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BREAKING BANKS - EPISODE 332: Navigating the crisis In this week’s special edition we get up close with the CEOs of Varo and Moven on the collaboration. Then Greg Palmer and Brett King interview ex White House staffer Adrienne Harris on what life is like in the West Wing during a crisis like COVID-19. TOPICS DISCUSSED: [2:15] Marek Forysiak addresses Moven’s decision to start focusing exclusively on enterprise. [4:05] Colin Walsh started Varo with the belief that Americans need a better bank. [12:25] Adrienne Harris shares her views on how the fintech industry will perform during the economic downturn. [17:10] Greg Palmer looks to fintechs to prove that they can walk the walk and put customer needs first during and after the COVID-19 crisis. [18:30] How can fintechs help deliver money more quickly to those who need it most? [20:00] We need cleaner, better data. [26:05] Brett King speaks to Greg Palmer about what the fintech community is doing to help out during the COVID-19 pandemic. [29:50] Adrienne Harris describes what it’s like in the White House in the times of disaster. [35:00]  How much of the government response is a pre-planned workflow versus in the moment? [36:35] We discover Greg Palmer was a part of the Model UN in high school. [41:55] Adrienne Harris talks about the work she’s currently doing. [44:55] How did the 2008 crisis compare us for the COVID-19 crisis? GUESTS: Adrienne Harris Colin Walsh Marek Forysiak  RESOURCES MENTIONED: Varo- https://www.varomoney.com/ Moven- movenenterprise.com Obama Administration Gates Foundation- www.gatesfoundation.org Breaking Banks is the #1 global fintech radio show and podcast, created by Brett King. Tune in for a look at how technology and customer behavior will bring about more changes in banking in the next 10 years, than in the last 200 years. Listen every Thursday at 3pm eastern time, noon pacific on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel. Subscribe at Provoke.fm to hear the show nearly 2 million listeners from 72 countries are raving about. FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPTION Brett King: (00:04)Welcome to Breaking Banks. Now, this is a special edition of Breaking Banks. Coming up in the show we have Adrienne Harris, who as many of you guys will know, was an adviser to the Obama administration, a special advisor to the President on banking. And we’re going to get into how she would be responding to the coronavirus crisis, if she was still in the White House today, and how they would go about gaming that and dealing with that crisis. It’s a really interesting discussion coming up. Brett King: (00:34)But before that, I wanted to bring a couple of friends onto the show. As you guys have seen, we’ve had some changes in with the Moven team as well. So we’ve got Marek Forysiak joining us, who’s the CEO of Moven. Marek, welcome back to the show. Marek Forysiak: (00:48)Thanks, Brett. Thanks for having me on. Brett King: (00:49)And also Colin Walsh from Varo Money. Colin, welcome to Breaking Banks. Colin Walsh: (00:54)Thanks, Brett. Great to be on the show. Brett King: (00:57)Now let’s start off with Marek. If we can get you to jump in, first of all, is give us a bit of context of how the coronavirus situation affected the decision strategically in Moven, in terms of our recent pivot to enterprise and why that eventuated in this partnership with Varo Money. Marek Forysiak: (01:18)Sure. Thanks, Brett. Coronavirus and COVID-19, that really wasn’t the determining factor for us when we made our decision late last year to shift our emphasis exclusively towards enterprise. That business for Moven, which began back in 2016 has continuously grown. Recently, Moven signed a multi-year, multi-country deal with Saudi Telecom to further expand upon that business. So the momentum on enterprise has been consistent over the past several years. Marek Forysiak: (01:59)What COVID-19 did as we were ...