Latest news with #Plaid
Business Insider
10 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Fintech engineering is growing. The job can come with high salaries and energizing work.
If you've sent money through an app or deposited a check with your phone, you've used fintech. Fintech, or financial technology, is a vast ecosystem of services and solutions, including payment systems, lending platforms, and cryptocurrencies, that is revolutionizing the way businesses operate and creating promising new career paths. Behind these innovations are fintech engineers who design, build, and maintain the software that powers many modern financial products. Though the role can require specialized education, it offers creative opportunities across finance and tech industries. It's also in high demand. The World Economic Forum's " Future of Jobs Report 2025" projected fintech engineers to be the second fastest-growing job over the next five years. Jimmie Lenz, the executive director of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering's Master of Engineering in fintech program, has nearly thirty years of experience in the financial services industry and has witnessed firsthand the increasing demand for expertise in the field. "The driver behind everything new in finance over the past 30 years has been innovation," Lenz told Business Insider. He added that technological advances continually spur change in the financial world, keeping the role of a fintech engineer both compelling and essential. Stella Zhang, the engineering manager for applied AI and growth at Plaid, a fintech company that connects consumer bank accounts to financial apps, likes that her work is helping make people's financial lives frictionless and intuitive. "This field rewards those who can zoom out to see the big picture while zooming in to perfect the details," Zhang said. "If that kind of multi-scale thinking excites you, you'll thrive in fintech." Working at the cutting edge of finance Lenz said there was immediate demand when Duke's Master of Engineering in Fintech program launched in 2020, and interest has stayed consistent. "The very first year, we probably had eight or 10 applications for every one seat," he said. Fintech engineers are often proficient in various programming languages, blockchain technologies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Those interested in specializing in fintech can acquire relevant skills through various routes, including intensive, short-term boot camps and specialized degree programs. While undergraduate majors vary, Lenz said he sees many applicants with backgrounds in mathematics, finance, economics, and computer science. He said the opportunity to be in a rapidly evolving field is driving interest in fintech engineering. "Students definitely see their experience as getting to be at the very front wave of things," Lenz said. He said a talented fintech engineer is able to apply their programming and software engineering skills in a financial context, so it's important that his students leave with both technical and contextual information. Zhang found her way to Plaid after "an unconventional journey through finance and tech." She studied quantitative finance at Princeton University and researched computer science and AI at Stanford University. She went on to work at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, Citadel, a hedge fund, and Ironclad, a software company. Zhang said she was drawn to Plaid because it connected all the dots in her career. "At Plaid, I can use my understanding of financial systems to build AI that serves developers and, ultimately, hundreds of millions of end-users," Zhang said. "Working on applied AI in fintech where accuracy, reliability, and security are paramount provides exactly the level of challenge and responsibility that energizes me every day." Lenz said his students have gone on to work in large technology companies, banks, entrepreneurial start-ups, and investment and brokerage firms. Glassdoor's salary estimate for fintech engineers ranges from $109,000 to $170,000 a year, but Lenz said that based on conversations with his former students, the range can sometimes stretch to $200,000. Curiosity is key to a fintech career Kathleen DeRose, the academic director of the Master of Science in Fintech program at New York University, said new advancements like artificial intelligence keep fintech evolving and exciting. The job prospects for fintech engineers "reflect the tech transformations underway," she said. The surge of multibillion-dollar companies in the fintech space also "suggests the prospects are really good," said DeRose. When DeRose speaks with hiring managers and recruiters, she's increasingly hearing a desired characteristic that goes beyond technical skills: curiosity. "You need to have the technical chops, but the ability to learn quickly and have the curiosity to do so is the adaptive power that's wanted," she said. Zhang recommended choosing to work with companies "that give you space to experiment and fail safely." Breakthrough innovations rarely come from prescribed roadmaps, and the best ideas can come from "what if" conversations over coffee, she said. "Most importantly, remember that fintech engineering is about people, not just systems," Zhang said. "Yes, you need to understand distributed systems and API design, but you also need empathy for the small-business owner trying to make payroll or the recent graduate navigating student loans." "The best solutions come from engineers who never forget there's a human on the other end of every product experience," she added.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Why JPMorgan Is Hitting Fintechs With Stunning New Fees For Data Access
Under CEO Jamie Dimon, the bank's aggressive new fees are a big escalation in the ongoing battle between financial services incumbents and challenger fintechs. Getty Images J PMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in America, has been angry for years about being forced to hand over customer data to fintech companies for free. Now its billionaire CEO Jamie Dimon seems to be capitalizing on a moment of deregulation to slap fintechs with new fees, and the coming negotiations will determine how much damage the behemoth inflicts on their businesses. The bank's aggressive move is a big escalation in the ongoing battle between financial services incumbents and challenger fintechs. Since the start of the fintech industry, upstarts have needed access to consumers' bank data to perform basic functions like transferring money and making budgeting recommendations. Data aggregators like Plaid and MX emerged over a decade ago to fill that need. They make software that bridges bank-to-fintech connections and charge the fintechs for the service. Big banks, including JPMorgan Chase, have long given aggregators access to consumer data for free, complying with a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that prohibited banks from charging for it. But in May, amid the Trump administration's crusade to vastly reduce regulation, the CFPB said it plans to repeal the rule. Now JPMorgan Chase is essentially telling aggregators: You've built a nice business off of our data–now give us our cut. The scary thing for fintechs is the size of the fees. Chase first sent pricing sheets to aggregators earlier this month. While details remain hazy, the prices are steepest for payments-related data transfers and would require leading aggregator Plaid to pay an estimated $300 million a year in new fees, according to a person briefed on the pricing sheet. That's more than 75% of Plaid's 2024 revenue. Bloomberg first reported the news of the coming fees. Have a story tip? Contact Jeff Kauflin at jkauflin@ or on Signal at jeff.273. Plaid's head of corporate affairs Freya Petersen and JPMorgan Chase spokesperson Drew Pusateri declined to comment on the size of the fees. Two fintech executives we spoke with for this article believe it's fair for JPMorgan Chase to charge something for data access. The data feed has cost the bank 'a lot of money' to set up and maintain securely, Jamie Dimon said last week. But the bank's real costs to create and operate the data connections remain a mystery, as does its method for coming up with the fees' eye-watering prices. If the fees don't come down, they could make popular features uneconomical for fintechs to offer and leave consumers worse off, fintech executives believe. Miranda Margowsky, a spokesperson for the fintech trade organization the Financial Technology Association, says Chase designed the fees 'to crush competition, levy a tax on fintech innovation, and cement their power in the marketplace.' JPMorgan Chase spokesperson Pusateri told us in a statement that the fees are a way to reign in the excessive number of times fintechs are pulling JPMorgan Chase's customers' data. 'We receive nearly two billion monthly requests for customer data from middlemen, and more than 90 percent of those are unrelated to a consumer using fintech services.' He added that the new fees 'will ensure that data is provided only when customers request it.' He also said Chase 'explicitly reserves the right to charge for data access in its current agreements with data aggregators.' Petersen said Plaid has invested heavily to build its data connections, and it provides data 'only at the behest of consumers.' She added that the data belongs to consumers, not banks. Sima Gandhi, a former fintech entrepreneur and early Plaid employee who's currently a senior advisor at regulatory consulting firm FS Vector, believes that Chase should instead develop a new data strategy that benefits consumers and passes fees on to them. For instance, Chase could create a premium feature and charge people, say, $1 a month for unlimited data sharing, in the same way that Apple charges for data storage. Chase has no plans to do that, Pusateri says. What will other big banks do if Chase's new charges take effect? They'll likely copy Dimon and tack on fees too, rather than sit back and watch their biggest competitor exert more control and create a new revenue line. PNC Bank CEO Bill Demchak has already said he's considering levying data-access fees as well. Now aggregators are praying that they can negotiate the fees down. It's possible that Chase is taking a President Trump-style approach to negotiating, starting high but being willing to go much lower. Allison Beer, the bank's CEO of Card Services and Connected Commerce, is leading the charge on the negotiations, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
McMurtry Spéirling: $1.1M EV Hits 60 MPH in 1.38 Seconds
McMurtry Spéirling: $1.1M EV Hits 60 MPH in 1.38 Seconds originally appeared on Autoblog. This Is Not Science Fiction Imagine an electric track car that blasts to 60 mph in 1.38 seconds, generates 2,000 kg of downforce at zero speed, and carries a $1.13 million price tag. That's the McMurtry Speirling. Every stab at the throttle plants you firmly in your seat like Maverick's Tomcat. Few machines on earth deliver this kind of visceral thrill — and the Speirling isn't just for pro drivers. Although, budget-friendly? Only if you consider a small South Pacific island budget-friendly. Performance and Drivability Insights The McMurtry Speirling detonates off the line, eclipsing top-tier EV hypercars. It rockets from 0–60 mph in 1.38 seconds, thanks to 1,000 hp and a 1,000 kg curb weight — an unrivaled power-to-weight ratio . By comparison, the Tesla Model S Plaid takes 2.0 seconds and weighs 4,766 lb. Steering feels razor-sharp. The rack-and-pinion setup relays every surface detail without twitchiness. Suspension grips aggressively through pitch and roll, then soaks up track bumps with race-car poise. Fan-powered downforce pushes cornering g-loads past 3Gs, yet transitions stay smooth and predictable. View the 3 images of this gallery on the original article Real-World Usability and Design Notes The Speirling's cabin serves a single driver. A carbon-fiber monocoque and closed cockpit offer motorsport-grade safety. You get an adjustable steering column and pedals — but no infotainment screen, just critical lap data. Expect a 60 kWh pack built around Taiwanese cell maker, Molicel. It uses Molicel's P50B cylindrical cells with, one of the first silicon-carbon anode EV batteries on the market that has every chance of being the next big thing. This Molicel pack recharges in 20 minutes at 600 kW and delivers roughly 25 minutes of full-tilt public roads, aggressive regen and the lightweight design yield about 50 MPGe. That 50 MPGe beats the fuel economy of mainstream hybrids like the 2025 Toyota Prius Eco at 56 mpg combined, or the 2025 Honda Insight at 52 mpg combined. Unlike these small hybrids, though, noise does climb past 120 dB when fans spin up, so ear protection earns its keep. Storage and comfort take a back seat to performance, and the $1.1 million sticker guarantees exclusivity. Silicon-Anode Battery Tech Using silicon anodes boosts energy density up to 40% over graphite and cuts charge times in half. There is even some industry talk of 90-second 0-100% EV charging. Molicel deploys US-made Group14's SCC55® material under license, pairing Taiwan's cell-assembly expertise with advanced silicon chemistry. Verdict: Daily Grind Meets Enthusiast Thrill The McMurtry Speirling feels like sprinting alongside supercars — but leaving them in the dust. It won't haul groceries or connect to Bluetooth, but it delivers fan-driven grip and lightning reflexes. You trade creature comforts and cargo space for pure, unfiltered performance. This car is incredible. Its speed is out of this world. But the battery tech is where we need to be watching. Consider this almost hypersonic EV as the runway model for future EV batteries. Getting this silicon battery tech out to a larger market solves energy density and therefore range and charging anxiety, and would spark a new age for EVs. For the enthusiast who lives for tactile feedback, track precision, the world flying past at breakneck speed, and the world's first silicon-carbon battery EV, the Speirling stands alone. View the 3 images of this gallery on the original article McMurtry Spéirling: $1.1M EV Hits 60 MPH in 1.38 Seconds first appeared on Autoblog on Jul 19, 2025 This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Jul 19, 2025, where it first appeared.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
JP Morgan Chase Have A Point, But The Whole Economy Needs Data To Flow
INDIA - 2025/07/14: In this photo illustration, a JPMorgan logo is seen displayed on a smartphone ... More with a JPMorgan Chase Co logo in the background. (Photo Illustration by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) The not entirely unexpected news that JP Morgan Chase intends to start charging for customers' data that is obtained by third parties through APIs, data that is provided free through 'open banking' in other parts of the world, is causing significant comment across the fintech sector. Data Needs A Business Model The planned charges would affect how fintech platforms access information through intermediaries, particularly data aggregators like Plaid and MX. who provide the infrastructure layer that sits between banks and third parties. As Jason Mikula pointed out, if these aggregators are forced to begin paying banks on a per data access basis, those costs will inevitably be passed along to aggregators' fintech customers, and, presumably, those fintechs' end users. This may make some of the services unviable, which will in turn reshape the market in a couple of ways: For the economy as a whole to benefit we therefore need to find a compromise that would allow the banks to earn a reasonable return on the data but also benefit the wider economy. In other jurisdictions, that compromise takes the essential form of 'basic and 'premium' services., which seems a reasonable way of working, so my high-level view is that there should be a standard model put in place to encourage the use of bank data for the greater good while providing balanced rewards. Using the language of cards, this means resolving interchange and liability. In other words, who gets paid what when things work properly and who compensates whom when things go wrong. It seems to me that it should hardly beyond the bounds of human ingenuity to find appropriate solutions. For example, the regulators might decide that the banks will earn zero interchange on basic facts about the account holder but they can earn whatever interchange they set for other premium services that they want to provide (an example might be giving a 'safe to spend' limit for the purposes of regulated gambling). In return for fees, the banks will also have to accept liability. I would need to defer to someone like Tom Brown, but I would've thought it might be possible to construct a solution that is based on transactional but not contingent liabilities. In other words if I give you a loan because I think you have an account with a certain amount of money in it and it later turns out that it wasn't you then the bank should be liable to the value of the loan but not beyond it. Identity is the new... well, you know. Open Banking, Open Data There is, however, another aspect beyond such "interchange fees' where I do actually feel the banks have a reasonable complaint and that is symmetry. The banks argue with complete justification that open banking does not create a level playing field for competition if they are required by law to provide basic customer data for nothing whereas third parties are not. They would argue that if they have to provide customer data to a social media company, for example, then the social media company should provide social graph data to the bank. (This is an argument that's been raging for years in Europe and the example of the Consumer Data Right in Australia shows one way forward here.) Taking all of this together, I think the principle of banks being allowed to charge something for customer data is sound provided it is within a framework set by the regulators to maximise the net welfare and not to maximise the profits of commercial banks. The fact is that allowing customer data to flow, under an equitable arrangement, is good not only for banks and fintechs but for society as a whole. Open Data And Open Minds This is not only about open banking data. There is another, bigger picture here. In a paper on "The Data Economy: Market Size and Global Trade" for the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (part of the UK's National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Diane Coyle and Wendy Li wrote about the "data gap" between global Big Tech and potential competitors, disruptors and innovators. They argue (convincingly) that this data gap is a a barrier to entry that affects not only businesses but also aggregate innovation, investment and trade. Similarly, the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR, a prominent think tank) published a call for action on "Defending Europe's Economic Sovereignty" in which it called for the EU (and the UK) not to put up barriers at all but to agree data free-flow with the US. Coule and Li conclude that an open data-sharing ecosystem will increase productivity and therefore economic wellbeing. From my inexpert perspective, I could not agree more, so if I were the CEO of a US bank, I might therefore be tempted to play a longer game. I would go to the industry and say something like the... I know this sounds radical, but I hope that US regulators will, in time, choose this path, a path that grows the pie while ensuring that everyone, including banks, gets a fair slice.
Finextra
16-07-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Xero to triple high-quality bank feed connections in the US through Plaid partnership
Xero, the global small business platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Plaid, a leading financial data network, to eventually triple the number of high-quality bank feeds available to customers in the United States. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. For the many small businesses that form the backbone of local economies, access to community-focused finance providers is crucial, given the vast number of banks and credit unions nationwide. This partnership will significantly improve these business owners' access to reliable bank connections, giving them a clearer, real-time view of their finances which, in turn, will empower them to make more informed decisions, supporting their growth, their employees, and the communities they serve. "This partnership with Plaid is expected to supercharge bank connections. It will provide more robust integrations and higher-quality information from a wide range of financial institutions including smaller banks and credit unions," said Vikram Grover, SVP Global Partnerships for Xero. This partnership gives Xero's customers access to more than a thousand secure, direct connections through Plaid's expansive network of US financial institutions, delivering better reliability, data quality, and peace of mind for small businesses. Starting this year, Plaid will power an increasing portion of Xero's US bank feed sources, offering customers more dependable connections to their financial data. "This partnership with Plaid is expected to supercharge bank connections. It will provide more robust integrations and higher-quality information from a wide range of financial institutions including smaller banks and credit unions. This will in turn make managing the finances a lot smoother, more precise and successful, as well as save valuable time for small business owners, accountants and bookkeepers," said Vikram Grover, SVP Global Partnerships for Xero. Xero is continuing to invest in more reliable direct (OAuth) bank feeds, offering a significant improvement by using secure tokens for connections built directly with bank systems. Xero will proactively migrate customers to direct bank feeds available through Plaid, ensuring a more stable flow of financial data. "We're excited to partner with Xero to deliver best-in-class financial data connectivity for U.S. small businesses," said Adam Yoxtheimer, Head of Partnerships at Plaid. "By combining Plaid's secure, direct bank feeds with Xero's powerful accounting platform, we're giving customers faster, more reliable access to their financial information and freeing up time for them to focus on what really matters: growing their business." Xero will ensure a smooth transition to Plaid-powered feeds with clear, proactive instructions to guide customers through the easy setup process. The new Plaid bank feed options for US customers will start to become available from late 2025, with a phased rollout designed to ensure a smooth and well-managed experience. This will include both the introduction of new feeds and the transition of some existing connections to the enhanced service.
