1052.News: AI agents are trading, Monzo is retreating, and Wise is coming for the banks

26:20Ross Gallagher:Yeah, you raise so many interesting points. I love the point that you raised about, because it was so organic, wasn't it, in the UK? Like they sort of started out from Shoreditch and could really incubate among that sort of like community of sort of like fintech loving, early adopters. And then it sort of gained traction from there. I mean, I remember, you know, the hot coral debit card being like a real talking point, you know, when someone took it out. It was kind of a, oh, gosh, wow, what's that? I haven't seen something like that before. And you're right, you know, then when you're going into a much larger market like the US, it's a lot more difficult to sort of do that.

26:56Ross Gallagher:And of course, the maybe investor and shareholder expectations are different in terms of how quickly they're going to scale into these new markets as well. But Dave, one of the points that Fliss made that I thought was really interesting is, you know, as you start to look forward to something like an IPO, maybe concentrating on some of those core markets and your key strengths rather than trying to sort of dilute too much on a global scale, probably as a sensible play. Yeah, I think for me, a lot of this is about the IPO. I think there'll be some books written on some of the soap opera that's gone on their board this year, for sure, in future times.

27:31But, you know, the US is such a fragmented market and you've got to be a huge player, the sort of Revolut size, the new bank size, to go and actually enter that market and succeed. You know, Monzo are now huge in the UK, they're not that scale of those sorts of guys. And so that would have diluted so much of their focus there. I think Europe is a much easier play, particularly if they start Ireland-wise. It's a much similar market to the UK. They can expand from that out across Europe at that point. I think that will be a more focused and concentrated route. I think it will line up better with their investors, with their IPO strategy and things like that from what I'm seeing.

28:18So I don't think it's... I wouldn't see it as a retreat. I wouldn't see it as a sort of... I think it's a positive move for them. I think it will, you know, enhance what they've got and not dilute what they've got. And I think that that is what you want if you're heading very rapidly towards an IPO.

28:38Ross Gallagher:Yeah, it's, I mean, I think you're so right when you sort of compare it, the global scale to something like a Revolut. You know, I think Monzo's got that 15 million sort of UK customers, which is incredible, really, when you look at how long they've been going and then the foothold that they've managed. Of course, Revolut slightly less in the UK, I think around about the 13 million, but of course, like 50 million plus globally. So a totally different model. Yannick, I suppose with your sort of tech startup CEO hat on, do you agree with sort of Dave and Fliss that a lot of this is being driven with a view to that future IPO?

29:14I mean, that might be a part of it, but I also just echo. So the thing these markets have in common is that they both speak English. But that's about it. Like the U.S. and the U.K. I lived in London. I had my old startup there. And nobody actually realizes how K-shaped the U.S. economy is, first of all. If you look at the neobanks here that all started, they were pretty much all in the sort of like subprime to prime segment. And what you call a prime customer in the U.S., still living paycheck to paycheck, right? So like even the terminology is just like very, very different. You know, the bottom 75 % of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and have an average savings account of 500 bucks.

30:03That's really hard to build a business around if you're in banking. And so therefore, a lot of people have focused on speculation, i.e. gamified trading, $100 payday advances, et cetera. because speculation and sort of some of these high-rate loans are the ways to monetize a customer that doesn't really have much net worth, if anything. And that's been the story of U.S. fintech, at least 80, 90 % of it so far. I think you are seeing a shift. At Public, we very actively focus on sort of like the top 25%, you know, basically that just means people that have disposable income that can actually invest.

30:52If you're in that group, I think you're looking to compound wealth. And I think we're a great platform for that. If you're not in that group, a lot of people are looking for a lottery ticket that used to be a meme stock, a meme coin. Maybe now it's like a super asymetical prediction markets sports bet. But like, that's where a lot of that behavior has been sitting. and so the consumer behavior is just wildly different. And, you know, what people want and expect out of these things is just like it's day and night. And so I think, you know, the LDB, the CAC, I actually think it's like the IPO for sure, but more than that, I think, you know, economics are likely just very tough.

31:35I mean, this is not the first time you've seen it. There's a bunch of others that you all know that have tried going into the US and come back. And by the way, we flirted with going to the UK at one point and also decided ultimately not to do that because it's a national expansion to a wildly different market. It's just very, very tough. And, you know, I think you also, amongst the incumbents that have very different kind of banks that dominate their different kind of regions around the world. And I think with the two exceptions that you mentioned, Nubank and Revenute that I would say are still not really much in the US market.

