Fintech Chatter: Conversations with Fintech Leaders

If you're scaling a fintech leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com
 
Karl Durrance is Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand at Stripe, the payments infrastructure company. Australia NZ is Stripes 3rd largest region globally, serving over one million customers and onboards 37,000 new local businesses every month. 

In this episode, recorded live at Stripe Tour Sydney, Karl explains how Australia became Stripe's third biggest market in the world, why 23 percent of Stripe's Australian businesses sell cross-border against a national average of 2 percent, and what the AI economy is doing to business formation. He also talks candidly about the country manager role, why he coaches his team to answer for the customer rather than the forecast, and where Stripe is hiring in Australia.
 
 
0:00 Introduction
1:24 Stripe Tour Sydney
2:36 One million ANZ customers
3:49 Cracking the Australian market
5:30 Cross-border and global reach
6:24 Solopreneurs and small business
8:08 AI and job creation
9:29 Day 231 of the singularity
11:11 Building the highways
13:05 Growing the GDP of the internet
14:37 Why Karl joined Stripe
18:12 The country manager role
21:36 How founders reach Stripe
22:26 Careers at Stripe
 
Karl Durrance on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/karldurrance
Stripe: https://stripe.com
Stripe Tour Sydney: https://stripetour.com/sydney
Stripe Tour Sydney 2026 announcements: https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/tour-sydney-2026
Careers at Stripe: https://stripe.com/jobs
Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com
Dexter Cousins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/
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Move Bank has become the first bank in the world to move its entire operation, technology, product, operations and compliance, onto Constantinople's platform. 

In this episode Dexter Cousins is joined by Move Bank CEO Mike Currie and Constantinople co-CEOs Macgregor Duncan and Di Challenor. 

They unpack an 18 month migration of around 25,000 members that cut cost to income by roughly 30 percent. It is a story about culture and courage as much as technology, and what it means for every customer owned bank in Australia.

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:36 Inside Move Bank and how the partnership began
2:48 A banking operating system
4:55 Busting the CEO killer myth
8:26 Fintechs reputation problem
10:26 Why a domestic team mattered
13:12 Challenger culture - Building a true partnership
17:00 Go live - A world first transformation 
21:03 Synthetic scale and the problem with mergers
24:35 Going global
31:02 The next decade of AI
31:49 Advice for bank CEOs
39:39 Where to find Move Bank

Find out more.
Move Bank: https://www.movebank.com.au
Constantinople: https://www.cxnpl.com

** Connect With Dexter **
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/

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Sam Everington joined Starling Bank ten years ago as one of its first twenty employees. He led the build of the technology that has made Starling a Fintech giant - 4.5 million customers and a 9% share of UK business banking. 
Mark Bernhardi leads Engine's growth across Australia and New Zealand, having previously held technology roles at Atlassian, nCino and Westpac. 

Both join Dexter Cousins on a special episode of Fintech Chatter Podcast recorded at the World Credit Union Conference in Sydney July 2026.

Engine is the software business Starling spun out four years ago to license its platform to other banks. Sam and Mark explain how Engine gets banks like AMP live on a full core banking platform in under twelve months. 
They also discuss the opportunity for mutuals and credit unions to compete with much bigger banks and offer their customers the Starling Bank experience using technology platforms like Engine.

Sam Everington LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sameverington
Mark Bernhardi LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/mark-bernhardi
Engine by Starling: https://enginebystarling.com
Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com
Dexter Cousins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins

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Peter Jones co-founded Nimo Industries with Leann Jones after living the core banking problem himself as a mutual bank CEO. Ten years ago he decided solve the problem for himself. Today, Nimo is a platform serving over 20 Australian banks and lenders, entirely bootstrapped. 
In this episode of Fintech Chatter Dexter asks Peter how his mutual sector background shaped the product. Peter shares his journey bootstrapping a bank grade technology platform through APRA-grade compliance. And shares real examples of how mutual banks are growing nationally on the Nimo platform.
About Peter Jones
Peter Jones is co-founder and COO of Nimo Industries, the Melbourne fintech building loan origination and core banking technology for Australian mutual banks, credit unions and non-bank lenders. Before starting Nimo in 2016, he spent close to two decades in banking, including as CEO of Plenty Credit Union and in roles at ANZ, NAB and ME Bank.
What we discuss
Why living the “CEO killer” problem of fragmented core banking as a mutual bank CEO shaped how Nimo builds its platform
How Nimo has stayed 100% self-funded for close to a decade 
Why Nimo dropped the word “startup” for “scale up” internally, and how that shift changed hiring standards
How South West Slopes Credit Union used Nimo to drive its open banking and CDR strategy
How one mutual bank client went live on Nimo's platform in five to six weeks and a regional bank hit 30% growth and landed national exposure
Why critical thinking, not competency-based interviewing, is now Nimo's deciding hiring factor
Why Nimo is opening the door to outside investment after a decade of bootstrapping
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction 
02:32 Understanding Nimo's Banking Solutions
05:45 The Journey of Building Nimo Industries
12:48 Addressing Regulatory and Technology challenges in Mutual Banks
18:45 Building Trust with Mutual Banks
21:51 Talent Acquisition Strategies in a Competitive Market
29:07 Navigating Growth and Recruitment Challenges
32:25 Lessons Learned from a Decade of Business
34:38 The Importance of Resilience and Adaptability
36:36 Cultural Fit in Scaling Teams
38:08 The Role of Mindset in Organizational Success
43:53 Navigating Change and Embracing AI
47:45 Opportunities for Nimo
Links & resources
Peter Jones LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjonesaust/
Nimo Industries website: https://nimoindustries.com/
Nimo Industries LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nimoindustries/

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Andy Taylor is the founder and CEO of ASX-listed Stakk Limited (ASX: SKK), an embedded trust and fraud prevention platform used by Chime, Robinhood, T-Mobile and H&R Block. 

In this episode Andy breaks down Stakk's proposed US$63 million acquisition of document intelligence firm ParaScript, and how the deal turns a decade of building into an AI-powered fraud detection engine. 

I ask Andy about Stakk's pivot from consumer neobanking under the Douugh brand into B2B infrastructure. He shares where the business is headed next as it expands into healthcare.

Before Stakk, Andy co-founded SocietyOne, Australia's first peer-to-peer lending platform, and later founded Douugh, an AI-first neobank that listed on the ASX pre-revenue. He has spent close to two decades building fintech businesses in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Find out more - https://stakk.tech/

Chapters
00:00 Welcome to FinTech Chatter
01:16 Introduction to Stakk and Andy Taylor
03:44 The Journey of Stakk: From Douugh to Success
10:54 Reflections on Society One and Early FinTech Days
17:17 Navigating Challenges in the Current FinTech Landscape
23:15 Consumer Behavior Shifts and Market Dynamics
25:55 Future Expectations for Stakk
34:55 Advice for Founders Facing Adversity
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