In short
Fintech Insider Podcast Episode 1019 Summary
Episode Overview
- Title: 1019. News: Bank it like Beckham, Klarna’s stablecoin pivot, and Chase taps in on the Tube
- Host: Ross Gallagher
- Guests:
- Nick Philpott, Co-founder and Head of Partnerships at Zodia Markets
- Megan Caywood, CEO of Caywood
- Veronica Glab, Strategic Partnerships Lead at Juice
Episode Highlights This episode dives into significant developments in fintech and banking, including product launches, partnerships, and market shifts.
Key Stories Covered
- Tide Launches Connected Insurance for SMBs
- Tide Insurance, embedded within the Tide app, aims to simplify insurance for small businesses (SMBs).
- Collaboration with Admiral Business to offer essential covers: employer's liability, public liability, and professional indemnity.
- Addresses the problem of under-insurance and enhances financial literacy for SMBs.
- Klarna Enters Stablecoin Market
- Klarna plans to launch a dollar-backed stablecoin (Klarna USD) designed for everyday and cross-border payments.
- This move highlights a strategic shift into digital payments, despite previous skepticism from its CEO regarding cryptocurrencies.
- Wio Bank Introduces "Wio Family"
- A first-of-its-kind shared banking experience in the UAE that allows families to manage finances collectively.
- Features include virtual cards for children, spending controls, and tools for achieving family financial goals.
- Chase Partners with TfL for Cashback on Tube
- Chase is now the official payment partner for Transport for London (TfL), replacing Google Pay.
- Chase debit cardholders can earn up to £180/year in cashback, reinforcing Chase's brand presence in the UK.
- Wise Goes Live on Japan's Zengin System
- Wise becomes the first non-bank to connect directly to Japan's Zengin domestic payments network, enhancing its payment processing capabilities.
- David Beckham's Partnership with Bank of America
- Beckham signed a multi-year deal with Bank of America to promote sports initiatives ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, highlighting the blend of sports and finance.
Key Takeaways
- Embedded Finance: The rise of embedded solutions, such as Tide's insurance, reflects a significant trend where financial products are integrated into existing platforms, facilitating easier access for users.
- Stablecoins and Digital Payments: Klarna's entry into stablecoins signals an important shift in the fintech landscape, emphasizing the growing acceptance and necessity of digital currencies.
- Family Banking Solutions: Wio Bank’s innovative approach to shared banking for families demonstrates a responsiveness to cultural banking needs, especially in multi-generational households.
- Market Expansion Strategies: Chase's partnership with TfL illustrates a strategic approach to brand visibility and customer engagement through partnerships in high-traffic public transportation systems.
- Direct Access to Payments Networks: Wise’s achievement in Japan is significant as it showcases a broader trend towards fintechs gaining direct access to traditional banking infrastructure, improving efficiency and service delivery.
Insights from Guests
- Nick Philpott: Emphasizes the importance of financial literacy and the necessity for businesses to be adequately insured.
- Megan Caywood: Discusses the evolving landscape of finance, highlighting the potential of agentic finance to reduce decision fatigue for SMBs.
- Veronica Glab: Reflects on the cultural nuances in finance management, particularly regarding innovative family banking solutions.
Conclusion This episode of Fintech Insider illustrates dynamic shifts in the fintech world, emphasizing embedded finance, innovative banking solutions, and strategic partnerships. The discussions highlight the importance of accessibility and user experience in financial products as the industry continues to evolve.
For more insights, connect with the podcast on social media or visit [11:FS](https://www.11fs.com/).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:05This is Fintech Insider News. This week, our tide aiming to become a super app for business as they launch Connected Insurance. Klarna dives into digital payments with dollar-backed stablecoin. And Chase revamps TFL with sleek barriers and traveler cashback. We'll be tackling all of this and more on today's new show, so please don't go anywhere.
0:29Retail investment in the UK is the lowest in the G7. According to the Bank of England, there is over£280 billion sitting in UK accounts earning no interest. Something has to change. Financial firms in the UK must look at making investing accessible, contextual and trusted through everyday platforms. That means bringing investment journeys to the point of need, alongside spending, saving and budgeting, and within platforms that already play a meaningful role in customers' lives. We dive into this and more in our latest report, Taking Advantage of the Embedding Investing Opportunity, produced in association with SECL.
1:11Download your copy today at alumnafest.com forward slash embedded hyphen investing.
1:27Hello and welcome to episode 1019 of FinTech Insider brought to you by 11FS, the five-time consultancy of the year that works with banks, investment firms, digital banks, and FinTechs to build the next generation of financial services. I'm Ross Gallagher, Head of Consulting here at 11FS. And this week, as temperatures plummet across the Northern Hemisphere, prices are dropping too thanks to the infamous Black Friday frenzy dominating the retail calendar. But while most eyes are glued to online deals, well, our focus is elsewhere. This week, we've brought together three sharp-eyed panelists to join me in slicing through the noise and making sense of the headlines.
2:10So let's meet them. first up a very warm fintech insider return to nick philpott co-founder and head of partnerships at zodiac markets nick uh welcome to the show it's great to great to have you back maybe you can just remind our listeners a little bit about um who you are and what you do at zodiac markets yeah of course thank you so i'm one of the co-founders uh zodiac markets um also the head of partnerships zodiac markets is a digital asset brokerage headquarters in the uk but we We also have an office here in Abu Dhabi where I'm calling from. We specialize in stablecoin on and off ramping.
2:45We're part of the standard chartered group. Excellent. Thanks, Nick. And thanks for coming back on and sharing your insights as well. Looking forward to the show. Next up, we have the one and only Megan Kaywood, CEO at Kaywood. Megan, I saw you last week at our After Dark event. We had a ton of fun. It's great to have you back on the show. What have you been up to since? Yeah, thanks, Ross. It's great to be back. Yeah, it's been a busy season. I spent the past few months speaking at Money 2020 in Vegas and Hong Kong FinTech Week, working on my upcoming book on agentic AI and the future architecture of finance.
3:22And then, of course, building KWID, where we're focused on creating the agentic intelligence layer for institutional finance. So, yeah, have just been busy and working away. Yeah, very busy by the sounds of things. Well, great to have you, Megan. As always, thanks again for coming on and sharing all of your wonderful insights and perspectives. And last but not least, another super welcome return to Veronica Glab. Veronica, it's always lovely to see you. Thank you so much for coming back on the show. And you've got a sort of new-ish job. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about your exciting new role.