32:09Like I don't think any of my friends outside FinTech know really much about any of those companies. But they've been managed to go somewhat global, meaning like at least multiple continents and stuff. And they've done an incredible job with that. But outside those two, there's a big gap down to have actually managed to do that. Even among the incumbents, right? Like I have people back in Scandinavia that don't know what Chase is. Yeah. You know? And so it's not, you know, history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes sometimes. And I think this might be one of those situations. I think, I've been to the US for a while, and I think there's a different relationship with your bank there.

32:48It's a necessary evil if you have a bank, to have a bank in the US. Whereas in UK and Europe, you tend to have a more of a founded relationship with your bank. It's at the heart of a lot of what you do and how you think about your finances. whereas for most people in the US it's I need a bank account because I've got to pay my bills and that's it. It's not because of any of the reason that they didn't need that they wouldn't have one.

33:12Ross Gallagher:And you pay for it and you pay per transaction and all of that sort of stuff the model is fundamentally different. Sorry Fliss, did you want to come in on that? And well, it leads nicely on from what Dave was saying. I think whilst Monzo is maybe not expanding in global terms It's expanding to a richer data set in the services it's offering. There's open banking and open finance in the UK. I can already see what my mortgage is outstanding in my Monzo app. That's where I go first to see what I've got left to pay. And their recent acquisition of Habito, they're making their offering a richer, fuller financial management go-to place for their customers, which makes a lot of sense.

34:00Ross Gallagher:I completely agree. I'm with you 100%. That's where I go to see my mortgage and sort of like the loan to value and the equity that I have in the house. And it gives you all of that richness of information that you're probably not going to get from your traditional mortgage provider. And of course, you know, you can now transfer your pension to Monzo and all of that sort of stuff, right? So I completely agree. You know, the richness, it's becoming a more full service sort of banking offering and actually, yeah, for the customers that they do have in terms of delivering the best experience and the sort of richness fliss that you mentioned, I think doubling down on that and building out the offering and the proposition rather than exploring sort of new markets at this stage.

34:46Ross Gallagher:And I think, Yannick, you did such a good job of bringing the differences, the sort of the very local nuances of the U.S. market to life. I think when you're looking at it through that lens as well, I think it makes a ton of sense in terms of the direction that they've taken. All right, well, look, on that note, we're going to take a very quick pause here and we will be back with you very shortly.

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36:33Ross Gallagher:Now, before we get back to the news, I wanted to tell you about our latest Insight show. We've teamed up with the folks at Adyen to explore all things treasury management and what happens when money movement becomes a real competitive advantage. It's out now, so once you finish this episode, head down to the podcast feed and give it a listen. Now back to the news. Our next story comes from a Wise press release. Wise launches UK current account. So Wise has launched a new UK current account, positioning itself more directly against traditional high street banks as it expands beyond cross-border payments into everyday banking.

37:11Ross Gallagher:They also opened a pop-up experience on London's Oxford Street, specifically for this announcement. The move comes as Wyze's usage continues to grow rapidly in the UK, with over 3 million active customers last year collectively holding more than 8 billion in Wyze accounts. At the heart of the proposition is a key differentiator. Customers can earn 3.26 % interest on their GBP balances while still having full access to their money for everyday spending, something traditional current accounts typically don't offer. The account is designed with an international first mindset, allowing users to hold 40 plus currencies, get local account details in over 20 currencies, send money to 70 plus countries, and spend abroad at the mid-market exchange rates.

38:01Ross Gallagher:Gosh, lots to unpack on this one. Another really interesting story. Dave, I guess one of the things that really stands out on this one is that sort of being able to earn that 3.26 % interest, but in the same account that you're spending your money and obviously all of that money is available for spending. That feels like a shift from sort of what we're used to. Yeah, it's certainly a shift from what's there in the high street. I think some of this, when I was reading this story, I think whether they had this planned for a long time, I think they clearly must have done, But it was, you know, they had to keep up with where Revolut were going when they got their banking license, you know, to be able to sort of offer similar services because they would then end up, without something like this, they'd end up pigeonholed us just the money transfer app.

