
The challenges (and opportunities) ahead for enterprise applications of distributed ledger tech.

The arrival of a new year is often a time for reflection and an opportunity to look ahead. In design it’s no different.

Lately I’ve noticed a few banks and fintechs wanting to “get started designing screens right away”. It seems great, but building the wrong thing is worse than building nothing at all.

Over the past eight years, as a fintech founder who happens to be gay, I’ve met with 100+ corporate and institutional investors around the world.

Gary Turner is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Xero, which Forbes described as the “World’s Most Innovative Growth Company.” Xero provides small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs or SMEs) with ‘beautiful’ online accounting software. Gary helped take Xero from a 3-person startup to a company that will have £150 million in revenue this year.

How do we stay ahead of fraud and financial crime without compromising the speed, ease, and trust that make instant payments so compelling? In this article, Mastercard's Bryan Sharkey explores it all.

When people start explaining how technology can be used to modernise financial services their language instantly becomes fraught with acronyms, buzzwords, and idioms that can make little sense to those both inside, and especially, outside the industry.We have a hunch sometimes people do this to appear smart but we need to do more research!

Sam Maule, Director of Digital & Fintech at NTT DATA Americas, talks to us about how a kid from Detroit became a fintech leader, his new podcast, femtech, and Silicon Valley’s rude awakening.

Goldman Sachs broke the fintechnet this week when it launched its developer portal, intentionally allowing companies to ‘embed finance’ within their organisation using their Banking as a Service (BaaS) offering. Hari Moorthy, Goldman’s Global Head of Transaction Banking, referred to it as “the financial cloud for corporates.” Cue a flurry of emails inside every large bank from CEOs wondering how seriously they should take this. Take it seriously. Take it very seriously.

Let’s start by calling Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) what it is - debt. Debt, of course, has many faces. But ‘credit, pay in instalments, pay nothing today, etc.’ are all just debt. This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

Over the past twelve months, we’ve been seriously busy here at 11:FS. Now we’re announcing arguably the most exciting project we’ve ever taken on.

That’s what 11:FS bank building guru Jason hears when he tells people that he’s just spent the last two years building a new digital bank, and they’re right!

The Pulse team spends their time trawling through the world of banks and fintech apps, sorting the good from the bad so you don’t have to.

In this blog post Simon Taylor explores the concept of a Central Bank Digital Currency and why you would want a DLT (or “Blockchain”) like architecture for such a system.

If you missed Part 1 of this 2 part piece then you can catch it here and catch up with the rest of the class: BaaP (Banking as a Platform) Part 1 – Why haven’t we seen a banking platform play?
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On this week’s episode, in partnership with Pleo, host Benjamin Ensor is joined by Jeppe Rindom, Co-Founder and CEO of Pleo; Søren Westh Lonning, CFO at Pleo; and Megan Cooper, CEO of Caywood, to explore how the role of finance has evolved over the past decade - and what it will take for finance teams to win the next 10 years.
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Host Kate Moody, Customer Strategy Director at 11:FS, is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.
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On this week’s episode, host David Barton-Grimley is joined by Matt Weaver, Head of Solutions for EMEA at OpenAI, to explore the impact OpenAI is having on the financial services industry - and the meaningful collaborations taking place between the sector and the AI innovation giant.
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Host Laura Watkins, Director of Media & Marketing at 11:FS, is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

On this week's episode, David M. Brear is joined by some great guests to tack a question on every bank and fintech leader’s mind: is AI redefining consumer-focused banking in 2026?
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In a fresh wave of fintech consolidation and strategic moves, Flutterwave has acquired Mono. JPMorgan has launched its Special Advisory Services initiative to give key clients access to consulting services drawn from the bank’s own practices. PicPay has filed for a U.S. IPO, and Mercury has applied to the OCC for a national bank charter.
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David M. Brear, Group CEO at 11:FS, sits down with two heavyweights in the payments world: Tracy Birdsall, Managing Director and Head of EMEA & APAC, Merchant Services Sales, at J.P. Morgan Payments, and Kristen Morrow-Greven, Vice President and Head of Global Payments at Netflix.
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In this episode, the team is kicking things off with bold predictions for the year ahead, some you might have seen coming and some that might surprise you. They stake their reputations, embrace a bit of friendly ribbing, and share their most daring forecasts for the future of fintech.
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On this week’s final news show of the year, we hear from GoCardless about their exciting acquisition by Mollie. It’s been a big week for Monzo, which has secured an Irish banking licence and acquired UK mortgage brand Habito. We also take a look at Orange Payments and Visa’s new partnership.
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Join our hosts as they break down the year’s most memorable moments. From the fintech feel-good story of the year and the buzziest new term, to the partnership that caught everyone off guard and the glow-up that wowed the industry - we cover it all.
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Host Kate Moody, Customer Strategy Director at 11:FS, is joined by a fantastic panel of guests as we dive into some of the biggest stories from the worlds of fintech, banking, and wider financial services this week.

Banks aren’t just building apps anymore - they’re building digital CFOs. Join Kate Moody in this episode of Fintech Insider as she explores how SMB banking is evolving from simple dashboards to intelligent financial guidance.
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Host David Barton-Grimley, Fintech Strategy Director and Head of Product at 11:FS, is joined by a fantastic panel of guests as we dive into some of the biggest stories from the worlds of fintech, banking, and wider financial services this week.
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With the US GENIUS Act reshaping digital-asset oversight, the EU’s MiCA rules setting a unified standard, and the UK opening the door for stablecoins as an official form of payment, one thing is clear: stablecoins are going mainstream, fast.
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Host Ross Gallagher, Head of Consulting is joined by a fantastic panel of guests as we dive into some of the biggest stories from the worlds of fintech, banking, and wider financial services 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...