4:02Well, thanks, Ross. So, yeah, I did. I joined Juice Ventures last quarter as their strategic partnerships lead. And for anyone who is not familiar with Juice, we provide smart growth capital to UK SMEs through flexible, non-dilutive financing paired with AI insights to give founders the ability to strategize their business growth and their finances. And we really stay with them throughout their scaling journey. And we've been pretty busy as well. We've just published a white paper on a confidence gap that is holding founders back from seeking strategic finance in the UK. We launched that paper at Web Summit about two weeks ago.
4:43And in my role, I'm looking after partnerships with CFOs, accountancies, and fintech players in the embedded payments and lending spaces. So it's a pretty busy agenda for us this quarter and looking forward to making some exciting announcements with the team next year as well. Awesome, Veronica. Thank you. It's great to have you. All right. Well, look, we've got our panel. So let's jump straight into the stories. Now, this first story comes from FinTech Finance News. The headline, Tide to launch connected insurance for SMBs. So Tide is launching Tide Insurance, which is an embedded insurance product for SMBs.
5:24It's directly within the Tide app. The insurance is being developed in partnership with Admiral Business, leveraging their expertise in the UK market. Initially, Tide will offer three core business covers, employer's liability, public liability, and professional indemnity. By using data already held by Tide, for example, turnover and the number of employees, the app can pre-fill application forms, making it faster and simpler for SMBs to get insured and helping to close the small business protection gap. Now, to tell us more about this launch, we have a voice note from Dan McNally, CEO of Tide Insurance at Tide.
6:07Hi, thanks for having me on Fintech Insider. It's great to be here. I'm Dan McNally, the new CEO of Tide Insurance at Tide, the business management platform that looks after more than 800 ,000 small businesses in the UK. My job is to lead the rollout of our new insurance offering, and the reason we've launched this is very simple. Under-insurance is still a huge issue for small businesses. We see firms who aren't insured at all, even when certain cover is a legal requirement. And we see firms who are unintentionally under-insured because the process is confusing, the risk questions feel abstract, but they don't actually know what level of protection they really need.
6:44Tide is in a unique position to help fix that, because our members already use us for things like banking, payroll, invoicing and accounting. We can streamline the entire insurance journey, pre-populate key details, remove repetitive forms and make it far easier for a business owner to get the right cover in place. We're launching with Admiral Business, starting with employer's liability, public liability and professional indemnity. And we'll be expanding the product range through 2026 and beyond. Ultimately, this is about helping small businesses stay protected. So a single incident doesn't derail everything they've worked so hard for.
7:24We're excited to bring this to market.
7:30Veronica, I mean, I think it kind of makes sense to come to you first on this one. The point that Dan McNally is making about, you know, businesses being sort of underinsured, not having adequate insurance protections in place, is that something you can sort of identify with that resonates? Yeah, for sure. I mean, the thing is, is that there's a huge advantage to having an embedded insurance option, largely because it takes a lot of the, let's say, the decision paralysis away from founders and allows them to focus back on strategy while also helping to de-risk their business. Essentially, what something like that would do is it puts the founder in place to say, well, don't tell me what you already know about me.
8:14It allows them to bypass these phone call heavy, form heavy processes that they have to go through regularly with brokers and provides an intelligent tool that actually will work for their business. It's going to be a lot more bespoke. It's going to be based on better integrated data points. And, you know, I'm in the business of helping to get good founders get funded. So also anything that de-risks a business and automates some of the due diligence is really, really great. Like I could really see this being quite easily where a founder logs into the platform and they get an automated push notification that says, hey, you've just hired your first employee.
8:55Time to get employer liability insurance. That's the kind of thing that saves founders a lot of time on their work stream, but again, continues to de-risk their business and enhances their kind of insurance literacy or risk literacy. Very cool proposition. Yeah, I completely agree. And it's interesting, isn't it? Because there's like a point, I think you were sort of hitting on it around like kind of cognitive load, right? Like founders have so much to think about when it comes to really sort of setting up their business and getting all of the right things in place. I mean, Megan, you're going to know all about that, right?
9:31Yeah, exactly. I think this is a really interesting story because it's also signaling how embedded finance is evolving into embedded intelligence. And so Tide isn't just selling insurance, they're just selling that decision reduction, like what Veronica is talking about. It's so much cognitive load, so many decisions you have to make. And as a small business owner, there's just so much to do. And so, you know, so few people to do it kind of by definition with the SMB setup. And so the more that banking and accounting and different tools can basically help take away that burden of decisions, the better it is for the small business owner.
10:03So I first saw this actually in San Francisco when I was into it in Xero. So when Xero came to market in New Zealand, it was fascinating because they just stole like over 50 % market share from the incumbents within like a year. It was wild. But they did it through a cloud-based accounting platform, but largely through a similar embedded finance strategy. So they were the first ones to build like an API and lockstep with the core product and then integrate in all these other fintechs around like payments and insurance and invoice alongside like their core product. And I was into it at the time.
10:32I remember we would do these war games. We're like, oh, they were to come to the U.S. Like, how are they going to steal our customers? And it was through this type of platform strategy because small business owners can use like 10 to 15 different products and services to run their business. And it's usually quite fragmented. So the more you can pull that under one roof, the better it is for a business owner, specifically if it's like helping them to understand what they need, when they need it, so they're not constantly feeling like the full burden of having to figure that out on their own. So it's around like giving them confidence that they're running their business correctly and then easily accessing that.
11:03And so like every time a platform uses data to like pre-fill or pre-underwrite or guide a business owner, they're effectively moving towards agentic finance where systems are proactively handling the complexity for the user. So I think it's very cool that Tide have done this. Yeah, I mean, for me, that intelligence piece is really important, at least when you're talking about addressing that point around under insurance and how much of that is just based on, you know, bad data or incomplete data. Nick, what's your sort of reaction to this story, I guess? And this sort of embedded point that Megan and Veronica were making as well, right?
11:41So there's the intelligence bit, but then there's also actually meeting business owners where they are. Yeah, I think it's something that brings insurance, which I mean, when we set up Zodiac Markets, insurance was something we dealt with right at the beginning. And then I believe we've mostly forgotten about it. We have to update our board once a year and that's pretty much it. So it does sort of drift to the back of the mind quite quickly. I suppose we're a slightly different animal, but for someone, particularly on the retail side, it would need to be a lot more active. And it also probably takes a good step to breaking that cycle of basing everything off of cycles, so annual or monthly, which really is dictated by ancient agriculture.
