
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.

David M. Brear and Kate Moody are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Kroo lands full banking licence, Credit Suisse bank found guilty over money laundering charges, and we answer questions from the Fintech Insider mailbag!

Gwera Kiwana is joined by some great guests, from Spiralem, Observer Research Foundation and Jipay, to discuss the merits and challenges of financial inclusion.

Nigel Walsh and John Bean are joined by a panel of guests from Innovate Finance and FinPro to talk through culture in insurance. All this and much, much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, Queer Money Podcast, Emerald Life, and Euphoria, to discuss the issues faced by the LGBTQ community when it comes to financial services.

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: Key US senators introduce crypto bill outlining sweeping plan for future rules, the crypto community says the UK's FCA is finally starting to listen, and Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey launch 'Bitcoin Academy' at rapper's childhood home in Brooklyn. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Benjamin Ensor and Gwera Kiwana are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: SME lender Allica Bank secures £55m in equity and debt round, Backbase earns a €2.5bn valuation, and Deadmau5 is launching his own online bank

David M. Bear is joined by some great guests, from Fintech Business Weekly and Railsr to ask what can the crypto industry learn from traditional finance?

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Truelayer, Binance and Banking Circle, live from Money 20/20 to discuss how payments companies are adding more to their offerings to stay ahead of the competition!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: a deep dive into real world use cases. We'll take a look at what real life use cases really means, cover some fantastic case studies and discuss what the role of wallets is within all of this. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Gwera Kiwana and Sim Rai are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Nova Credit Teams with Alloy on inclusive business lending, world's first green fintech taxonomy launched, and Sex Pistols launch God Save the Queen coin and NFT collection.

Gwera Kiwana is joined by some great guests, from NovoPayment, Treasury Prime and Anthemis, to find out who are the winners and losers of the embedded finance revolution.

Mauricio Magaldi and Simon Taylor take a deep dive into the Terra/LUNA story for this very special bonus episode of Blockchain Insider.

Benjamin Ensor and Sim Rai are joined by some great guests, from Tranch and Anthemis, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Klarna lays off 10% of its workforce via video message, Chase marks 500,000 UK customers, and our panel answers your questions!

David M. Brear and Jason Bates are podcasting from the metaverse!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: an in depth conversation about all things Play To Earn and Metaverse. We’re going to be looking at the why, the what, and the how – with the help of some great expert guests in the Play to Earn space. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

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...