38:53and still, and actually, you know, Revolut have been pushing so hard. You know, we're a bank now, guys. You know, come and bank with us and we're not just your travel app anymore. We're much more than that. I think a lot of people thought that even before they had a license, to be honest. But I think this is important as a step. It's a real differentiator, having the, you know, the interest in your current account and not have to worry about moving money around between savings accounts and other things like that. it's all there in one place. So I can see what they're trying to achieve there. I don't, you know, I don't think that, it doesn't feel like they're going after the high street because banks, you know, they're probably keeping with their peers in Revolut and others on trying to make sure that's where they're sitting.

39:42Ross Gallagher:Yeah. I mean, yeah, it is, it's, I really do think it's quite interesting that, you know, there's so much money just sitting dead in current accounts earning almost no interest in this idea that you've got to move it across to a savings account, either easy access or potentially lock it away to get a slightly better rate. I think that 3.26, I haven't looked this up, but I would expect in the current interest rate environment, that's probably not far off market leading. But I guess one thing that should be flagged is that it's a variable rate. The money's invested in a fund, the capital is at risk but it's invested in sort of government guaranteed assets so I guess relatively low risk.

40:27Ross Gallagher:Yannick, what do you make of that model, that approach? Do you think it's something that customers will resonate? Yeah, probably. I mean, I think everyone's a little bit, if you go back two years, three years, everybody thinks a little bit shocked that rates are actually still this high and, you know, there's been a few cuts stateside at least and then then it kind of stopped and nothing now everybody's sitting around waiting for the new fat chair and and you know so but look i it's a little two-sided i think as from an operator's perspective like you need to have offer some yield to compete that's just like that's what it is i think at the same time you want to make sure that it doesn't become your main differentiator because it's entirely externally controlled and it's probably the single most commoditized part like yield in general and I get that they're doing it in the current account and that's had a little bit of a differentiation but generally speaking you don't want your entire brand and your entire value proposition to just be yield because if it goes away then what do you do right and and so I think you know as an operator you just got to manage that balance always like yes customers love free money no question no surprises by the way um but and but then at the same time you just want to make sure you don't kind of overdo it so look they know what they're doing or they i think that i'm sure they looked at the data and ran some experiments and figured out that this was a a nice a nice improvement for for most of their customers yeah fliss i mean it feels to me like um maybe a play for that sort of like that primary account for customers it's kind of like you know hold your money with us we'll give you a high yield on um on the balance but then you can also spend and transact from that account so it looks like it's it's a play to sort of get the balances and then also that sort of transaction behavior is that how you'd sort of interpret it as well yeah i did it's a carrot a trick to get a few more people, isn't it, to go beyond their core customer base.

42:35And in a society where we don't change our bank accounts for many, many, many years, if ever, you've got to do quite a lot to start getting new customers. So Wise obviously wants to move out of only being the travel money account holder and in a parallel is similar it reminds me of Monzo wanting to graduate from being just the play discretionary money account holder and now matured and got many adults holding and using properly accounts and their increasing number of opening children's accounts and trying to get more customers from the ground up once you get a child a customer account and then they're unlikely to ever leave.

43:27It's Wise's version of trying to expand their customer base, a slightly different spin on what they can offer. And yes, is interest-bearing current accounts sustainable? I did a quick search before this podcast and there are a few other banks that offer interest, but not many. And they come with restrictions, time restrictions or upper balance restrictions. So you have to keep an eye on when those benefits might run out or exceed parameters, but definitely a play to increase the type of customer base with still that sense of giving an enriched offering. Dave, I think Fliss makes a couple of really interesting points, but I think

44:13Ross Gallagher:the one that sticks in my mind is, you know, this sort of this kind of graduating from that sort of original niche, the sort of wise went after, which was obviously that sort of that cheap FX and money transfer. And I suppose it's hard not to compare it to yeah, Felicia gave the example of sort of Monzo and being that sort of fun money that discretionary spend. And then I suppose Revolut as well in terms of also playing in that sort of cheap FX space. it does feel like, why is it maybe a little bit behind those guys in terms of making that full transition from the niche into sort of maybe that more mainstream play?

44:54Yeah, well, they don't jump out. If you're not in the industry, I don't think it jumps out to people as the name that you would go to. But, you know, it's hard to differentiate with travel money. You know, there's a lot of people doing it. The banks can come and do it. you know, Monzo, the other neobanks have all got that. So how do you differentiate on that and move to something? So I think they are now trying to come the other way, broaden what they're offering. I think the interesting bit as part of that for me was what they're doing around kids' cards and kids' accounts and things like that in that, because that's a wider play for them as well, of trying to get people in, get the family on there so they graduate to a full account and things which Monzo have done very well at playing at that space so you can see them looking to sort of repeat that model and do that as well.

