
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.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: a special bonus interview with author and presenter Jamie Bartlett, where we chat about all things Missing Cryptoqueen, and his new book: “The Missing Cryptoqueen: The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It”. All this and much much more! All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Nigel Walsh and John Bean are joined by a panel of guests from Anthemis, Flock and Instanda to talk through the biggest news of the month. Hear about: No-code insurtech scale-up Instanda raises £37m, insurance start-ups face credibility crisis, and GEICO may have to pay a woman who got an STD in an insured car. All this and much, much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Kate Moody and Amy Gavin are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Starling pulls Irish bank application, Stori becomes Mexico’s latest fintech unicorn, and ‘Eat The Rich’ popsicles are selling fast!

Kate Moody is joined by some great guests, from Chetwood Financial, Innovate Finance, and Minna Technologies, to ask how will inflation impact financial services going forward.

David M. Brear is joined by investigative reporter and author, Dan McCrum, to dive into his new book about uncovering the truth about payments company Wirecard.

Benjamin Ensor and Deepa Anikhindi are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Agricultural bank Oxbury raises £20m in a funding round, Payl8r calls for open banking to be legally required for credit assessing, and the world's first fintech sitcom!

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Bunq, Maxwell and Molo Finance, to help put together the perfect mortgage offering taking aspects from across the world.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: an episode focused on ownership. Ownership is web3’s ability to prove that digital assets are owned by users. But how exactly does it work? How is it different from the world of web2? And what changes can we expect to see in the world now that assets are on-chain? All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

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?

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...