12:23It does seem like a bit of an anachronism that we sort of try to manage things in accordance with cycles of the moon. Frankly, you should be setting up insurance as and when the risk event takes place or just as it's about to take place rather than signing up for a policy and then getting buyers regret because you think, well, actually maybe I've overpaid quite significantly for a lot of stuff that I just don't need. Yeah, or realizing later on that the policy you have didn't cover specifically what it is that you need to do, right? Yeah, I suppose we're sort of, cheating is the wrong word, but we are attached to a very large bank which literally has its own insurance department.
12:59So it was a bit of an idiot's guide that they gave us and they walked us through it. So that's why it's a comment that we probably did it and then forgot about it. So a slightly different animal from some others. But I could see the value without question. And I guess, I mean, not everybody has that luxury. I mean, I think one of the things that we say a lot, particularly as it relates to sort of SMBs, is it feels like there's almost as many sort of unique problems and challenges as there are SMBs themselves. But Veronica, this feels like TIDA really interesting. You know, they've sort of grown their user base to sort of 1.6 million SMEs now.
13:41So there's almost a route to scale here in terms of solving for some of these really important problems. Yeah, I mean, what Tide have done is they've been so strategic in their business scaling. And I think that covers both the geographies that they've looked at, you know, with their massive expansion into India, into SME focused markets. but also their external communications, their partnerships as well, that are designed, one, to start turning or start scaling the business into that almost like a super app platform with multiple functions. And at the heart of it, they've always had financial literacy, SME empowerment, democratization of financial services at the heart of their mission.
14:23So this is a really cool way to do it just because insurance is such a core essential part of any business function. But not every founder. In fact, I think it's the rare founder who has even a finance specific education, a risk specific education. So now risk literacy is going to be part of that business model. I think that's really empowering to founders. Yeah. And you've got, you know, I mean, traditionally we've always had these sort of like silos, like, you know, you have your, um, the banking and the finance side of things and you have insurance and they're kind of similar, but they're separate.
15:01And then you have accounting and payroll and all of these things. And maybe what we're starting to see here, Veronica, exactly to your point about a super app is some of those silos breaking down. And I mean, Megan, I guess in terms of what that enables for businesses is, is quite exciting. You touched on Agentic in your previous response, but directionally, that also potentially is quite exciting. Yeah, I think SMBs are a great target for Agentic Finance because there are examples across the board where they need access to so many different tools and services and there's a bit of a cognitive burden in deciding which one they need and how to access it.
15:40It reminds me of iWalka as well. I remember their CEO, Christophe Rich, I believe is his name. who I remember years ago we were meeting and he was talking about a lot of S &Bs didn't know do they need invoice financing or a term loan or a flexible credit facility. And part of what they offer isn't just like the easy access to the lending product. It's that a lot of small businesses don't necessarily know what type of like lending facility they need. And that's quite an important part of the business. And you hear that from lots of different fintechs who are operating in that space. I think similarly for insurance, there's just so many things that a small business owner doesn't specialize in in the world of financial management.
16:16but like needs for their company. And so there's this huge opportunity with Agentec to help customers understand what they need, when they need it, and then just take all the burden out of the onboarding to access it. And it's such a relief. So that way they can spend more time actually building their business and doing what they love. And then ideally spending more time, you know, with their families or doing anything other than, you know, signing up for insurance. You know what I mean? So I think Agentec is a great area for S &Bs where it can really unlock the economy in big ways too. Such an important point.
16:44I mean, I think we always forget that people start businesses because they're passionate about what their business does, not because they're passionate about back office and all of that sort of stuff. And they so often get overtaken by that stuff. And so, yeah, like you said, I mean, intelligent tools that not just surface things at the right time, but surface them in context and based on data and understanding all of that stuff, I think would make a considerable difference and significantly lighten that cognitive load, as you say. Honestly, I think it's a really interesting story. And I think it's one that we're going to continue to keep an eye on.
17:23I'm going to move us to our next one, though. So this one comes from Reuters with a headline. Planted to launch dollar-backed stablecoin as race in digital payments heats up. So Plana is launching a US dollar-backed stablecoin called Plana USD. So Plana USD is currently in testing and is expected to go live on the main net in 2026, running on the payment-focused Tempo blockchain developed by Stripe and Paradigm. The stablecoin is aimed at everyday and cross-border payments, positioning itself as a faster and cheaper alternative to traditional banking and legacy payment rails. With stablecoin transaction volumes estimated at roughly$27 trillion annually, Planner's move signals a strategic push deeper into digital payments and crypto infrastructure, even though its CEO had previously been skeptical about cryptocurrency.
18:17Nick, I think that's an interesting point maybe to consider, isn't it? I think it was back in 2021. I could stand corrected on that, but he was a little bit outspoken about the state of the market and the potential for crypto at that point. but does this maybe point to more of a sort of market level shift around confidence and sort of use cases? Yes and no. It displays a change in the understanding of the market. So think of it on a spectrum. So one end of the spectrum, you've got cryptocurrencies, so Bitcoin, Ethereum, Uniswap, Chainlink, all those sorts of things, including sort of tokens with dog spaces on it and that sort of stuff.
18:59at the other end of the spectrum you've got stable coins and effectively just digitized versions of cash bringing cash onto the to the open internet so i think what people are now starting to understand is that there's a distinction between those two worlds one is very much one of speculation where arguably a lot of those tokens are there's sort of tech stocks in some way um or in many ways uh whether it's on storage transmission um cyber security artificial intelligence whatever it may be then at the other end of the spectrum there's as I said, tokenized deposits, but in particular stablecoins.
19:32Stablecoins used primarily for cross-border applications, arguably significantly more successful than tokenized deposits or central bank digital currencies. If I've just put the Chinese yuan to one side. So in terms of scale, we've got some numbers on Klarna's scale. You've got about 100 million wallets for some of the largest stable coins market cap of tether is 180 billion um 185 billion pardon me they own more us treasuries than germany so it makes them the 16th largest country in the world if they're a nation state um so i think people are now realizing that what this is is a migration of cash first and finance more generally onto the open internet and therefore you're going to see money move in the same way that email moves for the first time yeah those are um those are some staggering numbers that you've just quoted.
