Wrestling with Compliance Issues with Guest Travis Dulaney
Wrestling Payments Podcast: Season 3 - Episode 08
In this episode of Wrestling Payments, host Joe Casali sits down with Travis Dulaney, CEO and Co-founder of BalancedTrust, to unpack the ongoing friction between fintech startups and their bank partners. From missing compliance standards to misunderstandings around regulatory risk, Travis explains why so many good ideas hit a wall.
Travis shares lessons from his time launching and selling PayFi, where inconsistent feedback from sponsor banks highlighted a significant problem: no standard process for compliance approval. That frustration led to the birth of BalancedTrust, a platform helping fintechs and banks align risk tolerance, automate onboarding, and scale safely.
They also discuss why early-stage fintechs often fail to prioritize compliance—and how Travis's team offers a free tool to change that. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to grow responsibly in today's complex financial environment.
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Guest-at-a-Glance
💡 Name: Travis Dulaney
💡What they do: CEO and Co-founder
💡Company: BalancedTrust
💡Noteworthy: 25+ years in fintech, building scalable, compliant solutions for banks and startups
💡 Where to find them: LinkedIn
Key Insights
Lack of Standardization Is Slowing Fintech Growth
Compliance challenges aren't just technical—they're human. One of the biggest bottlenecks for fintechs trying to scale is the lack of standardization in how sponsor banks evaluate risk and onboard new partners. As Travis explains, different banks—and even individual BSA officers—interpret and apply compliance rules inconsistently. This leads to wildly different outcomes for the same applicant, creating confusion and wasted effort. The core issue isn't always regulation but the subjective way it's enforced. Fintechs often get rejected not because they're too risky but because they don't speak the bank's language or follow an expected format. This inconsistency drags innovation, limits access, and leaves founders guessing how to move forward. A more structured, transparent process would benefit banks and startups by aligning expectations and removing friction.
Compliance Isn't Optional—It's a Growth Enabler
In the startup world, speed often wins. However, regarding financial services, speed without compliance leads to dead ends. Travis argues that compliance isn't a box to check—infrastructure helps fintechs grow. Too many early-stage companies treat risk management like a burden rather than a foundation. That mindset leads to breakdowns when securing a sponsor bank or raising capital. BalancedTrust was built to address this gap by giving fintechs a more precise roadmap: show where the risk lies, understand the rules that apply and know what actions to take. Travis points out that banks won't tell you how to fix your gaps—they're not liable for your mistakes. That's why having a structured, proactive compliance plan helps startups build trust, gain partnerships, and move faster with fewer surprises.
Stablecoins Could Be the Missing Link in Cross-Border Payments
While stablecoins are often discussed through the lens of crypto speculation, Travis highlights a more practical role: solving the long-standing pain point of the international money movement. Traditional rails like SWIFT are slow and expensive, and even newer systems like FedNow and RTP don't extend beyond U.S. borders. Stablecoins, backed by fiat and supported by wallets on both ends, offer a fast, transparent, and secure alternative. They can bridge traditional banking and decentralized finance, creating a unified standard for moving value across jurisdictions. But Travis emphasizes that the real value isn't just technical—it's compliance-driven. If regulators and banks can confidently trace the source and destination of funds, then stablecoins will become more than a crypto tool—they will become infrastructure. That opens up new possibilities for inclusion, efficiency, and global reach in payments.
Episode Highlights
Why Entrepreneurs Struggle with Banking Relationships
Timestamp: [14:03]
The conversation explores why many fintech founders clash with banks early on. Travis breaks down the difference in mindset: entrepreneurs are focused on growth, speed, and survival—especially when venture-backed. Compliance takes a back seat when you’re scraping for revenue. The result? Fintechs show up underprepared, lacking policies, procedures, or risk awareness, and get rejected without understanding why.
“As a CEO, your job is to get customers, faster and faster. You don’t have time to build a compliance program—especially if you can’t afford a $200,000 Chief Compliance Officer. The dynamic between entrepreneurs and banks is oppositional. Entrepreneurs are thinking about growth; banks are thinking about risk.”
Why BSA Officers Make or Break Fintech Deals
Timestamp: [11:43]
Travis highlights the outsized role BSA (Bank Secrecy Act) officers play in deciding whether a fintech gets approved by a sponsor bank. While banks may have formal guidelines, much of the decision-making comes down to personal experience, risk tolerance, and even bias. One officer’s binge-watching of American Greed led to a wave of declines. With no shared standards across institutions, outcomes vary wildly, even when applicants meet technical requirements. Travis underscores how vulnerable fintechs are to individual gatekeepers—and how little recourse they have when a decision goes sideways.
"I had—we had one BSA officer and was proud and was excited to tell me one time that he absolutely loved the right conspiracy theory and American Greed. And every weekend he would binge watch it. Every weekend. Just loved it, right? And of course, on Monday morning, guess what? I got declined, declined, declined, declined on every application."
Building Tools to Bridge Fintechs and Banks
Timestamp: [23:01]
BalancedTrust emerged after Travis and his team spoke with over 120 risk managers to understand the chaos behind compliance workflows. Many used spreadsheets and siloed inboxes to manage clients—an inefficient and risky approach. Their platform provides fintechs with a central place to upload documentation, receive structured feedback, and even generate a performance score.
"So we probably interviewed close to 120 some odd risk managers... We found people running vast programs and emails, and they had separate emails for every customer and then a spreadsheet for each one of the task lists... That’s ridiculous."
Managing Nested Risk in the Crypto and Merchant Ecosystem
Timestamp: [26:28]
As crypto platforms grew, many built their infrastructure using loosely connected vendors. While it helped them launch quickly, it also created blind spots. Regulators now view these “nested” relationships—where the true money mover or risk owner is unclear—as a major threat. Travis explains how this environment became fertile ground for hidden third-party risk and how his team stepped in to bring clarity.
"Because what happened is crypto came along, and they didn’t have legacies to plug into... They’d get together—‘I'll do this, I’ll do this, and I’ll do this.’ So it became a conglomerate that’s doing the business, and nobody did due diligence... Guess what? That’s called nested processing in the regulator viewpoint."
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