Innovation

Day 2 has come to an end here at Money 20/20 and, despite last night’s industry party, it was jam packed with action.

Sports people make better business people. There, I said it. I’ve said it before so you shouldn't be too surprised at this point but I honestly believe in this statement.

I love the Showtime drama series Billions. It gets two big thumbs up from me and I highly recommend binge-watching the series. You'll thank me later.I recently finished season 3 of the program and I actually burst out laughing during the beginning of the show. Real-life celebrities and billionaires are a constant staple of the series. Past guests have included Mark Cuban, Maria Sharapova, and even my beloved Metallica. But what made me chuckle was the brief appearance of Sara Blakely playing, well, herself.And why not? She's a self-made billionaire and founder of Spanx as I detailed in my first blog post on the commonalities between the Spanx product and the digitization of financial services. Seeing her pop up on my screen while watching the season finale prompted me to sit down and write part 2 of this blog post.

Offering customers access to cryptocurrencies is fast becoming a must-have feature for fintechs in the banking and investment segments. Startups are racing each other to launch the broadest range of services possible in this space.Revolut has today taken another step forward in this arena by adding XRP and Bitcoin cash to the range of cryptocurrencies customers can buy, hold, and sell within its app.

I think we’re all agreed that innovation is crucial to the continuing success of any organisation. But what does innovation really mean?

11:FS is pleased to announce that today we are launching the beginner’s guide to Open Banking! It’s a hot topic in the fintech space at the moment and users need to know what they’re getting themselves into.

The UK banking battlefield has never been more competitive. Customers expect financial apps that are personalised, seamless, and that genuinely make a difference — and they compare them not just to other banks, but to the best digital experiences in any industry. The margin for mediocrity is gone.

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.

Goldman Sachs broke the fintechnet this week when it launched its developer portal, intentionally allowing companies to ‘embed finance’ within their organisation using their Banking as a Service (BaaS) offering. Hari Moorthy, Goldman’s Global Head of Transaction Banking, referred to it as “the financial cloud for corporates.” Cue a flurry of emails inside every large bank from CEOs wondering how seriously they should take this. Take it seriously. Take it very seriously.

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.