
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.

Around the world, people have instant, around-the-clock access to banking apps and their own financial data. So why do so many people still feel uncertain about their financial future?

Most AI deployments so far have focused on AI that “talks”, which can search, summarise, and draft content to support employees. The next wave is different: AI agents that “do” are starting to take bounded actions inside workflows, moving cases forward and coordinating steps end-to-end, with humans kept in control where it matters.
Financial accessibility has long been framed as a matter of compliance or corporate social responsibility. But today, it’s emerging as something much bigger: a competitive advantage.

As the industry adjusts to a new digital landscape, players across the spectrum are fighting to muscle their way into the financial epicentre and ‘win’ the salary battle to become the payday home of their customers.

Consumers are evolving, and so are their expectations and demands. As the purchasing power of the younger, digital-native Gen Z and Gen Alpha grows and older generations become more comfortable with the possibilities that AI and other new technologies enable, businesses have to work harder to keep them happy and retain their business.

This week, we cover David's time at Xerocon, where he hosted a panel on Frictionless Finance featuring Niall Cameron, Global Head of Digital at HSBC, Caroline Plumb OBE, CEO at Fluidly, Colin Goldstein, Head of Partnerships at iwoca, Stewart Roberts, Executive VP at iZettle, and Shachar Bialick, CEO at Curve.

This week Sam is joined by Kris Hansen, CTO at Koho, Dan Eberhard, founder of Koho, Barb MacLean, Director at Celero Solutions and Zac Cohen, General Manager at Trulioo in a special news show brought to you from Toronto, Canada.

In this week’s jam-packed show Nigel visits InsureTech Connect in Las Vegas and talks to Darin Reffitt, Vice President of Marketing at Splice Software; Quentin Colmant, co-Founder of Qover; Tim Hardcastle, CEO of Instanda; Chris Cheatham, CEO of Risk Genius; and Caribou Honig himself, co-founder of InsureTech Connect.

In this week’s jam-packed show Nigel visits InsureTech Connect in Las Vegas and talks to Darin Reffitt, Vice President of Marketing at Splice Software; Quentin Colmant, co-Founder of Qover; Tim Hardcastle, CEO of Instanda; Chris Cheatham, CEO of Risk Genius; and Caribou Honig himself, co-founder of InsureTech Connect.

This week Simon Taylor and Colin G Platt delve into the week's top blockchain and crypto news, and we hear from Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director at the Hyperledger Project within the Linux Foundation, and from Paul Worrall, founder of Zonafide.

Jason Bates talks to Gavin Littlejohn, Mike Kelly, Anita Kimber and Matt Cox about PSD2 - what is it and what does it mean for the industry?

Meaghan Johnson is joined by the 11:FS Pulse team's Benedict Shegog, as well as Fintech Insider favourites Liz Lumley, Sarah Kocianski and Charlie Wood.

This week David Brear talks to Niall Cameron, Global Head of Institutional and Digital at HSBC about strategy, growth and fintech.

Simon and Colin explore the week's news, plus special interviews with Scott Nelson, CEO and Chairman of Sweetbridge, and Abasa Phillips, founder of Zilla.

Simon and Colin explore the week's news, plus special interviews with Scott Nelson, CEO and Chairman of Sweetbridge, and Abasa Phillips, founder of Zilla.

On this week's episode, Sam talks to Ron Herman, founder and CEO at Sionic Mobile, and Michael Crawford, Vice President at Fifth Third.

This week David is joined by Bianca Lopes, Sarah Kocianski and Jamie Campbell.

Jason Bates interviews Rod Drury, Founder and CEO of accounting software firm, Xero.

We bring you the latest headlines with very special guests and three interviews including r3, DTCC and Jibrel Network.

David, Jason and Simon are joined by special guests Valentina Kristensen and Andra Sonea to discuss this week's news.

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...

