, our listeners, are going to remember that in ah kind of the February early March time frame. There was a lot of discussion about the time that Jack Dorsey, who is the founder and CEO of both Twitter and Square was he was tweeting a lot talking about. He was had an extended trip Teoh to Africa. He spent time a lot of time in Nigeria, but also Ghana, South Africa in Ethiopia and, um he waas suggesting that he was going to move Teoh, Nigeria for a good part of the rest of this year and then in early March, is bored, particularly it Square took issue with that and he needed to. He backpedaled, but I'm sure he's gonna come back around Teoh to having some meaningful focus there. What was cool was that Chris Maurice is the founder of Yellow Card, which is a company that was is, is part of our 3 80 d c Advanced Technology development centers Fintech track at George Attack Eso part of our university system and yellow card, is in in that incubator growing Their company, which is focused on allowing Bitcoin um or Legos through the Fiat currency in Nigeria, is IRA. Thank you. So it's the naira to, um, big point conversion and yellow card helps that conversion to occur, and they have 18,000 merchants that they they've signed up as partners in Lagos that are where you can go into the merchant location and do an IRA to Bitcoin conversion and vice versa. So, um, really kind of remarkable story that companies, uh, yellow cards now, like coming upon three years. Um, Terry, you and I were there right when he started that company came through our Fintech South innovation program. But I know Chris was in ah, la goes earlier this year and ended up spending a lot of time with Jack Dorsey, which really cool. Um, and I think that's just ah, one data point or example of, um, Where you can get a sense of how much opportunity there is in Nigeria, where we've got this kind of remarkable new fintech company, actually based in started and incubated here in Atlanta at their whole business model revolves around thistle opportunity in in Nigeria. Um, so yeah, it's been great to hear your insights on that, um, Michael, and get your perspective on that. I'm looking forward. Teoh doing some or events were also very fortunate in terms of Nigeria tohave Charles, if you d here is a resident in Atlanta, and Charles started one of the main payment systems in Nigeria called Inner Switch, and he often travels back to Nigeria to support different efforts. But he is one of the most highly regarded professionals with regard in relation to payments in in Nigeria, and we're very fortunate to have him, um, here in Atlanta and then he's working on a PhD at Georgia State right now. So, um, Terry, let's come back around to you know what? You've been learning in your conversations out in the marketplace over the last month. I know you've been talking to a lot of Finn tax. You've been talking to a lot of bankers and how they're responding in the middle of this public health crisis. I know the the payment protection program, which was but aside 303 143. 50 billion through the Cares Act, which has all been deployed as of last front A. And I think we just saw the news yesterday that the Senate of the United States Congress had approved another several 100 billion to go into the program. But tell us you've been hearing what ah out in all your interactions with the clients and others in the market.
spk_2: 23:16
Sure, sure, so So I guess the first thing one of the things I did was I kind of reached out to some clients and friends in the space and really just talked about, you know, kind of how they were doing as it relates to, you know, they're there, almost their business plan. Right? And I talked to some people who had raised three or four rounds. I talked some people who were bootstrapped, Um, and a couple in between and in general terms, I think what the general consensus was people were trying to figure out how they were gonna use whatever product they had. And these were mostly these were operating companies, people who had clients who had revenue, etcetera, how they were gonna take what they were doing for the banks or credit unions in some cases. And pivot that to help them serve their customers or to solve some problems. Right? You know, a problem just as an example was bank banks were not even though they have contingency plans and business continuity plans. You know, the banks never, ever envision that they would be having to work from home, having some of their people working from home right, so they weren't really set up for that. So we had a couple of a couple of clients that we're focused on helping them rapidly deploy that. And third, in certain cases, you know, using their own technology versus bank approved technology. There's a bunch of security issues that go around that there are other people who were who who sort of support medium small medium businesses for payments to victory. But make and accept payments. Elektronik Lee. They did some rapid deployment of those there were, And and, um, And then there were some people who who had certain messaging systems like, for instance, marketing want 11 in particular. They had. They used some internal messaging to sort of cross sell to mobile and Internet banking customers, and what they did was they took totally pivoted so that they used that messaging system to get to get important health information and other information out to their customers. So some of them, you know, to the you know, if you are a customer, you got this for free, and in some in some other cases, they were offering it to banks for free, so I think they really focused on what I saw it, I thought was awesome. And there's probably other, many other