11:FS

The inaugural Fintech League kicks off in style this Friday and after months of pre-season training, 11:FC are keen for the starting whistle.

I am hungover. Last night at the British Banking Awards, presented by Smart Money People, was epic.

This was originally published as a New Insights article on 12th January 2024 exclusively for 11:FS Pulse users on the Pulse platform. Given this week's news that NatWest has made its banking app available on Apple Vision Pro, we thought it would only be right to make it available for everyone.

Did I click-bait you into reading this? Relax, we are not shuttering 11:FS, just a small part of it.

The One to Watch award is given to the company with the firmest foundations onto which it can build truly digital services in the next 12 months.

It’s been an incredible year for fintech, but one thing’s for sure. 2019 is going to be an even wilder ride.

So about 350 days ago I made some predictions about how 2019 would shape up. Here I’ll break down how accurate, or not, I was. TL:DR - pretty damn accurate.

Niall Cameron joined David Brear on Fintech Insider to discuss HSBC, innovation and partnering with fintechs. We found out his views of how incumbents can best work alongside and partner with fintechs in the changing digital space:

As a uni student, it drove Ollie Purdue crazy that his bank couldn’t provide him with basic info to help manage his financial life. How much money was he likely to have at the end of the month? Could he cut back on work and have more fun – or did he need to increase his hours to pay the bills? At age 20, he founded Loot to create a better banking experience that used data in a smarter way. In episode 232 of FinTech Insider, Ollie, CEO of Loot, shares the story behind his company, including how he got bank execs to talk to him when he was still in school.

The 11:FS research team is in the midst of building out an internal platform that has some elements of gamification (and because we see a lot of products coming through our benchmarking tool 11:FS Pulse which make use of it), I’ve been spending a bit of time considering the topic.

I was recently asked whether digital transformations meant partnerships will become obsolete. In fact, I think quite the opposite - banks who don’t use partnerships will become obsolete.

If you look at the Trustpilot reviews for Plum (the UK savings app), one thing stands out. People don’t talk that much about the product; instead, they proudly declare how much they’ve saved.

China’s currently the second biggest hub for fintech in the world. In 2018 the nation managed to secure $15.1BN in funding for fintechs. A great deal of that reputation for success is down to the power and growth of Ant Financial.

It’s Valentine’s Day. Obvious opening statement for a blog published on February 14th but on the off chance you forgot, you might want to bookmark this blog, run and buy a card. I’ll be here when you get back.

Under Friday night lights and in appalling conditions of driving wind and rain, the mighty 11:FC overcame all odds to bring home a 2-1 victory over office neighbours, Yieldify FC.