
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to have it all, only for you to be handed what all product designers dread - the existing constraints of a rigid and outdated brand playbook.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.

Digital Banking is only 1% Finished. That’s our motto at 11:FS. You can see it plastered across everything we do, we talk about it at events, and it’s in all of our client work. Taking a paper statement to the telephone, to a website and then a mobile app isn’t where digital banking ends; it’s where it begins. Digital Banking having 99% to go is a statement of optimism, of opportunity and its how you differentiate, as consumer expectations will only grow in the coming years.

On 1st August at approximately 12:20 UTC, the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin formally began a process to fork – or split into two- creating Bitcoin Cash, a new currency. It is unclear exactly what the implications of this will be in the long term but here’s a summary of what we know so far:

It’s about trust. Why do banks insist on having everything? Because they think if they only insist on some, they’ll never get the rest.

Fintech is technology used in the financial services industry, insurtech is technology used in a subset of that industry, insurance. And yet while one is typically considered fascinating, worthy of pages of mainstream media coverage, mention of the other is often greeted with eye-rolling outside of specialist circles.

Sam Maule joins 11:FS as Managing Partner, Americas

This week I had the super-smart Mariano Belinky tell me that the current crop of challenger banks are really just ‘better mousetraps’.

A few weeks ago, I outlined the problems with the financial products that supposedly address small and medium sized businesses’ (SMBs) needs, and how they are chronically underserved by incumbent financial institutions (FIs) across all sectors. Since then, we’ve explored how things are changing in the SMB insurance space and delved into the developments in the areas of bank account opening, payments and loans in our podcasts. I’ve also been busy trying to discover, articulate and demonstrate what “best in class” in this industry looks like in my latest research report.

At 11:FS we like to say that digital banking is 1% finished, well the same is true of Open Banking. The unknown potential of the regulation far outstrips what is being done right now. And that potential has caught the imagination of foreign regulators.

Dave Bruno, Co-Founder at YNOME and Head of WM Innovation at UBS, explains how digital can scale wealth management for everyone.

Simon Taylor is joined by some great guests to talk about the future of bank branches. Will they open up after the pandemic? Do we still need them or have we seen the last of the bank branch?

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by a panel of guests to talk through the latest news in the insurtech and insurance world!

Simon Taylor and Ross Gallagher are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Robinhood abandons its UK launch amid criticism of their platform; Klarna reins in their lockdown lending and Monzo re-launch their Plus product.

Sarah Kocianski is joined by some great guests to talk about the development of digital payments and the global shift towards cashless payment solutions.

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by a panel of guests to talk through LGBT+ and insurance. What is the state of diversity and inclusion in the industry and what specific products is there available for the LGBT+ community? All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Simon Taylor is joined by some great (and very international) guests to talk about the future of fintech hubs. Do we need them? Is location no longer important post-pandemic?

Sam Maule is joined by some great guests to talk about credit scoring for US immigrants. What are the problems US immigrants might face when trying to build up a credit score once they've arrived in North America?

Nigel Walsh and David Brear are joined by a panel of guests to talk through the latest news in the insurtech and insurance world including Lemonde goes public and the Post Office brings back travel insurance...with coronavirus cover! All this and much more on this week's Insurtech Insider!

Sam Maule and David Brear are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Wirecard “loses” €1.9 billion, the US banking sector is seeing huge growth, despite (or because of) the pandemic and Goldman Sachs’ CEO makes a cameo in 'Billions'.

Sam Maule is joined by some great guests to talk about PPP lending during the COVID-19 pandemic. On today's show we are taking a look at the process from the lenders perspective!

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: Goldman Sachs teams up with another tech giant as it launches credit lines on Amazon, Monzo raise funding but lose valuation and WhatsApp launches payments in Brazil. All this and much much more on today's FIntech Insider News.

Sam Maule is joined by some great guests to discuss the state of the underbanked in the US and how COVID-19 is affecting this group of underserved people.

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by a panel of guests to talk through life insurance during the pandemic. Does your existing life insurance policy cover you during the pandemic?

Sarah Kocianski and Ross Gallagher are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Vivid Money launches digital banking services in Germany; the pandemic savings surge forces Goldman to shut Marcus to new UK clients; and Islamic finance startup Wahed closes $25M funding round to grow their Saudi Arabia hub.

Sarah Kocianski is joined by some great guests from Equinix, Mastercard and RTGS to discuss the long-term business transformation and the need for agile infrastructure in financial services organisations in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
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.

Fintech Marketing Podcast Season 2: Coming soon

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...

