Plan how to launch products, research, and accelerate change.

The term ‘technical debt’ has been around a long time in software engineering. It shares some common characteristics with financial debt: You can accumulate it, you can ‘pay it off’.

The fintech scene in Asia is booming. In recent years, the region has developed rapidly, with a diverse array of startups and established banks transforming how financial services are delivered and consumed.

Payments in the Middle East are evolving. The payments landscape in the Middle East has stood at an important tipping point for some time.

Months after the UK entered a coronavirus-induced lockdown and financial services firms are struggling to service their customers. Building a digital first approach now can alleviate immediate issues and set firms up for sustained customer success.

There is risk in everything. There is risk in getting out of bed in the morning. There is risk in not getting out of bed in the morning. There’s risk in leaving the house these days, particularly with C19 (which, if you’re a Londoner, might be confused with a particularly treacherous cycle route).

With the new year picking up a head of steam, it’s time to turn our attention to the trends and themes set to shape financial services in 2023. Here at 11:FS, we’re more convinced than ever that UK banks are running out of time to address their core banking issues.

We’ve recently made an amazing hire at 11:FS to be our new Chief of Staff, in the digital era that’s huge news and here’s why.

Despite the global economic climate, a lot of banks and fintechs have dipped their toes into the crypto waters in recent months.

When launching a new product or improving an existing one, it's tempting for product teams to look at competitors as a starting point. But if the goal is to launch a proposition that truly solves your customers' problems, do you even need to look at your competitors in the first place?

Fintechs regularly provide updates on how many customers they have. Motivations for doing so are varied — garnering headlines, proving naysayers wrong, or right, keeping investors happy and so on. More interestingly, they also have a variety of definitions of “customer” that are not always clear.

After a decade of intense innovation, the mood across global financial services has turned sharply. Optimism has given way to fear and long-term ambition has been shelved for short-term survival.

There is a popular belief that you have to 'make it real' as quickly as possible – “come on, just f*****g build the thing - it's the only way to learn!”. In many scenarios this belief is a dangerous myth, and here's why...

I wish I could write as well as Leda Glyptis. I wish I had her command of the English language which I’m sure is one of several she speaks. I wish I could articulate her banking experiences in prose such as she does. But I can’t… So today I’m gonna talk about Spanx. I’m going to discuss what this incredible product has in common with the digitization of financial services. Leda, please don’t judge me.

I’ll be honest when I joined 11:FS I didn’t really expect to end up in West Africa. But on reflection, that was pretty short-sighted. We create truly digital ventures for the good of people everywhere, and we mean everywhere.