I recently heard someone suggest that ‘insurance is just like gambling.’ Bit of a stretch, but I could see their point. Both are fundamentally risk-based, and it raised an interesting question - do you ever really ‘win’ in insurance?
Tucked away in a small corner of the WeWork offices in Aldgate Tower, I sat down with Ross Gallagher. Financial inclusion is the touchstone on financial products for Ross. Regular host of the Fintech Insider podcast with a history in financial services consulting and research. Ross is known around the office as a tupperware fiend and always up for a laugh but as with many people who work for 11:FS he has a real passion for finance and financial inclusion in particular.
A couple of weeks ago I went into an overpriced London salad shop for lunch. Before I could part with my hard-earned money for some wilted spinach and avocado, the connection on the iPad I was ordering on went down.
This is the second article in a three-part series on how fintech for good (FFG) is helping people and the planet. The first touched on consumer behaviour. If you missed it, check it out here.
This December 2020 cover of The New Yorker has been praised for perfectly capturing the zeitgeist of the time. Of the completely bizarre year we didn’t see coming. The illustrator draws on the mundane everyday to create an image that resonates so well with the magazine’s varied readers.
As the saying goes, “success breeds success”. And one of the things that’s interesting in our industry is the alumni of fintechs going on to do great things. It’s no coincidence - there’s a bit of a pattern emerging: The founders of some of the most successful startups of today cut their teeth at the biggest fintechs of yesterday.
It’s happening. After months of ‘will they, won’t they’, Monzo is heading Stateside.
In a recent report EY point out that the big advantage the UK has in “Fintech” is it’s progressive policy from Government and Regulators. This post examines the latest policy the regulatory sandbox; to understand how it might work, what companies entering it need to know, and how other jurisdictions could repeat the trick. Can it help financial services be a bit more awesome?
Four years ago, policymakers in the UK and EU took the first steps to enshrine open banking into law, but now we’re at a turning point for digital adoption and the old ways of working aren’t working anymore.
At this point we can all agree that the financial market as a whole has gone through a period of lows. Paired with increased inflation (even in developed countries), and the US confirming a recession, things seem to have really taken a turn for the worse - the so-called bear market.
They say time is money, right? Well, what about time to money – how long it takes for money to be available for you to use.
This week on Fintech Insider News David, Jason and Simon were joined by Innovate Finance’s Sophie Winwood and making his Fintech Insider debut, Banking Editior at The Economist, Patrick Lane, to tackle the latest news from the last week. Listen to the episode in full here or play and read below
As part of the editorial process for Fintech Insider we review a lot of stories and see how media outlets report on challenger banks. Some recent pieces had the distinct feel of unhappy incumbent bankers lobbying hard to change the narrative.
You may have heard of Marcus, it’s been kind of a big deal. But why and how? We recently sat down with Boe Hartman, CTO at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, to get the inside story.
Everyone’s got a bike these days, right? How many bikes would you admit to owning? Is your ‘multi-bike’ strategy paying off? Now ask yourself the same questions about your use of cloud.

Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests, from Tech Nation, F10 and OakNorth, to explore the impact of tech accelerators on the fintech space.

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: Latin American crypto firm Ripio launches prepaid crypto card in Brazil, Steven Bartlett’s web3 creator platform Thirdweb raises £20m, and Netflix enters Decentraland metaverse promoted by Ryan Gosling. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Kate Moody and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests, from Betakit and Silicon Republic, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Shopify is picking a fight with Amazon, UBS scraps $1.4 billion deal to buy Wealthfront, and Japan decides it's time to stop using floppy disks.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, Spiralem, and The Aspen Insitute, to discuss how embedded finance could be the trojan horse of financial inclusion.

A little bonus to end the year, we're not all perfect here at Blockchain Insider. To prove it Simon's got a quick cut of some of the funniest mistakes we made this year.

John Bean and Benjamin Ensor are joined by a panel of guests from e-Zee Insurance and Snapsheet to talk through the biggest news of the month. Hear about: Insurtech funding bounces back after global downturn, Lloyd’s to end insurance coverage for state cyber attacks, and cyclists could be made to have registration plates and insurance. All this and much, much more on today's Insurtech Insider!

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests, from Allica Bank and Novo, to discuss whether the initial promise of financial services for SMEs has truly been delivered.

We. Are. Here. Today we bring you: a very exciting deep dive: this time - into film and web3. How do films and filmmaking change and work in web3? Does web3 have the power to revolutionise the process of filmmaking as we know it, and could it encourage more diversity and inclusivity? All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Ross Gallagher and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Prometeo launches LatAm’s first A2A payments platform, Ramp steps into the Buy Now Pay Later Market, and we dive into the Fintech Insider mailbag!

David M. Brear and Nicole are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: Wise partnership with Plaid gives customers access to 6000 US apps, Klarna strives for Super App status, and Adam Neumann raises BIG from A16Z!

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: hackers drain £5m from 8,000 wallets linked to Solana crypto network, Nomad crypto bridge loses $200 million in ‘chaotic’ hack, US Senators push bill to make small crypto transactions tax-free, and Revolut partners with Polkadot to launch “Learn to Earn” feature. All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Kate Moody and Nicole Perry are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days, including: cash’s comeback as the cost of living climbs, Heopagos raising big for Latam payments, and Italy says ‘ciao!’ to Domino's Pizza.

Ross Gallagher is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, Sibstar, and Purple, to talk about you design financial services for people with disabilities.

In this exciting bonus episode, David M. Brear is joined by Andy Bromberg, CEO of Eco, to talk about the fine line between copying, imitation, and competitor research. All this and much much more on today's bonus show!

Nigel Walsh and John Bean are joined by a fantastic guest from Hubb to talk through what the future for brokers might look like in today's insurance space. All this and much, much more on today's Insurtech Insider!
Ever wanted to know what’s going on behind the scenes every time we make a payment?
Regulation is essential. It stops banks from going bust or behaving badly.
The invention of the computer revolutionised banking in the 1950s.
Lending has been around for thousands of years and is one of the cornerstones of banking.
They're down, but they're not certainly not out.
Mastercard and Visa are the two biggest credit card networks in the world.
We kick off our Decoding: Banks series with a look at the banking landscape today and how we got here.

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