examples that this is just anecdotally what I got from my conversation. But I know a lot of people were trying to help hope that helped the F eyes help. Their customers are solved. Some other problems. So that was That was a big That was a big part of it. You know, internally, they were focused on making sure their employees were okay. Obviously, we all did that. And then and then they were. In certain cases, there were financial considerations, right? I mean, some people did some hiring freezes, although that's not universal, cause I have. We have clients that are trying to hire people right now on what they're where they're at, right? So I think people are people taking a practical look at where they are from a cash flow standpoint, depending on, you know, you have these recurring revenue model as long as the customer stay. You're probably OK. I mean, so there were some of that, but I think they were mostly outward looking, trying to figure out how to help their customers. Now, in certain cases, if you if you have. And there are some of these. If you have Ah, if you if your if your cadence of raising is every nine months for every year you've got to raise money to keep on going because you've got a fund sales growth, whatever, some of those people have been a little disrupted. There it's not gonna be is easy to raise, or you're gonna have to raise from a different place. Maybe you're gonna have toe. I see I've seen some people going out and meeting with strategic partners or strategic customers even because Kevin Little versus traditional route. But But I think you know, they're people that people who have the portfolio companies, they're kind of doing the same thing from their view again. I didn't talk to a ton of those folks. I think there, but but I But I do believe there there, there's still a lot of dry powder out there, and so that once this thing kind of blows over, there's gonna be some investments and there's gonna be some strategic out there trying toe, you know, make some investments at a lower evaluation, that kind of stuff I would just like to say on the on the on the bank side, on the on the banks that you mentioned the TPP program. You're right. The first traunch has been distributed. The There's a second traunch has been approved about 300 I believe. And there's a certain amount has been set aside just for community bank customers. And and I did. I did speak to a number of banks and throughout the firm. I don't know how many we have close to 1000 if I clients, but I know we and we tried to reach out to everybody, but But I know that there were a lot of there's a lot of confusion, frustration in the market. It was a huge rush, right? They roll this thing out. It probably wasn't designed perfectly and and so there were some issues with it, But But I know that there were some frustration with with banks well, not with banks but banks. Some banks were only ending to their customers. Some banks, we're gonna lend Teoh non customers, but then there's a different process. You have to go through regulatory compliance issues you have to deal with. And then there were some. There were some small business customers. I mean in that in that second group there were some small business customers who we didn't have a, but maybe a strong banking relationship or any banking relationship, at least from a lending side. So they were using alternative lenders. You know, that's that's where you see all the fin text trying to get involved and trying to create solutions to help their clients. So I mean, there were unfortunately there were. There were some group of people that not get served because by the time they were able to do to access the system, I think the money was gone. So hopefully this will be be a little bit better because there are somethin Texans who have been approved to do some blending, and I think they're better prepared for it now. There there are some people. There were some people who did not commit who missed out. I think I'm sorry. What,
spk_0: 29:46
which particularly on that
spk_2: 29:49
well, the take away is that they were trying to rush this money out, trying to get it into the hands of people they thought needed it the most. And it was probably not as well designed as it could have been. I mean, there are some definitely some some, um, I don't want to say flaws, but had they been had, they had another months to design this thing. I think they would have solved some of those problems, but But, I mean, they were that it was basically a rush to help people in the in. In in that rush, there were some unintended consequences, and it was. And I think, though from the very beginning, the biggest thing is there wasn't enough money in the pot at and they kind of knew that and they knew they'd have to replenish it. But in the course of doing that, that's that's That's one of the things I think.
spk_1: 30:43
I mean, I was just I mean, I know there's been a bit of picking away at some of these issues, um, over the last couple weeks, which I understand. But I mean, it's remarkable that that 300 plus $1,000,000,000 was deployed within two weeks. Marzilli successfully, it's just mind boggling to me. I mean, as someone that's, you know in my career has had to implement bank systems and bank technology and create processes from scratch and stand up credit card businesses. I mean, the fact that this just got done as's fast as it did, um, with I mean, yes, there were issues, but relative to how much volume got accomplished, it's really amazing to me. And I think history will say this was a great moment or our banking system.
spk_2: 31:46
Yeah, things got done in a week that used to take that in the past, have taken six months.
