“It’s clear they’re not slowing down in transforming the financial landscape.” Those were the words of Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People, speaking about 11:FS after we claimed our fifth Consultancy of the Year title at last year's British Bank Awards.

‍And boy was she right.‍

Over the past 12 months our team tirelessly worked with fintechs, banks, challengers, regulators, credit unions, and more as we continued on our mission to bring the next generation of financial services to life. 

And the result of all that work? Some very happy clients and ANOTHER Consultancy of the Year trophy.

That's right, at the 2026 British Bank Awards, your votes meant 11:FS beat consulting giants like CapCo, Accenture, and Deloitte to the title showing that size really isn't everything.

More than just another trophy

The British Bank Awards is always circled in our calendar not only because it's the biggest awards body in financial services, but also because it's voted for by real customers, and real clients. That means no hiding behind 'fake' votes - if you're work doesn't cut the mustard, you've got no chance.

This also means more because, as our CEO David M. Brear puts it, 11:FS was never supposed to win traditional consulting awards like this. We were too blunt. Too opinionated. Too product-focused. Too engineering heavy. Too obsessed with delivery.

Well, it turns out clients quite like that.

We’ve never really believed banking transformation happens in PowerPoint. We believe it happens by building. By shipping. By sitting with clients in the hard moments. By understanding customers properly. By caring about the outcome, not just the deck.

So, here's the story of the last 12 months and the work that drove our clients to take time out of their day to vote for us.

‍Putting clients in a position to win

Since winning last year, we’ve been focused on helping clients make sharper decisions about where to play and how to win. 

For a global investment management firm, we developed a behavioural-science-led framework for investment nudges, designed around users’ traits, intended actions and partner bank goals. The result was a practical model that could be deployed through digital banking channels to encourage better investment outcomes in ways that felt relevant, timely and useful.

We also worked with a multinational bank in the UK to imagine and validate an open market proposition aimed at helping customers build stronger financial confidence. From prototypes to customer research, behavioural design inspiration and competitor analysis, we gave the client both a compelling concept and the evidence to move forward with confidence. 

Separately, we helped another multinational bank understand how competitors are positioning their subscription-based offerings across the market, identifying where a new proposition could stand apart and shaping recommendations to support its launch in the UK and, over time, other markets.

In the UAE, our strategists evaluated a bank’s retail banking and investing journeys in-app, benchmarking them against 11 regional and global players. But this wasn’t just about identifying UX improvements. It was about showing what great looks like now, while also helping the client think ahead to what digital banking could become next, including the role Agentic AI may play in shaping future experiences.

Building truly digital foundations

Some of our most valuable work focused on helping clients build the right foundations for long-term growth. In KSA, we partnered with a fintech to design a new digital banking proposition from the ground up. That meant defining the Minimum Viable Product, shaping the longer-term feature roadmap, validating the concept with target customers and designing the solution architecture needed to bring it to life. Strategy, proposition, experience and delivery all came together in one joined-up piece of work.

Elsewhere, we helped organisations create stronger, more differentiated experiences in markets where customer expectations are rising fast. For a London-based pensions firm, we developed foundational concepts for a category-leading app experience that improves usability today while allowing for greater scalability tomorrow. For a European bank, we defined a digital-first sub-brand proposition designed to attract and retain both resident and diaspora customers by responding to the needs traditional propositions often overlook.

We also helped firms improve critical moments that shape perception and trust. For a UK pensions business, we redefined the onboarding experience for workplace pension members through concept development and service blueprinting, creating clearer reasons to engage from day one. 

And for a major European banking group, we delivered a detailed UX assessment of its app, benchmarked against 15 competitors, identifying practical opportunities to improve utility, engagement and the overall customer experience.

Game-changing research and analysis

Great strategy depends on great insight, and our research work over the last year has helped clients answer some of the biggest questions in financial services.

In the Middle East, we conducted a deep Jobs to Be Done study for a bank looking to better serve micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. We identified the most important needs in the market, defined and quantified key segments, and built a detailed picture of customer behaviours, motivations and emotional drivers. The outcome was a set of actionable insights to guide product, marketing and engagement decisions.

We also supported multinational financial institutions on a series of complex service and operational challenges. That included researching how banks encourage customers to complete bank-initiated tasks such as KYC, enhanced due diligence and fraud-related actions; analysing best practice in corporate onboarding and identity verification; and exploring how firms detect, manage and recover from system failures while communicating effectively with customers throughout. In each case, the goal was the same: turn a complex problem into clear, practical guidance grounded in real market evidence.

Alongside this client work, we continued to contribute to industry thinking more broadly. In partnership with Seccl, we produced a report on the opportunity for embedded investing in the UK, covering market demand, the rise of Investment-as-a-Service, leading case studies and what successful execution really takes. We also explored alternatives to paper statements for non-digital banking customers for a major UK bank, assessing global best practice and the trade-offs between security, accessibility and usability.

Together, these projects reflect the range of our work: strategic, evidence-led and always focused on what comes next.

Ready to get to work?

Our award-winning experts are helping brands around the world embrace truly digital financial services through specialist research, competitor analysis, proposition design, tech strategy, concept development, and much more.

So, whether you're looking to build, launch, or evolve a digital proposition, we’ve got the tools (and trophy cabinet) to help you accelerate change and win, wherever you are in the world.

Let's talk.