Rui Ribeiro, Co-Founder & CEO of Jscrambler | Episode 403
Digital commerce security stands at a critical crossroads, with an average of 66 third-party vendors present during the typical e-commerce checkout flow. Each of these represents a potential security vulnerability that could compromise your customers' payment data. Few understand this landscape better than Rui Ribeiro, Co-Founder and CEO of Jscrambler.Ribeiro's journey began in Portugal with a computer science background that led him through the banking industry before identifying a crucial gap in 2014: client-side security. What started as a broad security mission has evolved into specialized protection for payment processes, with Jscrambler now serving major e-commerce platforms across airlines, retail, and hospitality sectors.The timing couldn't be more relevant. With the PCI Council's recent release of PCI DSS v4, client-side security has moved from a best practice to a compliance requirement. Companies must now implement strategies that protect cardholder data by securing JavaScript and payment pages while detecting unauthorized access - exactly what Jscrambler specializes in."Security should never be a barrier for innovation," Ribeiro emphasizes. His company's approach allows businesses to continue adding frictionless checkout features while ensuring third parties can't access sensitive payment information. This balance becomes increasingly challenging as merchants integrate chatbots, payment calculators, installment options, and other tools that improve customer experience but potentially expand the attack surface.
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John Gordon, CEO of ValidiFI | Episode 402
The future of payments is shifting dramatically as consumers demand more options and businesses seek better ways to assess risk. John Gordon, CEO of ValidiFI, takes us deep into how bank account behavior data is becoming the missing puzzle piece in understanding consumer reliability beyond traditional credit scores.Gordon explains how ValidiFI sits at the critical intersection of compliance and fraud prevention, helping businesses meet NACHA's WEB debit rule requirements while gaining valuable insights into consumer payment patterns. By analyzing factors like bank account changes, previous negative balances, and account relationship patterns, ValidiFI provides powerful signals that predict payment outcomes and identify potential fraud before it happens.What truly sets this conversation apart is Gordon's perspective on consumer financial empowerment. He notes how payment preferences are evolving rapidly, with account-to-account transfers growing yearly and programs like Target's RedCard demonstrating the power of bank-account-linked payment methods. The conversation explores how real-time payment networks and non-credentialed bank verification are creating new opportunities for businesses to offer seamless, secure payment experiences that consumers actually want to use. Ready to rethink how you validate customer payment information? Listen now and discover strategies that go beyond basic compliance to deliver real business value while meeting evolving consumer expectations.
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Maxim Galash, CEO of Coinchange | Episode 401
Max Galash takes us on a fascinating journey through the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency landscape as CEO of Coinchange, a global crypto brokerage and asset management platform with offices in Warsaw and Toronto.Having pivoted from a direct-to-consumer approach following the collapse of major players like Celsius and BlockFi, CoinChange now focuses exclusively on B2B relationships with crypto operators, exchanges, neobanks, and payment platforms. What sets them apart in this emerging space is their multi-manager investment approach – rather than simply offering tokenized T-bills like many competitors, they employ various managers deploying different trading strategies to create customized, principle-protected structured products.The conversation provides remarkable insight into how stablecoins are revolutionizing global payments, especially in emerging markets where access to USD-denominated products is limited. "Stablecoins are a bridge between banking, trading, exchanges, crypto and remittances," Max explains, highlighting their crucial role in enabling global settlements within seconds. His prediction that blockchain will become the backbone of settlement networks rather than remaining consumer-facing technology aligns with moves by financial giants like BlackRock and JP Morgan, who are already settling billions through private blockchains.Ready to understand how cryptocurrency is reshaping global finance? Listen now to hear Max's complete insights and predictions for this transformative industry.
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23:07
Barry McCarthy, President & CEO of Deluxe | Episode 400
We’ve officially reached 400 episodes of the Leaders in Payments Podcast - and what a journey it’s been. I’m incredibly proud of this milestone and truly grateful to our listeners, guests, and community. With over 375 guests featured, we’ve uncovered countless insights from the best minds in the business.To celebrate episode 400, I sat down with Barry McCarthy, President and CEO of Deluxe. Barry takes us on a fascinating journey through the transformation of a century-old company once known primarily for check printing into a modern payments and data powerhouse.What does a company do when its core business faces digital disruption? For Deluxe, the answer was bold reinvention. McCarthy reveals how the company now processes approximately $3 trillion annually across four integrated business lines: merchant services targeting mid-market businesses, B2B payments focused on accounts receivable/payable management, data-driven marketing leveraging one of the industry's largest consumer databases, and their legacy print operations.The conversation explores how Deluxe has strategically repositioned itself at the intersection of payments, data, and artificial intelligence. McCarthy shares specific examples of how they're applying AI to solve real business problems, from matching payments to invoices to identifying high-converting marketing leads. His vision for the future of payments is particularly compelling – a world where payment processing becomes as invisible and omnipresent as electricity, simply working in the background without conscious thought.Whether you're a payments industry veteran or just beginning your fintech career, this milestone 400th episode delivers rich insights on corporate transformation, the future of embedded payments, and the strategic application of artificial intelligence in financial services.
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Mike Hudack, CEO & Co-Founder of Sling Money | Episode 399
As CEO & Co-Founder of Sling Money, Mike is transforming how we think about sending funds across borders by making international transfers as effortless as sending a text message.During our conversation, Mike reveals how a personal experience moving USDC between the UK and San Francisco sparked his vision. The transfer itself was instant and free, but everything around it felt clunky – "like using a Unix command line from the 80s." This insight led him to create what he calls "the macOS or iPhone of stablecoins," abstracting away all of the complexity. Sling's elegant approach allows users to add money through local payment methods in 75 countries, convert to stablecoins behind the scenes, and send funds globally in just seconds. Recipients can withdraw to their local currency almost instantly, never needing to understand the underlying technology. The use cases range from practical (managing finances across multiple countries) to spontaneous (buying someone a beer across continents) – transactions that were previously impossible or prohibitively expensive.Mike places this innovation in a fascinating historical context, comparing the evolution of international payments to what happened with telecommunications and streaming video. Just as we no longer think twice about "long-distance calls," he envisions a future where the concept of "international payments" disappears entirely.Ready to experience the future of global money transfer? Download Sling Money today and join the community making international payments instant, free, and frictionless.
Hear directly from C-level executives in payments/fintech about industry trends, successful strategies, products, services, and what the future holds for the payments/fintech industry. We cover the entire industry from merchant acquiring, payment processing, ISOs, payfacs, fraud, security, issuing, b2b, fintech, to start-ups, if it goes on in payments we will be talking about it.
Netherlands