
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.

This week we bring you our final interview mashup from SIBOS 2019 at the Excel in London! This week we have the pleasure of bringing you two fantastic interviews with two industry leaders!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Zuck could be stuck, unless he testifies, Blockchain & Banking and The Nature of Money is Changing

David Brear and Leda Glyptis are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Transferwise is the latest UK fintech to take on the US, Revolut teams up with Visa to help them go global and a US Marijuana Banking Bill Passes House in Historic Vote! All this, and much more on today's Fintech Insider.

This week we bring you another interview mashup from SIBOS 2019 at the Excel in London! This week we are focussing on more international companies with a flavour of deep tech and infrastructure.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: EOS maker Block. One fined $24m by the SEC over unregistered securities saleSwiss Stock Exchange SIX lines up buyers for its Initial Digital Offering and Fidelity Digital Assets to Provide Custody for Bitcoin Derivatives Yield Fund. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider.

On this weeks episode, we are celebrating our 50th birthday! To celebrate this milestone we’re joined by some of our most frequent returning guests from across the series to date! In today’s show we will be looking at the top news, topics and trends in insurtech over the last 50 episodes and going forward.

Leda Glyptis and Simon Taylor are joined by some great guests, coming to you straights from SIBOS 2019 in London! Together they cover the most notable news stories from the last 7 days, including: SWIFT’s gpi, Alison Rose is appointed RBS new chief exec and Monzo bins off Monzo Plus! All this and much more on today's Fintech Insider.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Swiss Stock Exchange SIX Launch Digital Asset Prototype, No Yuan for Libra and Bakkt Launches at a Snails pace… All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider coming to you from SIBOS in London!

David Brear and Sarah Kocianski are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: SCA is here! (Kinda), GoCardless launches in the US, and accordingly to The Telegraph students are getting payday loans to help fund their love of avocado on toast. All this and much more on today's Fintech Insider News.

David Brear, Will White and Nas Ahmed are joined by some great guests to talk about some financial crime on this insights show!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Santander settles big ethereum bond, Vitalik Buterin does some speaking and the Latest From Europe: Libra You’re not Wanted! All this and much more on today's Blockchain insider!

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by Paul Prendegast from Blink and Alex Rainey from Pluto to talk about everything travel insurance, and how some new interesting players are shaking up the way customers are covered when they travel!

Jason Bates and Simon Taylor are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Banks get taken by surprise by last-minute PPI claims, China’s richest man steps down from Alibaba and N26 Launch in Switzerland, but they do not support Swiss Francs! All this and much more on todays Fintech Insider!

Sam Maule is joined by motivational speaker and bestselling author Erik Qualman, to chat about his book Socialnomics, transforming technologies and the importance of competition in the financial industries!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Binance to land in the US, BAKKT Launch edges closer and maximalists can’t meme…...apparently. All this, and much more on todays 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...

