
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.

Coling G Platt is actually in the building this week to join Simon Taylor for the week's top news and a very special interview with R3's David Rutter.

This week David is joined by longtime friend of 11:FS, Sarah Kocianski, and James York, Founder of Worry+Peace, to discuss insurance as a platform, and we also speak to Sascha Wischek, CEO of Fjuul.

Simon and Colin discuss Bitcoin highs, Ether bonds, rogue ICOs, and much more. Plus, a special interview with Commissioner Brian Quintenz from the CFTC and a discussion on ICOs recorded live from RegTech Rising.

David, Jason and Simon are joined by Ali Paterson, Valentina Kristensen & Tanya Andreasyan for a look back over the week's news.

In this Insights episode, David recorded live from the Tavern Stand at Lords Cricket Ground to explore new ways of working, with Andy Ellis and Peter Ryan-Bell from RBS, and Tunde Olanrewaju from McKinsey.

This week very special friend of the show Sarah Kocianski is in the hosting seat as neither David, Jason and Simon were available this week. She is joined by guests including Anna Bennett, Nina Mohanty, Liz Lumley and Sophie Winwood.

Simon Taylor and the birthday boy Colin G Platt (still enjoying the beach in sunny Australia) cover the best of the week's news, including the death of SegWit2x, the surge in Bitcoin Cash and the latest on the parity hack. Plus interviews with Michael Casey, advisor, author, speaker and commentator, and Daniel Cotti and David Sutter from TradeIX.

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.

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...