20:27And I guess Megan probably starts to put some of this stuff into perspective. I know when we were at After Dark last week, you and I almost stormed the stage when it came to a discussion about stable coins and CBDC. So I know broadly where your loyalties lie on this one. But I mean, super interesting story, right? Yeah, I think it is a really interesting story. I think if we were behind even, you know, five years, I don't know that I would have predicted how entrenched stable coins are becoming like in 2025, how they're just a main part of the conversation. Like we've seen incumbents like JP Morgan with JP Morgan coin, Citi, Standard Chartered, others really leaning into it.
21:11And I think it's because while everyone was a bit skeptical of crypto, they were quite bullish on blockchain because the reality is 24 4-7 settlement globally is fantastic for your institutional partners. And so seeing someone like Klarna come to market with something like this is fantastic to see because when a fintech hits 100 million users, it effectively becomes its own distribution network for more forms of money. So I think that's only going to accelerate stablecoin adoption. But I think it makes so much sense in a number of ways. I think one of the things that I really enjoyed about the Afterdark is how it shifted over to CBDCs.
21:44And there was the skepticism around like, should there be CBDCs? because I'm quite passionate about how useful it would be being issued by a central government because now so much of the money in circulation is produced by commercial banks. It's like 97%. Whereas it used to be that the central bank could help control the market and control inflation by issuance. But now they can't issue because no one's using cash. And so to kind of retake that responsibility as a central bank, something like stablecoins and CBDCs also just make a lot of sense from that perspective. So I think it gives economic stability.
22:15It gives great utility in terms of settlement and real-time access. It makes a lot of sense. I think Klarna is moving into it now. I think it's very clearly the future. And it links up, I think, what we were talking about at the After OutArc the other day with other types of transformation we see coming to the market with Agentec AI along with digital banking globally. But having infrastructure that's programmable fits quite well with everything that's happening on the intelligent finance side with Agentec AI as well. So I think all these bits of innovation are converging for something really quite meaningful and interesting.
22:49Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And also, so the Klana CEO, Sebastian Zimekowski, it's a really interesting quote that I saw from him when this was being announced. So he said, crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low cost, secure, and built for scale. And he also said that this is really only the beginning of Klana in crypto. So, Veronica, that sounds like potentially quite an interesting statement of intent for what is, you know, an enormous fintech now in Klana. Yeah, I mean, I thought it was quite interesting because I think it was also about maybe it was a few months ago that, you know, they had made a big announcement about putting crypto into their strategy.
23:32And I'll admit, I was actually really skeptical about it because they had made the crypto announcement on the back of a number of strategic product plans. And it seemed a bit, you know, kind of hand wavy when they initially said it a few months back. But now that strategy has been made very clear and it's very specific. And there's something else that I think is also really interesting about it is, you know, we're talking about the cash flows. We're talking about the, you know, the 24-7 ecosystem. But there's also, I have to think about it, of why would an e-commerce platform go into the stablecoin space?
24:13And so then I thought about PayPal and Amazon and like the announcements that they've made as well. And I'm not a stablecoin expert, so I really have to think about it. But there's an angle there about customer stickiness. And so really what this is, is a much more tech savvy and really innovative way for Klarna to do what Starbucks did with the gift cards and how Starbucks accidentally became a bank. And what it does is when you're encouraging your users, and we'll have to see how successful they are with the onboarding for that, but when you encourage your users to essentially deposit their money into your stablecoin, it sits in a wallet, in the Klarna USD wallet that encourages customer stickiness.
Read the full transcript
24:57they'll start to make purchases via Klarna. But they're also injecting a massive amount of cash potentially into Klarna's ecosystem. So I thought that was actually really quite interesting. We'll have to see kind of how that boosts loyalty, how that creates a more seamless ecosystem loop within the Klarna world. Yeah, I'm really curious as to what that will mean for the end customer. Yeah, I think the loyalty angle is an especially interesting one. Nick, one other thought that I had, I mean, I feel like we've talked about stablecoins linked to cross-border payments now for what feels like a really, really long time.
25:41but the other bit for me of this that's interesting is Klein is also positioning this as an alternative for everyday banking payments, not just cross-borders and it being a faster alternative, a cheaper alternative so what do you think about the potential impact on those more traditional domestic rails? I'm less convinced by the domestic use cases because you've already got faster payment systems so they're doing it for two reasons really is for that brand recognition point that Veronica quite rightly has highlighted. And it's also to eat the net interest margin lunch of the banks that the deposits would formerly been sitting in.
26:22Arguably, they're probably de-risking their clients and or themselves in a way as well because they're no longer running counterparty credit risk against the banks where they would have held the deposits. So there's a de-risking angle. Obviously, there's a change because you've got slightly different risks. You've got risks against the blockchain. you've got to manage the stablecoin and things like that. But that's fundamentally what we're doing. Will we see a proliferation of different stablecoins? Again, I'm not entirely convinced. I think that really you need one of four things to make a stablecoin truly global, globally successful.
26:58So you need to own a crypto exchange. So Tether did that with Bitfinex, Circle did that with Coinbase. You need to be a global bank. and some of the big banks are trying to do stable coins. Sockgen with their Forgecoin, there's a consortium of European banks as well. There's a couple of others. And then we've got large multinational corporates and social media platforms. So it's the other ways to do it. And we're sort of rapidly running out of time on this story, Nick, which is a little bit of a shame because it is such an interesting one. But just one final sort of consideration, I think in the context as well of some of the numbers that you mentioned obviously we're probably seeing a bit of a trend now towards more favorable regulation things like the Genius Act in the US for example how important are those pieces of regulation going to be as that sort of like you know we look to sustain and sort of grow on where we're at today it helps definitely the Genius Act helps significantly because a lot of these stable coins are denominated in dollars so people are talking about de-dollarization I think actually stable coins are going to wind up re-dollarizing or dollarizing large parts of the world.
28:06In a lot of the recipient countries, it's definitely a controversial thing to say, but there's probably not a lot they can do. You can turn off the open internet. It's not a great idea. And if you try to sort of censor people and try to prevent stable coins from flowing across, then I have a VPN to sell you. You could try to run your own domestic currency so that your citizens don't want to short it. Again, easier said than done. Fiscal oppression is a tempting tool. So, yeah, regulatory clarity in some of the origin countries certainly helps. In some of the other countries, you're standing knee deep in the water telling the sea to go backwards.