spk_1: 31:55
I was reading on article this morning about from TD from trying to Dominion Bank in 72 hours. They rolled out a brand new mobile app. Support PPV loans in 72 hours. I mean, that is it's a precedent. It just can't. Amanda, I'm One other thing I want to add is I did have a few conversations last week with some community bankers, and I asked him like, Okay, house, how have you responded to the P P P loans and their? Their answer was interesting. So they said, You know, we we decided immediately to not turn to solutions that were being offered a new from their large financial technology providers. And they said instead, we decided to just craft our own solution Fastest possible using some robotics process automation software that they were already using in house some things like like Doc, you sign that were available to them through, you know, opens with through the Web or, you know, through relations just quickly secure. And, um and they and And I was like, Why did you do that? I mean, why not use your primary partner? And they said, you know, honestly, we were concerned that we would Well, we felt we could spend things up faster, taking their own approach versus using their technology partner, and, um and they feel good about it. I mean, they were able in this bank one day I was talking to they were able to do over, I think 1300 loans and, um and and as they realize how quickly the money went, right. I mean, they were like if we take in the three alternative path with our partner, it probably would have taken we would have lost a week, basically, was their rationale in getting everything stood up?
spk_2: 34:04
Yeah, one of the things that a couple anecdotes that that I that i that I ran across is in a similar situation. Banks were for different reasons. Suspect of these third party systems that people were trying to bolt on because they were they they had sort of designed their own processes with a compliance component in it, and they were worried that that there was gonna be something missing. Although, you know, the S P A would tell you Hey, you just get the assertion from the customer that there, you know that they they certify the information they're providing and and you're good to go. But banks felt they were worried that somehow they were gonna were gonna they were gonna somehow do something that was going to impact to guarantee that's the first thing, the other thing on the fintech. So I was I know some people who very quickly spun up a pretty good solution, but by the time they got it up and running that the kind of the money was out or they couldn't employ it, or it was it was difficult to do because I think I just think you had to move so fast. Speed speed was the of essence here, right? And if you if you couldn't do it quickly and make it relatively simple relatively, and you're gonna you're gonna be left. You know, there's no way to create an elegant solution that works perfectly for everything because you know, you still be working on it. Probably. And I had
spk_1: 35:36
a couple of Finn Tex early stage that came to me and they were like, Tommy, we've put together this great, you know, solution technology that will support TPP loans. Can you introduce us to this provider? This banker? And I was like, Listen, I just I hate to have to say this, but I was like, No, I need you all think it's just just moving way too fast. There's no way. If you don't already have the relationship and you're not already present inside the bank or the partner with your technology in some manner, there's just forget. There's no way you could get this up. And right now there's and then I can. One other thing was, I was I was part of ah Fintech Conference Virtual Fintech conference last week, and I heard Zach Pettit from plaid talk, and he was talking about what Platt's been doing in terms of integrations with providers like ADP help with the payroll. It's the state of the payroll at the at the at the at the bar, or were so that the small business and he was making the point, which is right on target of there is some servicing here right now. The loans have been dispersed. Yes, there can be forgiven if you can maintain if you can prove that you've maintained the same level of payroll that you had when the loan was issued. So now there's gonna be this confirmation process that's gonna be periodic. I don't know. The period is city way. We need to figure out how to do that in a way that somewhat streamlined toe help produce the operational burden on the company on the small business but also on the bank. So plaid clearly is in a great position to support that. And it sounded like they and they said they were working directly on getting the integration of places they could pull that quickly or a financial institution.
spk_2: 37:39
I think one of the one of the things this tell told me Waas or this showed me was that it was it was good to have a relationship as a customer If you had a relationship with a bank. Yeah, um, I was I'm not saying that those other, you know, thin ticks. And, uh, and other other providers Hey, pal, other payment payment mechanisms, etcetera. Companies aren't valuable, but in this case, the way is not. It was just that it was just easier to be connected with the bank.
spk_1: 38:19
Yeah, and and Michael, I mean, I think you were alluding to this, um in in some of your comments or some of your observations that this the overall just digital the fact that you've got to be on digital and you need to be digitally engaged used in this thats public health crisis is just accelerating that in a significant way. So I'm more bullish than ever on fintech, a za result of the fact that this is gonna just, I think, accelerate all the digital transformation programs that air underway in the financial services in
spk_0: 39:04
Yes. So someone take on that is, with everything going to be online or, you know, it's maybe digital. I couldn't see the next couple months. This is gonna show a new way off. I want to say, cos you convinced that companies making the march presence to the world to the economy. So this is not only just we guess this is a bad time going on, but we can also use this opportunity to show which companies are gonna be strong and which companies are gonna, you know, competes and writes the top. So that's what I like about the fintech sector the most, because now people are saying work hard, more. You were just talking about how they spent 72 hours building. I don't know if anybody could do that. Anybody around me to do that. So it's showing you the people who could compete a booze rates and launch their products. So that's what's to make this whole bomb line. It's so transportation room equals.
