
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.

Earning a good salary doesn't necessarily mean building wealth. For a growing group of high earners, often referred to as HENRYs (High Earners, Not Rich Yet), the journey from financial success to long-term wealth can be surprisingly difficult.

Host Ross Gallagher- Head of Consulting at 11:FS - is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

As AI becomes another interface between customers and their money, could banks lose their place at the centre of the financial relationship?

Welcome to this week’s Fintech Insider News podcast, where host Benjamin Ensor is joined by expert guests to unpack the biggest fintech and financial services stories of the week - and, for this week only, a little bit of theatre, darlings.

About this episode: Host Laura Watkins - Director of Media and Marketing at 11:FS - is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week. This week's guests: Sadra Hossein

About this episode: Moving countries has never been easier. But what happens when your financial identity doesn’t move with you? Host Benjamin Ensor is joined by Merusha Naidu, Global Head of Partnerships at Paymentology, Ibrahim Oladele

Our expert host David M. Brear, CEO at 11, and co-host Kate Moody, Customer Strategy Director at 11, present a very special edition of Fintech Insider News live from Village Underground in London.

Host Ross Gallagher - Head of Consulting at 11:FS - is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

Host Benjamin Ensor - Director of Research and Strategy at 11:FS - is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

Gen Z is often told it needs to get better with money. But with younger people facing a very different economic reality, does Gen Z really have a financial literacy problem — or does financial services have a Gen Z problem?

Host Kate Moody - Customer Strategy Director at 11:FS - is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

Starting a fintech has never been easier but has building a successful one ever been harder? Host David M. Brear is joined by Fatbardha Rino, CEO of Jet Bank, and Herbie Wildwood, Founder of Legacy, to explore what it really takes to build

Host Laura Watkins - Director of Media and Marketing at 11:FS - is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

Host Ross Gallagher - Head of Consulting at 11:FS - is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

Host Benjamin Ensor - Director of Research and Strategy at 11:FS - is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

David M. Brear, our 11:FS CEO, takes us through legacy technology within banks - but of course, with a really cool Lightboard.

Fintech Marketing Podcast Season 2: Coming soon

After Dark - Open Finance: fact or fantasy?

Banks are facing a lot of challenges compared to their fintech rivals.
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.

What does the future hold for lending? Live from Lendit USA 2022.
Will banks exist in 100 years?

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.
On this episode of Spotlight, 11:FS Crypto Global Strategy Director, Mauricio Magaldi is joined by Ramp Network Co-Founder and CEO, Szymon Sypniewicz. In today's chat, the pair discuss Szymon's career, the current regulatory landscape in crypto, and what the future might hold when it comes to widespread crypto adoption.

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...

