31. Piotr Budzinski & Thomas Ko, co-founders, NAMU
Thomas Ko was global head of mobile banking at Citi for 7 years prior to founding NAMU (no relation to WaMu) with Piotr Budzinski, who also served time at Citi. NAMU showed its stuff at Money2020 in 2014 and Finovate Spring 2015 to rave reviews, and will be remembered for bringing images into the center of the banking experiences. After all, images are at the center of the mobile and social worlds. Its mission is shockingly bold: to bring meaning and joy to tasks that may be depressing for consumers, such as viewing one’s transaction history. Ko and Budzinski also stress the importance of emotion in banking, a position Duena Blomstrom, the industry marketing consultant, has long championed.
32. Suresh Ramamurthi, CEO, CBW Bank & Yantra Financial
Suresh Ramamurthi got the idea to buy a bank while employed at Google, when he was tasked with improving Google Checkout. He realized even Google couldn’t move money the way a small bank could, and so his plan was hatched. The fruit of Ramamurthi’s own hard labor, CBW Bank, is located in a small Kansas town. It is cutting new swaths in payments, along with its sister company, Yantra Financial Technologies, also helmed by Ramamurthi. CBW offers fast, inexpensive remittances, instant-issue custom debit cards, and has made bets with innovators like Moven and Ripple. As for the branch, its teller stations have all the latest technologies — personally installed and wired by Ramamurthi.
33. Rich Martinez, CEO, Young Americans Bank
It’s a truism that older bank customers are more profitable — they earn more, and use more products — so why do banks focus so much attention on young people? The man to ask would be Rich Martinez, whose Denver-based Young Americans Bank kicks out depositors when they get too long in the tooth — 22 years old, that is. The bank is really more of an education center for young people to learn about finances in the age of digital money, Martinez told American Banker recently. It seems like an idea to monitor, since financial literacy is rare among young people, and starting accounts for one’s kids in the digital era can be challenging, being that, in part, it is hard enough for parents to remember their own usernames and passwords. Kids do like the branch, but don’t get your hopes up. Martinez says the thrill of visiting the branch tends to wear off by age 13 or 14.
34. Mike Cagney, Co-founder & CEO, SoFi
SoFi, short for Social Finance, started out consolidating student loans, but quickly moved — to the surprise of alternative lenders and bankers alike — into the biggest category for consumer lending: home loans. Speaking at the Lendit USA conference last April, SoFI CEO Mike Cagney (@mcagney) waxed enthusiastic about the state of alternative lending: “Times are as good as it gets,” he said. “Any kind of underwriting works now.” Pay attention to that “now” — with rates rising as soon as this fall, alternative lenders will be put to the test, and those out ahead of the curve like SoFi will be closely watched. But Cagney would likely argue that his underwriting is sound and his lenders well-positioned to weather any storm. Let the good times roll.
35. Tom Noyes, founder & CEO, Commerce Systems
Tom Noyes’s (@noyesclt) breathless dispatches from the payments frontier have become required reading for FinTech enthusiasts wishing to stay in the know. Founder & CEO of Commerce Signals, a mobile commerce startup, Noyes also has an extensive background in banking with stints at Wells Fargo & Co. and Citibank, where he was head of channels. He is deeply connected in the payments world and always has his ear to the ground. If something big is coming and it has to do with Google or Apple at the point of sale, chances are good Noyes will be one of the first to know about it. He was also a rocket scientist. For real — at NASA. Yeah, he’s awesome like that.