
It is the nature of finance that, at its core, is risk.

Here at 11:FS we’re big on transparency and letting you know what’s going on in our company. We’ve recently made a huge hire to be our COO and we couldn’t be more excited about it.

I was at a big bank’s conference the other day and was intrigued at how often the subject of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin came up.

Of course, these are our top 3 blogs of 2018. We took a look at the data, talked amongst ourselves about which ones we liked best and came up with the best blogs we’ve put out this year.

Disclaimer: Yes the piece is entirely structured around the lyrics of a Pulp song. Yes, we take requests.

I do not profess to be, as way too many in the tech industry do today, a blockchain guru or subject matter expert. I leave that designation to 11:FS co-founder Simon Taylor. Simon is the MacGyver of the blockchain community. Give him a stapler, a can of Bud Lite, Duct Tape, and a flashlight, and he will somehow concoct a DLT smart contract solution for a client. A solution that can actually be delivered and that addresses a real business case.

Simon Taylor interviewed block.one CEO and CTO Brendan Blumer and Daniel Larimer at Blockchain Live, to find out more about what block.one does and their new project, EOS that achieved $50omillion in fundraising.

One of the biggest challenges when building new digital financial services is creating a winning feature set. Spending categorisation, budgeting tools, carbon footprint-tracking — these features are everywhere in the financial services apps that we use every day.

Sarah Kocianski sits down with the CEO of Oakam, Frederic Nze to talk about financial inclusion, tackling financial exclusion, the alternative to doorstep lending, and the underbanked.Listen to the full interview here or click play below, otherwise read on for a quick take on what was said.

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.

This week we bring you a very special Insights show, recorded live at BBVA's Global Summit in Madrid, where Simon Taylor hosts a panel to discuss the future of banking and disruption with Marko Wenthin, Leanne Kemp, and Elena Alfaro.

David, Jason, and Simon are joined by Fluidly Founder, CEO and OBE Caroline Plumb, and CEO and Founder of Norio Ventures, Pete Townsend for this week's news!

This week, Sam Maule talks to the wonderful Amber Baldet, Executive Director and Blockchain Programme Lead at J.P. Morgan.

Simon and Colin bring you another packed show covering the week's topsy turvy news, including SegWit2x, more on Bitcoin prices, Colin's long thing and some fantastic guests talking e-sports.

This week is an extremely special Halloween episode: After Dark II recorded in front of a live studio audience from our home at WeWork in Aldgate, London, and we're celebrating an important milestone; it's episode number 150!

In a special interview this week, David speaks to Liesbeth Rigter, CEO at MoneYou and Eric Mouilleron, CEO at Bankable, about their partnership and their plans for the future.

David introduces the second installment from our trip to Xerocon 2017, featuring Edward Berks, Director of Sales, Banking and Fintech at Xero, Ian Christie, CEO at Boma Technologies, Margaret Laidlaw, Partner at Mazars, Mark Sykes, Partner at BDO and Anna Curzon, Chief Partner Officer at Xero.

This week, Simon and Colin catch up and the weeks news and talk to Stephen Palley, Software Development Lawyer, and Jeff Bandman, Principal at Bandman Advisors and former CFTC Fintech Advisor.

Sam Maule hosts a very special episode of Fintech Insider from a flat in Toronto! Sam's joined by Mike Sigal from 500 Fintechs (part of 500 Startups), Dion Lisle from CapGemini, Jo Lang from IBM, and April Rudin from The Rudin Group.

This week Jason, David and Simon are joined by Sharon O'Dea, consultant, advisor, and blogger, and Kadhim Shubber, Tech 100 #68 and FT Alphaville journalist to discuss the week's top news.

This week Simon and Colin talk through the Bitcoin good news story as well as Tezos, R3, and much more. Plus, we hear Sam Maule talk to Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple.

This week, we cover David's time at Xerocon, where he hosted a panel on Frictionless Finance featuring Niall Cameron, Global Head of Digital at HSBC, Caroline Plumb OBE, CEO at Fluidly, Colin Goldstein, Head of Partnerships at iwoca, Stewart Roberts, Executive VP at iZettle, and Shachar Bialick, CEO at Curve.

This week Sam is joined by Kris Hansen, CTO at Koho, Dan Eberhard, founder of Koho, Barb MacLean, Director at Celero Solutions and Zac Cohen, General Manager at Trulioo in a special news show brought to you from Toronto, Canada.

In this week’s jam-packed show Nigel visits InsureTech Connect in Las Vegas and talks to Darin Reffitt, Vice President of Marketing at Splice Software; Quentin Colmant, co-Founder of Qover; Tim Hardcastle, CEO of Instanda; Chris Cheatham, CEO of Risk Genius; and Caribou Honig himself, co-founder of InsureTech Connect.

In this week’s jam-packed show Nigel visits InsureTech Connect in Las Vegas and talks to Darin Reffitt, Vice President of Marketing at Splice Software; Quentin Colmant, co-Founder of Qover; Tim Hardcastle, CEO of Instanda; Chris Cheatham, CEO of Risk Genius; and Caribou Honig himself, co-founder of InsureTech Connect.

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?
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.

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...

