Fresh from our annual security training with Pat, the team discussed AI-driven fraud in our industry.

It's a growing challenge; according to Mitek/Datos, U.S. unsecured credit losses reached ~$2.94 billion in 2025, up from $1.8 billion in 2020.

We cover some horror stories, like the UAE banking exec who was scammed by a 'deepfake' of a company Director into initiating $35m in transfers.

But AI is also at the forefront of the fight against fraud. Banks are flagging potential issues sooner and apps are using smart features to show when you are and aren't on a legitimate call.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to AI's impact on fraud

01:48 Statistics on AI-driven fraud increase

03:44 Deepfake scams: case studies from 2020 and 2024

07:09 How scammers use AI to craft convincing emails and calls

12:50 The role of AI in enhancing verification and security

13:37 Who owns the role of tackling AI-driven fraud?

18:21 The evolution of scam sophistication and AI's role

22:29 The concept of AI prompt injection

29:58 Using AI in the battle against fraud

31:31 Balancing security with user experience

33:40 Invisible security measures and behavioral signals

36:52 Balancing data sharing for security versus privacy

41:39 Innovative UX features to prevent scams

46:47 Future outlook: AI in security and fraud detection

49:04 Jargon busters: amortisation

This week, Paul and Amelia sit down for a chat with Nick Laws, the senior creative leader behind work with Nest Pensions and the recently rebranded Centre for Inclusive Money (formerly Nest Insight).

Nick chats about the tricky task of engaging consumers with their pensions. We touch upon his work alongside Aardman (of Wallace & Gromit fame) on building a national ad campaign.

We also discuss the role of influencers in financial campaigns; including the Everyday Investor campaign featuring a former winner of The Great British Bake Off who baked using products that benefited from Nest pension pot investment.

It's a fascinating discussion covering one of the most lively parts of the world of financial services.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Nick Laws and his role at Inclusive Money

02:28 The challenge of engaging consumers with pensions

04:17 Complexities of pension types and communication hurdles

06:32 Creative restrictions in financial promotion

09:28 Working with Aardman on the Nest brand awareness

15:37 Auto-enrollment and consumer inertia in pensions

21:43 The Everyday Investor campaign and innovative engagement

30:24 Impact of generative AI on creative work

37:54 Working on a mission-led brand and its unique aspects

39:36 The importance of purpose and authenticity in branding

40:59 Jargon busting: Understanding the black swan event

We've just updated our big guide to SEO in financial services, so this week the marketing team got together to define what SEO actually means in our industry.

We outline the challenges banking, insurance, wealth management, and fintech firms face in search and what good search strategy looks like.

We also outline our case for why search is a relevant factor when it comes to Consumer Duty.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to SEO in Financial Services

01:09 What is SEO and why is it different in finance?

04:36 Unique challenges of finance SEO: YMYL

05:49 EEAT: Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness

07:01 Regulatory and compliance considerations in finance SEO

11:40 Subsector differences: Banking, Wealth Management, Insurance, Fintech

16:38 SEO in wealth management

19:55 SEO for insurance brands

22:03 SEO for fintechs

23:22 Content strategies: FAQs, keyword research, and outdated content

27:12 Powerful keyword research using a brand name

29:28 Building a strategic approach: Technical, Content, Promotion

33:24 Navigational search and user journey optimisation

36:40 Impact of AI and generative search on SEO in finance

42:28 Consumer duty and the importance of accurate search results

45:59 Why SEO is a Consumer Duty factor

46:37 Jargon Busters: AUM

Is AI actually neutral? Is that something you've even ever thought about?

Earlier this year, Paul and Mayna attended BrightonSEO and our favourite session was an eye-opening talk on the bias within AI.

So this week, we're delighted to be joined by the expert behind that session, Azahara Corrales!

Did you know that 71% of men vs. 29% of women report having AI skills (Randstad, 2024)? Did you know that Citizens Advice found customers in areas with high Black and South Asian populations were quoted at least £280 more for car insurance?

