Matthew Goldman
Founder Totavi
Matthew is the founder of Totavi and a lifelong serial entrepreneur. He has started five businesses, raised more than $30MM in capital from leading investors, and served as a founder or executive in four exits totaling more than $1.6 billion.
Matthew is “OG when it comes to payments / embedded finance.” He started his payments journey in 2006 as a product manager at Green Dot, working with issuers such as Citibank, Synchrony, and Synovus and retailers like Walmart, Walgreens, and Kroger.
In 2012, Matthew founded Wallaby Financial, which developed an intelligent algorithm and apps for consumer card selection, routing, and recommendations, and was backed by FF Angel (Founders Fund) and Mucker Capital. Bankrate acquired Wallaby in 2014 and named Matthew as SVP and Chief Product Officer for its cards division. In 2019, Matthew founded Vertical Finance with return investor Mucker Capital. Apto Payments acquired Vertical Finance in 2021, ultimately naming Matthew President and Chief Product Officer. After leading a sale of Apto Payments to Qenta, he started Totavi in Spring 2023.
Matthew’s vast fintech experience comes from a strong technical background, bolstered by his formal education in economics. Matthew boasts an unparalleled network in fintech and helps his clients to accelerate their development and see around corners, saving time and money and increasing growth and speed.
Since 2020, Matthew has published CardsFTW, the definitive newsletter for cards. He is frequently quoted in major media such as The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and NerdWallet. He is also known for his open-source credit card financial model.
2026 Agenda Sessions
Are institutions losing balance in an open banking world?
This panel explores why first party transaction data remains uniquely valuable — and why banks and fintechs have both the opportunity and the obligation to do more with the data they generate themselves. Institutions that lean into owned data will be far better positioned than those relying heavily on intermediaries.
This isn’t a critique of open banking as policy. It has an important role. But it cannot be the whole strategy. When it becomes the default, it introduces noise, inconsistency, and lowest common denominator insights.
The gold standard is still an owned card program. Leading institutions are investing in their card portfolios, data infrastructure, and customer experiences to build differentiated, network driven insights that power better products and deeper engagement.
Takeaways:
• Owning your data — and the card programs that generate it — is a competitive advantage.
• First party card data is the gold standard. Issuer native transaction data is cleaner, richer, and more structured, enabling accurate budgeting, personalization, and guidance.
• Open banking is access, not strategy. Aggregator data can add noise, weaken categorization, and limit differentiation. It’s a supplement, not a foundation.
• Winners will own their data experience. Institutions that invest in their own card programs, data infrastructure, and customer journeys will outperform those that outsource insight to third parties.
Monday 30 March 12:30 - 13:10 Banking
This isn’t a critique of open banking as policy. It has an important role. But it cannot be the whole strategy. When it becomes the default, it introduces noise, inconsistency, and lowest common denominator insights.
The gold standard is still an owned card program. Leading institutions are investing in their card portfolios, data infrastructure, and customer experiences to build differentiated, network driven insights that power better products and deeper engagement.
Takeaways:
• Owning your data — and the card programs that generate it — is a competitive advantage.
• First party card data is the gold standard. Issuer native transaction data is cleaner, richer, and more structured, enabling accurate budgeting, personalization, and guidance.
• Open banking is access, not strategy. Aggregator data can add noise, weaken categorization, and limit differentiation. It’s a supplement, not a foundation.
• Winners will own their data experience. Institutions that invest in their own card programs, data infrastructure, and customer journeys will outperform those that outsource insight to third parties. Banking US/Pacific
