Jason Mikula
Jason Mikula is an American fintech analyst, advisor and author based in Amsterdam. He publishes the newsletter Fintech Business Weekly, hosts the Fintech Business Podcast, and is widely known on X as @mikulaja—including for the bio line that he "literally wrote the book on BaaS."1 That book, Banking as a Service: Opportunities, Challenges, and Risks of New Banking Business Models (Kogan Page, 2024), is a standard reference on banking as a service business models and regulation.
Career
Before independent media and advisory work, Mikula spent more than a decade building consumer finance businesses, including roles at Enova, LendUp and Goldman Sachs (Marcus). He later advised banks, fintechs, technology vendors, investors and regulators, and invested in early-stage companies. He also served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer and studied at the University of Chicago.
Banking as a Service (book)
Mikula's 2024 book Banking as a Service (Kogan Page) maps BaaS origins, operating models (interchange, deposit gathering, API-first, own-licence, matchmaking and others), stakeholder economics and regulatory risk across markets. Case material covers programmes and firms such as Unit, Synapse, Railsr, Solaris, Starling Bank and Airwallex. Industry commentary often cites him as the go-to independent voice on sponsor-bank and middleware failures—including coverage of the Synapse collapse—matching his on-X self-description that he literally wrote the book on BaaS.
Media and X
Fintech Business Weekly is a paid/free newsletter analysing banking, fintech and crypto without "fear or favor." The Fintech Business Podcast includes recurring Fintech Recap episodes with Alex Johnson. On X (@mikulaja), Mikula posts regulatory filings, programme post-mortems and dry commentary aimed at operators and policymakers.
Focus topics
Primary beats include banking as a service, partner banks, embedded finance, consumer lending compliance, deposit programmes and the boundary between neobanks and fintech front ends.
References
- Jason Mikula publishes Fintech Business Weekly and wrote Banking as a Service (Kogan Page, 2024). https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/about
Frequently asked questions
- What is Jason Mikula?
- Jason Mikula is a fintech analyst and the author of Banking as a Service; he publishes Fintech Business Weekly and is active on X as @mikulaja.
See also
- Airwallex — Airwallex is an Australian-founded business fintech for global accounts, payments and spend management.
- Alex Johnson — Alex Johnson is the founder of Fintech Takes, a widely read fintech newsletter and podcast; he is active on X as @AlexH_Johnson.
- Alexandre Prot — Alexandre Prot is co-founder and CEO of Qonto, the Paris-based European business neobank.
- Ali Niknam — Ali Niknam is founder and CEO of Bunq, the Amsterdam-based licensed Dutch neobank.
- Ally Bank — Ally Bank is a large U.S. online bank offering deposits, loans and investment products without branches.