
Building societies are ubiquitous in the UK with 43 currently operating across the country. They are however, often conflated with banks. The key difference between building societies and banks though, is a big one: a building society is owned entirely by its members rather than shareholders, to whom they pay dividends every year.

“Money is a matter of functions four: a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.”But, money is also a form of communication. Money has the power to communicate success, shame, inadequacy, desire, isolation, disdain, greed, support, addiction and resentment. Talking money is also one of society’s greatest taboos. Femtech has had to tackle its own set of taboo topics, so in the spirit of International Women’s Day I’m looking at a thing or two fintech could learn from femtech. 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.

Customer-centricity is a phrase that’s been used and abused over the last decade. But what does it mean in practice and how can Jobs to be Done make it happen?

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.

I’ve worked in fintech for 10+ years now, since before it was a popular term, and long enough to see multiple hype cycles come and go. One of the more enduring fintech themes in that time has been “financial education” and, more recently, “financial health”. These are linked but there are some important conceptual differences! 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.

SMBs are the lifeblood of most economies. In the UK alone they make up 99.9% of all private sector businesses and employ 60% of all private sector workers. Yet they are chronically underserved by incumbent financial institutions (FIs) across all segments.

The third episode of our brand-new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service, is here! If you missed it (or any of the others) catch up here. Here’s a rundown of this episode if you prefer reading to watching 📖

Financial services brands are still fundamentally irrelevant for many of the most important moments of our life. But why is this? 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 2022! And we’ve got a sneaking suspicion this year is gonna be one to remember.

Arguably the biggest story right now is the announcement of Stripe Capital’s new end-to-end lending API for platforms to offer financing options to their SMB customers. (Simon Taylor wrote a great piece on this at the weekend.) 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.

The fourth episode of our brand-new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service, is here! If you missed it (or any of the others) catch up here. Here’s a rundown of this episode if you prefer reading to watching 📖

Hopefully, by now you’ve had a chance to digest some, if not all, of our inclusive design series.

This is the final instalment of a 6 part series that explores the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) for US SMBs that we identified in our recent research. Each blog post dives into one of the jobs and how we examined it with a JTBD canvas. If you missed the first post that explains JTBD and the canvas, check it out before reading this.

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a theory. Its main aim is to explain why customers start - and stop - using different products and services in the market. Stripped down to the essentials, it’s a fairly straightforward concept first introduced by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen that can be adapted into a useful tool for product development.

Sam Maule is joined by some great guests to talk about PPP lending during the COVID-19 pandemic. On today's show we are taking a look at the process from the lenders perspective!

Sam Maule is joined by some great guests to discuss the state of the underbanked in the US and how COVID-19 is affecting this group of underserved people.

Sarah Kocianski and Ross Gallagher are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Vivid Money launches digital banking services in Germany; the pandemic savings surge forces Goldman to shut Marcus to new UK clients; and Islamic finance startup Wahed closes $25M funding round to grow their Saudi Arabia hub.

Sarah Kocianski is joined by some great guests from Equinix, Mastercard and RTGS to discuss the long-term business transformation and the need for agile infrastructure in financial services organisations in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Adam Davis and Sarah Kocianski are joined by some great guests to discuss open finance - what it is, how is could work and what learnings it could take from open banking, with an expert panel of guests from Plaid, RBS and the OBIE.

Sam Maule and David Brear are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting US news stories of the last 7 days, including: Shopify’s many new announcements and move into fintech; Bank of America leak exposes business details of PPP relief applicants as applications across the board decline; and Animal Crossing offers new ways for people to make money in lockdown.

Jason Bates and Simon Taylor are joined by 3 great guests to talk about digital identity. What do we mean by digital identity, and how does it differ around the world? Listen on to find out!

Sarah Kocianski and Adam Davis are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: A round up of the pandemic and financial aid stories on both sides of the pond; Sofi and Samsung Pay team up for a debit card; and Mastercard's massive new pledge for financial inclusion.

Sam Maule is joined by some great guests to talk about US SMBs - not specifically about their fight for funding in the wake of Covid-19 this time - but their options when it comes to banking more broadly, and how to design digital financial services that work for them.

Simon Taylor and Sarah Kocianski are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: RBS closes Bó, big banks book $50bn against bad loans in the wake of corona, and a round-up of the more international stories of the week.

Sam Maule is joined by John Pitts, Policy Lead, and Niko Karvounis Product Lead at Plaid to talk all things data, customer driven innovation, their European expansion and much more.

Sam Maule is joined by John Pitts, Policy Lead, and Niko Karvounis Product Lead at Plaid to talk all things data, customer driven innovation, their European expansion and much more.

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by a panel of guests to talk through the latest and greatest news in the insurance space which are heavily focussed on Covid-19 and the insurance industry this week!

Simon Taylor and Adam Davis are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: 100% backed business loans; big banks results are in and corona is hitting their profit margins hard and even Animal Crossing's Bank of Nook is slashing its interest rates in an unwelcome reflection of the real world.

Sam Maule is joined by some great guests in the US SMB space, to discuss the impact of the coronavirus crisis on US small businesses - at the time in which all the stimulus funding had already been given out.

11:FS CEO David M. Brear takes to the lightboard to give us the full run-down, with examples of companies that are leading the way.
Just what is going on with Buy Now, Pay Later right now?

There are one billion people globally who can't prove their identity. That's a big problem for accessing financial services.
It's not just a buzzword.

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...

