Financial inclusion

Despite global economic headwinds, rising prices and over half of consumers now precisely tracking their subscription spend, 89% of businesses are optimistic about recurring revenue growth for the year ahead. They predict changing customer demand is the top factor that will impact profitability.

Financial education is vital to the success of many new fintechs. After all, if customers don’t know what they need then how are they going to know if a product is useful for them?

Today we’ve got the second in our four part mini-series on fintech in the UK with Tech Nation (go listen to the first one here if you haven’t already). Our latest episode on uniting the fintech kingdom focuses on what makes the UK such a unique regulatory environment. We also take a look at whether Brexit will remove the UK’s fintech crown. This post is just a little teaser for what’s coming out at 4pm today. In our podcast we examine why UK fintech is so attractive and how to keep the flow of talent and companies coming in. You can/should/need/have to listen to it asap.

1st February was Time to Talk Day, a day dedicated to mental health awareness, and opening up the conversation around it in the aim of removing the stigma. The mantra behind the day is that mental health affects us all and it’s time to talk about it.

When the World Bank launched a focus on financial inclusion in 2011, about 2.5-3 billion people lacked access to even the most basic financial services. Since then, dramatic progress has been made. Between 2011 and 2014 an astonishing 700 million people gained bank accounts (twice the population of the US). In the latest World Bank Findex report, it was stated that a further 8% of the world opened an account.

In this Q&A with Jimmy Williams, CEO and co-founder of Urban Jungle we discuss using technology to enhance transparency in home and contents insurance.

This week we had great news from both sides of the Atlantic, lots of team ups and partnerships plus some of the sillier crypto stories we’ve seen Taking on all of this on the Fintech Insider News show along side host Simon Taylor were Megan Caywood, Chief Platform Officer at Starling; Edward Berks – Director of Banking, Fintech & Ecosystem at Xero, and our very own Ross Gallagher, Principal Consultant in our 11:FS Research Team. Listen here for the episode in full, stream it below or read on for additional insights.

Africa is a vast continent, with huge distances between cities, large populations, and availability of financial services varying by country. Western tech startups and businesses often think of Africa as a complex and problematic place to launch products because of the lack of infrastructure – but that’s where the opportunity lies. Here are some great examples of innovation coming out of Africa that FinTech players globally should pay attention to.

There’s a sad truth we have to accept around AI and Machine Learning (ML). Right now neither are going to end with the sci-fi films that we all know and love. Most people hear AI or ML and immediately have that in mind, but we’re a long way off from robot companions taking over the world. The global proliferation of Human-Like Intelligence is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Over the past twelve months, we’ve been seriously busy here at 11:FS. Now we’re announcing arguably the most exciting project we’ve ever taken on.