These aren't quirks of the system, they are manifestations of a deep bias that is present in the AI systems and algorithms the world (increasingly) relies upon every day.

AI consultant and adoption advisor to leaders, Azahara Corrales, has devoted time to understanding and spreading awareness of this often overlooked risk.

For anyone working with AI (that's probably all of us), and any firm rolling out AI systems, this episode should be required listening!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Azahara Corrales and episode overview

00:57 Azahara explains her focus on AI bias and its origins

01:54 Why this topic captured the interest of the hosts

03:10 The importance of understanding how AI works

03:54 Where AI bias actually comes from

05:58 Disparities in AI usage among genders and age groups

08:03 The bias triangle: builders, users, data

10:26 Research findings on gender bias in language models

12:02 The deep-rooted nature of AI bias and its persistence

13:28 The impact of biased AI in everyday life and decision-making

15:36 Self-fulfilling biases in AI and solutions

17:30 Practical advice for users to mitigate bias

19:10 Regulation, regulation, regulation: the need for oversight

22:59 The long-term consequences of unregulated AI

24:07 Bias beyond gender: race, religion, and other groups

27:49 AI in financial services and personal finance

40:17 What individuals and firms can do now

41:49 Jargon Busters: Flat money

This week we jump back into our Consumer Duty teardowns which throughout four weeks earlier this year, shocked us with the level of web accessibility issues.

Of 600 issues uncovered, almost half were accessibility challenges.

We're joined by accessibility expert and advocate, Luke, who takes us through what some of the terms mean, and where things are going wrong.

In an area that the FCA is sure to take an interest in, this is a must listen for teams in our sector.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the episode and guest expertise

00:16 What is web accessibility and why it matters

06:24 What's the difference between A, AA, and AAA in WCAG?

10:06 What accessibility issues did we find in FS?

11:50 What, actually, is a screen reader?

17:19 FS websites are failing users who can't/don't use a mouse

20:48 Is accessibility compliance extra work?

23:15 Can AI fix accessibility challenges for firms?

30:44 Is the finance industry failing its consumers?

35:16 Is this bigger than just being the right thing to do?

43:34 Why doesn't the FCA currently mandate WCAG AA standard?

45:39 Jargon Busters: AER

This week, we kick off a discussion prompted by the conversations we've been having with our clients.

More often than you might expect, we're meeting financial marketing teams who don't use AI (particularly agentic AI) anywhere near as much as they could/should.

So, why is that?

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and episode overview

00:16 The trust reset theme and AI in financial marketing

03:28 Why do FS marketing teams struggle to get good output from AI?

14:58 Are security fears scaring marketing teams away?

18:27 Can AI write in my brand's tone of voice?

24:45 Claude's new AI copy watermarking

33:58 Where's the line between AI you can trust, and risky use of AI?

49:42 Advice for marketing teams burnt by poor use of AI

51:25 What does the near future look like for FS marketing teams?

53:29 Jargon Busters: Zero Sum Game

Credibility gets you through the door, but trust is what makes people stay. On this episode of Fin the Week, we're joined by Indulge's newest team member, Tonicha, to unpack why financial brands can no longer rely on confident marketing alone.

We dig into how consumer duty, the EU AI Act and the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements are pushing firms to evidence their claims rather than just make them, why "finfluencers" cut both ways, and how something as simple as a mortgage calculator can build more trust than a bold headline stat ever will.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the importance of trust and credibility in finance

01:42 How regulatory changes are influencing trust evidence

03:35 The role of consumer duty and EU AI Act in trust

06:26 Differentiating credibility and trust in marketing

08:19 How credibility can be faked and the importance of trust

11:03 The impact of misleading claims and greenwashing

13:58 The significance of transparency in insurance and finance

16:52 Industry examples of trust and credibility issues

19:54 Building trust through consistent messaging and evidence

22:35 The importance of easy cancellation and customer support

23:37 Credibility & trust in the consumer funnel

25:14 Does being trustworthy put firms at a marketing disadvantage?