45:50So I think it was a natural thing to do. They've got some other differentiators that are the key in there for people who are more sophisticated in where their money is with the ability to have local i-bands in in different countries and things like that which you know is quite a big big win if you're you know the sort of more sophisticated person who's got property abroad and things like that and want to be able to do you know direct debits in in europe or the us or whatever excuse my ignorance quickly but like what is the take sort of locally in in europe and in london maybe on this type of business the travel stuff you mentioned dave and then in relation to stable coins

46:29Ross Gallagher:I think Wiser a really interesting one, I think in that sort of crypto and stablecoin space in particular, because I think they've always said that they're not going to let people sort of hold and trade crypto on the platform. But then I think late last year, they hired for a product manager with specific crypto skills. So it was the first time that they sort of, any sort of indication that they were maybe be more positive around sort of crypto and potentially stable coins. I think 2025 was really a sort of breakout year when it comes to stable coins in particular. So I think sentiment generally I would say is more positive than maybe it has been in the past.

47:19Yeah, I think if you're not playing in stable coin, you'll start to struggle in cross-border payments in a few years done. And so I think that naturally they're going to have to go that direction. Yeah, that's kind of, I mean, like people are obviously like very like crypto is a very divisive topic. The one subdomain in crypto that's not that divisive is stablecoins, right? And so that's the thing that everybody, and even from a regulatory perspective, we sort of agreed to like kick the can down the road a little bit on many of the other things. Like let's just start getting everybody on the same page with stable coins pretty bipartisan in the us by the way too whereas pretty much everything else gets politicized right and so um so that that seems like the one thing that everyone overwhelmingly just can agree is is is gonna have a

48:06Ross Gallagher:especially in fx right yeah yeah i think so and obviously the genius act really helps that but i think as well i'd argue that we're sort of going beyond i'd argue that sort of um fx and and those types of use cases are pretty much hygiene now. I think we're sort of looking at all right, well, what are the everyday banking use cases? The and I think that's, but that's the next sort of chasm that stablecoins have to cross it's like, can it move from being the sort of FX cross border bit into everyday banking? The FX market while it's big, it's not, I mean, stablecoins as a product is not going to grow into its, I think expectation and potential if it stays within that, right?

48:46Agreed.

48:47Ross Gallagher:And yeah, I can go on about this, but I'll move this on. I won't, I won't, I won't segue it again. No, maybe we can pick it up after. All right, our final main story this week comes from the BBC with a headline, Lloyd's Bank Reveals IT Glitch Affected Almost Half a Million Customers. Nearly 450 ,000 customers across Lloyd's, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland were affected by a recent IT glitch that exposed other people's transaction data within their banking apps. The issue, which occurred on 12th of March, was caused by a software defect introduced during an overnight system update. In total, more than 114 ,000 customers actively clicked into and accessed other people's data, raising serious concerns around privacy and data protection.

49:35Ross Gallagher:Lloyd's has so far paid out£139 ,000 in compensation to around 3 ,600 customers, averaging roughly 38 pounds per person, though the total number affected is far higher. The bank says it has fixed the issue and is cooperating with regulators, including the FCA and the ICO, both of which are now investigating. I mean, my first reaction to reading the story was like, it got described as a glitch, and it's kind of like, oh, this little thing, but it's so serious. But I mean, Dave, look, I know, sort of a few episodes ago on the podcast, we were talking about this sort of stated ambition from Lloyd's to become the biggest fintech company in the UK.

50:19Ross Gallagher:I don't think this kind of issue helps those ambitions. It doesn't. And particularly their ambition, a lot of that fintech ambition is centered around being able to share data. And in the same week, they were happily sharing data across customers. So, yeah, I would... Their press office has done well to manage to get this down to be described as a glitch. This is a monster of a problem. You know, how did you not test that sort of stuff? You know, segregation of data between your customers is just so fundamental. This is, it's such, I don't, I don't understand why this hasn't been shouted so loudly.