28:50It's not going to do it. All right. Look, again, I mean, another super, super interesting story. I feel like we could continue to find really interesting angles to sort of, to interrogate this one on. But I guess we've got to draw a line somewhere. So on that note, I will take us through to a very quick break and we'll be back with you shortly. Through 2025, we saw brands from every corner of financial services take their user experiences to the next level. From personalization and investments to AI chatbots and crypto, end users are more empowered than ever when it comes to managing their money, and we expect that trend to continue through 2026.
29:33If you're interested in keeping up with the latest product trends, feature releases, and UX insights from brands like Monzo, Revolut, Starling, Nubank, and more, then 11FS Pulse is the tool for you. Benchmark your product against the very best by analyzing over 20 ,000 user experiences from more than 850 global brands, each handpicked and analyzed in depth by product specialists. Find out more at 11fs.com slash pulse.
30:05If you're in or near London this week, we've got good news. More than 5 ,000 industry leaders, 140 speakers, and over 100 exhibitors are heading to the Excel Center in London for FinTech Connect. Two days packed with strategy, innovation, and dealmaking. Find out more and sign up now via the link in the show notes. all right now our next story comes from entrepreneur with a headline weo bank launches quote weo family the uae's first shared banking experience for families so weo bank has launched weo family described as the uae's first fully shared banking experience for households weo family lets two adults act as quote family leads co-owners who can invite children relatives or household members to share the account.
30:54The service aims to support partners, multi-generation families, or any trusted group managing money together. The offering includes features like pockets for children of teens aged 8 to 17, giving them virtual cards with spending limits to help them learn money management, as well as shared virtual cards, spending controls, and tools for joint saving goals and budgeting. To tell us more about the launch, we have a voice note from the CEO of Weobank, Jayesh Patel. In our part of the world, money is a social tool. While you or your spouse might earn it, you tend to find a lot of people help you use your money.
31:36What we wanted to do is embed financial health in our customers' lifestyle, in the family that they live with. For us, it was critical to bring all the family stakeholders in one platform. You might have seen other platforms where the kids log into a separate app and the parents log into the separate app and the grandparents have a separate solution. We wanted to bring it all together and we wanted to give the co-owners of the accounts the full power to give different rights to different family members so that they can use different parts of the family banking offering. If you see what we've built, families can now go pool money together, see how they spend it, plan their savings, plan their investments, and cheekily also see at the end of the month how much money they are spending on food delivery and who's the highest spender.
32:33The core objective of this is how do we give better insights to our families? How do we provide better tools so that they can achieve their longer-term financial goals, as well as live their everyday life? We've built a fantastic experience for our customers, where we can have young adults and kids start learning how to save. Eventually, we will start building wealth management, and the whole family investment portfolio could reside in one centralized place. So eventually we want to get into one platform, everything money for the family wealth. Megan, let's start with you on this one. I mean, what's so interesting to me in this, sort of similar to the tide story up above, but I suppose slightly different segment, slightly different context, is that it's breaking down the traditional silos around, And I guess how people have been forced to sort of think about and manage money and it actually creates something much more intuitive that actually reflects the realities of people's everyday lives.
33:45I mean, to me, that feels like an enormous step forward. What was your reaction to this one? Yeah, I think this makes a lot of sense. I remember at Starlink from like day one of launch, this was one of the requested features of like parents who actually want to be able to manage finances with their children. let their children have a card on their account. It's like Starling has Kite now to enable that. But it was like one of the main things that kept coming up. But even just in my experience, I would say in the U.S., it seems like quite a common need where you have families who want to be able to manage finances jointly, where you have your parents and you have your children.
34:21And children need to be taught financial literacy. That's something that I think is a common complaint that's not taught more in a formal education setting. So it's left to the parents to manage that. And I think how WIO has done it here in terms of enabling, the two family leads and enabling the adolescents on the account to have their own card and having the insights as to where it's going is a really smart way to do that. Because I think if you were to rewind probably 20 years, it might have been cash phase where you get an allowance and you get literal physical money and you talk to your parents about it in a very different dynamic.
34:49But now it's all digital. So evolving that kind of dynamic just makes sense. But I think it'll be interesting. I do think having kids on an account makes a lot of sense. I still think there's like an interesting distribution of households where the two spouses might not actually have a joint account. Like sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. So within in banking, so it's like you're forming a new like family joint account, which is an interesting way to bring it all into one hub. So yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense over like shared agency within the family. Yeah. Yeah, I completely agree.
35:24And I think as well, Veronica, another thing that that I find quite interesting about this is the, there's clearly quite a nuanced sort of cultural understanding that sort of, I think, really fed into shaping this proposition. You know, I think there's something like 25 to 30 % of households in the UAE. There's three or more generations. I think that's under 10%, for example, in most Western European countries. So it feels like the proposition has really understood, you know, the households and sort of wanted to create something that sort of represents that. Yeah, I think it's actually really cool because when you think about it, you have, even if we're just looking at three generations, like parents, children, and grandchildren, these are vastly different demographics in terms of their financial needs and potentially even their financial literacy.
36:22So typically it'll be the generation of the two parents that are the only income earners in the house, right? So you're preparing the younger kids to equip them with the financial literacy tools to understand their finances and plan for their future when they eventually become income earners, but give them a concept of the value of money and their purchasing power. and then as a parent, as a working parent, you are also preparing for very different stages of your life. You're managing your own finances. You're planning your children's financial future. And then as you also progress in your career and your life, you're going to be taking very different levels of risk appetite or risk aversion as you get older into your own financial planning, planning for your own retirement, and then potentially actually even taking care of your own parents who might be past retirement age, who are really doing a totally different financial, it's not even financial planning anymore, it's actually financial management as someone who's no longer or maybe never has been an income earner.
37:28And you're really focused on longevity and quality of life. When you put that all into one platform, I think we're talking about like really compounded levels of financial literacy for managing a household, but also really setting up future generations for success. And I think that is very cool and potentially breaks a lot of cultural barriers around, you know, what's taboo, what's allowed when you're having a money conversation in the house. That's a business I'd like to see scale into different geographies with different cultures as well. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And it's so interesting because, you know, when you describe all of those potential use cases across those, say, three separate generations, I mean, obviously there's an enormous amount of complexity.
