
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.

Kate Moody and Nicole Perry are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: cash’s comeback as the cost of living climbs, Heopagos raising big for Latam payments, and Italy says ‘ciao!’ to Domino's Pizza.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, Sibstar, and Purple, to talk about you design financial services for people with disabilities.

In this exciting bonus episode, David M. Brear is joined by Andy Bromberg, CEO of Eco, to talk about the fine line between copying, imitation, and competitor research. All this and much much more on today's bonus show!

Nigel Walsh and John Bean are joined by a fantastic guest from Hubb to talk through what the future for brokers might look like in today's insurance space. All this and much, much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Kate Moody and Nicole Perry are joined by some great guests, from DealStreetAsia and Fintech Business Weekly, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Sequoia makes first investment in Pakistan, LendUp enters liquidation, and trade in your pandemic impulse buys!

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Plaid, Payments Solved, and The Payments Association EU, to look at how PSD3 might influence Open Banking going forward.

David M. Brear and Nicole Perry are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: European investing app Shares snaps up $40m financing round, Plaid launches Variable Recurring Payments, and we dip into the Fintech Insider mailbag!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: a special bonus interview with author and presenter Jamie Bartlett, where we chat about all things Missing Cryptoqueen, and his new book: “The Missing Cryptoqueen: The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It”. All this and much much more! All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Nigel Walsh and John Bean are joined by a panel of guests from Anthemis, Flock and Instanda to talk through the biggest news of the month. Hear about: No-code insurtech scale-up Instanda raises £37m, insurance start-ups face credibility crisis, and GEICO may have to pay a woman who got an STD in an insured car. All this and much, much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Kate Moody and Amy Gavin are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Starling pulls Irish bank application, Stori becomes Mexico’s latest fintech unicorn, and ‘Eat The Rich’ popsicles are selling fast!

Kate Moody is joined by some great guests, from Chetwood Financial, Innovate Finance, and Minna Technologies, to ask how will inflation impact financial services going forward.

David M. Brear is joined by investigative reporter and author, Dan McCrum, to dive into his new book about uncovering the truth about payments company Wirecard.

Benjamin Ensor and Deepa Anikhindi are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Agricultural bank Oxbury raises £20m in a funding round, Payl8r calls for open banking to be legally required for credit assessing, and the world's first fintech sitcom!

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Bunq, Maxwell and Molo Finance, to help put together the perfect mortgage offering taking aspects from across the world.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: an episode focused on ownership. Ownership is web3’s ability to prove that digital assets are owned by users. But how exactly does it work? How is it different from the world of web2? And what changes can we expect to see in the world now that assets are on-chain? All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

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...

