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Mary Ellen Egan (00:11):
Hi, Mary Ellen Egan, Senior Director of Log Media at American Banker. And I’m here today with Jodi Mettler, COO of Bitco, president of Bitco Trust, which is now Bitco National Bank and Trust. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Jodi Mettler (00:24):
Yeah, thank you.
Mary Ellen Egan (00:25):
So I want to ask you a little bit about what makes you so bullish on the evolution of on – chain and digital assets?
Jodi Mettler (00:34):
Yeah. On-chain finance is the ability for us to fundamentally change the financial institution from the ground up. And that has really accelerated over the last year and a half. So you’re starting to see banks participate, payment providers participate and really move the industry forward.
Mary Ellen Egan (00:55):
I think it’s interesting your background because you spent what, 20 years at Citi?
Jodi Mettler (00:58):
Mary Ellen Egan (00:58):
Jodi Mettler (00:59):
I started when I was three.
Mary Ellen Egan (01:01):
I was going to
Jodi Mettler (01:01):
Ask that. Child
Mary Ellen Egan (01:02):
Labor. Okay. I don’t think they broke
Jodi Mettler (01:03):
Any child
Mary Ellen Egan (01:04):
Labor laws,
Jodi Mettler (01:04):
But
Mary Ellen Egan (01:05):
I’m sure they didn’t. But so you understand Trifi very well. And now they’re changing to some extent faster than others over into the more digital asset world on chain. What do you think one or two of the biggest obstacles they face over the next couple of years?
Jodi Mettler (01:24):
Yeah. I think it’s going to be a cultural and a governance shift within the organizations themselves. The regulation, the enablement is there. It’s coming if it’s not already here. It’s really the traditional financial companies are going to need to reorganize themselves to be able to move as fast as the on – chain finance world does. And then the governance around that. They’re going to need to enable their organizations at a governance level to move fast. Well,
Mary Ellen Egan (01:54):
That’s one of the things when you had your fireside chat earlier with Holly our SVP of content here, that you talked about how the culture obviously from Citi is very different from what it is at Bitco. And so I think there has to be, I would assume, some flattening of hierarchies at some of the bigger banks to make those kind of changes happen more quickly. That’s what you said was one of the biggest changes, correct?
Jodi Mettler (02:17):
For the
Mary Ellen Egan (02:18):
Move?
Jodi Mettler (02:18):
Yeah, absolutely. The organization is a lot more flat, obviously in a tech company or it’s a lot smaller organization to start with than a traditional tier on bank. But traditionally how banks are set up are very siloed for very specific functions. This is a ground level infrastructure change that they’re going to need to be able to flatten that organization and move quickly.
Mary Ellen Egan (02:42):
And that’s one of the things I was wondering too, because obviously on – chain will touch everything or digital assets because it’ll obviously affect the regulation and compliance people. It affects treasury, it affects the different divisions. So that I think would be a big challenge of trying to figure out how you get that working across all those different, as you say, silos and how they move towards a different structure.
Jodi Mettler (03:04):
Yeah, absolutely. The director of treasury, your CTO, your COO, they’re all going to need to be working lockstep. And when you silo them up, particularly whether it’s in a product or a regional standpoint, it becomes more difficult to move quickly across an organization. So if you flatten that out where those organizations all work together, you’re going to move faster.
Mary Ellen Egan (03:25):
And then let’s get out our crystal ball a little bit and talk about where we see the industry moving within the next even a year. I mean, I know that there’s some questions about where regulation is going, but that aside, and maybe that is what the big thing that you’re looking at, what do you kind of see might happen in the next year or so?
Jodi Mettler (03:43):
Well, I think the regulation that has already passed the rails that the regulation like Genius has put into place has already enabled it. So a year ago I would say that’s what’s enabled it was Genius Act. But now the regulation is really there. There is Clarity Act out there that’s going to really talk about market structure and how that works, but everything else is already there. So the next year and a half is really putting in place the operational structure that those regulations that like Genius has already passed has done.
Mary Ellen Egan (04:18):
And so one of the things you talked about in your chat was that is it too late for banks? I mean, so somebody who hasn’t started, like I was talking to some CEOs of smaller banks who are still trying to figure out how do we get into this? What do we do? They’re not too late into the game at this point, do you think?
Jodi Mettler (04:36):
No, I don’t. It’s getting to be the ninth inning. If you’ve not started, you should get going. It’s not too late, but if you’re starting at the ground level without thinking about partnering or buying, but all you want to do is build, you might be too late, particularly if your organizational structure is like what I talked about. This going to move too slow.
Mary Ellen Egan (04:57):
Right. Great. Well, thank you
Jodi Mettler (04:58):
So much.
Mary Ellen Egan (04:59):
I really appreciate your time.
Jodi Mettler (05:00):
Thank you.
Mary Ellen Egan (05:00):
Yes.
Jodi Mettler (05:01):
Thank you.