38:14but the reality is that by bringing this all under one roof and under one holistic picture you can start to manage some of those complexities also you know that complexity is going to be there regardless of whether it all exists in silos or under one um one holistic picture um but your point about the financial literacy and how that's been built up over time i think is really important I think it's something that, on the whole, not just financial services providers, but I think governments, et cetera, are starting to wake up to, you know, we've always said on this show, I've certainly said a few times, where does the responsibility sit for teaching people financial literacy?
38:56You know, is it in schools? Is it parents? Is it your banks and your financial services providers? I know here in the UK, very recently, the Labour government has announced initiatives around teaching financial literacy in school. Obviously, it's very much early days at the moment, but an important stepping stone. But when you look at things like this, again, the sort of potential compounding effects, I think, is really positive. Nick, I know that the Middle East is a market you know well, although on the wholesale side, not necessarily the retail side, but it's kind of hard to ignore the success and the momentum that WIO is building over that.
39:39Yeah, correct. We do know WIO Bank. One of my close colleagues, Banks with them, so I asked him about them over the course of today. It doesn't surprise me whatsoever that they've done this here. You know, families taken very, very seriously here. You can tell that from the moment you arrive in the airport. Families don't queue. Everyone else does. Families get taken separately and you get fast-tracked everywhere you go. It's lovely. You've also got an added layer of complexity. So not only do you have the complexity of trying to manage across a family, but a lot of people here are expatriates like I am.
40:12My family is still back in the UK. Kids are settled in school. So not only am I trying to manage family finances from a different country, um yeah i'm trying to do that for two kids uh and my wife and yeah a lot of that so i use a tier one bank and a fintech bank both british um one's multinational i won't say who um but with both of them it feels like they've tried to hack the family in to a pre-designed system whereas if we are actually designing this from the ground up then actually you'll get something that yeah It literally doesn't feel like me as the square peg is being jammed into the round hole with the result that my wife, in our financial terms, is very much the second-class citizen.
40:56I don't mean in terms of how much money she has access to. I mean in just the capabilities, the systems she has access to. Being able to make instructions and things like that, it's messy and it's not the way it should be. It's ridiculous. No, I completely agree. And I guess that's because it's a reflection of sort of legacy bank technologies and processes and systems that are just so almost impossible to sort of back solve um yeah as you quite rightly said i think you're helped slightly here because they do have id sorted here so your identity in the united arab emirates is hard-coded to your emirates id and your phone number um if you don't have a phone here you are a bit stuck um smartphone but everything goes back to that fundamental core that's your identification that's there are various different apps which you can then use to unlock basically everything i go to buy various things they take the id and you're straight through there's no kyc or things like that they know who you are and off you go yeah and of course you know putting back that uk uh that uk lens and talking about announcing policy of course they've announced the digital id and there's been um quite a lot of uh i suppose argument and debate uh on both sides but um i agree i think that id piece to be able to do this, to be able to do it properly is absolutely key.
42:17Another story that it feels like we could continue to unpack, but I'm really sorry, I'm going to have to move us on. So this next story comes from FinTech Magazine with a headline, chased out, Google replaced as tube contactless partner, chased out. I see what they did there. So the Transport for London or TFL has appointed Chase Bank UK as its new quote, official payment partner replacing Google Pay. Under the new deal, Chase debit card customers tapping in or out on London's Tube, DLR, Overground, Elizabeth Line, and other TFL services can get 1 % cash back up to around about£180 per year. Chase branding will be rolled out across about 5 ,000 contactless readers across the network, including major central London stations like Kings Cross, Waterloo, Oxford Circus, and more.
43:11Despite the switch, commuters can still use other contactless payment methods, cards or wallets. It's a commercial sponsorship and doesn't change the underlying contactless payment infrastructure. Chase has quietly scaled back much of the generous cashback it launched with, trimming one of its biggest early selling points. There's a couple of different angles that I want to explore with you guys on this. Veronica, start with you. How noticeable do you think these sort of like ads and sponsorships really are? Because I use the tube a fair bit. I think before I read this story, if you had asked me, you know, on the gates, whose is the branding, who sponsors it?
43:57I don't know that I would have been able to tell you that it was Google Pay. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I don't think Chase would do it if they didn't plan for some sort of visibility around it, right? because this is going to be as much a branding exercise for them as it is into their broader UK expansion. However, the branding is not the be-all end-all here because from day one of this being implemented, they'll already be taking millions of data points. If you just think about the sheer volume of footfall of people who come in through the TFL every single day for 365 days a year, Um, the, the branding is just the veneer here.
44:40Um, Chase, I think this is kind of a symmetrical move of what they're doing, of what Revolut have done with the MTA in New York, uh, where this is now a major American bank that is starting to identify more and more as a fintech, making an embedded play into their sister city or their financial capital equivalent on the other side of the pond. So the branding will probably be very sleek and excellent, but the richness of the data they'll be collecting and how this fits into their broader strategy for expansion onto the side of the pond is going to be a lot more layered and interesting. Yeah, I agree.
45:18I think that is absolutely the correct perspective. On the point about Chase Bank's sort of expansion, over in the UK. Like Megan, how would you sort of like evaluate or assess that success? I mean, obviously they launched with an enormously generous cashback offering that helped them acquire lots of customers. But obviously that's now been scaled back quite dramatically. You know, how do you sort of, I suppose, understand where they're at without that sort of big financial hook? Yeah, I think it was interesting. I think actually as one of the incumbents launching a digital bank, they've done maybe the best job that I've seen.
46:08I think, I mean, they have 2.5 million customers here in the UK. They have over 20 billion in deposits. They built on 10x and I think they had something like 900 people working on it. So they just want like full tilt. Like, I don't know how they hired that many people, but they really leaned into it. But as you're saying, they did this gigantic loss-making introductory offer with cash back on spending in order to incentivize customers to join and to build that deposit base. And they did that phenomenally well. And then obviously, they're a huge lender. So building that deposit is something they can monetize through NIM quite easily.
46:39But I think with this, I think it's fascinating. I think Veronica made a good point that it's similar to what Revolut is doing with NTA because transport networks are some of the highest frequency financial touchpoints in society. and it's where brand meets behavior. And effectively, it's not necessarily about cashback, but about presence. And they just want to be where the taps are happening. But I think more than that, I think now what's quite noticeable about their strategy is that as payments become invisible, the battle shifts from the card perks to the infrastructure partnerships. And so this positions them as someone who sees the structural layer, not just the promo layer.
