
Building societies are ubiquitous in the UK with 43 currently operating across the country. They are however, often conflated with banks. The key difference between building societies and banks though, is a big one: a building society is owned entirely by its members rather than shareholders, to whom they pay dividends every year.

“Money is a matter of functions four: a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.”But, money is also a form of communication. Money has the power to communicate success, shame, inadequacy, desire, isolation, disdain, greed, support, addiction and resentment. Talking money is also one of society’s greatest taboos. Femtech has had to tackle its own set of taboo topics, so in the spirit of International Women’s Day I’m looking at a thing or two fintech could learn from femtech. This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

Good content is so important now more than ever, especially for B2B content creators. In a saturated market only good content stands out - or bad but usually for the wrong reasons, and mediocre content just doesn’t get traction at all.

In a recent episode of our Insurtech Insider podcast, Nigel Walsh and John Bean sat down with some fantastic guests to chat about the good, the bad and the ugly. No, not the seminal spaghetti Western with the Ennio Morricone score.

With consumers becoming increasingly conscious of the impact of their lives, and financial services providers, on the environment, how can retail banks look to react to this trend?

I’ve worked in fintech for 10+ years now, since before it was a popular term, and long enough to see multiple hype cycles come and go. One of the more enduring fintech themes in that time has been “financial education” and, more recently, “financial health”. These are linked but there are some important conceptual differences! This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

SMBs are the lifeblood of most economies. In the UK alone they make up 99.9% of all private sector businesses and employ 60% of all private sector workers. Yet they are chronically underserved by incumbent financial institutions (FIs) across all segments.

The third episode of our brand-new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service, is here! If you missed it (or any of the others) catch up here. Here’s a rundown of this episode if you prefer reading to watching 📖

Fintech Insider is going on the road and taking our live show to OP’s Slush after party!

We’ve reached 500 episodes! 💥 That’s crazy.

Nearly a year ago now (how time flies during a global pandemic) we wrote that there’s never been a more important time to be truly digital. Little did we know that this would ring truer today than it did then!

For anyone launching a new product, there are probably hundreds of questions on their mind. One of these is likely to be whether brand relevance or feature parity is more crucial to a product’s success. This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

As 2019 winds down, we’re doing something a little different for this year and reviewing our best and most popular podcast episodes.

Like everyone else locked down here in the UK, I’ve been working my way through Netflix at an unrelenting pace... This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

Host Benjamin Ensor - Director of Research and Strategy at 11:FS is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

For years, banking has been framed as a battlefield: incumbents defending their turf while fintech challengers attack with better tech and customer experience. But in 2026, that picture may have changed.

Host Laura Watkins (Director of Media and Marketing at 11:FS) is joined by a brilliant panel to unpack these topics before diving into some of the biggest fintech stories of the week.

In this episode of Fintech Insider, David M. Brear sits down with Emily Turner, the newly appointed CEO of HSBC Innovation Banking UK, for a conversation about leadership, innovation, and the future of fintech in the UK.

In this episode of Fintech Insider Insights, Kate Moody is joined by an expert panel of product leaders to unpack a question every startup and scale-up eventually faces: how do you build the dream product team?
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Host Ross Gallagher, Head of Ventures at 11:FS, is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.
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In this episode of Fintech Insider, David M. Brear sits down with ClearBank’s UK CEO, Emma Hagan, to explore how the UK’s first new clearing bank in over 250 years is reshaping financial infrastructure from the ground up.
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Host Kate Moody, Customer Strategy Director at 11:FS, is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.
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In this special live edition of Fintech Insider Insights, recorded at the FCA’s Supercharged Sandbox Showcase, David M. Brear is joined by leaders from the regulator, industry and the technology ecosystem to unpack the UK’s first AI-focused regulatory sandbox.
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Host Benjamin Ensor, Director of Research and Strategy at 11:FS, is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.
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What’s next for fintech UX in 2026? Ross Gallagher, Head of Consulting at 11:FS, is joined by some great guests to break down six financial services UX predictions from the latest 11:FS Pulse Report, covering the shifts shaping digital banking, customer experience, onboarding, product design, and user research.
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Host Kate Moody, Customer Strategy Director at 11:FS, is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.
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On this week’s episode, host David Barton-Grimley is joined by Matt Weaver, Head of Solutions for EMEA at OpenAI, to explore the impact OpenAI is having on the financial services industry - and the meaningful collaborations taking place between the sector and the AI innovation giant.
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Host Laura Watkins, Director of Media & Marketing at 11:FS, is joined by some great guests to discuss the biggest stories from the world of financial services over the past week.

On this week's episode, David M. Brear is joined by some great guests to tack a question on every bank and fintech leader’s mind: is AI redefining consumer-focused banking in 2026?

David M. Brear, our 11:FS CEO, takes us through legacy technology within banks - but of course, with a really cool Lightboard.

Fintech Marketing Podcast Season 2: Coming soon

After Dark - Open Finance: fact or fantasy?

Banks are facing a lot of challenges compared to their fintech rivals.
Welcome to episode 5 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!
11:FS CEO David M. Brear takes to the lightboard to give us the full run-down, with examples of companies that are leading the way.
Welcome to episode 4 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!
Welcome to episode 3 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!
Welcome to episode 2 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!

Welcome to episode 1 of our new video series, Decoding: Banking as a Service!

In this episode of Spotlight on LinkedIn Live, we're speaking to Paul Riseborough and Rachael Sinclair, Mission Leaders from Nationwide, about how they're switching up their business structure to ensure they are aligned to their customers and creating the most effective teams in the industry along the way.

When people discuss 'banking being broken', they often refer to the technology itself. However, that isn't necessarily the case.

Minimum Lovable Brand | 11:FS Explores

In this video, our Head of Research, Sarah Kocianski, unpacks exactly how banks make money - with the handy edition of a super 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...

