
Do you remember when you first saw a newspaper app on an iPad? It was as though a physical newspaper had been trapped under the black glass. There was even a page turning animation that you probably showed your friends. It was magical. It was digitised news. Ditto for buying albums on iTunes and ordering a traditional taxi; amazing experiences, but we just took what had come before and translated it directly to the new medium.

Africa is the most worthy market for mainstream adoption of decentralised finance. Why? I could go on and on about the underbanked, underserved populations and fragmented remittance ecosystem - while that’s all valid, the biggest pain point in my mind is currency devaluation. Volatile currencies make it difficult for Africans’ savings to hold their value. Solving for currency devaluation will provide the beachhead for the adoption of Decentralised Finance (DeFi) across Africa.

The last episode of Under The Hood, the podcast series with 11:FS that took a deep dive into the banking infrastructure that is disrupting traditional banking models and shaking up the system, has been released. And looking back, I realise how many great conversations we’ve had.

There’s a lot going on right now on personal, business and industry levels. But as I sit here in my home office over the last month talking to senior people in financial services, fintech founders and project teams all over the world, one thing keeps returning to me: “See, we didn’t need more strategy”.

In today's globalized business environment, the discussion around offering alternative payment methods (APMs) to end users continues to grow. APMs can provide businesses with improved cost efficiency, better user experience, broader access to various user segments, and thus increased conversion rates. However, it is essential to carefully consider the challenges and potential drawbacks that come with adopting APMs before fully embracing them.

Dutch directness, failing fast and innovating endlessly are the three common themes in the interview Simon did with Benoit Legrand, CIO of ING. And they’re what drives his approach to delivering success at ING.

With remote working now the norm for most of us, the need to prioritise is more important than ever.

Good content is so important now more than ever, especially for B2B content creators. In a saturated market only good content stands out - or bad but usually for the wrong reasons, and mediocre content just doesn’t get traction at all.

In a recent episode of our Insurtech Insider podcast, Nigel Walsh and John Bean sat down with some fantastic guests to chat about the good, the bad and the ugly. No, not the seminal spaghetti Western with the Ennio Morricone score.

With consumers becoming increasingly conscious of the impact of their lives, and financial services providers, on the environment, how can retail banks look to react to this trend?

Nearly a year ago now (how time flies during a global pandemic) we wrote that there’s never been a more important time to be truly digital. Little did we know that this would ring truer today than it did then!

As 2019 winds down, we’re doing something a little different for this year and reviewing our best and most popular podcast episodes.

Like everyone else locked down here in the UK, I’ve been working my way through Netflix at an unrelenting pace... This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

It’s not often that we see regulation pre-empting innovation – rarer still to see it drive innovation forward.

Our expert host, David Barton-Grimley, is joined by a fantastic guest from Totem to continue exploring financial inclusion in the USA.

UBS is buying Credit Suisse in bid to halt banking crisis, FCA warns payment firms over ‘unacceptable risk of harm to customers’, and Stripe now valued at $50B following $6.5B raise – Ross Gallagher and Kate Moody are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, Google, and Weavr, to discuss how cloud services and FinOps as a practice can help financial services in these economically difficult times.

Silicon Valley Bank closed by regulators, HSBC buys Silicon Valley Bank's UK unit for £1, and Succession's Logan Roy comes to the London Stock Exchange – Kate Moody and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests, from Innovate Finance and Fintech Takes, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

Abound raises to supercharge AI-powered consumer lending, BaaS platform Griffin secures UK banking licence with restrictions , and people are posting their failed Monzo applications on TikTok –Ross Gallagher and David Barton-Grimley are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

Kate Moody is joined by some great guests, from Dawn Capital, JP Morgan Chase, and Your Juno, to discuss if financial services is currently doing enough for women.

Natwest’s Rose Review reveals record new firms founded by women, JP Morgan bans ChatGPT, and should you tip your landlord? – Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests, from Anthemis, Brite Payment, and Seccl, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

David Barton-Grimley is joined by some great guests, from Ampla, Fiat Republic, and HSBC, to give examples of how embedded finance can find scale and make a profit.

Our expert host, David Barton-Grimley, is joined by a fantastic guest from M-Pesa to continue exploring the world of Super Apps.

Vexi raises to offer young Mexicans lower interest rate credit cards, gig workers denied equal opportunity to financial services, and BMO bank no longer has a den for Hubert the Harris Lion – Kate Moody and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests, from Vexi and Rollee, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: a deep dive into web2.5 and our very first case study! On this show, we're taking a closer look at the current state of web 2.5, and the history and impact of WalletConnect on web2.5 and web3 advancements. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

US fintech unicorn Alloy launches in the UK, Britain sets out legislation to regulate buy-now-pay-later credit, and CIBC encourages couples to talk about their finances this Valentine's Day – Benjamin Ensor and Amy Gavin are joined by some great guests, from Alloy, Klarna, and BetaKit, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last seven days.

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Visa, PaySky, and Careem, to really dig into the question: "What is stopping Super Apps from succeeding outside Asia?”

Ross Gallagher and Kate Moody are joined by some great guests, from Atom Bank and Fintech Finance, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Tech Nation’s shutdown sparks fears for UK fintech, Stripe tells employees it will decide on an IPO within the next year, and 6-year-old boy spends $1k on Grubhub.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, Zopa, and Lightyear, to talk about the impact of design in making a fintech product stand out in an increasingly crowded market.
Regulation is essential. It stops banks from going bust or behaving badly.
Lending has been around for thousands of years and is one of the cornerstones of banking.
Mastercard and Visa are the two biggest credit card networks in the world.
We kick off our Decoding: Banks series with a look at the banking landscape today and how we got here.

David M. Brear, our 11:FS CEO, takes us through legacy technology within banks - but of course, with a really cool Lightboard.

There are one billion people globally who can't prove their identity. That's a big problem for accessing financial services.
Inclusive design is a mindset and a process that suggests that you should bring as many people as possible - and the most diverse of voices that you can - into your product design product process, so that you're being truly inclusive. It's designing with people rather that just at them. Charlotte Fereday, Product Director, Ventures, explains what inclusive design is, why it's important, how you can design more inclusively, and answers - how possible is truly inclusive design?
On this episode of Spotlight, 11:FS Crypto Global Strategy Director, Mauricio Magaldi is joined by Ramp Network Co-Founder and CEO, Szymon Sypniewicz. In today's chat, the pair discuss Szymon's career, the current regulatory landscape in crypto, and what the future might hold when it comes to widespread crypto adoption.

The UK banking battlefield has never been more competitive. Customers expectfinancial apps that are personalised, seamless, and that genuinely make a differenc...


The UK banking battlefield has never been more competitive. Customers expectfinancial apps that are personalised, seamless, and that genuinely make a differenc...

