
I’ve been thinking about HENRYs recently. Not the Henry who asked me to marry him - I was 8, he was 5 - although he does cross my mind occasionally. HENRYs, short for ‘High Earners Not Rich Yet’, was coined as a label by Shawn Tully in 2003.

If you listened to the headlines, you'd think the competitive race in financial services is about one thing: building the smartest AI. We think that's the wrong way to look at it.

Embedded banking without strategic intent is expensive theatre. Lots of APIs, lots of partnership announcements, lots of pilots, but not much revenue. And that’s the risk facing corporate banks right now.

AI assistants already help people compare products, check availability and plan purchases. Agentic commerce extends that role to placing the order: a customer sets a budget and a few conditions, then gives the software permission to complete the purchase.

For most people, the month falls into two phases - before and after payday - when balances jump, debts feel manageable, and financial intentions come back within reach. But in most banking apps, payday is treated as a passive event.

Financial institutions are moving quickly into agentic AI. Coding agents, workflow agents, document agents, service agents and operational agents are already entering the enterprise. Many will create useful gains, some of them genuinely impressive. But that is not the real test.
Barclays is acquiring the UK arm of GoHenry, a money app for 6 to 18-year olds. With a reported price tag of £180 million for around 500,000 active accounts, £360 per head is a chunky investment.

For the past decade, the banking industry has been focused on developing frictionless interfaces. Financial institutions have prioritised seamless transactions, instant gratification, and engaging gamified features in a bid to build the ultimate digital financial experience.

The need for better, tailored support through the customer experience is clear, but few are accounting for the fundamental shift that financial services has experienced with the introduction of AI.

Loyalty is defined as “a strong feeling of support or allegiance”. However, in the context of financial services, it is more accurately defined as engineered persistence: a series of subconscious cues that steer customers toward familiar choices.

For years, banks have relied on OTPs as a second factor for logins and sensitive actions. Sent via SMS, these short codes were designed to add security on top of a password. But they have become one of the weakest and most frustrating parts of the banking experience.

The people using business banking tools don’t necessarily have financial backgrounds. Many smaller businesses can't afford a dedicated finance team. Yet banks keep building products that assume expertise their customers don't have, leaving them to figure things out on their own.

As our financial lives become more complex, there is a growing expectation for banks to offer more support, be more relevant, and generate greater everyday value. One of the clearest places this shift is starting to show up is in subscription banking.

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.

Sam Maule and Simon Taylor are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the biggest global stories of the last 7 days, including: new stimulus funding in the US; new fundraises and valuations for Stripe and Robinhood; and ShackShack give back their $10million stimulus.

11:FS's David Brear, Simon Taylor, Sarah Kocianski and Benjamin Ensor come together to talk about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial services industry.

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by a panel of guests to talk through Covid-19 and what this might mean for the insurance industry going forward! All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Sarah Kocianski and Simon Taylor are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Starling and OakNorth join coronavirus loan programme, US fintechs to help distribute coronavirus aid, and a women-only neobank is coming to Brazil.

In this highly topical episode, Sarah Kocianski and Simon Taylor, dig into the impact COVID-19 is having on SME financing, and their access to government funding. They are joined by expert guests from Coconut, Quotevine and 1pm PLC.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Sila raises $7.7M to wipe out ACH, Ether hits a 28-day high and everybody and their dog wants a CBDC. Simon Taylor hosts and is joined by Olivia VInden and Lex Sokolin. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Digital dollar dropped whilst China gets one step closer, Bitcoin is booming on Cash App, and CFTC announces guidance on the delivery of digital assets. Simon hosts and is joined by All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by some wonderful guests to talk about insurance in the rental market and how COVID-19 might be changing it all. All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Sam Maule is joined by Nova Credit co-founder and COO, Nicky Goulimis, to talk about underbanked immigrant communities, the changes that come with a global health crisis and the future of credit.

With the move to remote recordings we've had some technical difficulties and, unfortunately, there won't be a Blockchain Insider episode this week. We return next week with more of the latest and greatest in blockchain, crypto and DLT news.

Sarah Kocianski and Leda Glyptis are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Interest rates plummet in the UK and US; contactless limits raised to combat COVID-19; and Bunq goes green all across Europe.

David Brear and Geoff Whitehouse are joined by some great guests to talk about the changing narratives around fintech in the media. Guests on today's show are Emily Nicolle, Tech Editor at City AM and Daniel Lanyon, Managing Editor at Altfi.

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by Aman Kohli and 11:FS' Simon Taylor to explore blockchain in the world of insurance. All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

David Brear and Jason Bates are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: the financial world responds to coronavirus; UK regulators delay non-critical activity because of coronavirus; and Nationwide opens early to serve the vulnerable.

Hey, banks! This might sting a bit. You’re getting loyalty all wrong - and it’s costing you customers. But all is not lost!
The entire world is buzzing about AI, and that ain't changing anytime soon. But as AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, what impact will it have on financial services and how people interact with them?
It's not just a buzzword.
Ever wanted to know what’s going on behind the scenes every time we make a payment?
Regulation is essential. It stops banks from going bust or behaving badly.
The invention of the computer revolutionised banking in the 1950s.
Lending has been around for thousands of years and is one of the cornerstones of banking.
They're down, but they're not certainly not out.
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.

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...

