Fintech South 2024: Lisa Arthur with Sensedia

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from Fintech South 2024 at the Woodruff Arts Center. So excited to be talking to my next guest, Lisa Arthur with Sensedia. Welcome.

Lisa Arthur: Thanks. Great to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, for folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Sensedia? How are you serving folks?

Lisa Arthur: We are a global leader in API management and integration. What does that mean? We’re basically like the Lego blocks that help connect fintechs to banks. Banks to fintechs and keep it secure and efficient.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you guys to be at Fintech South?

Lisa Arthur: This is our third year at Fintech South, and we’re also members of Tag, the sponsoring organization of Fintech South. And in our three years here, we just really appreciate the people we’ve met. We meet them from all over the globe. We just met someone from Argentina. So for our global brand, it’s great because while it’s rich in fintech Atlanta talent, it’s also drawing a broader audience. And then additionally just the chance to keep up with what’s going on in the world of fintech.

Lee Kantor: So what is going on? What have you learned?

Lisa Arthur: Well, we’re learning that some of the problems that we’ve seen with our fintech prospects and customers are pretty universal, and that’s both good validation for how we’re helping them. But also I think shows there’s a lot of room for fintechs to kind of address these problems, to innovate better at scale.

Lee Kantor: So where is the opportunity when it comes to innovation on APIs?

Lisa Arthur: Well, the innovation is to one deliver on an embedded finance strategy. And while many aspire for that, some of the challenges that are holding them back make it where it’s more one off, it’s more tactical versus a scalable embedded strategy. And that slows the company down. It impacts the consumer experience, the developer experience. And then additionally, we’ve got this pending CFPB regulation, section 1033, which will a new rule be published we anticipate in October where there’s both a double edged sword for fintechs. There’s an opportunity because the CFPB is requiring data sharing. Consumers data is their data and they’re able to access it. But it’s also a slippery slope because some fintechs will be included in that. Depending upon what they do with the banks, and others may be exempt and may miss the opportunity to really drive a financial grade experience. So those are the two innovations we’re seeing a lot of now.

Lee Kantor: Where are the like, how do you help your clients when it comes to. I mean, it’s a balancing act in terms of they want to go to market with all this innovation and new technology. Then you have the regulatory that is usually not at the bleeding edge of things, right? They’re usually kind of coming from behind. How do you kind of help them balance all of this in order to be innovative, but still withstand the scrutiny of regulation?

Lisa Arthur: Yeah, that’s a great question. Um, well, I think let’s start with what’s some of the route blockers that fintechs are having at innovating. And one of the biggest ones we’ve heard and I’ve seen it validated here at Fintech South is bootstrapped resources, right? Many of these fintechs are pouring a lot into their products, a lot into their customer experience, and they don’t have enough bodies to do the innovation to scale. The second is on this compliance piece. What is their strategy? How does the innovation they’re doing link into compliance instead of fearing it? You know, how can this actually drive even more innovation. And the last thing is around the technical complexities. So if I’ve got fewer resources and I’m worried about this compliance, but I’ve got this technical spaghetti that I’m dealing with and everything’s a one off, then I’m not able to innovate at the pace that maybe my competitors are.

Lee Kantor: Right. And and I would think that a lot of these startups, especially when they’re bootstrapping, they don’t even know what they don’t know when it comes to a lot of this regulation and compliance. Right. They’re there, just like going boldly forward with some brilliant idea. And they don’t even know what kind of dominoes they’re knocking over as they proceed.

Lisa Arthur: You’re absolutely right. And you know, our team and I have talked to a lot of fintechs both here, but, you know, across the US and we often get asked, I don’t think I need to worry about this or what should I do. So I think we’ve got to be more forward thinking on the compliance side. One of the things that we’re coaching our customers on is that to go beyond compliance, there can be value, right? The value to the fintech can be an embedded ecosystem, faster onboarding, better customer experience, scale at a better cost. This starts to then supply resources, right? Because, oh, I’m not spending as much on this. I can I can add resources or I can partner for resources. So I think there’s a lot of, um, behavior changing. If you will, of not guessing and not waiting but taking a forward lean into it and saying, I’m going to go beyond compliance. I’m going to give that financial grade connectivity to my ecosystem, but I’m also going to use it to fuel a better path to innovation.

Lee Kantor: Now, is this where an organization like yours can really help while bringing something like that to the table and giving them just things that they probably hadn’t thought of, and give them a structure and a platform in order to execute.

Lisa Arthur: We absolutely can. We are very adaptable and agile, depending upon the fintech we’re working with, and we’re laser focused in the US on fintechs, regional banks and credit unions. So we’re not going after the whole world. It’s that ecosystem because that’s where the connectivity lives. So we bring and we just actually launched at the show, uh, a solution for fintechs called the Fintech API accelerator platform. So you mentioned a platform that’s part of it, but you’ve already you’ve already hinted at the fact that fintechs need more than just the platform. They need the thought leadership, the advisory services. They may need help getting that first API published, or embracing the authorization and consent flows of open banking, right, which can help them attract more interest in banks because they’ve already solved the compliance issues. So what we’ve done is we’ve brought our platform, an AI copilot, which will help on design and implementation services, a developer portal, all the things they need for the price less than a new car or, I’m sorry, a new truck. And why have we done that? Because we know they’re strapped. We know they’re strapped on resources and on budget. And we want to grow with these fintechs, not kill them from the beginning.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wanted to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Lisa Arthur: Excellent. Well, please go to sensedia and I’ll spell that’s e n s e d I a.com, hit a contact us button and that form will come into the US team and we will respond within 24 hours. The other thing, and I know this is radio and I may be crazy for doing this, but I believe that people like to do business with people. So you can also hit me up on LinkedIn. I’m at Lisa Burris, Arthur on LinkedIn, you’ll find me and just send me a private message. We’d love to help you. And more importantly, it’s not about the product. It’s about how we help you scale and deliver on an embedded finance strategy.

Lee Kantor: Well, Lisa, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Lisa Arthur: Thanks for having me on and thanks for everyone for listening.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor back in a few at Fintech South 2020 for.