47:18So I think it's hitting like two goals at once. It is, yes, maybe people will kind of on some subconscious level see the branding as they're on the TFL. Maybe they won't. But I think there's layers to the strategy here. But I think they have been quite successful, I would say, in their expansion in the UK. So I'm excited to see it. Yeah, agreed. And it's, you know, I think that, you know, to go back to my earlier question, which was a little bit in jest, you know, I think that's subliminal, sort of picking up the branding and all of that sort of stuff. I think we probably don't always sort of understand the impact that that has in the right way as well.
47:57Well, I suppose you know the market's going to be there. It's hardly that I'm going to switch to running to work or taking the bike because Google no longer does the payments. So the people you're going to be selling to are right there. And in terms of the cashback, it's probably not going to sway most people, but it's going to sway Gen Z and millennials, for whom£180 is a free monthly pass, give or take. depends on where you're commuting to but i would guess that's a free month you're spot on it it was actually a another question that i was going to ask because you've sort of you've obviously gone now from a chase perspective of you get cash back on you know for the i think it's the the introductory 12 months on on on every purchase and then okay you get cash back on um purchases as if you deposit X amount.
48:44And then now they're saying, all right, well, you get this 1 % on specific transactions, i.e. TFL. But I was kind of like, look, in my mind, if someone is multibanked, but their primary account is Monzo or Revolut or whoever that might be, is this enough of a financial incentive for them to go, all right, well, maybe I keep my primary account with Revolut or Monzo, but I move a little bit across every month to do my commute. And maybe, you're right, maybe, Nick, for the segments that you're talking about, that 180 pounds a year, maybe that is compelling enough. Yeah, it's just a slightly different thumb movement when you're selecting the card as you're walking, as you're approaching the barrier.
49:29It's not exactly, it's not exactly difficult. So, yeah, and for that generation, I mean, in jest as well, it's 180 pounds that Rachel Reeves can't tax. So that's probably an added bonus. Yeah, I was thinking of what David said at the After Dark, actually, because he was talking about his Amex and how he will do anything for Amex points. And then Laura was adding to that about, like with Booking.com and Revolut and that story, about how she could really see that because with travel, it's a big expense, you know, really investing there for like points and cashback is something that Gen Z and certain target segments really lean into.
50:06I almost wonder, like, in the US, we had this theme where people who were travel hacking would have like five different cards on rotation and, you know, they'd be optimizing which one they use and when. I could see that like coming up in the UK now where you have your Chase card for TFL, you have Revolut for like your travel and like Bookie on Booking.com and then you have like Monzo or Starling or whoever for like other, you know, optimizations. But it's like kind of spreading out across, you know, the banks for this like multi-banked experience to try to optimize on points. Kind of wonder if that's going to kind of come up here more now that we have better cashback experiences.
50:38I mean, I fly a lot, So I already do that with cards and booking flights and different airlines and just getting the configurations right. And of course, I suppose from the advertising perspective, the one that I would argue that we probably all know is World's Local Bank. HSBC, you know, here to six in terms of getting their branding on every single gangplank from every single plane that I can remember taking for a very long period of time. And still today. They do. They dominate those airports, don't they? Yeah, they really do. And of course, Megan, sort of building on that, I mean, and Nick, to exactly the segments that you were talking about, I think the example on the After Dark was all of these sort of like Instagram or TikTok influencers that literally their whole, they've built their whole brand around like travel hacks and all of that sort of stuff.
51:24If you want to get the most, then you do this and all of that sort of stuff. So no, 100%, I think there's absolutely a market for these types of, you know, sort of, I suppose, on the face of it, quite narrow cashback propositions. But there's always, it's like the current account switch incentives. There's always people that will just like hack all of that stuff and get all of the value. It's a game as well. It's fun to try to be cleverer than all these systems to play them all off against each other. You know, I'm sure there's a game element to it. Absolutely. No, I couldn't agree more. Another great story.
52:03Again, you know, I think we said at the top it was an interesting news week. I think that's certainly turning out to be the case. On that note, we're just going to take a quick pause here and we'll be back with you very shortly.
52:25Okay, now for a quick look at one story we don't have time to cover in full. So this one comes from FinTech Finance News with a headline, Wise becomes first non-bank to go live on Japan's Zengen system via API and settle directly with Bank of Japan. Wise is now the first non-bank in Japan to connect to the Zengen domestic payments network using a modern API rather than the legacy relay computer system. It has secured direct settlement with the Bank of Japan, eliminating the need for intermediary banks and accelerating yen payment processing. Through this integration, WISE can use the To-Go ATM switching service to verify recipient names, helping to prevent delays caused by name entry mismatches in Katakana.
53:11The move aligns with WISE's broader strategy of building direct links with domestic payment systems, boosting the speed, 74 % of transfers under 20 seconds, and reliability of its payments infrastructure. To tell us more about this new research, we have a voice note from Mika Say. WISE's country manager for West Japan. The Zengin system is Japan's domestic payment network like the UK's FPS. For decades, access to this system was restricted to licensed banks only, and connections were made through complex proprietary relay computer systems. With our connection, we've done something entirely new for Japan in three ways.
53:56First, we are the first non-bank and the first international company to directly connect to the Zengin system, similar to how we were the first non-bank to be granted direct access to the UK's FPS. Second, we are the first to connect to the system via API, which is a new way that Zengin Net developed to standardize connections and encourage new participants. And third, we are the first non-bank to establish a settlement account directly with the Bank of Japan, meaning we are settling transactions independently without any intermediaries. What this means practically, first-time payments, more liability, and better services for our customers sending money to and from Japan.
54:43With our connection to Zengin, WISE is now directly connected to Plugged Into 8 schemes around the world in the UK, Europe, Hungary, Australia, Singapore, Philippines and Brazil Bringing us another step closer to becoming the network for the world's money
55:05Alright, and finally as ever, we're going to close on something a little bit different to finish off this week's news show. So this one comes from Reuters with the headline, David Beckham signs sports partnership deal with Bank of America. So David Beckham has signed a multi-year partnership with Bank of America to promote global sports programs ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. As a co-owner of the MLS's Inter Miami, Beckham believes the 2026 World Cup will further ignite U.S. soccer interest, calling the country a quote sleeping giant. For Bank of America the deal extends its quote sports with us initiative using major sports moments to build emotional connections with customers and expand its branding.
