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.

Saving money and paying bills might not sound exciting - but today’s finance apps are borrowing tricks from video games to change that.

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: US Congress to introduce new draft bill for stablecoins, Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade is complete, starting new era of staking withdrawals, and EU Parliament approves crypto licensing, funds transfer rules. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Kate Moody joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Super.com’s $85M raise for a super app for savings; Could First Republic be the next SVB as the US scrambles to save it; and Klarna roll out a suite of AI-enabled personalisation tools for shoppers and merchants.

Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests, from Branch, Iwoca, and Treyd, to look at the opportunities and challenges of opportunities of specialised offerings for small and medium-sized businesses.

Apple launches savings account, JROC lays out Open Banking roadmap, and Game of Thrones stars challenge big banks over fossil fuel links – Ross Gallagher and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests, from Yonder and Open Finance Association, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

Benjamin Ensor and Kate Moody are joined by some great guests, Bridge built by Citi and Seattle Bank, to look at the challenges and opportunities for community banks in America.

Love Island's Sharon Gaffka teams up with FCA in clampdown on influencers, Visa partners PayPal for interoperable P2P payments, and Verto picks up a quarter of Silicon Valley Bank customers in Africa – Ross Gallagher and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests, from Verto and CCG Catalyst, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests, from the Aspen Institute, GoCardless, and Lowell, to discuss how innovations can improve the reputation of the industry of debt.

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: First zkEVM goes live on Ethereum, a recap on USDC/SVB, and Coinbase’s SEC Wells notice. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Crowdcube and Octopus Investments opening up retail investments, Apple Pay Later is finally launching, and Twitter changes logo to Dogecoin cryptocurrency image – Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests, from Crowdcube, Fintech Business Weekly, and The Fintech Times, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests, from Global Ventures, Novo, OakNorth Bank, and Spiralem, to look at the business banking options and challenges for small and medium-sized businesses across the world.

Silicon Valley Bank bought by rival, Klarna plugs ChatGPT into its platform, and Latitude Financial records stolen in cyber attack – David M. Brear and Kate Moody are joined by some great guests, from CFIT and first direct, live on stage in London to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services.

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Stonehaven LLC, National Bank of Canada, and Anthemis, to discuss the various funding options for fintechs and startups.

UBS is buying Credit Suisse in bid to halt banking crisis, FCA warns payment firms over ‘unacceptable risk of harm to customers’, and Stripe now valued at $50B following $6.5B raise – Ross Gallagher and Kate Moody are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, Google, and Weavr, to discuss how cloud services and FinOps as a practice can help financial services in these economically difficult times.

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...