51:05It's not been, there's not been a lot in the press about it in the UK. It's not been all over the news. For me, this is a huge thing. This is a fundamental trust break from a bank about their customers' data. And yeah, it seems to be very quiet. I think there's going to be some big fines coming from the ICO about it because they've breached massive bits of GDPR and things like that with what they shared. You know, like some of the transactions from the Department for work and pensions. The reference codes had people's national insurance numbers in them and things like that. And so there's some fairly sensitive data that's been shared around in that.

51:49Ross Gallagher:Really, really sensitive data. I'm with you 100 % in that I've been surprised by how this has been sort of pushed down the sort of news cycle and hasn't seemed to have been talked about as much as maybe it should have been. I think the other thing, Flester, that maybe I was shocked by is the average compensation per person only being£38. I mean, when you think about some of the pieces of information and how sensitive they are that Dave mentioned,£38 hardly seems sufficient. Yeah,£38, that doesn't ring true with me for something that is so invaluable, does it? and it goes to the heart of what's at the core of our banking system in the UK doesn't it and that's trust and that could be why people took a while to warm up to neobanks like Monzo and will and need perhaps the incentive of interest on a current account to move your current account banking operations to wise and then here we have an incumbent that people's parents and grandparents would have grown up with and having such a fundamental breach of trust of their customers.

53:06And it's having that sensitive financial data leaked to strangers. Us Brits are quite uptight about money, aren't we? And the thought of someone else seeing your personal finances and details. It is quite sickening. And it's a bit like the consequences of app fraud, authorised push payment fraud. They're not that the same as physical violence. You can't see it. It goes to hidden feelings of anxiety and worry and sick. And what does this mean? And does this mean my data is now on the dark web? And how am I susceptible to fraud now? there's there's a lot of consequences to this um that hasn't received as much uh coverage as i i think we all think it should have and also i don't think 38 pounds covers all of that yeah i did i

54:04Ross Gallagher:did read a lot of um sort of coverage of this off the back of it where customers were describing feeling incredibly panicked because they'd seen other people's transactions but that they thought what were fraudulent transactions on their own account and all of that sort of stuff. So I think, yeah, people will have gone through certainly the full gamut of sort of negative emotions and reacting to that as well, as you say. Yannick, what was your reaction to this? Are you sort of in line with the rest of us where it's really a big thing? Yeah, but here's, I think, actually, if you zoom out, here's, I think, an interesting point of view.

54:42When we launched Public back in 2019, you know, all VCs, etc. Everybody's like obviously bullish on more modern finance and tech and such. The only thing that was always brought up as like the thing that the incumbents can do better is trust. Because they've been around for 100 years, right? And by the way, you've gone from a scenario where, you know, our West Coast-based competitor famously stored a bunch of passwords in plain text back in like 2019 or something. Like, that's a little bit like the meme, like, this is how it started. But how it's going is actually all the incumbents are suddenly struggling with all these trust issues.

55:26On things like security and such, right? In the US, we did some bottom-up research on this. There is some form of an outage, not necessarily like use or why, But if you track down detect people who have issues logging in on Reddit, that post about it almost every market day, just amongst the incumbents in the US. And so when you zoom out, it's kind of interesting that like the incumbents used to have this big thing that they could hold on to, which is like, we're the trustworthy player and whatnot. And so therefore, you can have some play money in some of these apps, but we're where you keep your life savings.

56:02One of the big reasons that is now flipping, we've seen this firsthand on public. I mean, like the average deposit is up, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 times, something like that in the last few years, right? It's like gone absolutely exponential because people realize, wait a minute, the uptime on public is like maybe the highest interest is certainly way higher than any of the incumbents. In addition to all the features, I can invest smarter, it's cheaper, like all of that stuff, the design. And so that's, I think, just a very interesting inflection point. And I think this is just another kind of story in that general trend, in that general narrative.

56:43And if you double click on it, I mean, when you interview some engineers from some of these big banks, like if your systems are still written in cobalt and then, you know, you're honestly in many cases still trying to catch up to the super cycle of mobile. Meanwhile, now we're entering the super cycle of AI. Like you're about to be two cycles behind on innovation. And I think it's a very tricky place for many folks to be of like, there's probably a lot of leadership that wants to move fast. But then, you know, some people that wrote these systems are retired or not even here anymore. And then where do you go from there?

