
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.

In today's episode, we bring you an interview with Michael Jaconi, CEO of Button! Sam Maule meets him in a New York penthouse, to talk about all things Button!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Brazilian bank, Tezos and $1 Billion, IBM tries to make paper the past, and Swiss STO's. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

This week on Insurtech Insider Sarah Kocianski brings you a series of interviews recorded at an event 11:FS held in partnership with the FCA and the HM Treasury. Interviews include: John Glen, MP and Economic Secretary to the HM Treasury, Francesca Hopwood Road, Head of RegTech & Advanced Analytics at the FCA and many more!

On our latest and greatest instalment of After Dark, Simon, Leda and Jason are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the past week. Including: Why can't big banks and fintech get along? Jaja pays £530M cash to acquire the Bank of Ireland's UK credit card business, Zuckerberg and Libra's world domination looms larger and much more!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Libra fallout continues, Polkadot, and tethery’licious volume! All this and more on today’s blockchain insider!

David and Simon are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days. Including: BoE welcomes tech companies for the first time, Revolut eyes big bucks before IPO and Monzo’s second billion!

In today's episode, we bring you a series of interviews with the people behind some of the most interesting companies in the payments, straight from Money20/20 in Amsterdam! Interviews include Harsh Sinha from Transferwise, Patrick Gauthier from Amazon Pay, Roland Palmer from Alipay and Mark Barnett from Mastercard!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Libra, libra and more libra, Bank of England's Mark Carney positive on DLT and Bitcoin futures. All this and so much more on today's episode.

Sarah and Nigel are joined by a couple of great guests this week to talk about the most interesting stories happening in insurtech over the past couple of weeks.

David and Simon are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days. Including: The winners from the latest RBS Remedies pool, Monzo heads Stateside and Dave can help your credit score!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: Zuckerberg's world domination plans, Block.One's social media platform and an amazing interview with Wei Shou from Binance!

We. Are. Here. In today's bonus episode of Blockchain Insider, we bring you a fantastic interview with Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court and chair of the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce.

Simon Taylor and Brandon Chung are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days. Including: The FCA’s major overhaul of overdrafts, The finale for Finn and Banking and Big Macs in Russia.

In today's episode, we bring you an interview with the extraordinary Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe! David Brear meets him on stage at Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam, to talk about all things Stripe, industry dynamics and the importance of being open to partnership.

We. Are. Here. We are actually here! We are coming to you live from Level39 in London, to celebrate episode 100 of Blockchain Insider! In this episode, we will be looking back at our 99 previous episodes and we are of course joined by some brilliant guests!

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...

