Latest / The Payments Shed / Ep. 14 - Gen Z, AI, and the Future of Fintech — with David Dowhan, CPO @ SavvyMoney @ Money 20/20 USA 2025

Transcript

Ep. 14 - Gen Z, AI, and the Future of Fintech — with David Dowhan, CPO @ SavvyMoney @ Money 20/20 USA 2025 · The Payments Shed

• 0:05
  Welcome back to The Payment Show podcast live from Money 2020
• 0:08
  USA. We're joined by David Dohan, CPO
• 0:11
  of Savvy Money. David, welcome to the show.
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  Please introduce yourself. Tell us a bit about your role at
• 0:15
  Savvy. Sure.
• 0:16
  So David Dohan, I'm the Chief Product Officer here at Savvy
• 0:19
  Money. I've been here about 3 1/2 years
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  and it's been a fun growth story for Savvy Money as we've gotten
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  to over 1500 financial institutions we work with as a
• 0:28
  company. Brilliant.
• 0:29
  And some very exciting news today, $225 million investment.
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  Can we start with that? I mean, we've got to talk about
• 0:35
  it. Very exciting.
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  I mean, look, I think it's a it's a testament to the business
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  that we built and a lot of awareness in the financial
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  community that we're on to something really big, right in
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  terms of our support. So PSG, Canopy, both incredible
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  partners and so we're really are looking to them not just for the
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  capital, but also some of the strategy, some of the strategic
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  introductions we, we believe they can help us make.
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  So it really is about accelerating the good work we've
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  done. And I think that's a, it's a
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  good testament to the, the strength of the company.
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  And we wanted to dive into your latest research today on
• 1:08
  financial Wellness and particularly looking at that
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  Gen. Z, you know, part of the world.
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  Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
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  Certainly so we've done so many of our credit unions, banks,
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  they're always asking about Gen. Z.
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  How do we attract more Gen. Z partners, right?
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  And so part of Savvy Money, what we solve for is providing kind
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  of a fintech experience inside of a bank or credit union.
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  And we're constantly innovating. And so they asked us like, hey,
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  how can we do better with Gen. Z?
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  So we conducted a survey of about 1000 Gen.
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  Z members to really get their impression kind of what's
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  working for them, what are they looking for?
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  And we discovered some very, very interesting statistics.
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  Generally, I would say that really Gen.
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  Z is really, they're motivated by financial independence, but
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  there's really gaps in their confidence and their knowledge
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  about the financial finances in general.
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  So just some facts and figures for yourself.
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  For example, only 14% are really confident in their own knowledge
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  about financial services. And think about that.
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  There's so many resources out there.
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  There's Chat GPTS, there's websites.
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  So yet only 14% are feeling confident, right?
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  86% want to know more about financial education, right?
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  There's, there's a hunger for that.
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  They don't want marketing, they don't want someone pushing
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  products on them, but they want someone to explain, educate them
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  and move them through the process.
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  That's really where the gap is. Turns out that Gen.
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  Z, they want to become financially independent.
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  In fact, 91% of the people that are surveyed, they have
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  financial goals. It's not like they're sitting
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  around playing video games. Like they really have goals and
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  they're motivated to do it, but they really, they don't know
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  exactly how to get there. And there's some anxiety we're
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  seeing out there. Roughly 64% of those folks are
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  worried about their income or are they going to be able to
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  save enough money. So we're seeing some anxiety,
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  but at the same time this kind of thirst and this need for
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  education. And are we doing enough to
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  educate the youth of today on financial services finance?
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  I don't think so. And frankly, not just the youth,
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  it's everybody. Everybody can use, you know,
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  primers in terms of financial education.
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  So, for example, we also provide savvy money, provide a lot of
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  tools and capabilities for people just to learn more.
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  I mean, how does a credit score work?
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  What if I open a new account? What does that do to my credit
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  score? So Gen.
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  Z really wants to know that. But frankly, you know, you and I
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  need to understand that too, so we can manage our credit most
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  effectively. A nice segue there into your
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  credit snap acquisition then as well.
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  Can you, can you tell us again a little bit about that?
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  Sure. Credit Snap really is kind of
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  another step in the vision of savvy money.
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  So it's savvy money. We really are about educating
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  consumers about credit score, how to make it better and then
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  we also promote various loan offers to those folks that are
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  pre qualified. What Credit Snap does is it
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  allows us to take the consumer from education to an instant
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  application where they can apply online, get approved online,
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  sign their documents online and actually book the account, move
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  money all digitally online. So Credit Snap is a huge step
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  forward for us. And frankly, that's what Gen.
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  Z is looking for. They want that fintech
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  experience, you know, click, click, click here, sign, you're
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  done. They don't want to walk into a
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  branch and have an hour conversation with someone,
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  right? They really want that kind of
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  more fintech experience, seamless, easy to do.
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  And so the credit step acquisition really opens us to
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  this entire market where it's now a possibility.
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  And then I guess we can't really be at Money 2020 this year and
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  not talk about AI. But specifically for you, I
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  wanted to ask, are banks doing enough with AI?
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  So I would say, no, they're not doing enough today.
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  And we actually had a partner Advisory Board.
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  So we, we got together, you know, forty of our top partners