57:20And then maybe when you try to change stuff, sometimes things break again. Now I'm just like speculating a lot. You're not talking about this particular incident. but generally that's a trend that I think we've seen across the incumbent set in multiple continents and I think that will only continue. So I'm very curious to see how the incumbent set tends to navigate this stuff going forward.

57:44Ross Gallagher:And like trust is such an intangible, like, you know, and once you've kind of lost it, you've kind of lost it or once you start to lose it, you know, it's kind of difficult. It's kind of sand slipping through your fingers. Dave, I'm interested just to get your perspective on Yannick's point about, you know, these systems, these legacy sort of incumbent systems just being so complex. And yeah, the point about some of them still sort of written in Cobalt and people retiring and all that sort of stuff. Do you think there's an element here of, particularly as we stand right on sort of like, you know, that shift towards AI and all of that sort of stuff of like, are we going to see more of this?

58:26I don't know if we'll see more. I think they'll just continue to have the same problems because so much in the traditional banks are built around vertical stacks of technology. They're all product centric. Whereas anyone building anything now will be building horizontal layers that are reusable and repeatable. And what they've had to do is take these vertical stacks and glue them together on the sort of digital front end in there. And so it's sort of trying to make things that were never meant to work together work together and look like it's a seamless experience to the customers. And so, you know, I don't see without, you know, nipping up their organization structure, which they're not going to do, and looking at a completely different way of building the bank out.

59:19they won't be able to change from that. And they just couldn't do that. And the whole, when we talked about their ambition to be a fintech, it was a rapidly dressed up cost cutting exercise more than anything.

59:38But maybe if they're going to cut costs, it shouldn't be on testing. But I actually think what's super interesting is like, if you take this narrative forward, But, you know, the last 10 years, and I don't know exactly about all the UK high street banks and such, but if you look at like Schwab, Schwab is up 50 % in the last five years, right? So you could be like, okay, is that a lot or a little? But that doesn't smell like a blockbuster style disruption story, right? And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that a lot of these consumer fintechs started at the fringes, taking some pockets, some share wallet.

1:00:15There was a little bit more funny money. Now, the question I think is, is that disruption finally coming in these next 10 years? And personally, I believe that to be true. But it's so far been all TAM expansion, right? Like we talked about in the monster story in the US, it's been downward TAM expansion. A lot of people that were unbanked had suddenly a neobank. But now I think a lot of consumer fintech is coming for like the real money, the real cash. And then if these trust issues continue to compound on the incumbent side, then, I mean, I'm actually biased here, but then I know which side of the trade that I want to be on.

1:00:53Ross Gallagher:Yeah. This is an interesting question for me is, at what point do the new fintech banks get to a point where you can look at the traditionals and say they're no longer too big to fail? That's another good one. Yep, I agree with that. But I do think, look, I'm with you guys. I think when you look at where we're seeing innovation further down the stack, things like AI, things like stable coins, I genuinely think that the next decade of innovation could go so much further than what we've seen over the last 10, 15 years. On that bullish and optimistic note, we're going to take a quick pause here and we'll be back with you very shortly.

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1:02:06Ross Gallagher:Okay, now for a quick look at a story. we don't have time to cover in full. This one comes from India Entrepreneur with a headline, GIFT City launches women in fintech accelerator to boost startups. India's Gujarat International Finance Tech City or GIFT City or GIFT City has launched a new women in fintech accelerator aimed at increasing participation from women-led startups within its international financial services center ecosystem. It focuses on tackling some of the key barriers women-led fintechs face, including limited access to investor networks, gaps in fundraising preparedness, and structural challenges within traditional funding systems.

1:02:50Ross Gallagher:The accelerator will run in a hybrid format, starting with an in-person immersion at GIFT City, followed by virtual sessions that include mentorship, investor matchmaking, and one-on-one guidance from capital providers. Over the past year, the Innovation Hub has already supported 37 fintech startups across areas like digital banking, insurtech, and cross-border payments. Okay, our final story is related to some aesthetic, historic, and maybe political concerns, and of course to money. Now, we're not talking about any of the art pieces that you might have read about getting heisted in the news recently.

1:03:36Ross Gallagher:This is actually a story that relates to wildlife. The Bank of England has announced that British wildlife will feature on the next series of banknotes, replacing historical figures. The decision follows a public consultation with over 44 ,000 responses, where around 60 % of participants said they preferred nature themes, making it the most popular option ahead of historical figures. However, the move has sparked political backlash with critics arguing that removing figures like Churchill risks quote, erasing history, while others questioned the timing of the decision. Meanwhile, the debate has taken on a life of its own with suggestions ranging from beavers to pigeons and even Aldi pitching its Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake as a candidate.

