
It is the nature of finance that, at its core, is risk.

Here at 11:FS we’re big on transparency and letting you know what’s going on in our company. We’ve recently made a huge hire to be our COO and we couldn’t be more excited about it.

I was at a big bank’s conference the other day and was intrigued at how often the subject of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin came up.

Of course, these are our top 3 blogs of 2018. We took a look at the data, talked amongst ourselves about which ones we liked best and came up with the best blogs we’ve put out this year.

Disclaimer: Yes the piece is entirely structured around the lyrics of a Pulp song. Yes, we take requests.

I do not profess to be, as way too many in the tech industry do today, a blockchain guru or subject matter expert. I leave that designation to 11:FS co-founder Simon Taylor. Simon is the MacGyver of the blockchain community. Give him a stapler, a can of Bud Lite, Duct Tape, and a flashlight, and he will somehow concoct a DLT smart contract solution for a client. A solution that can actually be delivered and that addresses a real business case.

Simon Taylor interviewed block.one CEO and CTO Brendan Blumer and Daniel Larimer at Blockchain Live, to find out more about what block.one does and their new project, EOS that achieved $50omillion in fundraising.

One of the biggest challenges when building new digital financial services is creating a winning feature set. Spending categorisation, budgeting tools, carbon footprint-tracking — these features are everywhere in the financial services apps that we use every day.

Sarah Kocianski sits down with the CEO of Oakam, Frederic Nze to talk about financial inclusion, tackling financial exclusion, the alternative to doorstep lending, and the underbanked.Listen to the full interview here or click play below, otherwise read on for a quick take on what was said.

In a beautiful flat on the edge of San Francisco’s sun-kissed Inner Sunset neighbourhood, the inimitable Sam Maule invited a plethora of fintech experts over for dinner. Across two evenings in the run up to our After Dark San Francisco show, Sam serves up chilli, tacos, and foodie fintech insights. You can listen to them here and here. Disclaimer: The food was actually cooked by Ollie Judge, Head of Media at 11:FS.

At 11:FS, we spend a lot of time looking at next-generation mobile trends and technology. Every now and again we come across a product or feature that just blows us away. It can be as simple as a smart integration with another product or as complicated as a whole app that’s powered by bleeding edge technology.

“Thank you to the Academy…” Sure. Classic Oscar speech energy.But do you know what hits harder than a polite golf clap from a panel of judges? Winning when your actual customers vote. And that’s what happened at the 2025 British Bank Awards, where 11:FS was named Consultancy of the Year. Again! 2019. 2020. 2021. 2023. And now 2025.

In her latest column for Forbes, 11:FS Head of Research Sarah Kocianski examines the new set of authentication procedures and how they are being implemented by UK banks.

11:FS are pleased to announce that Lisa Gansky joined us as a Non-Executive Director, on 3rd July 2017.

As a designer, it’s an all too familiar scenario: you’re about to undertake work on an exciting new digital product or service. It has the potential to have it all, only for you to be handed what all product designers dread - the existing constraints of a rigid and outdated brand playbook. It can certainly feel like a crushing blow. But approached in the correct manner, these constraints can be transformed into an opportunity to take both the product and the brand to the next level.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Crowdcube acquires Semper, Adyen and Plaid team up in the US, OakNorth move into business banking, and N26 pulls out of Brazil.

Kate Moody is joined by some great guests to talk about how climate change is impacting fintechs, and how fintechs are supporting other businesses to achieve their climate goals.

David Barton-Grimley 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: A joint venture from the biggest US banks launch digital wallet Paze, Atom Bank raise £100m in equity funding, Railsr are making a comeback, and Deutsche are closing nearly half of their branches.

L.F.G. Today we bring you a look at Real World Assets (RWAs) - what they are, discuss some of the use cases of tokenized RWA we’re seeing today, the pros and cons of bringing RWA on-chain, and where this emerging market is headed. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Benjamin Ensor 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: former J.P. Morgan exec launches Refund-as-a-Service TodayPay, and Airwallex continue expansion into LATAM.

11:FS CEO David M. Brear and Deputy CEO Jason Bates come together to discuss concept of fast following. Is it always a bad thing? How can you get it right, what pitfalls to avoid getting it wrong and what is the impact on the end customer?

In this second episode on our deep dive into the creator economy in the US, David Barton-Grimley and is joined by not one, but two fantastic guests, the Co-CEOs of Karat Financial to discuss how financial services can better understand creators and how financial education is the key.

Our expert host Ross Gallagher and co-host Rachel Pandyan are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Goldman Sachs stepping back from consumer lending, Galileo's new BNPL offering to SMBs, and a Citibank worker who paid the price for a dodgy expenses claim.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests to talk about how fintech and financial services are meeting the needs of Gens Alpha and Beta, and how they are adapting to the needs of tomorrow's wealth makers.

L.F.G. Today we bring you a look at UX in crypto: what's wrong with it, where the biggest challenges are, and what can be done to fix it, without compromising the control over your own assets that crypto allows for, joined by fantastic guests from Webacy and Bastion. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Host Kate Moody is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: FedNow launch a new account verification service from Orum, Metro Bank strike a rescue deal, and Nationwide unveil a new look.

David M. Brear, CEO at 11:FS, is joined by our very own CTO Ewan Silver for a fireside chat to unpick what we mean when we say the services have fallen out of financial services.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Apple launch open banking service in the UK, Revolut move closer to a banking licence, and Saga launch a savings platform for the over 50s.

David Barton-Grimley is joined by some great guests to unpack the six characteristics of digital commercial banking; real-time, standardised, automated, embedded, contextual, and extendable. We’ll explore what they are and how they can (or can’t) support a more efficient, reliable, and secure industry.

Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: HSBC partner with Nova Credit to offer international credit history checks, Mercedes-Benz roll out in-car payments, and Standard Life launch a pensions dashboard.

Hey, banks! This might sting a bit. You’re getting loyalty all wrong - and it’s costing you customers. But all is not lost!
The entire world is buzzing about AI, and that ain't changing anytime soon. But as AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, what impact will it have on financial services and how people interact with them?
Ever wanted to know what’s going on behind the scenes every time we make a payment?
Regulation is essential. It stops banks from going bust or behaving badly.
The invention of the computer revolutionised banking in the 1950s.
Lending has been around for thousands of years and is one of the cornerstones of banking.
They're down, but they're not certainly not out.
Mastercard and Visa are the two biggest credit card networks in the world.
We kick off our Decoding: Banks series with a look at the banking landscape today and how we got here.

David M. Brear, our 11:FS CEO, takes us through legacy technology within banks - but of course, with a really cool Lightboard.

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...

