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to have it all, only for you to be handed what all product designers dread - the existing constraints of a rigid and outdated brand playbook.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

11:FS's David Brear, Simon Taylor, Sarah Kocianski and Benjamin Ensor come together to talk about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial services industry.

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by a panel of guests to talk through Covid-19 and what this might mean for the insurance industry going forward! All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Sarah Kocianski and Simon Taylor are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Starling and OakNorth join coronavirus loan programme, US fintechs to help distribute coronavirus aid, and a women-only neobank is coming to Brazil.

In this highly topical episode, Sarah Kocianski and Simon Taylor, dig into the impact COVID-19 is having on SME financing, and their access to government funding. They are joined by expert guests from Coconut, Quotevine and 1pm PLC.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Sila raises $7.7M to wipe out ACH, Ether hits a 28-day high and everybody and their dog wants a CBDC. Simon Taylor hosts and is joined by Olivia VInden and Lex Sokolin. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Digital dollar dropped whilst China gets one step closer, Bitcoin is booming on Cash App, and CFTC announces guidance on the delivery of digital assets. Simon hosts and is joined by All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by some wonderful guests to talk about insurance in the rental market and how COVID-19 might be changing it all. All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Sam Maule is joined by Nova Credit co-founder and COO, Nicky Goulimis, to talk about underbanked immigrant communities, the changes that come with a global health crisis and the future of credit.

With the move to remote recordings we've had some technical difficulties and, unfortunately, there won't be a Blockchain Insider episode this week. We return next week with more of the latest and greatest in blockchain, crypto and DLT news.

Sarah Kocianski and Leda Glyptis are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: Interest rates plummet in the UK and US; contactless limits raised to combat COVID-19; and Bunq goes green all across Europe.

David Brear and Geoff Whitehouse are joined by some great guests to talk about the changing narratives around fintech in the media. Guests on today's show are Emily Nicolle, Tech Editor at City AM and Daniel Lanyon, Managing Editor at Altfi.

Sarah Kocianski and Nigel Walsh are joined by Aman Kohli and 11:FS' Simon Taylor to explore blockchain in the world of insurance. All this and much much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

David Brear and Jason Bates are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: the financial world responds to coronavirus; UK regulators delay non-critical activity because of coronavirus; and Nationwide opens early to serve the vulnerable.

In a very special edition of Fintech Insider, we bring you the 11th instalment of After Dark, recorded live in London! Returning to our roots, the original 11:FS crew take the stage to talk about some of the most interesting fintech stories of late and have a little rant about the latest fintech trends and topics.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Cash is king once again, the Bank of England releases CBDC white paper, and MakerDAO faces an emergency shutdown. Simon Taylor hosts and is joined by Vinay Gupta, founder and CEO of Mattereum and Obi Nwosu, CEO of Coinfloor. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!
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...

