“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 the 2025 British Bank Awards.

‍And boy was she right.‍

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

So, if you need a reason (or a few) to vote for 11:FS as Consultancy of the Year this year, we’ve got you covered.

‍Putting clients in a position to win

Since winning last year, we’ve helped 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 this year has 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 this year our research work 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.

Heard enough?

‍Vote 11:FS as Consultancy of the Year at the 2026 British Bank Awards now at 11fs.com/vote