
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.

Ross Gallagher and Kate Moody are joined by some great guests, from Atom Bank and Fintech Finance, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Tech Nation’s shutdown sparks fears for UK fintech, Stripe tells employees it will decide on an IPO within the next year, and 6-year-old boy spends $1k on Grubhub.

David M. Brear is joined by Visa's Dan Roesbery - as well as guests from Wise and MX - for the inaugural episode of Fintech Insider Focus!

L.F.G. Mauricio and Catherine bring you a fantastic conversation looking at what it means to be a digital creator today and the global community it creates, with two amazing digital creators taking part in the global Visa Creator Program. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: in this Insights show, we are going to be taking a look at the world of Decentralised Exchanges, aka DEXs. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Ross Gallagher and Nicole Perry are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Debite launches direct to bank payments for early-stage companies, Klarna brings its price comparison tool to Europe, and 11:FS hosts its inaugural awards.

Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests, from Innovative Finance, Chamber of Progress, and Spiralem, to discuss how governments across the world impact the success of fintech.

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from LexisNexis Risk Solutions, GB Bank, FINTRAIL, to discuss how to tackle financial crime and money laundering going forward.

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: UK Minister proposes measures to regulate crypto ads and ban unauthorised providers, Reddit now has more NFT wallets than the OpenSea Marketplace, and Blockchain.com Visa Card, powered by Marqeta, debuts with 50,000 sign-ups at launch. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Atomic, Alloy, and Taxbit, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services from Money20/20 in Las Vegas, including: Wells Fargo partners with Google on a virtual assistant, Fireblocks launches digital assets payments engine, and our panel gives their personal highlights from the conference.

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Moov, Catch, and Plaid, at Money20/20 in Last Vegas to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of payments in America.

Ross Gallagher and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: wIll Goldman Sachs pull the plug on Marcus? PayPal backs away from fining people $2,500 for 'misinformation', and Damien Hirst burns artworks after collectors pick their NFTs instead.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests, from Pensionbee, Wealthify and Common Wealth, to discuss what makes the perfect pension offering.

Kate Moody is joined by some great guests, from Tink, HSBC, and Chetwood Financial, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Mumsnet teams up with Chetwood to launch family-focused financial products in 2023, HSBC teams up with Oracle Netsuite for Embedded Banking Services in the US, and SEC charges Kim Kardashian for Instagram crypto promotion.

Benjamin Ensor and David M. Brear are joined by a panel of guests from Bright Blue Hare and Swiss Re Solutions to talk through what open insurance could look like. All this and much, much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Benjamin Ensor and Ross Gallagher are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: UK mortgage lenders halt some deals after pound falls, DoorDash partners with JP Morgan Chase on credit card, and we dive into the Fintech Insider mailbag!

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?
It's not just a buzzword.
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.

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...

