challenger banks

A banker who shall remain anonymous has penned this exclusive undercover piece, giving us the insider’s view on why they believe Open Banking APIs may be stifling rather than driving competition in UK Banking. Writing under the pseudonym “The Stigcumbent” to protect their identity, they want to expose the friction created by Open Banking, and the potential failure to create competition as a result. Read on for more…

From an idea to a live show in a few days. We’re looking to bring the financial services, fintech and wider community together while we’re all so far apart.

Over the last two years we have kept coming back to one diagram, the 11:FS Banking Battlefield. We use this to explain the changes we see in the financial services industry. In fact, one particular workshop we did in Australia last year had us talking through this diagram for the entire day! Seriously. It also featured in three bank board packs in the last 6 months which is also a pretty good indication we’re onto something.

A few weeks ago, we wrote an article about migrant workers in the Middle East and their access to financial services. We can’t continue the conversation about regional financial exclusion without talking about the gender gap.

For Fintech Insider’s news show Jason, Simon and David are joined by 11:FS Research team’s Ross Gallagher, Capco’s Charlie Wood and Fluidly CEO Caroline Plumb, to take on the week’s stories including Brexit, open banking, Robinhood app, and PensionBee’s stand against Aegon. Listen in full here, stream below or read on for highlights.

Derek Corcoran, CEO (Chief Experience Officer, not Chief Executive) at Avoka, paid a flying visit to 11:FS, straight off the plane from Colorado, for a Fintech Insider interview with Simon Taylor. Listen to the interview in full here, stream it below or read on for the highlights.

Some thoughts crossing the mind of our own Simon Taylor; that if you’re interested in the subject of Blockchain you might want to consider:

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

At 11:FS we like to say that digital banking is 1% finished, well the same is true of Open Banking. The unknown potential of the regulation far outstrips what is being done right now. And that potential has caught the imagination of foreign regulators.

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.

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.

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.

I was recently asked by a client: ‘how do I hire a design team?’

In the race to add as much functionality to mobile banking apps as possible, few banks are stepping back and thinking about the “little things” that will enhance the customer experience, such as re-vamped journeys and navigation. The newly released banking app from Nationwide Building Society, which automatically adapts to suit mobile and tablet screens, demonstrates that paying attention to the little things makes a big difference