Slowly but surely, the view of cryptocurrency as a fringe asset embraced only by a loyal, speculative few is changing. This switch in sentiment is being driven by several factors, with one of the most influential being the development of proper regulatory frameworks to support cryptocurrency. Whilst the average consumer might not be overly invested in the technical details of regulation, the knock on effects for the wider economy must be considered. Recent months and years have seen the UK’s two biggest trading partners, the US and EU surge ahead of them in the development of regulation that provides clarity, consumer protections and encourages investment. 

## What's been going on abroad?
Readers of the financial news and market analysts witnessed a big shake up in Crypto markets at the back end of last year. The re-election of former President Donald Trump sent markets soaring across the board with none benefitting more so than crypto markets. Bitcoin, the world’s most universally recognised digital currency, broke the $90,000 barrier, and the total global market value of Cryptocurrency climbed above $3 trillion for the first time in three years. This renewed enthusiasm was fueled by the expectation that the incoming President will continue his ‘pro-crypto’ stance, encouraging widespread adoption of the asset class by American businesses and streamlining compliance requirements. 

Meanwhile in Europe, the Markets in Crypto-Asset regulations (MiCA) have taken full effect across the EU, providing cryptocurrency firms, investors and consumers alike with a clearer set of rules and boundaries that are to be followed. Whilst some Crypto leaders, especially the less established players, will view much of the regulation as overly burdensome and as a drag on investment, having a clear framework dedicated to the asset class is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. A step that the UK has yet to emulate. 

## What’s going on at home? 
In short, not as much as our counterparts in Europe and America. Last year the FCA only regulated four new cryptocurrency firms in the UK, including a full 6-month patch where not a single new firm was authorised. As with any type of business regulation, there is of course a difficult balancing act to strike between ensuring consumer protection, preventing market abuse and encouraging innovation. But if the UK wants to continue living up to its moniker as one of the world's ‘Financial Capitals’ then one would think more has to be done in this space to prevent falling well behind our peers. 

Whilst not without its challenges, Crypto offers the potential for faster international transfers, greater transparency and lower transaction costs. These positives, coupled with recent research from the regulator revealing that 12% of UK adults now own a form of cryptocurrency, offers ample evidence that this growing sector of finance needs to be embraced.

## Steps in the right direction?
Despite the slow start, positive steps are being made in the right direction. The FCA recently regulated two significant players in the Cryptocurrency space, Coinbase and Bitpanda, with the former noting that the UK has quickly grown into their largest market outside of the US. Furthermore, the FCA also announced that their full cryptoasset regulatory regime is due to go live in 2026, providing standardised rules for Crypto firms operating in the UK and therefore bolstering market integrity. 

The UK has long been the home to innovative, world beating financial services companies, from high street giants like Barclays to emerging fintechs like Monzo. Moreover, the FCA itself has proven itself to be a pioneering innovator, with their fintech regulatory sandbox proving so successful it has been implemented by several other nations. If the right regulatory balance is struck, there is no reason why the UK cannot also be home to pre-eminent Cryptocurrency firms of the future.

## Key stats 
- Bitcoin - broke 90k dollars for the first time and global markets value topped 3 trillion usd for the first time in three years - [https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2024/hss/why-donald-trumps-election-win-fuelled-a-stock-market-surge.html](https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2024/hss/why-donald-trumps-election-win-fuelled-a-stock-market-surge.html)
- Criticism of MICA - [https://www.ulam.io/blog/mica-regulations-and-their-impact-on-the-crypto-industry](https://www.ulam.io/blog/mica-regulations-and-their-impact-on-the-crypto-industry)
- UK being sluggish on approvals - [https://www.cityam.com/the-uk-is-at-a-crypto-crossroads/](https://www.cityam.com/the-uk-is-at-a-crypto-crossroads/) 
- Coinbase approval and statistics - [https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/f632bdd5-6b46-48b1-b473-5cfee459c281](https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/f632bdd5-6b46-48b1-b473-5cfee459c281)
- Bitpanda approval - [https://www.cityam.com/bitpanda-shake-up-uk-crypto-market/](https://www.cityam.com/bitpanda-shake-up-uk-crypto-market/)

The view of cryptocurrency as a fringe asset embraced only by a loyal, speculative few is changing. Here’s what’s been going on and why the FCA may yet be a pioneering innovator in the space

Why the UK is playing catchup in the race for Cryptocurrency infrastructure

Celebrating our 30th year with our 30 Series, this month we take a look at the stories that mattered.

Since Teamspirit launched in 1995, the UK’s financial services sector has been transformed. Not only are ways of working almost unrecognisable, accelerated by technology and changes in attitude, but the industry landscape has been shaped by headline-grabbing events, regulation, and product innovation.

As our timeline across the three decades shows, the journey to today has been quite remarkable.

[View the timeline here](/30-years-timeline)

To celebrate our 30th birthday, we're looking back at some significant financial moments over the last 30 years. Which stand out to you?

30 Series - 30 Events: 30 Years

While Spotify’s fascinating annual reveal of our music habits, or food retailers’ nudges of what we might enjoy next demonstrate how personalisation of communications and experience  creates win-wins for brand and customer, why is financial services late to the party?  

Over half of consumers state they’re more likely to repeat buy after a personalised experience[1]. Equally, 80% of financial institutions view personalisation as essential to meet the required Consumer Duty led standards[2].

