We all employ a user-centred design (UCD) approach to inform what products we build and how they should work, but all that customer insight gives us one oft-overlooked learning: the actual language customers use to speak about their problems.
You don’t have to spend much time in retail banking before you come across legacy systems - a catch-all term often used to explain why banks are so slow and unresponsive.
Tucked away in a small corner of the WeWork offices in Aldgate Tower, I sat down with Ross Gallagher. Financial inclusion is the touchstone on financial products for Ross. Regular host of the Fintech Insider podcast with a history in financial services consulting and research. Ross is known around the office as a tupperware fiend and always up for a laugh but as with many people who work for 11:FS he has a real passion for finance and financial inclusion in particular.
In a recent report EY point out that the big advantage the UK has in “Fintech” is it’s progressive policy from Government and Regulators. This post examines the latest policy the regulatory sandbox; to understand how it might work, what companies entering it need to know, and how other jurisdictions could repeat the trick. Can it help financial services be a bit more awesome?
Recently, Nick Miller, Senior Ventures Strategist at 11:FS, published an article on why ESG investing is broken. If you haven't already, go and give it a read before you dive into this one.
This week on Fintech Insider News David, Jason and Simon were joined by Innovate Finance’s Sophie Winwood and making his Fintech Insider debut, Banking Editior at The Economist, Patrick Lane, to tackle the latest news from the last week. Listen to the episode in full here or play and read below
Banks are having a midlife crisis. Their tech is at that stage where it’s old enough to gather regrets. Lots of them. 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.
Everyone’s got a bike these days, right? How many bikes would you admit to owning? Is your ‘multi-bike’ strategy paying off? Now ask yourself the same questions about your use of cloud.
While I was COO at Revolut, Vlad Yatsenko - the company’s Co-Founder & CTO - commented a number of times about how opportunity cost of time is typically the biggest cost in a scaling company, and I’ve come to realise this is more and more true.
The digital banking scene in Southeast Asia is hot right now. Over the past two years, it’s experienced some rapid changes. Changing regulations have triggered a mass of new players entering the market.
In this guest blog Bailey Kusar, co-founder and CEO of Toucan, examines how open banking can be used to deliver services that better support people with mental health conditions to manage their finances.
James Safford is a name you might not be familiar with from the 11:FS team. He’s starred in a couple of our shows with brilliant insights on what’s going on in the fintech space. James is a Market Research Analyst working on the 11:FS Pulse platform delivering insights into customer journeys globally. I took a moment to sit down with James and talk to him about how things differ working in fintech compared to publishing, and why he moved into the space after deciding against a lifelong dream.
We’ll say it till we’re blue in the face - FS companies need to do more to improve their users’ financial literacy. And that goes for kids too.
COP26 is over. But the climate emergency is still with us. The headlines might say otherwise but I got the feeling that very little progress was made on climate change. 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.

Gwera Kiwana and Sim Rai are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Nova Credit Teams with Alloy on inclusive business lending, world's first green fintech taxonomy launched, and Sex Pistols launch God Save the Queen coin and NFT collection.

Benjamin Ensor and Sim Rai are joined by some great guests, from Tranch and Anthemis, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Klarna lays off 10% of its workforce via video message, Chase marks 500,000 UK customers, and our panel answers your questions!

Gwera Kiwana and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests, from Griffin, Indebted and Redpoint Ventures, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Griffin applies for UK banking licence, Digital debt collection agency InDebted looks to shake up the UK market, and Goldman Sachs offers senior staff unlimited holiday!

Kate Moody is joined by some great guests, from Lucky and Global Ventures, to talk about the rise of fintech in Egypt!

David Brear and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests from Truelayer, Evening Standard and The Fintech Times to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Monzo launches their Buy Now Pay Later product – Monzo Flex, QED announces $1 billion fintech war chest, and face payments launched on the Moscow Metro and so much more!

David Brear and Amy Gavin are joined by some great guests from Carry1st and Financial News to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Contactless card payment limit in UK to jump to £100 next month, Stripe and others invest $200M in African fintech Wave – now valued at $1.7 billion, and Peter Thiel is building a luxury vacation bunker in New Zealand. Tune in to find out more!

In this week's episode of the Fintech Marketing Podcast, your host Eric Fulwiler is joined by Chris Pitt, CEO at First Direct - to discuss all things marketing - what makes it good, what makes it bad, and what every marketer needs to know to keep levelling up.

Simon Taylor are joined by some great guests from Google, Fronted and Synctera to talk about how banks structure their technology and why this can make transformation so difficult.

David Brear and Mel Stringer are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Google takes on Venmo and Square with new payments features, Starling hits profit for the first time, and the Queen of England unexpectedly takes an interest in blockchain.

Sam Maule is joined by some incredible guests to talk about economic abuse and the role of banks and financial institutions.

Sam Maule is joined by a panel of fantastic guests to discuss economic inequality and the racial wealth gap in the US.

Sarah Kocianski is joined by some great guests to talk about cybersecurity in financial services.

Simon Taylor and Mel Stringer are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Stripe acquires Nigeria’s Paystack, Marqeta’s research discovers Covid-19 has forced three-quarters of banks to change their future strategy, and ESG funds forecast to outnumber conventional funds by 2025.

Sarah Kocianski is joined by some great guests to talk about Open Banking two years on and the key developments that have been made since then.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests to discuss how fintech and digital transformation is shaking up the financial landscape of the Middle East.

David M. Brear, our 11:FS CEO, takes us through legacy technology within banks - but of course, with a really cool Lightboard.
Welcome to episode 5 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!

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.
Welcome to episode 4 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!
Welcome to episode 3 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!
Welcome to episode 2 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!

Welcome to episode 1 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!

When people discuss 'banking being broken', they often refer to the technology itself. However, that isn't necessarily the case.

Minimum Lovable Brand | 11:FS Explores

In this video, our Head of Research, Sarah Kocianski, unpacks exactly how banks make money - with the handy edition of a super cool lightboard!

Fintech is only 1% finished. But what do we mean by that? Simon Taylor, Head of Ventures at 11:FS takes us through the landscape of financial technology in this Lightboard edition of 11:FS Explores.

In this episode of 11:FS Explores, Adam Davis picks apart Open Finance, and what we have to look forward to if this technology became a reality.
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?

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...

