
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.

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

Are stablecoins actually breaking into the mainstream financial system - or are they still largely trapped inside the fintech bubble?

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.

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.
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As AI moves from supporting investment decisions to making them, what happens to trust, accountability, and control?

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.
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In this episode of Fintech Insider Insights, in partnership with Backbase, David Brear is joined by Jouk Pleiter, CEO & Founder of Backbase, to explore why banking may be approaching a breaking point in its architecture.

Advice is regulated and personalised. Guidance is broader and safer - but that line is starting to blur.

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 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.
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What does customer loyalty really mean in financial services - and has it ever been real? In this episode of Fintech Insider Insights, Kate Moody is joined by Rosie Lee, Jas Shah, and Alex Johnson to unpack the shifting nature of loyalty in a world where switching is easier than ever.

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.

In this episode of Fintech Insider Insights, in partnership with Pleo, host Benjamin Ensor is joined by Jeppe Rindom (Co-Founder & CEO at Pleo) and Tulsi Narayan (EVP, Commercial and New Payment Flows, Europe at Mastercard) to explore the next phase of embedded finance — as it evolves from a handy feature into critical infrastructure.

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.

Benjamin Ensor is joined by Rory O’Neill, Sahar Attaripour, and Sam Boboev to explore the rise of agentic payments - a fundamental shift from executing transactions to delegating intent.

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...

