
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to have it all, only for you to be handed what all product designers dread - the existing constraints of a rigid and outdated brand playbook.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.

Digital Banking is only 1% Finished. That’s our motto at 11:FS. You can see it plastered across everything we do, we talk about it at events, and it’s in all of our client work. Taking a paper statement to the telephone, to a website and then a mobile app isn’t where digital banking ends; it’s where it begins. Digital Banking having 99% to go is a statement of optimism, of opportunity and its how you differentiate, as consumer expectations will only grow in the coming years.

On 1st August at approximately 12:20 UTC, the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin formally began a process to fork – or split into two- creating Bitcoin Cash, a new currency. It is unclear exactly what the implications of this will be in the long term but here’s a summary of what we know so far:

It’s about trust. Why do banks insist on having everything? Because they think if they only insist on some, they’ll never get the rest.

Fintech is technology used in the financial services industry, insurtech is technology used in a subset of that industry, insurance. And yet while one is typically considered fascinating, worthy of pages of mainstream media coverage, mention of the other is often greeted with eye-rolling outside of specialist circles.

Sam Maule joins 11:FS as Managing Partner, Americas

This week I had the super-smart Mariano Belinky tell me that the current crop of challenger banks are really just ‘better mousetraps’.

A few weeks ago, I outlined the problems with the financial products that supposedly address small and medium sized businesses’ (SMBs) needs, and how they are chronically underserved by incumbent financial institutions (FIs) across all sectors. Since then, we’ve explored how things are changing in the SMB insurance space and delved into the developments in the areas of bank account opening, payments and loans in our podcasts. I’ve also been busy trying to discover, articulate and demonstrate what “best in class” in this industry looks like in my latest research report.

Happy New Year Fin-techers! To celebrate, hosts David M. Brear, Ross Gallagher and Kate Moody make some bold fintech predictions for 2024, and look back on how right (or wrong) they were last year!

L. F. G. And Happy New Year! Mauricio and Catherine bring you our 2024 predictions. Alongside special guest Balaji Srinivasan, we revisit our 2023 predictions, see where we went right or wrong and look ahead to the key trends to look out for in 2024. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: a live bonus episode! Mauricio Magaldi is joined live on stage at Blockchain Rio by some great guests from FEAT THE FUTURE and BLOCKFORCE to discuss blockchain for good. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: a live bonus episode! Simon Taylor is joined live on stage at New York FinTech Week by some great guests, from Visa, EMTECH and The Digital Dollar Project, to discuss whether a US central bank digital currency is now inevitable. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

As we wrap up another rollercoaster year in fintech, 11:FS CEO David M. Brear is joined by some a panel of colleagues to talk about the biggest, best, and most outrageous happenings of 2023.

Benjamin Ensor and Rachel Pandyan are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: CaixaBank investing in 100-person team to work exclusively on GenAI, TikTok acquire Tokopedia following new social media laws, and Canapi launch a $750m VC fund to support fintechs.

L.F.G. Mauricio and Catherine bring you a deep dive into tokenised deposits on the blockchain. What they are, how they work and how they differ from CBDCs and stablecoins and the different ways to utilise each one. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

David Barton-Grimley is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Robinhood are coming to the UK... no, seriously this time, and Wise partner with Allica Bank to make cross-border payments easier for SMEs. Plus, if you're looking for a new family board game this year, head to your local Natwest branch.

David M. Brear is joined by financial services veteran, Ashok Vaswani, to discuss how he draws on his experience going forward and why he continues to put learning first.

Kate Moody is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Chase announce the launch of new payroll tools, J.P. Morgan upgrade their licence in Abu Dhabi, and BNPL fuels a record-breaking Cyber Monday.

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests to take a closer look at that tricky balance between managing regulation without compromising innovation in financial services.

L.F.G. Today we bring you a deep dive into identity on the blockchain - how it differs in web3 from web2, the benefits and challenges and how you can own your own identity online. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Ross Gallagher and Rachel Pandyan are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Alphabet could be investing in Monzo, Revolut open bond trading to millions of customers, and The Rock has launched a debit card.

David M. Brear joined by some great guests to talk about the one year anniversary of ChatGPT, how banks is utilising AI in its products and services, and how fintech can support the continued innovation of AI in finance.

David M. Brear and Rachel Pandyan, are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: HSBC pulls out of new markets in a bid to double down in Asia; Chip reach first monthly profit, and is Klarna taking on Shopify as it changes up its business model.

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...

