With the sponsor bank industry facing intense scrutiny, Hatch Bank’s recent appointment of Amanda Swoverland, a seasoned risk and compliance executive, as its new president is a move that has captured the sector’s attention. We sat down with banking and finance authority Priya Jaiswal to dissect the implications of this strategic hire. Our conversation explored how a compliance-first mindset could redefine bank-fintech partnerships, the operational discipline required for sustainable growth in embedded finance, and the collaborative leadership needed to navigate an evolving regulatory landscape.
Amanda Swoverland brings a formidable compliance and risk background from both the fintech side at Unit and the bank side at Sunrise Banks. From your perspective, how might she leverage this dual experience to reshape Hatch Bank’s approach to its fintech partnerships?
This is a brilliant, almost perfectly balanced background for the challenges sponsor banks face today. Having spent nearly a decade rising through the risk management ranks at Sunrise Banks, she understands the core regulatory obligations and the conservative pulse of a traditional bank. Then, shifting to become Chief Compliance Officer at a major BaaS fintech like Unit gave her a front-row seat to the speed, the pressures, and the innovative mindset of the tech partners. I imagine her first steps will be to bridge the cultural and operational gap that often exists. She won’t just be enforcing rules; she’ll be translating them, explaining the “why” to the fintechs and the “how” to the bank’s internal teams to create that alignment Hatch is looking for. It’s about building a common language, which is invaluable.
Hatch has explicitly stated its goal is to build high-performing embedded fintech programs. Based on your analysis, what are the essential operational and risk management disciplines a leader like Swoverland will need to instill to make that a reality?
Success here isn’t just about launching products; it’s about building a durable, scalable, and defensible framework. The most critical discipline is proactive, end-to-end oversight. This means moving beyond simple checklist compliance. It’s about creating a living, breathing risk management culture where the bank has real-time visibility into its partners’ activities. This involves robust data sharing, integrated monitoring systems, and clear protocols for everything from customer onboarding to complaint resolution. In this model, innovation can’t be a wild west; it has to be a well-irrigated garden. It’s the difference between a partnership that generates flashy headlines for a year and one that generates sustainable revenue for a decade.
The bank focuses on specific embedded lending niches like solar and healthcare financing. What makes these specialized verticals such compelling areas for bank-fintech collaboration, and what kind of criteria do you think Swoverland will prioritize when vetting new partners?
These niches are incredibly attractive because they represent large, tangible needs in a consumer’s life that are often poorly served by traditional one-size-fits-all loans. Solar financing is tied to a home improvement decision with a clear return on investment, while healthcare financing addresses an immediate, often stressful, need. This specificity reduces risk and allows for highly tailored products. When evaluating new partners, I believe the new leadership will look far beyond the technology or the proposed revenue. They’ll scrutinize the partner’s own compliance maturity, their customer acquisition model, and the transparency of their fee structures. The key criteria will be sustainability and reputational integrity—is this a partner that strengthens the bank’s charter or one that introduces unforeseen risks?
Swoverland is starting alongside a new CFO, Francis Mitchell, who has a deep background in traditional banking finance. How do you foresee the President and CFO roles complementing each other to fortify Hatch Bank’s core operations and growth strategy?
This is a classic “offense and defense” power duo. Swoverland, as President with her risk background, is the strong defensive line, ensuring the bank’s foundation is solid and every partnership is built on a bedrock of compliance. Mitchell, as CFO, will be focused on the offensive strategy—ensuring that these well-structured programs are not just safe, but also profitable and strategically sound. They’ll be looking at key performance indicators together, but from different angles. I expect them to prioritize metrics like partner-level profitability, risk-adjusted return on capital, and the cost of compliance per program. This ensures that growth isn’t just happening for growth’s sake, but is a healthy, sustainable expansion of the bank’s core business.
What is your forecast for the sponsor bank industry over the next five years?
The next five years will be a period of intense maturation, a “great sorting,” if you will. The days of sponsor banking as a simple rent-a-charter model are over. We will see a flight to quality, where fintechs gravitate toward banks like Hatch that are visibly investing in seasoned leadership and robust compliance infrastructure. I predict we’ll see more specialization, with banks carving out deep expertise in specific verticals rather than trying to be everything to everyone. The regulatory bar will continue to rise, forcing weaker players out and rewarding those who have built their programs on a foundation of true partnership and shared risk, not just shared revenue. The survivors will be those who prove they are truly banks first, with technology as a powerful-but-properly-managed channel.
