Opportunities & Competition for
Strategic Partnerships
An industry summary of the state of play for fintechs and banks followed by a discussion about maintaining autonomy, the competitive landscape, and opportunities to develop unique and creative services.
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Sunil Sachdev
HEAD OF FINTECH & GROWTH
FiservSunil is a global fintech executive with a significant breadth of experience in banking and payments at companies such as American Express, Meed and Pershing. He has worked for Fiserv for nearly a decade in various roles and geographies. He was initially tasked with setting up the Fiserv sales office in India, before his role was expanded to extend the Fiserv payments business into international markets. In recent years, he led the Community Bank segment for Fiserv, a position that helped him gain a deeper appreciation for the power of fintech partnerships to help community banks deliver differentiating experiences, support new revenue streams and improve speed to market.
In 2021, Fiserv launched an official Fintech segment of the business, with Sunil leading a team that has greatly accelerated the planning, execution and delivery of new fintech capabilities across the enterprise. He also leads product management and marketing for a range of capabilities that drive growth for banks and credit unions using Fiserv cores.
Sunil has established key partnerships with a number of fintechs – bringing their innovative services to the expansive network of financial institutions and merchants Fiserv serves. In addition, Sunil and his team continue to make it faster and easier for fintechs to work with Fiserv to embed a range of banking, payments and crypto services into their digital experience.
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Lew Goodwin
PRESIDENT & CEO
Square Financial ServicesLewis Goodwin joined Square/Block in 2017, focused on submitting an ILC application. After a 3 year application process, Square Financial Services (SFS) was approved by the FDIC and UTDFI in March 2020. SFS began operations in March 2021 providing loans to small and micro businesses nationwide. SFS also provides small business savings accounts. Lew currently serves as President, CEO and a member of the Bank Board and has 40 years of banking experience in senior roles, most recently serving as President, CEO, board member and CRA officer of Green Dot Bank from 2010-2017. Previously, Mr. Goodwin served as President and CEO of Chrysler Financial Bank (in formation)and led the banking operations of DaimlerChrysler Financial. He has also served as Chief Financial Officer of Toyota Financial Savings Bank, Medallion Bank and Providian Bank.
Mr. Goodwin is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Utah and holds Bachelor degrees in Accounting and Finance from the University of Utah. Mr. Goodwin is also a board member of the Utah Bankers Association, Utah Association of Financial institutions and Neighborworks Mountain Country Home Solutions.
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Derek Higginbotham
CEO & PRESIDENT
First Electronic BankDerek is the Chief Executive Officer and President of First Electronic Bank, where he leads a team of experienced banking and finance professionals. First Electronic Bank partners with innovative financial service providers to offer a broad range of banking products to individuals and small & medium businesses across the country. Prior to assuming the role of CEO, Derek served as FEB’s General Counsel.
Derek came to know FEB working across from the Bank at Applied Data Finance, one of the Bank’s FinTech service providers. Through that joint venture, FEB and ADF provide credit options to consumers—many of whom are otherwise underbanked. Derek joined ADF’s legal team as an early start-up, holding several roles, including General Counsel. As the company matured from start-up to a scaled, national presence, Derek’s areas of focus ranged from capital raising, transactional matters, licensing strategy, regulatory and other legal areas.
In his early legal career, Derek held other law firm and in-house positions. Areas of focused included joint ventures, structured finance, securities, consumer finance, and international transactions. Clients ranged from large consumer finance companies, U.S. auto makers, defense contractors, and private equity portfolio companies.
Derek holds degrees in economics and French and a J.D. from Brigham Young University.