55:56The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed but both sides emphasize long-term community impact and youth engagement through sport as I expect they probably would rather than revealing the financial terms of the deal. Interesting one, Veronica. What was your reaction to this? Yeah, I think of all the stories on today's episode, this is the one where I have to bite my tongue the most because I have so many feelings about it. Let it all out, Veronica. I don't think you could get bigger names for your campaign. Like, what's more football than David Beckham? You know, like... It's, you know, of this generation.
56:40He's such an icon for both for himself as an entrepreneur as well as a football player. Bank of America, obviously, it has America on the very name. So it's a very, very strategic and obvious partnership. But then even if we talk about, you know, Inter Miami, Miami is also the nexus for where, you know, a lot of the football comes together. I think especially now because you've got a massive Latin American diaspora, including Messi in Miami. But, you know, football itself is just making such big waves in the U.S. and capturing the culture and the excitement and all of these emotions around it.
57:23So it's very big kind of obvious elements that are very, I think, emotional coming together all in one particular program or campaign. yeah it's going to be very exciting to see to see what kind of what comes of this one what do you think Megan what's your reaction you know I'm not that big into football but like I get it like you can build your brand through association you know if innovating through your product isn't doing it for you you know David Beckham you know just lean into the celebrity of it and people get really passionate about football so I think you know like Veronica said associating yourself with someone who's like quite an icon on who kind of hits that emotional nerve, like, and just like pairing those two things in people's minds of like David Beckham and Bank of America is quite an interesting branding, marketing strategy.
58:12So yeah, I mean, it's interesting. I'm curious to see how it works out for them. I will be following it closely. So I'm on the edge of my seat. I don't believe you.
58:28But Nick, I mean, do you think that this like solves any potential problems like adds any potential value like if we think back to the discussion we had previously about financial literacy is there the potential here to maybe engage people in a conversation around finance that you know they weren't having before? Potentially I don't know I have no idea how financially literate David Beckham is Sir David Beckham I should say actually we should all say is a nice of the route of course so I don't know he's my I don't know that much about him but you know I saw that unlike a lot of the other celebrities he queued with everybody else to go and pay his respects when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth passed away that as far as I'm concerned is a measure of the man you queue with everyone else regardless of who you are yeah I'm British love a queue so good on him great to see him continuing to succeed and still doing good things yeah nice that's a nice way to end nice positive note I'm going to apologize for this up front sadly there are no time for penalties or extra time today so that concludes this week's FinTech Insider News thank you so much to today's guests maybe we can just do a little around the virtual room you can tell us where people can find out a little bit more about you guys as individuals and your companies let's start with you Nick so we have a website zodiamarkets.com I sort of do a lot of the podcasts for us so you can probably find me on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you use for your podcasts somewhere around, talking usually about stablecoins, digital assets.
1:00:11Love it. Thank you, Nick. Megan, how about you? Yeah, people can find me on LinkedIn at Megan K. Wood or K. Wood at kwood.ai. So either of those are good. How about you, Veronica? Well, to hear a little bit more about Juice Ventures, you can go to getmejuice.com and if you want to get in touch with me, you can find me at LinkedIn, Veronica Maria Gladwell. And as for me, you can find me on LinkedIn, Ross Gallagher, or to find out a little bit more about 11FS and what we do on the consulting side of the business, you can check out 11FS.com forward slash ventures. Thank you so much for listening to today's FinTech Insider.
1:00:50If you like what you heard, please make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast platform of choice. And if you really like what you've heard, why not share the podcast with a colleague or friend. As always, if you want to join the conversation, find us on social media. Just search for 11FS or FinTech Insider or email podcasts at 11FS.com. Thank you again and goodbye.
From the publisher
About this episode:
Host Ross Gallagher, Head of Consulting at 11:FS, is joined by a fantastic panel of guests as we dive into some of the biggest stories from the worlds of fintech, banking, and wider financial services this week.
Stories covered on the podcast this week include:
On this week’s episode, Tide has expanded its SMB offering with the launch of its latest connected insurance product. Klarna has entered the stablecoin market, and we dig into what this bold move means for the BNPL giant. Over in the UAE, Wio Bank has introduced Wio Family, a first-of-its-kind banking experience in the region.
We also break down why Chase’s new partnership with TfL has everyone buzzing about its cashback promises. In other news, Wise has become the first non-bank to go live on Japan’s Zengin system — we explore why that’s such a big deal.
And finally, we look at what David Beckham is doing with Bank of America, which naturally leads us to the very important question: Who would be your dream fintech ambassador?
This week's guests:
Nick Philpott- Co-founder and Head of Partnerships at Zodia Markets
Megan Caywood, CEO of Caywood
Veronica Glab, Strategic Partnerships Lead at Juice
Also featuring voice notes from:
Dan McNally, CEO of Tide Insurance
Jayesh Patel, CEO of Wio Bank
Mika Sei, Country Manager, Japan at Wise
Read the 11:FS Benchmarking Report here
Timestamps/stories
Intro - (00:00)
Tide to launch connected insurance for SMBs-(06:17)
Klarna to launch dollar-backed stablecoin as race in digital payments heats up- (18:35)
Wio Bank Launches 'Wio Family' - The UAE's First Shared Banking Experience For Families - (32:49)
Chased Out: Google Replaced as Tube Contactless Partner-(44:48)
Wise Becomes First Non-Bank to Go Live on Japan's Zengin System via API and Settle Directly With Bank of Japan-(54:48)
David Beckham signs sports partnership deal with Bank of America-(57:29)
--
Links to check out:
Join our WhatsApp community, where you can get the inside track on all all things 11:FS, as well as having your say on the things we should be paying attention to.
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KpA4gFbbWDlLFm7kx39raf
--
About Fintech Insider:
Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a bi-weekly podcast that covers everything from finance and banking to technology and the latest trends in financial services.
Our expert hosts, with hands-on industry experience, are joined by key decision-makers, VCs, and top reporters from across the financial landscape, including guests from companies like Stripe, Revolut, Plaid, PayPal, and Monzo. Together, they break down the biggest news and innovations shaping the space.
Our weekly news show drops every Monday, covering major stories like mergers, new product launches, regulatory shifts, and emerging tech trends. On Thursdays, our Insights show goes deeper into the hottest topics driving the future of finance, including AI in banking, decentralised finance, and the evolving landscape of embedded finance.
Whether you're already in the fintech game or just starting to explore, this is the #1 podcast for you.
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review!
Got a question for us? Email podcasts@11fs.com!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices




