Artificial intelligence is transforming climate change prediction and rapidly becoming one of the most powerful tools available to predict, manage and mitigate the effects of climate change. From forecasting floods to helping cities plan resilient infrastructure, AI is now at the forefront of climate tech innovation. During a recent event hosted by the University of Virginia, a panel of experts in science, technology, insurance, and journalism discussed how AI is being deployed to address environmental risks. While concerns persist about the energy demands of AI and data centers, its potential to help us adapt to – and potentially mitigate –…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency that regulates lending activities by fintech and financial services companies, is on a forced hiatus amid an effort by President Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the size and role of government–and particularly of regulatory agencies. But the agency isn’t dead yet—a judge issued an injunction last week against the possibility of mass firings or a bureau shutdown. Now financial services policy experts are warning fintech companies against running wild while the cops are temporarily off-duty. The CFPB’s work was first slashed in February, when Office of…

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK The fintech world loves to glamorize disruption—move fast, break things, reinvent the system. Sometimes, what gets broken isn’t the system—it’s trust. That’s what happened with Charlie Javice, the founder of financial aid startup Frank, the new poster child for fintech fraud after her conviction for defrauding JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million. Javice, who sold her fintech startup Frank to JPMorgan Chase in 2021, claimed to have more than four million users. That number was more inflated than the crypto market following the Trump election. The real number? About 300,000 users. To cover her…

We’re living through one of the most disruptive economic moments in recent memory. The landscape is shifting fast—with an evolving administration, uncertainty in monetary policy, new regulations, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain. But in all this change, one of the most overlooked yet transformational shift is the focus on efficiency—starting at the very top. The Department of Government Efficiency has captured significant attention both positively and negatively, yet, representing a fundamental shift in how institutions—government and businesses alike—can operate moving forward. Lean, efficient, and adaptable organizations will thrive. Those stuck in old ways of thinking will fall…

For much of the past 15 years, savers have contended with accounts that yielded close to nothing. That all changed after the COVID-19 pandemic when you could finally park your cash in a high-yield savings account and earn a decent interest rate. Rather than being the exception, this was the experience of savers prior to the Great Recession. Whether or not the era of (relatively) high rates is over depends on how well the economy performs and how the Federal Reserve responds. Historical Savings Account Interest Rates A quick note on data: The FDIC posts monthly national deposit rates for…

Everywhere you turn, prices are on the rise, making it challenging to afford essentials and other required items, like car insurance. Many drivers across the country are receiving auto insurance renewal notices with unexpectedly high increases. If you’re asking yourself, “Why did my car insurance rates go up?” you’re not alone. Learning why car insurance rates keep can better equip you to find cheaper prices. Car Insurance Rate Increases by Year Car insurance rates have steadily increased over the last four years, according to our analysis of national averages. The average auto insurance cost per year in 2024 was 33%…

Home insurance covers your house if it’s damaged or destroyed and you need to rebuild. You want to make sure you have enough replacement cost value coverage so that your insurance company would provide enough money to rebuild if your house is damaged by a fire or other problems covered by homeowners insurance. Your home insurance company can figure out your home’s replacement cost value. You can also use an online replacement cost estimator to see how much you may need in replacement cost value. What Is Replacement Cost Value? A home’s replacement cost is how much coverage you would…

Business operations are generally better engineered today than in the 20th century, with more activities automated for quality control, cost savings and efficiency. But some things haven’t changed: human beings are still involved and continue to be sources of variability and uncertainty in high-risk activities, including manufacturing, power generation, logistics and transportation. Three-Mile Island was exacerbated by human error, the failure to correctly interpret signals from their instruments. In 2004, a major liquefied natural gas plant explosion affected 2% of global production when ineffective shutdown processes failed to prevent a boiler explosion and an even larger secondary explosion. The 2019…

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The metric that keeps CMOs awake at night, CFOs grumbling about marketing spend, and CEOs demanding “more growth, faster!” Few metrics in the banking and fintech arena are as hard to reliably quantify as this one. Luckily, a new study from Fintel Connect, 2025 Cost Per Acquisition Benchmarking Guide for Financial Services, provides some much-needed reality checks. Let’s get real about why your acquisition costs might be too high—and how to fix them before your CEO starts asking uncomfortable questions. The Drivers of Customer Acquisition Cost Here’s what the benchmarking…

Imagine a world where financial transactions occur instantly, assets traverse the globe with seamless efficiency, and every investor, regardless of stature, gains unfettered access to markets with confidence in the identity of their counterparty, previously out of reach. This is not a distant fantasy but a rapidly emerging reality, spearheaded by the projection that $30 trillion worth of assets could be tokenized by 2030. Across the banking spectrum, behemoths such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank are paving the way with the tokenization of deposits. They are introducing proprietary stablecoins to fortify settlement processes and alleviate the complexities…