spk_1: 40:03
Absolutely. Let's talk. Um, just a bit about kind of big fintech news that we've heard in the last in the last week. Um, Terry, what's caught your eye?
spk_2: 40:17
So I guess going back to the P P. P program. You know, I think it was the treasury. Maybe it was the FBI can't remember, But there are a couple of Finn tex that got got approved be, ah to be lenders under the TPP program. PayPal, I think Square. I think there's another one I don't remember at the top my head, but but But anyway, so that shows that shows that people are thinking about, I mean, that that the government thinking about that They probably recognize some of what I was talking about earlier, where there are some. There were some some subset of small businesses that weren't maybe getting access to to the money and hope. Hopefully, this will help those folks.
spk_1: 41:04
One piece of news that was remarkable, particularly for us here in Atlanta was that Global Payments announced a joint venture with a caixabank and Spain to offer a new prepaid product called Money to Pay Route Spain. Um, so you know, big win there for global payments that's gonna be on the Net. Spend prepaid platform, that is, that's part of the part of global payments. So that was exciting to see Global getting some really remarkable deal in place in the midst of all the all that's been happening. Um, Michael, how about you? Any news that caught your eye
spk_0: 41:51
well, come high? The most was baseless. When I was showing that the new P p p small business loan small businesses were excluded. Small business lenders were excluded, threatening small businesses. So it's like everything. What's going on? Fintech was left out, even though we're the most innovative sector going on right now. When that bill came when the loan came, we weren't really included in text. Less would compile the most. While this may be may be a lesson of advantaged, it's more opportunity for physics. Agro most
spk_1: 42:32
two other bits and these were, you know, remarkable. In terms of additional investments in fintech, one is stripe strike. Recent closed on additional 600 million in private funding. That evaluation of $36 billion Which, by the way, is 10% of the market value of Visa, which is the largest financial services. The most valuable, I should say financial services entity in the world. So really tremendous on a growth. Obviously that's being
spk_0: 43:15
regards. You saw? Can I ask you something? Yeah. What do you think Fintech is going to be like host Corona virus here?
spk_1: 43:26
Um, I think we're going to see a major boomlet again in Fintech again. And I and I'm basing that on the fact that any financial institution that was on a kind of slow path in terms of their digital transformation is has put the pedal down to the floor in terms of their digital transformation. And so, um, if any FINTECH company is gonna be a beneficiary of that shift, so I think we're really gonna see some some great further acceleration in space.
spk_0: 44:09
What do you
spk_1: 44:10
think? Kerry?
spk_2: 44:11
I agree with that. And and I think, and I believe that that the value of the smaller community banks, I think this is enhanced their value. Um and and I think that that people who have been able to do this most everybody has almost everybody's participating in this program. They're saying they're seeing their own value, and I think they're even Mawr, um, or apt to do these kind of digital transformations now. I mean, I think I think this in an odd way, a sort of reinvigorated community banks, and I know that there's going there some tough times ahead. Probably not probably. There are some tough times ahead in certain industries and stuff, but I think I believe that these East folks who are running the small banks who are able to help their customers on. They saw how they saw that technology is gonna be more important than ever. And I believe you're right, Tommy. And I think the fintech are gonna benefit from that. And I believe there's probably gonna be some new things coming out of this that we're not even thinking about now that are going to be exciting. And next two or three years that are gonna be we're gonna be talking about
spk_1: 45:31
Fantastic. Well, let's wrap things up there. Uh, Michael, thank you so much for your uncle. Engagement Infant academy. Best of luck with the internship with Amazon. Get yes this summer. I can't wait to hear all about it on then. Terry, thank you so much for your engagement with Fintech Academy with with please engagement. You all have been wonderful partners. And we look forward, Teoh continuing working of it.
spk_2: 46:02
Oh, thank you very much.
spk_0: 46:03
Thank you. The Georgia Fintech Academy podcasts are available on iTunes and Spotify. To obtain additional information about the Georgia Fintech Academy, please visit our website at Georgia Fintech academy dot org's