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.

Around the world, people have instant, around-the-clock access to banking apps and their own financial data. So why do so many people still feel uncertain about their financial future?

Most AI deployments so far have focused on AI that “talks”, which can search, summarise, and draft content to support employees. The next wave is different: AI agents that “do” are starting to take bounded actions inside workflows, moving cases forward and coordinating steps end-to-end, with humans kept in control where it matters.
Financial accessibility has long been framed as a matter of compliance or corporate social responsibility. But today, it’s emerging as something much bigger: a competitive advantage.

As the industry adjusts to a new digital landscape, players across the spectrum are fighting to muscle their way into the financial epicentre and ‘win’ the salary battle to become the payday home of their customers.

Consumers are evolving, and so are their expectations and demands. As the purchasing power of the younger, digital-native Gen Z and Gen Alpha grows and older generations become more comfortable with the possibilities that AI and other new technologies enable, businesses have to work harder to keep them happy and retain their business.

Saving money and paying bills might not sound exciting - but today’s finance apps are borrowing tricks from video games to change that.

Sarah Kocianski interviews Co-Founder of Simple Bank, Shamir Karkal. They take a look at what it means to create a product that actually helps customers achieve their goals.

On the latest episode of Insurtech Insider, Sarah and David sit down with Lea Nonninger and James York, shaking up our usual topic-based format we take a look at all the Insurtech news that's happened in the past week.

Today we’re bringing you a special bonus episode of Fintech Insider. Ross sits down with Richard Davies, Commercial Director, TSB to discuss their new design competition. Collaborating with 11:FS, the competition aims to bring in more innovative tools for small businesses to thrive.

On today's show, Sarah Kocianski is with a great roundtable of guests to celebrate Islamic Finance week and drill down on what Islamic Fintech really is.

On this week's episode, Simon and Colin are joined by a great guest, Ville Sointu to talk about the latest and greatest news in blockchain.

On this week's episode, Sarah and Ross sit down with Lois Ollerenshaw and Valentina Kristensen to discuss the greatest and latest stories in fintech.

On this week's episode, Sara is joined by three great guests: Olivia Vinden, Obi Nwosu, and Richard Burton to talk about the latest news in blockchain. Colin also has a great interview with William Mougayar from JM3 Capital.

On the latest episode of Insurtech Insider, Sarah and Nigel sit down with Emil Pfeiffer and Oliver Ralph. Sarah also has two great interviews with Jason Futers and Barney Schauble to get a bit more insight.

On this week's news show Sarah and Simon are joined by our guests: Alexa Fernandez and Ryan Edwards-Pritchard to talk about the latest and greatest fintech news stories this week. We also have a great bit of insight from Doug Bobenhouse on US credit card debt.

On this week's episode, Simon and Sara sit down with Aman Kohli and Ryan Radloff to talk about the latest news in blockchain. Colin also has a great interview with Michael Sonnenshein from Grayscale investment.

In this week's episode, Simon, David and Sarah are joined by a trio of fintech CEOs to discuss the week's news. We have Caroline Plumb, CEO of Fluidly, Anil Stocker, CEO of MarketInvoice and Tom Eyre, CEO of Loqbox, and special reports from Dominic Lindley and Oliver Ralph.

On today’s show, our hosts Ryan and Laura are going to take a bit of a deep dive into the world of digital identity, what is it, why do we need it and how is it changing? We’ll also look at the future of digital identity and see whether it looks bright or dystopian.

On this week's episode, Simon and Sara sit down with Teana Baker-Taylor, Michele Curtoni, and Alex Hern to talk about the latest news in blockchain.

On the latest episode of Insurtech Insider, Sarah sits down with Ahmed Zaidi, Erik Abrahamsson, and Janthana Kaenprakhamroy to discuss how AI can work together with insurance.

On this week's news show Sarah, Simon, and David are joined by our guests: Lesley-Ann Vaughan, Andrew Nelson, and Emily Nicolle to talk about the latest and greatest fintech news stories this week.

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...