1:04:26Ross Gallagher:I know that does sound like a joke and you can be suspicious because obviously we're recording the show on April Fool's Day, but that is actually true. I have so many just sort of things racing around my mind. First of all, Dave, obviously if it's not on a banknote, it didn't happen, right? No, no. I just don't understand why you would start to think about switching this out. Maybe it's because there's a political view on some of the people on there, but they're not exactly challenging characters on there. Maybe Alan Turing is the most out there on the£50 note, but certainly that's not on the land well with some of the far right, given his background.

1:05:15but it's not, it just seems a weird, weird thing to be focusing on. I just thought by now we'd have like learned about putting these things to a public boat,

1:05:27Ross Gallagher:like Fless have we learned nothing from boating McBoatface. Yeah, it is quite a very British outcry, isn't it? And I think it's all the more confusing given the little amount that most of us use cash these days. I mean, just a funny story. My friend's little six-year-old, his only experience of money is his toy card or was his toy card that he would play shop with, such that when someone gave him some coins one Christmas, he handed it to his mum for her to take the tin foil off because his only experience was chocolate money of coins. So I don't think our history is preserved by cash. Well, hopefully not, at least.

1:06:18But it is not surprising that it's created this outcry.

1:06:22Ross Gallagher:That's such a great story about the money and wanting to take the tinfoil off so he could have the chocolate coin. Yannick, this must feel like a really weird British thing that we're even talking about this right there's only one animal you want to pull all your money if you're optimistic about your economy it's a bull of course don't put a bear on that whatever you do and definitely don't put a page whoever whoever's the consultant you don't want to like signal that you're bearish like nothing sends a berry signal than putting a bear on your on your literal money um a ball might be a little bit on the nose i don't know but uh yeah i i would have assumed this was an april 1st thing yeah it's yeah i don't know i think it feels pretty weird the the bank of england also says that it opens up new possibilities for anti-counterfeiting things like moving elements or more dynamic designs like birds flapping their wings um yeah it does it really it reads like an april fool's um an april fool's joke dave i'm going to put you on the spot you mentioned that um when Alan Turing was on the£50 note, do you think you could do 5, 10 and 20?

1:07:37Where's Churchill? Churchill's on the fiver, isn't he?

1:07:42Ross Gallagher:Yeah. Yeah. Jane Austen, I know, is on the tenner because I'm in Hampshire and that's where she lived. Correct. I can't remember what's on the£20. I have the answer, so I'm just going to cheat. I just walk out of the house with my phone and keys these days. Yeah, exactly. No one brings cash, as you say. I think this one might be more... A lion would be the other obvious one, right? A lion would be good. Yeah. Like... Yeah, but it needs to be British wildlife. We've not really got any cool wildlife in the UK. Oh, it's gotta be British wildlife. Okay. And then the narrow... One of the most vicious things we've got is a swan.

1:08:21It'll break your arm if it attacks you, but yeah.

1:08:23Ross Gallagher:Well, that's true. Yeah. Um, the 20 pound note is JMW Turner. That's my fun fact. of the day. All right. Well, look, as ever, thank you for humoring us on the final story. Thank you so much to you guys for joining us. Maybe we can do a whiz around the virtual room and you can tell us a little bit more about where people can find out more about you and your companies. Yannick, let's start with you. Public.com on Twitter or X at Melling, my last name, two L's. That's sort of where I guess I'm the most active on socials. And yeah, at public as well on X and Instagram and all the good stuff. Love it.

1:09:12Ross Gallagher:Thanks, Yannick. Fliss, how about you? I'm on LinkedIn. I am Fliss, short for Felicity Berridge on LinkedIn. Excellent. Thanks, Fliss. How about you, Dave? Yeah, I'm Dave Morris on LinkedIn. And if you're learning about boundaryOS with boundary-os.com. Amazing. As for me, you can find me on LinkedIn, Ross Gallagher. If you want to learn more about 11FS and particularly what we do in the consulting team, it's 11fs.com forward slash ventures. That wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to today's show. If you like what you heard, please make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast platform of choice.

1:09:50Ross Gallagher:And if you really like what you 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.