Peter Hazlehurst, co-founder and CEO of Synctera, on matchmaking fintechs and sponsor banks

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Featuring Sacra’s interview with Peter Hazlehurst, co-founder and CEO of banking-as-a-service platform Synctera.

Peter Hazlehurst explains Synctera’s work; its primary functions, beyond being a conduit; the underlying purpose of the business model, and gets to the heart of the key problems Synctera tries to solve.

What does this “matchmaking” entail? Read on to understand Synctera’s services, which connect (mostly) community-level banks with fintech solutions companies, and how the marriage of fintech infrastructures and sponsor banks addresses small-scale needs while creating a big impact.

This comprehensive interview will leave you with an understanding of the value of being community-focused, the ROI in building good relationships, and serving the under-served social groups.

Questions

What do Synctera's customers do, and what do they use Synctera for?

How much variance is there in the various capabilities of the community banks? For fintechs, is there an aspect of wanting to choose a specific bank, or is that all handled on the platform?

How do you monetize on that? And how do you think big picture about the interchange split between the different parties?

Do you think this interchange and revenue split will shift over time, or is it fairly stable?

One thing we’ve heard is that a lot of the business model here is finding the next place out on the risk curve where you feel comfortable opening up some new service or some new speed to market. What’s your take on where things are going in this space, as it relates to community banks’ risk tolerances and what kinds of services and speeds to market are available?

Even though they're above $10 billion in assets, it's still advantageous for them?

We classify fintechs separately from embedded finance companies. You were involved with Uber Money, which I think of as a good prototype of modern embedded finance. Do you have any thoughts on this dichotomy? Do you think one has a bigger growth runway, better economics, etc.?

How do you think about Synctera’s positioning versus other players, like Bond, Unit and Treasury Prime?

As we talked about before, the community banks are the arbiters of a lot of the timing. When you talk about “really short time to market,” is that a function of having more than one community bank that you're working with?

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