Editor-in-Chief
American Banker
Chana R. Schoenberger is the editor-in-chief of American Banker. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of Financial Planning after joining Arizent in 2020.
In her prior role, she was the managing editor for U.S. wealth management at J.P. Morgan. Before that, she was a columnist and freelance journalist, and previously worked at Bloomberg News, Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. A graduate of Harvard College, she received her master’s degree as part of Columbia Journalism School’s Knight-Bagehot Fellowship for business journalists. She is now based in New York City after stints in Tokyo and Canada.
As financial services become increasingly integrated and instantaneous, institutions must navigate a complex landscape of emerging risks that challenge traditional defense mechanisms. Experts will discuss the strategic balance between providing a seamless, high-speed user experience and maintaining robust protections against sophisticated global cybersecurity and AI-enabled fraud threats. The conversation will focus on the shift toward proactive risk management, the impact of new regulatory frameworks on digital resilience, and the collaborative, cross-channel strategies required to safeguard the integrity of the financial system in an era of constant technological change.
Banks have spent years piloting digital finance initiatives—from tokenization and real-time payments to AI-driven operations—but few have successfully scaled them across the enterprise. This discussion explores what separates experimentation from execution, including governance models, technology architecture, talent, and capital allocation decisions that enable sustainable innovation without introducing unacceptable risk.
Banks have moved past “What is generative AI?” to “How do we use it safely at scale?” GenAI can fabricate information and expose proprietary data, yet properly deployed it delivers 30-40% faster code development and automated document analysis. This session examines the difference between agentic AI (which takes action) and generative AI (which creates content), explores where GenAI delivers measurable value versus unacceptable risk, and provides frameworks for prompt engineering, output validation, and human oversight that make production deployment possible without compromising accuracy or compliance.
With embedded finance projected to reach $7 trillion globally by 2030, the question is no longer whether to collaborate but how to do it profitably and at scale. Leading banks are moving beyond pilot programs to industrialized partnership platforms—white-label BaaS, API marketplaces, and co-innovation labs generating measurable revenue. Yet 40% of bank-fintech partnerships fail to operationalize due to poor alignment, scalability issues, and unclear governance frameworks. This session examines how to structure compliant partnerships that enable speed, navigate revenue-sharing models, and build infrastructure supporting dozens of fintech integrations simultaneously—transforming from “protect the franchise” to “expand the ecosystem” strategies.
The state of financial wellness in America is often a hotly debated issue and has been a catalyst for innovation. As consumers lean into social media influencers and fintech apps to improve their budgeting, saving, investing and other financial decision-making capabilities, banks have a new mandate and a unique opportunity to make a significant impact: Leverage the powerful combination of digital access, mobile tools and behavioral finance to meet consumers where they are, regardless of the platform or stage of their financial wellness journey. By developing mobile-enabled strategies, banks can create a new financial wellness path for consumers, helping them to enhance their functional skills while also understanding the psychology behind their decisions about money. Panelists discuss the need for banks to go beyond financial literacy offerings, why digital and mobile channels are key to reaching consumers more effectively, and how they can help consumers better understand the emotions, values and life experiences that shape their financial decisions—and how to adjust their behaviors to improve their financial well-being.
With digitization being a necessity to meet customer expectations, the financial industry needs to embrace their local and relationship building “roots.” Credit unions need to identify relevant strategies to bring the best of the in-person experience to digital channels. Credit union leaders discuss which aspects of physical banking interactions should be translated into digital experiences; how to prioritize and test UX for ease of use and accessibility; how to use data and transaction history to offer customers the right product at the right time; and when to implement self-service options versus those that require more in-depth discussion and support.
Learn about this successful partnership offering that was critical to the success and development of Key Virtual Account Management (KeyVAM). Qolo’s next-generation infrastructure provides instant access to payments data, analytics, card and account generation, and money movement. What you’ll learn: The work that went into bringing it to life, the collaboration of the partners, the technology, and the measurable success based on impact and scalability.
In this panel, fintech and banking leaders discuss how they’re partnering to build new products that redefine traditional CFO responsibilities and unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation. Panelists will explore how embedded finance is reshaping how CFOs manage financial operations, enabling greater visibility into cash flow and improved decision-making.