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  and we had a roundtable discussion, open discussion
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  about AI and what it means to them.
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  And there's a, there's a, there's a thirst and a hunger to
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  do more with AI. But what I'm hearing is some of
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  the compliance concerns are slowing them down a little bit,
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  a little bit more conservative. They're not really sure where to
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  start. And so some of our partners are
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  using AI for what I'll call more back office applications, so
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  streamlining their own internal operations, but not enough of
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  them have actually product ties, introduced AI into the fabric of
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  their product. And that's something we're
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  working on. It's savvy money to make it not
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  just AI for AI sake. But think about all the data
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  that we have about someone's credit report.
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  Wouldn't it be great if you can log in and say, hey, my credit
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  score went down by 50 points, what happened?
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  AI is capable of doing those kinds of things and creating
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  that real time interactivity that's personalized for that
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  individual member or user. And frankly, that's what Genzi
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  wants as well. They want this level of
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  personalization that they're just not getting from their open
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  websites. Yeah, and I guess Gen.
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  Z, you know, are quite fickle as well with the brands that they
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  trust and they want to look at everything a company's doing
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  behind the scenes. How are you guys winning over
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  the trust of those Gen. Z individuals?
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  And so we, we really a savvy money's kind of behind the
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  scenes, right. Even though we power some you
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  know, 1500 plus financial institutions, we really treat it
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  as a white label solution. So we are kind of behind the
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  scenes and so the way we engender trust is by building on
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  the banks own brand equity. So it's all branded for the
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  bank, all the communications are branded for the bank.
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  So look and feels like my bank in this age of fraud that's
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  really important, right? You don't know who you can trust
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  and what's the links to click on.
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  So we allow each of our bank partners and credit union
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  partners to kind of extinctly express their brand and that
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  goes for our customer communications, our our tone,
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  all that really reflects the values of the bank.
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  So that's how we kind of engender trust in that model.
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  That's great, and we're at Money 2020.
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  Obviously, we like to ask all of our guests why this is such an
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  important event. Well, it's, it's kind of where
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  things happen, right? This is where this is where you
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  know the key industry leaders. This is how money moves today
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  and into the future. So I learn a lot when I come
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  here, just talking to the various vendors and we see a lot
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  of our partners too, which is really important to be able to
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  kind of reach out to the partners.
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  So really good on the networking and the connectivity, but I also
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  learned a lot of good stuff every day or every time I come
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  to Money 2020. And competitors probably
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  revealing insights into their own products and services for
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  someone in your role like you want to see what the
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  competition's doing and what they're building as well.
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  Right. Absolutely.
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  Look, and the road map's always evolving, right?
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  Many of our banks and credit union partners look to us to do
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  innovation. So it's kind of on us to say,
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  hey, here's what we're seeing, sort through the good and the
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  bad and say, hey, this is we're going to put this on the road
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  map and make it happen. So that's really part of the
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  role. It's to sort through that stuff.
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  Really interesting. Thanks for sharing that with us.
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  And just one final section, So we ask all of our guests at the
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  very end of this segment that we run, we have a section called
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  the Shelf of Shame. It's where you nominate
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  something that really grinds your gears.
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  It can be in payments, it can be in fintech, in life in general.
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  If it'd be if you were to nominate something that you
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  could banish forever, what would you go for?
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  Something I could banish forever.
• 7:37
  Gosh, I'd have to say, I guess some of the contracting
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  complexities in our industry, there's so many, a lot of legal
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  overhead because of the compliance.
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  And so it, I think it creates friction, maybe healthy friction
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  at sometimes, maybe unhealthy at other times.
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  So just the third party agreements and we have to sign
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  and you have to sign. So that friction can can be
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  impediment to implementation and innovation, if you will.
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  So that's that's one of the things that I could banish, but
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  maybe at least simplify a little bit.
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  That's what I would say. You Chuck NDA's in there as well
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  for the day in my life. NDA's you got it right, any kind
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  of exactly look and I know they sort of a valuable purpose, but
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  gosh, can we make it simpler or easier so that it's not this
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  huge pain every time we have. Platform in the UK that are
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  building like a centralized NDA framework so that thousands of
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  companies can basically work off the same model for the same
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  mutual NDA and it just removes a lot of that back.
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  And forth. That is interesting.
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  So it's almost like, you know, once you sign, you can just say,
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  hey, you've got my token. I agree to the token and like
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  you're good. Exactly.
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  Yeah. So you're all in that same NDA
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  ecosystem effect. Brilliant.
• 8:38
  Thanks for coming on today, David.
• 8:39
  Yeah, my. Pleasure.
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  Looking forward to see what you guys do with that massive
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  investment as well. All right.
• 8:43
  Thank you. Appreciate it.
• 8:44
  All right, take care.