Fin the Week

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The Friday financial marketing & technology briefing.

  1. 1 day ago

    Consumer Duty: Three Years In

    Consumer duty turns three this month. Three years in, "we're working on it" stops being an excuse, and the FCA's tone has shifted from patient to pointed. So we're kicking off our Q3 edition, The Trust Reset, with a four-part teardown series where we run real financial services journeys through the wringer and ask a simple question; is this actually fair, or does it just tick a box? In this opener, the full team's back together to set the scene. We get into what's really changed since 2022, why "we don't sell to consumers" is a dangerous thing for a firm to believe, and how much of consumer duty comes down to accessibility and sludge. We also lift the lid on UXDuty, the tool we built in-house to scan digital channels against the PRIN 2A rules and surface the friction firms would rather you didn't notice. Next week we start the teardowns proper with bank switching, a big provider, a mid-tier one, and a challenger, side by side. What we cover: Why year three of consumer duty is the year the excuses run outDistribution chains, and why more firms are in scope than think they areAccessibility as good practice, not a compliance choreWhether AI fixes digital channels or quietly makes them worseUX Duty: how we scan journeys for sludge and evidence board reportsJargon buster: escrow, explained New episode every Friday. Fin the Week is the financial technology and marketing briefing from Indulge, a digital agency for financial services. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates 00:55 What's coming up in Q3? 06:09 What was the industry reaction to Consumer Duty? 11:36 Consumer Duty in 2026 13:47 Understanding the distribution chain for Consumer Duty 22:16 Consumer Duty is about making something that's better for everyone 26:22 Explaining what UXDuty is 35:33 Introducing the Consumer Duty teardown process 39:20 Jargon Busters!

    44 min

  2. 26 Jun

    Where are finance firms actually using AI?

    To wrap up our Pragmatic AI Edition, we stop theorising and go looking for the receipts: where is the financial services sector actually putting AI to work? Amelia, Paul and Pat play a quick game of Yay-I or Nay-I, scoring five real-world deployments to decide whether each one is genuinely useful or just a bit of clever PR. From Morgan Stanley arming its financial advisers with an internal chatbot, to Klarna's assistant doing the work of 700 agents in 35 languages, to Stripe's fraud-fighting Radar. We dig into what's impressive, what's overhyped, and where the human still matters most. Plus an NHS phone-bot anecdote that changes one sceptic's mind, a pitch for Lenny Henry to answer the Premier Inn phone, and this week's Jargon Buster: IPO. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:35 Morgan Stanley AI Chat Tool 08:53 Morgan Stanley AI Debrief Tool 12:23 Klarna's AI Assistant 24:03 Klarna's AI CEO 33:43 Stripe Radar 40:23 Jargon Busters: IPO Fin the Week is the Friday financial technology and marketing briefing from Indulge: a digital agency for the global financial services sector. #FinTheWeek #FinancialServices #AI #FinTech #MarketingPodcast #Indulge

    43 min

  3. 19 Jun

    The week Google's AI answers became Google's problem

    This week on Fin the Week, Amelia, Paul and Mayna unpack five stories reshaping search and marketing in financial services: a German court ruling that makes Google liable for its own AI overviews, fresh SparkToro data showing fewer than one in three UK searches now ends in a click, Hiscox stepping into ChatGPT's advertising pilot, what 54 studies reveal about ranking in AI search, and the UK's incoming social media ban for under-16s. Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:54 A German court has ruled that Google's AI Overviews are Google's own words 09:48 Zero click searches continue to rise 20:53 Hiscox testing advertising in ChatGPT 26:03 Research into AI citation ranking factors 34:27 Discussing the UK under-16 social media ban 46:57 Jargon busters

    50 min

  4. 12 Jun

    What FS marketers should steal from UX London

    Mark's just back from UX London, and this week we dig into what financial services marketers can actually use from it. The headline: stop asking for more research time and start packaging what you already have. We get into validation, falling in love with the problem, not the solution, why failure is a feature of good UX, not a bug, and where AI is genuinely earning its place in the process. If you run marketing or operations in a finance firm, there's a year's worth of customer insight already sitting in your support inbox and your chatbot logs. We tell you how to find it. 00:00 Introduction to UX London and Event Overview 01:55 What is UK London? 02:41 UX is now a board-level concern in financial services 05:02 Effective Research and Stakeholder Validation 12:28 Using Validation to Drive UX Success 21:04 Using keyword research as a source of user validation 24:15 AI chatbots as a source of user research 26:34 Turning Failure into Opportunity in UX 35:04 A framework for organising content 37:09 How did UK London address AI? 41:22 Key Takeaway: The Power of Validation 44:21 Final Reflections and Future Trends

    48 min

  5. 5 Jun

    The Economist is working on a website for the 'two-track web' (one for us, one for AI)

