8 CEOs Describe Financial Services Innovation in a Time of Turbulence

Welcome to the second half of 2025.

Quite a ride so far, and as it continues, we wanted to take stock of the chief executives that offer perspective on the trends, challenges and opportunities shaping global finance.

In the first half of 2025, PYMNTS has featured a remarkable array of CEO insights, each offering a window into the strategies and philosophies driving the world’s most innovative banks, FinTechs and payment platforms. Here are eight compelling CEO quotes from PYMNTS interviews, earnings calls and features so far this year, each from a different leader, all reflecting the pulse of the industry.

Creating Value

“Innovation and growth have always been at the heart of Ingo Payments’ journey. From our origins operating bank branches for underserved communities in Atlanta to our evolution into the leader and architect of money mobility, our commitment to asking ‘what if’ has shaped our path. The acquisition of Deposits represents a transformative step forward, embodying the ‘yes, and …’ mindset that drives us to continually innovate and create value for our customers,” Drew Edwards, CEO of Ingo Payments, said.

Standing Behind the Consumer

“We’re a payments network. We are, today, in the world of network comparable like American Express … I’ve often compared Affirm to a sort of aspirational Amex. We want to be thought of as the company that stands behind the consumer in a way that goes above and beyond. There has never been a monopoly in payments, and we want the market to be competitive … The fact that traditional bank card issuers are waking up to the power of these fixed-term plans helps drive awareness and adoption,” Affirm CEO Max Levchin said.

Pushing Into the Market

“We’re putting some real visible proof points of (our) strategy into the market — and that’s a big part of what (new rewards program) LevelUp is … We hadn’t been marketing a checking account because we were working on all these other things which were going to fund it, so this will be our first push into the product,” Scott Sanborn, CEO at LendingClub, said.

Chief AI Officer

“I decided to retire my CEO title for a different one: Chief AI Officer. Many businesses claim to be betting it all on AI, but for us, it’s about fundamentally reimagining how technology can drive value for our clients. The future of payments will be defined by those who lead with intelligence, not just scale,” David Khuat-Duy, founder at Ivalua told PYMNTS.

The Flow of Innovation

“What history tells us about innovation and its path is that it never happens in a straight line or exactly as the original PowerPoint decks describe. There’s always the initial spike of inflated expectations, followed by the dip of disappointment when expectations and the maturity of the tech aren’t always aligned, and then the long slog toward real-world adoption at scale and with profits. There are always early adopters who want to be first and are happy to put up with the frictions of something that is very new. The fast followers who wait a bit for the early potholes to get paved over and the laggards who always bring up the rear. GenAI isn’t following the typical curve,” Karen Webster, CEO of PYMNTS, said.

An Eye on CFPB

“If (the CFPB) really wanted to make a difference for the consumer by hunkering down on doing something to protect the consumer on the fraud side, I think it would be huge … you’ve seen lawsuits dropped and investigations dropped, and what they pick back up will be interesting,” Chuck Fagan, president and CEO of Velera, told PYMNTS.

Constant Evolution

“This business gets in your blood. The desire to serve someone when it’s such a happy occasion is unprecedented. Our employee tenure is high, our training for stylists keeps improving and we feel like we do a pretty good job because our Net Promoter score is over 80. We keep evolving because the customer keeps evolving,” Kelly Cook, CEO of David’s Bridal, said.

GenAI’s Impact

“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a letter to employees.

These quotes capture the spirit of leadership and innovation that defines the financial services sector in 2025. From the rise of embedded finance and AI-driven transformation to the relentless focus on customer experience and inclusion, these CEOs are paving the way forward.