
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.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Bitfinex security drama, SEC slams fraudsters for Christmas, and yet another crypto Ponzi scheme. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

David Brear is in New York and is joined by Will White to host a stateside episode of the news show. They're joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Chime quadruples its valuation, Robinhood tops 10 million accounts and a man loses £193,000 to a one-digit sort code error. All this and much more on today's Fintech Insider News!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Brave blasts past 10m active users, German banks banking on crypto in 2020, and what will Jack Dorsey find whilst living in Africa? All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Brave blasts past 10m active users, German banks banking on crypto in 2020, and what will Jack Dorsey find whilst living in Africa? All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

On the latest instalment of Insurtech Insider, hosts Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by a panel of insightful guests to talk through the intersection of wealth management and the insurance industry. All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Simon Taylor and Adam Davis are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Natwest and RBS problems on Black Friday, Goldman puts the brakes on Marcus’ UK expansion and Roger Federer breaks the Swiss mint.

In this very special edition of Fintech Insider, David Brear, Simon Taylor, Sarah Kocianski and Jason Bates are joined by some great guests at the Revolut HQ for the latest instalment of After Dark. In the spirit of Christmas, join us as we journey through the past, present and future landscape of financial services!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you an interview with Jamie Bartlett, co-writer and co-host of The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast.

Simon Taylor and David Brear are joined by a trio of terrific guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Plaid's European expansion, Westpac chief quits amid money laundering scandal and RBS' Bo moo-ves into the market. All this and much more on today's Fintech Insider News!

Sam Maule is hosting in New York and this week he's joined by Jack Kramer and Nick Martell from Robinhood Snacks!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: JP Morgan to finance blockchain-based inventory system, the UK confirms the legal status of cryptoassets, and 25,000 Chinese blockchain firms are accused of issuing their own tokens. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

On this week's episode, Sarah Kocianski is joined by some great guests to talk all things AI and automation! What are the benefits of automation? Can you truly automate an entire claims process? All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Sam Maule and Will White host this week's news show from NYC and are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Chime rings in the new year in style, Silicon Valley’s reality check with California’s new consumer privacy laws, and Barclays harnesses puppy power to ease students’ money stress.

Sam Maule and Will White host this week's news show from NYC and are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Chime rings in the new year in style, Silicon Valley’s reality check with California’s new consumer privacy laws, and Barclays harnesses puppy power to ease students’ money stress.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Andreessen Horowitz leads $25M funding round, the argument for why the UK should have its own cryptocurrency, and Brave browser introduces crypto-coin rewards for your fave websites. 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...