    This week, we look at the concept of a two-track internet, something floated in a recent article in Digiday about work taking place at The Economist. We dive into the complexities of creating a web environment that caters to both human and AI users, highlighting the need for a strategic shift in website design and content presentation. Takeaways Two-track internetAI experience Tone of voice is a trust signalAI chatbots may struggle to convey a brand's tone of voice Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Two Track Internet 01:31 The Economist's Case Study on AI and Content 05:41 Exploring AI Experience vs User Experience 08:01 The concept of AIX (AI Experience) 10:59 Designing for Two Different Audiences 16:13 Two-track vs one-track web 25:46 Can AI agents drive trust? 32:03 Navigating Google's Guidelines for Brands 36:43 The Future of AI and Brand Representation 43:03 The Impact of AI on Advertising and Monetisation

    49 min

  6. 29 May

    Don't worry about it, it's just SEO...isn't it?

    Google has published a guide on optimising your website for the AI features in Google Search. On the face of it, that's good news; guidance straight from the horse's mouth. In practice, the guide is weak: written in a vacuum, dodging the traffic problem, treating agentic AI as a footnote, and ultimately telling you "don't worry about it, it's just SEO." We aren't convinced. Amelia, Paul, Pat and Russell unpack the document section by section: the jargon (SEO, GEO, AEO, AIO), the technical mechanics (RAG and query fan-out, explained with dominoes), the myth-busting section that's caused half the SEO industry to celebrate, and the bit Google glosses over entirely: agentic AI, and the difference between an AI model's training data and what it pulls in through search. Plus what financial services content teams should actually be doing now, including the compliance challenge of disclaimers being clipped out of AI-generated answers. 02:08 Google's New Guidance on Generative AI 05:49 What is an LLM compared to an AI Chatbot? 08:24 RAG (retrieval augmented generation) and query fan out 11:42 Understanding SEO in the Age of AI 14:15 Is structure still important? 22:15 Google's AEO/GEO mythbusting section 27:27 The Evolution of Search: AI and Google 31:26 Trusting Google's Guidance: A Critical Perspective 34:48 Navigating the New Landscape of Content Creation 40:39 Is Google's GEO guide helpful? 41:42 The Future of Financial Services Content 47:53 The Role of Research and Authenticity in Content 50:52 Jargon Busters: Churning

    53 min

  7. 22 May

    One in three are using AI for personal finance, every week

    28 million UK adults are now using AI for personal finance. One in three of them every week. We dig into Lloyds Banking Group's 2025 Consumer Digital Index and what it means for the FS brands trying to stay visible in a world where ChatGPT is doing the top-of-funnel research. Pat shares what happened when he turned Claude Code loose on a year of bank statements. Russell looks at the UX of trust. Paul plays devil's advocate on the sycophants and the scams. And we tackle the data-privacy question every FS marketer should be asking: when ads land in ChatGPT, what does your bank statement say about you? Plus: a jargon buster on ETFs. Takeaways AI in personal financeTrust and concerns about AIData privacy and security Monetisation through AI advertisingImpact of AI on financial services brands Chapters 00:00 - Introduction and Personal Updates 04:03 - Exploring AI in Personal Finance 08:37 - Trust and Accuracy in AI Financial Advice 16:47 - The Future of AI in Financial Planning 21:00 - Concerns about data privacy & security 26:31 - The Accessibility Challenge of AI Tools 27:25 - Monetisation and Advertising in AI 28:11 - User Experience and Trust in AI 31:13 - Implications for Financial Services Brands 35:11 - The Future of Personal AI Assistants 39:36 - The Race for Personal and Business Assistants 44:05 - Jargon Busters: ETFs

    47 min

  8. 15 May

    Is friction in a system always sludge?

    This week we explore the concept of friction in user experience, highlighting its impact on decision-making, user error, and the role of AI-driven systems. We delve into the balance between speed and convenience, safety, and comprehension, and discuss the potential adoption of AI agents in daily life. We look at the concept of friction in user experience, highlighting the role of design in mitigating friction and ensuring accessibility. We also explore the challenges in legacy processes, user research, and the impact of AI as a financial advisor on consumer protection. Takeaways Friction in user experience can have both positive and negative impacts.The balance between speed and convenience, safety, and comprehension is crucial in the design of AI-driven systems. Friction in user experienceAccessibility and consumer duty Chapters 00:00 - Introduction to friction in the user experience 04:10 - The balanace of caution and convenience 09:35 - Designing for user experience 14:23 - AI's impact on user experience 15:40 - Progressive disclosure 17:59 - The future of AI agents in everyday life 27:09 - Consumer Duty and the concept of 'sludge practices' 42:01 - Navigating pension transfers

    50 min
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The Friday financial marketing & technology briefing.

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    Indulge
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    © 2026 Indulge