
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.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests to talk about how fintech and financial services are meeting the needs of Gens Alpha and Beta, and how they are adapting to the needs of tomorrow's wealth makers.

L.F.G. Today we bring you a look at UX in crypto: what's wrong with it, where the biggest challenges are, and what can be done to fix it, without compromising the control over your own assets that crypto allows for, joined by fantastic guests from Webacy and Bastion. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Host Kate Moody is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: FedNow launch a new account verification service from Orum, Metro Bank strike a rescue deal, and Nationwide unveil a new look.

David M. Brear, CEO at 11:FS, is joined by our very own CTO Ewan Silver for a fireside chat to unpick what we mean when we say the services have fallen out of financial services.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Apple launch open banking service in the UK, Revolut move closer to a banking licence, and Saga launch a savings platform for the over 50s.

David Barton-Grimley is joined by some great guests to unpack the six characteristics of digital commercial banking; real-time, standardised, automated, embedded, contextual, and extendable. We’ll explore what they are and how they can (or can’t) support a more efficient, reliable, and secure industry.

Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: HSBC partner with Nova Credit to offer international credit history checks, Mercedes-Benz roll out in-car payments, and Standard Life launch a pensions dashboard.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests to talk about recruitment in financial services, how today's applicants can stand out, and also what institutions can do to support diversity, equality & inclusion and create a culture for success.

David Brear and Ross Gallagher are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Monzo's new investment platform, India hit their financial inclusion targets 41 years early, and cash payments are on the rise.

Laura Watkins is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Adyen get a UK banking licence, Perfios eye UK & US expansion, and a new campaign tackles the gender investment gap.

What is the best metric for measuring the success for fintech? In this rewind show from the archives, Benjamin Ensor is discussing the answer to that question, joined by some great guests, from Allica Bank, Anthemis, and This Week In Fintech.

David Brear is joined by a panel of experts from Cleo, Feedzai and Starling Bank to look at how financial services need to adapt to the changes brought by AI, where it can have the most influence and where the human touch is still needed.

L.F.G. Today we bring you: a super interesting discussion on the current status of stablecoins in the US and beyond and with the launch of PYUSD from PayPal what might the wider impact be? Are stablecoins going mainstream? All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

JP Morgan increases its investment in Brazilian neobank C6, as Goldman Sachs sells its PFM unit, African fintech investment surpasses $2 billion, as M-Pesa enter Ethiopia for the first time. Benjamin Ensor and David Barton-Grimley are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including Sarah Kocianski and Samee Zahid from Chipper Cash.

Ramp raises $300M (and that's a down round!), Goldman Sachs plans sale to concentrate on the ultra-wealthy and Monzo is named best bank - Kate Moody and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests from CCG and Lightyear to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

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...

