Propagate Fintech Podcast
Propagate Fintech is a podcast exploring how financial services actually evolve.
Hosted by Roland Howard, the show features in-depth conversations with fintech founders, bank and credit union leaders, operators, and industry voices shaping lending, deposits, payments, account origination, and go-to-market strategy.
Each episode cuts through hype to focus on real-world execution: how products get adopted, why institutions struggle to modernize, where growth stalls, and what works when fintechs and regulated financial institutions intersect.
The podcast is produced by Propagate Fintech, an end-to-end marketing and PR agency serving the banking and fintech industry. Propagate partners with fintechs, banks, and credit unions to clarify positioning, build credibility, and drive growth through brand strategy, content, PR, and go-to-market execution.
Propagate Fintech Podcast
Are You Ready For a Core Replacement? w/Zack Forbes
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of the Propagate Fintech Podcast, Roland Howard sits down with Zack Forbes, Founder of ImpactFi Advisors, to unpack what really happens behind the scenes of bank technology decisions and why so many institutions struggle with growth, modernization, and core conversions.
Zack shares his journey from a decade at Fiserv into launching ImpactFi Advisors, driven by a desire to make a real, measurable difference for community banks. The conversation explores how banks should think about best-in-class technology, when flexibility becomes a liability, and why underutilized platforms are often self-inflicted wounds.
They dig into:
•The realities of “best of breed” vs best of bundle strategies
•Why poor vendor support is one of the biggest drivers of core conversions
•How banks can create leverage by acting as true reference partners
•What it actually takes to prepare for a core conversion that may only happen once every 15–20 years
•Why real-time banking expectations are colliding with legacy batch-based systems
This episode is a candid look at technology strategy, vendor dynamics, and long-term planning for community banks navigating modernization, M&A pressure, and generational change.
To learn more about ImpactFi Advisors and their approach to helping banks navigate complex technology and strategy decisions, visit www.impactfiadvisors.com or connect with Zack Forbes on LinkedIn.
To learn more about Propagate Fintech, go to Propagatefintech.com.
Want to work with Propagate Fintech? Fill out a contact form at www.propagatefintech.com