CEO
DR Bank
Jason Hardgrave joined DR Bank as CEO in 2021. He brings three decades of experience in financial services to the bank, where he has led its transformation into a leading fintech sponsor bank driving innovation in payments, lending and institutional-grade banking services. Jason’s career to date has been focused on promoting innovation in financial services, with deep, hands-on experience scaling large, digitally-native solutions.
Prior to DRB, Jason worked at Santander both in the US and London leading major products, most notably as the EVP of Consumer Products for the US with responsibility for deposits, payments, fintech partnerships, consumer lending and credit cards. In this capacity, Jason worked with scaled, national platforms and launched multiple new products for consumer and business banking.
Earlier in his career, Jason was a founder at Novantas, a consulting group, (now Curinos) and was a consultant at First Manhattan Consulting Group. He is committed to driving innovation at DRB in financial services through its partnership with fintechs and delivering modern banking solutions for innovators. He holds both an undergraduate degree and an MBA 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.