SoFi Tech Solutions' New President Is Building the AWS of Finance

New SoFi Technology Solutions President Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore tells Karen Webster she sees software platforms as a distinct market for SoFi Technology Solutions because their operating data can provide financial context conventional providers may not have. The loss of a large client that brought technology in-house is informing SoFi Technology Solutions’ search for longer-lasting customer relationships. Younger consumers’ broader use of debit and the emergence of AI agents are creating new requirements for payment infrastructure.

Former Visa executive Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore is three months into her new role as president of SoFi Technology Solutions. The premise guiding her strategy is that banks, credit unions and software platforms each know their customers in different ways, and SoFi can provide the financial technology to help them act on that knowledge. For example, a community bank, credit union or software platform may have customer knowledge SoFi doesn’t. And SoFi Technology Solutions can provide the accounts, payments, lending and money-movement infrastructure behind the financial products they offer. In short: apply a range of technology to different customer needs. Pierce-Gilmore discussed that approach in her first official interview in her new role, joining PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster for a Monday Conversation. Her shorthand for the model is to serve as she put it, as the “AWS of financial solutions.” The analogy reflects that range SoFi has assembled. The company spans account and ledger capabilities, debit, credit and prepaid processing, lending through Peach, money movement including ACH, FedNow and wires, and functions such as fraud and disputes. Pierce-Gilmore’s objective is to make those capabilities usable in different combinations depending on what a client is trying to provide. “Anytime someone is creating a financial solution, it is just a matter of putting certain ingredients together,” Pierce-Gilmore told Webster. The strategy depends in part on which customers need those ingredients and what they’re trying to build. Pierce-Gilmore divides prospective customers into two broad groups. Community banks, credit unions and other financial institutions have financial services at the center of the customer relationship. A second group includes companies whose primary business is something else but whose relationship with customers can create a useful context for providing financial services. A vertical software provider illustrates the difference. Pierce-Gilmore cited software used by her hairdresser that can see appointments, prices, repeat customers, employees and capacity. Those operating data can inform more than the initial decision to extend working capital. Pierce-Gilmore said the same context can inform repayment and forecasting, allowing the provider to serve the business with information a conventional financial provider may not have. Banks and credit unions bring different advantages. A community bank may understand a particular geography and its businesses. A credit union may know members through an employer, profession or affinity. Pierce-Gilmore’s distinction isn’t about which model has better information. It is about recognizing that different customer relationships produce different information and therefore different requirements from the technolo...