Customer research, user testing and feedback loops for FS products.

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.

In this week’s news show we had representation from both sides of the Atlantic as Nina Mohanty, Doug Bobenhouse and Valentina Kristensen joined new host Ross Gallagher in his first rodeo in the hosting seat, and Simon Taylor to discuss the week’s biggest stories. Listen here for the episode in full, stream it below or read on for additional insights.

Nobody sets out to block innovation in their organisation. It just happens.

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”.

Over the course of the pandemic the UK's financial habits have changed, which is no surprise when you see how people's circumstances have been impacted:

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.