27:43 Selling insurance on price versus features

31:53 Can marketing teams incentivise and be trustworthy at the same time?

33:45 Finluencers and the impact on trust

36:36 Risks of misleading marketing and short-term gains

39:14 The importance of honest reviews and influencer vetting

41:58 Using technology to enhance transparency and trust

45:55 Summary and key takeaways on trust and credibility

46:46 Jargon Busters: Diversification

It's Consumer Duty anniversary day, so we're rounding off Consumer Duty month with our fourth and final teardown.

We take a look at life insurance and protection: the sector with 7 of the FCA's 11 open investigations.

We ran a direct insurer, a comparison site, and an independent broker through UX Duty and found 109 issues between them, half of them accessibility failures.

In this episode: misleading "£3 a month" headline pricing that hides eligibility criteria in tiny asterisked footnotes, pre-ticked marketing consent boxes that breach GDPR, sites that make it nearly impossible to reach a human for a complaint, and a wrap-up of what four teardowns (12 firms, ~600 findings) reveal about where financial services UX keeps failing consumers.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Consumer Duty Teardowns

02:16 Overview of the Insurance Sector Investigations

06:24 The core findings in the insurance sector

08:37 Misleading Headlines and Transparency Issues

15:22 Consent, GDPR, and Dark Patterns

20:40 The Impact of AI on Accessibility and Regulation

25:35 Collecting Data and Privacy Concerns

31:22 Complaints Procedures and Vulnerable Customers

33:53 Website Accessibility and Quality Testing

38:13 The Future of Accessibility with AI

41:17 Summary of Findings and Industry Implications

47:20 Jargon Busters!

50:27 Next time: the EU AI Act

Four weeks into the trust reset and three episodes into the Consumer Duty teardown series, Amelia, Paul, Pat and Russ turn to what's arguably the biggest financial decision most people ever make: getting a mortgage.

Using their scanning tool, UX Duty, the team reviewed the online journeys of a top-tier broker, a mid-tier broker and a smaller, consultant-branded challenger, scoring 125 findings across the three firms and, for the first time in the series, a "medium risk" rating for one of them.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and episode overview

06:57 An overview of the findings from the mortgage brokers

11:02 Fee disclosure issues

21:21 How much fee disclosure is reasonable?

23:31 Firm A drops a GDPR clanger

29:19 No FCA registration details displayed

32:02 Back to accessibility flaws across FS websites

36:54 Missing accessibility statements

39:11 A project building an accessibility plugin with a major tech firm

43:40 User testing and inclusive design for accessibility

47:21 Jargon busters: Understanding industry terms

48:06 Upcoming topics: protection insurance and final thoughts

Week three of Consumer Duty anniversary month, and we're going up a level; from everyday bank switching to investing. We ran three anonymised robo-advisors (a big player, a mid-tier firm, and a fintech challenger) through Indulge's in-house teardown tool, UX Duty, and turned up 150 findings across the three.

In this episode we get into...

• Why risk warnings keep losing out to bold "grow your money" headlines, and what that means for consumer understanding
• The FCA's growing focus on "foreseeable harm" from platform features, not just price, and what that means for trading apps
• Missing exit costs and a genuinely hard-to-find "get your money out" journey
• Eligibility criteria buried deep in the sign-up flow, wasting users' time
• Vulnerability support (or the lack of it) for first-time investors
• Why 53% of all issues found were accessibility problems; including one firm whose entire brand colour fails contrast checks

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the episode and main themes

01:11 Findings from digital journeys of banking products

11:09 Accessibility issues and common themes

15:22 Key findings on accessibility and design flaws

20:01 Risk warnings and consumer understanding

26:23 Cost transparency (joining vs leaving)

31:07 Eligibility and vulnerability support

41:13 One firm drops an accessibility clanger