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Alex Fuentes has 20 years of experience in start-up and rapid-change environments and is currently Brickeye's Executive Vice President of Strategic Growth and Business Development.

He provides a deep understanding of infrastructure development and cleantech to Brickeye, having served in senior roles within the energy storage and renewable energy sectors. Alex holds an MBA from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Lena is a startup veteran with demonstrated expertise in propelling business growth for growth-stage fintech companies. In her role as Chief Revenue Officer at leading life insurance technology company Bestow, Lena Chukhno oversees B2B partnership growth for advisor, embedded and enterprise partners. Companies of every size — from startups to public companies — leverage Bestow's software to launch and sell digital life insurance and improve efficiency and profitability by managing the business online.

Prior to joining Bestow, Lena had a combined role as the General Manager of Student Loan Refinancing and Head of Strategy at Earnest, a mission-driven fintech in San Francisco. Under her leadership, Earnest grew to become the market leader in the education financing space.

Previously, she led business development and growth strategy for the Multi-Asset Solutions division at JPMorgan and spent time at McKinsey & Company in management consulting.

A native of Ukraine, Lena earned bachelor's and master's degrees in finance from Kyiv National Economic University, and an MBA from INSEAD.

In the starkest warning yet by a U.S. bank catering to the sector, Silvergate said it needs more time to assess the extent of damage to its finances stemming from last year's crypto rout — including whether it can remain viable.

The Ohio-based bank concentrated most of its lending branches in majority-white neighborhoods and did nothing to compensate for its lack of physical presence, the DOJ claims.

The small businesses said in a lawsuit that the bank used "misleading marketing and business practices" to rake in processing fees from oversized Paycheck Protection Program loans. A bank spokesperson placed responsibility on PPP borrowers for the representations they made in loan applications.

The Treasury will join with a group of Federal Reserve and other agencies to develop standards that they hope will shape both foreign CBDCs and a U.S. government digital dollar, should Congress authorize one.

Amana Lilley, CPA, SHRM-CP, PHR, is a consultant at Rosenberg Associates. She began her career in public accounting working in both audit and tax. She spent over five years working with a variety of clients ranging from real estate partnerships to ultra-high net-worth individuals. In 2019, she pivoted her career to assist the profession as a human resource professional focusing on a wide range of areas including talent management, learning and development and general compliance. Today she works with progressive CPA firm leaders and teams on projects such as partner compensation, partner agreements, workshops, strategic retreat facilitation and HR consulting. She is a graduate of Portland State University.

Citizens Financial Group, which has offered point-of-sale financing for iPhones sold through Apple since 2015, is finding that as objects such as refrigerators become more complex and internet-connected, they are also more frequently replaced — creating new categories for installment lending.

Credit card issuers say they need more time to respond to the substantial data request made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in its proposal to slash late fees.

The merger of Columbia and Umpqua has created a $52 billion-asset bank rooted in the Pacific Northwest. CEO Clint Stein said the company has room to expand in California, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.