Fintech Chatter: Conversations with Fintech Leaders

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Matt Barr is CEO of Send Payments, the Australian company that embeds cross-border FX into enterprise platforms including PEXA, BoardRoom and pay.com.au. He explains why those partners choose Send on compliance ahead of price, why the bigger FX markets sit offshore, and how 140 AI agents help a team of about 70 run the business.
About Matt Barr
Matt Barr became CEO of Send Payments in August 2025 after more than 25 years at Australian Payments Plus, eftpos, Mastercard, Telstra and Bank of New Zealand. He spent eight years at Mastercard and was chief product officer at eftpos in 2020.
Key talking points
1. Compliance wins the deal. Send built AML/CTF monitoring and a direct AUSTRAC integration into its platform, and Matt says partners choose it on those credentials ahead of price.
2. The bigger FX markets are offshore. Foreign currency makes up about ten percent of an Australian small business's invoices and about seventy-five percent in Canada, and Send plans to follow its partners into the US, Canada, the UK and New Zealand.
3. Agents are staff. Each of Send's 140 AI agents has a name, a resume and a line manager, and Matt says output per two-week sprint rose by 40% or more.

Chapters
[00:00] Introduction
[05:26] Compliance by design
[09:40] Enterprise partners and use cases
[18:09] 70 people and 140 agents
[27:42] Hiring for a remote-first team

Links
Send Payments: https://sendpayments.com
Careers at Send: https://sendpayments.com/careers/
Matt Barr on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-barr-087322/
Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com
This show is brought to you by Tier One People, where we work with CEOs and founders like Matt to find the 1% who redefine what's possible. If you're scaling your leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com
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Xavier Shay is the CEO of Up, the Australian digital bank that reached a million customers on word of mouth and has been standalone profitable for the last twelve months. He joined as employee 27, was CTO before taking the top job, and explains why Up refused buy now pay later and why it does not try to win on features.
About Xavier Shay
Xavier Shay is CEO of Up and chief digital officer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, having joined Up as a software engineer in 2019 and moved through CTO before taking over as CEO in 2021. Before returning to Melbourne he spent close to seven years at Square in San Francisco, joining at around 150 staff and leaving a listed company of three and a half thousand people.
Key talking points
1. Word of mouth does the marketing. About 70% of Up's new customers arrive because a friend told them to, which Xavier traces to features people want to talk about, Save Up $1000, 2Up, and a support team that answers like a mate.
2. The brand decides the roadmap. At the peak of buy now pay later Up said no and shipped Maybuy instead, a savings plan that asks whether you still want the thing. Half the customers walk away with the money.
3. Brand is the moat, not features. Australia has free instant payments and good incumbent apps, so Xavier says Up does not win a feature by feature comparison and never has. It reached standalone profitability on how it makes people feel about money.

Chapters
[00:00] Introduction
[02:50] Why word of mouth works
[07:06] Saying no to buy now pay later
[18:18] Employee 27 at Ferocia
[23:21] Competing in a functional market

Links
Up: https://up.com.au
Careers at Up: https://up.com.au/careers
Xavier Shay on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/xaviershay
Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com
This show is brought to you by Tier One People, where we work with CEO's and founders like Xavier to find the 1% who redefine what's possible. If you're scaling your leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com
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Welcome to our series recorded live from Interesekt/26. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne.

Hello Clever CEO Caroline Tran gives Dexter Cousins and update of their remarkable growth across Asia, now processing over $2bn through their payments and loyalty platform.

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Welcome to our series recorded live from Interesekt/26. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne.
Piers Cracknell CEO for Banking Circle Australia joins Dexter COusins to talk through their remarkable growth and success down under. Piers also shares his main takeaways from the event and his optimism for the future of Fintech.

Connect with Piers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierscracknell/
https://bankingcircle.com.au/ 
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Welcome to our series recorded live from Intersekt. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne.
This chat features Ben Ford aka The Body of Fintech! Ben runs Mogoplus - AI powered credit decision making and has been at the forefront of CDR since inception. 
You can connect with Ben - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-ford-142a027/
Insta- https://www.instagram.com/super_fit_dad/

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