So what do we need to do to play catch-up? That was the crux of our breakfast event, run in partnership with The Financial Services Forum, with three leaders in the field:
- David Conner, Head of Experience Design at Scottish Widows
- Simon Ripton, Director of Propositions at Open finance platform Moneyhub
- Richard Sullivan, Financial Services Lead, LinkedIn
- Chair - Fiona Couper, CMO, Teamspirit

Key take-aways from the event held at Mintel were:

- __Moments of truth.__ The importance of interacting with customers at key moments in their journey was critical - not just when providers wanted to sell to them
- __Enriching existing data was essential__ to deliver meaningful customer understanding. And how Open Finance enabled improved tailoring of solutions on dimensions including vulnerability, behaviour and risk
- __More creativity is required to achieve cut through.__  The panel discussed how personalisation needed to think bigger and go beyond the traditional
- __The need for a value exchange.__ How there was a need to provide value in terms of rewards, decision-making information and entertainment through content and gamification in exchange for customers’ data,  time and loyalty.
- __Generational tailoring.__ The meeting discussed that given given Gen X and Gen Z's preferences and expectations of channels, tech and communication, tailoring now needed to work at these levels too
- __The need for companies to  now deliver customer personalisation at Total Experience (TX) level not just UX__, spanning all customer touchpoints
- __‘Continuous engagement' as a marketing strategy.__ Speakers discussed how the impact of different engagements, nudges and interventions could and should be tested continuously to create learnings for later roll out and incorporation into experiences

Personalisation is just one of the emerging trends explored in our recent Signals report which you can view/download [here](https://www.teamspirit.co.uk/news-insights/2025-signals-report)

![FSF Feb Event](//images.ctfassets.net/sxw14dxmazhg/8yzOfsf3nVFljfjyNU1qb/cc45d9380b3a50f08a13626370a56d06/FSF_Feb_Event.png)

## Sources:

1. [https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-state-of-personalization-2021](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-state-of-personalization-2021)
2. [https://www.dynamicyield.com/personalization-maturity-report-for-finance-2023/](https://www.dynamicyield.com/personalization-maturity-report-for-finance-2023/)

With high impact personalised customer experiences and communications on the rise, financial services is one of the slower sectors to the party.  What do experts from Scottish Widows, LinkedIn and Moneyhub feel FS needs to focus on?

How can financial services provide more personalised experiences?

From over there to over here, the typically US based The Gramercy Institute held their bi annual London event at Morningstar on Thursday 24th October to discuss 2025: Trends & Directions in Financial Marketing.

The packed half day agenda was a mix of panels and presentations, covering best practice and new directions across from content, brand, media and AI and the future of financial marketing (the latter of which I had the delight to be on the panel).

Content. Great content delivers insight that helps address audiences’ challenges. While the concept of the ‘9 lives’ of content ensures a constant drumbeat from the cascade of the content across the channels that meet people where they are.  Building on the perhaps more expected call for engagement, was the need ‘to move the conversation along’ - which provides a great reality check to avoid content spew.

Brand. The brand remains the differentiation and the competitive advantage, as well as the bedrock to customer and talent retention, plus cross selling.  Standing for something for the long term was a panel lightning rod. The perennial debate around purpose within asset management saw both sides reflected, from being the golden thread that unites (particularly during times of acquisition) to keeping purpose within community led marketing to ensure authenticity. 

Media. Sophistication in tools that measure audience engagement habits now allows far greater understanding of relevance, with the advice being not to ‘settle’ for good enough in terms of targeting. The co-ordination of earned, owned and paid was also highlighted as the starting point to better content optimisation, with smart data able to identify content multipliers.

AI & future of financial marketing. With AI now omnipresent and growing (spend levels currently £4.5bn in 2024 and set to grow to £64.3bn in 2030, and 46% of fs providers using AI to improve the customer experience), the panel shared how AI was helping in terms of communication creation as well as on the more futuristic developments including using avatars and tailored nudges. AI has become a useful tool that helps to save time and leading to new types of jobs from authenticators to predictive analysts to ‘Emily in Paris’s’.

Bill Wreaks, CEO & Chief Analyst, Gramercy Institute then shared the findings of some qualitative research within the US based Gramercy membership around what financial services brands are seeking from their agencies. Listen up:

-	Beyond the brief – understanding of the market.
-	Audience insight – outside in perspective.
-	360-degree ideas.
-	Innovation – the latest developments be that in media, content creation, partnerships etc
-	Key design principles – making sure every touchpoint is adding value to the brand through strong visual identity.

Striking is the similarity in challenges and needs that the financial service marketer faces whether they be US or UK based, particularly as the majority of the brands are global.

The Gramercy Institute held their bi annual London event at Morningstar on Thursday 24th October to explore best practice and new directions across from content, brand, media and AI and the future of financial marketing.  

The Gramercy  2025: Trends & Directions in Financial Marketing

Being a successful trader is all about timing. And that’s why we’ve helped our client and leading trading provider, CMC Markets, create a suite of ads that highlight current economic news stories as potential trading opportunities. The topics included US Federal Reserve interest rate decisions, China’s economic downturn and the falling price of gold.

Faced with turnaround times of just eight hours, we were able to put together proposals, concepts and designs for approval before artworking and submitting them to publications such as the Evening Standard, City AM and MoneyWeek.

The ads have so far been extremely successful and our headline ‘Emission impossible?’ for our Volkswagen emissions scandal ad drew praise from within the industry and was subsequently seen in other publications.

Have a look, you might even spot a trading opportunity for yourself…

<a href="https://www.teamspirit.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/CMC_Ads1-1.jpg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-1761" src="https://www.teamspirit.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/CMC_Ads1-1.jpg" alt="CMC_Ads1-1" width="862" height="609" data-attachment="1761" /></a>

<a href="https://www.teamspirit.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/CMC_Ads1-2.jpg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-1762" src="https://www.teamspirit.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/CMC_Ads1-2.jpg" alt="CMC_Ads1-2" width="862" height="610" data-attachment="1762" /></a>

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