CEO
DR Bank
Jason Hardgrave has been CEO of DR Bank since 2021 and has almost 30 years of experience in financial services. At DRB, he has helped transform it into a leading Fintech sponsor Bank that helps drive innovation in payments, lending and institutional-grade banking services. Jason has spent his career focused on innovation in financial services working on large scale global programs with a focus on digitally native solutions.
Prior to DRB, Jason worked at Santander both in the US and London where he ran significant product lines including as the EVP of Consumer Products for the US covering Deposits, Payments, FinTech Partnerships, Consumer Lending and Credit Card. In this capacity, Jason had extensive experience working with scaled, national online platforms and launching new products across consumer and business banking.
Earlier in his career, Jason had entrepreneurial experience as one of the founders at Novantas (now Curinos) and as a consultant at First Manhattan Consulting Group.
Jason is committed to driving innovation at DRB in financial services through partnerships with Fintechs and delivering a range of banking solutions to innovators.
Jason holds both an Undergraduate degree and Graduate MBA degree from Tulane University.
BNPL and embedded finance aren’t just new lending channels. They’re changing who owns the customer, who controls underwriting, and who captures the economics. As nonbanks and platforms insert themselves between banks and consumers, financial institutions face a high-stakes tradeoff: pursue scale through partnerships and risk becoming invisible, or maintain control and risk losing distribution. In this session, American Banker shares new research from U.S. banks and credit unions on how leaders are approaching BNPL and embedded finance right now, and what strategies are gaining momentum, where institutions are drawing hard lines, and which partnership models are proving viable. The research explores the regulatory and compliance friction points, the operational realities behind launching BNPL at bank-grade risk standards, and the competitive pressures forcing faster decisions. The discussion delivers a benchmark view of how banks and credit unions are navigating the tension between growth, control, and risk—and what that means for their role in the next generation of lending.