
Taste your product, be big and fast, invest in your own teams and partner with Snoop Dogg. Chief Commercial Officer of Klarna, Michael Rouse has more than a few nuggets of wisdom to share.

This post appeared first in The Times and Raconteur in the UK in June 2016. Until the financial crisis banks had enjoyed decades of growth unencumbered by the disruption seen in the newspaper, telecommunications and music industries. During the good years banks’ profits soared and, while they embraced customer-facing internet and mobile apps, the foundations, processes and technology on which banks are built, despite billions spent on technology, would look familiar to those who worked there in the 1970s. UK banks now face the perfect storm of significant technological advancements plus a regulator and government that want to foster innovation, and an ever-growing disillusionment of banking customers to banks’ offerings.

When it comes to managing bills and expenses, there’s a variety of products available on the market. Some are not amazing, others are good, but there is still a gap for an offering tailored to student needs.

Antony Jenkins, former CEO of Barclays, has spent 35 years working in large financial services institutions. He says that it struck him that, although there’s a lot of technology in banks, it doesn’t help much when it comes to improving the customer experience or lowering costs, and it hasn’t improved the reputation of banks within society. He founded 10x to create a new banking experience — one that is more diverse, open, and fair. In episode 229 of FinTech Insider, he talks to us about his new company, the future of banking, and the transition from running one of the biggest banks in the world to founding a startup.

Spending billions on digital transformation – and bragging about it – seems to be the only game in town for large incumbent banks. But this spending hasn’t paid off, and financial institutions continue to battle a heavy fixed-cost base. You know digital transformation is critical, so how do you convince an incumbent bank’s CFO and CxOs that digital transformation doesn’t have to cost billions or take decades?

In the past decade, the banking industry has seen an incredible amount of innovation and disruption. New entrants like Monzo in the UK and Nubank in Latin America are finally taking on the incumbents that, for decades, were impossible to challenge.

The UK’s digital-only challenger banks are currently engaged in something of an arms race to offer customers the broadest range of features and services. Hot on the heels of joint accounts, coming soon from both Monzo and Starling, came Monzo’s announcement that its customers can now use TransferWise within the bank’s app to send money abroad.

I’m sure that you’ve seen the same presentations that I have. An expert from a large consultancy stands up and his first slide says “API stands for Application Programming Interface”. He continues with a description of new regulations (PSDII / CMA) and describes the technology that will let customers give third parties to access their banking data and trigger new transactions. That’s all true, but it’s a mistake to start there, it leads in the wrong direction.

Fintechs can’t hire product marketers quick enough at the moment. If you’re new to the marketing game and looking to become a specialist rather than a generalist, then it’s probably one of the most interesting areas to specialise in right now.

Blockchain and DLT are in the labs of most large banks and have been useful from a PR perspective. But what next? What the hell should we actually be doing with this technology? Here are 11 things your CIO needs to know about blockchain / DLT so your organisation doesn’t get left behind.

For Season 2 of Connection Interrupted we’re kicking off in style with a super star of media, social media, podcasting and much much more: Gary Vaynerchuk! I had the pleasure of meeting Gary at the Vaynermedia offices in NYC with one mission: to try and get to know him, to find out who the real Gary is behind brand Gary V: the man who loves his family (and the Jets). Listen to the episode here or below and read on for my personal highlights.

In its final report, the Competition and Markets Authority has formally implemented reforms aimed at giving people more control of their money. By Q1 of 2018, European banks have to completely open up their data through full APIs. But some banks aren’t prepared to wait that long. Read on to see which ones have taken the lead.

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.

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...

