“The 11Onze website will soon be booming”
11Onze does not stop receiving international recognition. Just a month ago our website was awarded the Vega Digital 2021 prize, and now it has been nominated for the UX Design Awards. The designers of Wondr, the Dublin studio that has led the project, are convinced that this is just the beginning of many other distinctions for a project that will become a model for other financial institutions.
“With La Plaça we have created a community fintech, a fincom, where people are at the centre. We wanted to create a platform where everyone could learn finance,” 11Onze’s art director, Laia Gubern, says. This was the main goal of 11Onze. And this was also the starting point for Wondr. This is how Dermot O’Shea, founder of the studio, and Sean Taylor, director of design and innovation, remember it.
Both admit that, as was the case with the international jury that awarded the 11Onze website at the Vega Digital 2021 Awards, “the ambition to create a community around a brand is catching on.” The design is sincere and builds trust, they say, and that’s something they like. “Often financial institutions don’t treat their agents with enough respect and it’s great that 11Onze wanted to make them so approachable from the start,” O’Shea says.
Involvement in the design
In addition to giving visibility to the team, 11Onze also wanted the community to be involved in the design process. That’s why a testing exercise was set up in which nearly a thousand people participated. “These real human interactions validated the user experience. That’s why it’s so easy to navigate, it’s intuitive… We wanted to simplify the experience,” Taylor recalls.
The design director also explains that the work process uses an “atomic design system,” which is organised in different molecules and at different speeds. “In the whole process we have to combine vision, content, direction and digital knowledge,” Laia Gubern summarises. She recognises that the proof that the design works is this new nomination for the UX Design Awards.
Episode 14 | La Plaça, a world-famous design
A Netflix of finance
The other thing that positively surprises the experts is the willingness to promote financial education among citizens. “You won’t see any other financial institution producing the amount of content that 11Onze has published in such a short time. The pace is incredible,” O’Shea says. “I think the key vision was to create a Netflix of finance,” he says.
11Onze’s content, the Wondr founder says, empowers the community to build its financial sovereignty. “This shows the ambition of the fincom, which is willing to document and teach how it works on the inside,” he adds. In this sense, Gubern explains that La Plaça still has a lot of evolving to do in 2022, because the number of products will increase and the Magazine, 11Onze TV and Learn sections will continue to add more and more content.
“We are at the beginning of what the 11Onze website will be like, a true financial hub, with a token community, the beginning of the decentralisation of finance,” Taylor concludes. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg of the 11Onze website.
11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!
Inflation is shattering our purchasing power. And it looks like this situation could last for a long time… That’s why at 11Onze we’re offering an unparalleled tool to help us combat it: Preciosos 11Onze. We start with the safe-haven security par excellence: gold. And, as we are a community, we can organise grouped purchases to get gold at a better price. We explain it to you!
In recent years, the continuous printing of money has meant that there is too much of it in circulation, which has devalued its value. This, among other reasons, has triggered inflation. And, in an inflationary context like the one we are living in, the prices of basic products have started to rise and we can buy less and less things with the same money. In short, the savings we keep in our current accounts are losing value and, as a result, we have less and less purchasing power.
That is why, in order to protect our savings, at 11Onze we are making it easier for our community to buy precious metals. We will do this with the Preciosos 11Onze service, and we are starting with the safe-haven security par excellence: gold. Why? Because gold is a precious metal with a low risk of devaluation and, as it is a limited resource, its value always tends to rise, especially in times of economic instability or high inflation. In fact, as we have explained in La Plaça, in the last few years of the pandemic it has risen in value by around 40%.
With Preciosos 11Onze you will not be buying digital gold or an investment in the value of gold, but we will help you buy physical gold, real gold. So real that, if you want it, it will be delivered to your home. And if you don’t want it at home, it can be stored in a vault at a security company specialising in the safekeeping of precious metals.
When the time comes, you can choose whether to keep the gold, sell it or wait a little longer. The advantage is that gold can always be sold, is highly liquid and has a low risk of devaluation, because it is finite and always in demand.
Real gold
The gold that you can buy through Preciosos 11Onze comes from the most prestigious mints in the world and the most reputable refineries in the industry. This gold has a minimum purity of 999.99 and you will buy it in bullion bars and bullion coins, for a minimum purchase of 3,000 euros. And why can we manage it at the best price? Because 11Onze is an exceptional case in the fintech world: our main pillar is the community and therefore we can make grouped purchases.
Now you can protect your money from inflation with Preciosos 11Onze.
If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.
Just a month ago we launched the Fintech Talks, where our chief technology officer, Raül Arribas, talked about cryptocurrencies. Now, in the second talk, 11Onze’s Chairman, James Sène, will explain why fintechs are unseating the big banks. Do you want to attend the debate? Sign up!
Fintechs, which combine the latest technology with more efficient financial management, are increasingly gaining ground on traditional banks. 11Onze is spearheading this change, and seeks to empower its community through La Plaça. But what really differentiates fintechs from big banks? Why are big banks lagging behind in the world of finance? What will the trends of 2022 be?
These and other questions will be answered in the second Fintech Talk by 11Onze’s Chairman, James Sène, who will offer a guide to fintech trends with an innovative vision of the new economy. The talk will take place next Wednesday 16 February at 7pm at the Monday Barceloneta coworking, in English and with a very limited capacity. You can register here.
11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!
At 11Onze we grow thanks to the suggestions of our community. It’s the key to ensuring success and improvements. Since we launched our super app El Canut, many users have asked for the verification process to be simpler. So we’ve got down to work.
Opening an account with El Canut is easier than ever. All you need is your DNI card, as long as it is valid, and the address is correct. When the application asks for proof of identity, you only need to take photos of the front and back of your DNI card. When you are asked to verify the address, you can do so with a photo of the back of it.
If the address on your DNI is not correct, you will need to provide another proof of address, either a utility bill, a document from your employment record, a certificate of census registration or a bank statement showing your name and address. You can take a photograph of the document or attach a PDF, but please make sure that whenever you take a photograph it is in sharp focus. If you can’t read it, neither can we.
In addition, it is essential that in all these documents the name and address match the ones we have previously entered.
If you do not have a DNI, you can validate your identity with your passport or NIE, and you will have to provide another document as proof of address.
With all these indications, what are you waiting for to open your 11Onze account? Remember that, if you want an agent to assist you during the process, you can call 93 003 49 74 or ask for an appointment at 11Onze a Casa.
You have ID, you have an 11Onze account
Every little change makes a difference
At 11Onze we adapt to our community. If we see changes that need to be implemented, we make them, and we explain the process we go through to make them happen. The president of 11Onze, James Sène, has explained on several occasions how we gather user input and how we implement it after negotiating with the operator, a process that requires effort, patience and precision.
“Opening an account with a financial institution is the most important process, and depending on the country, regulations are more or less strict. Any change can be a security hole and must be rethought from a thousand different angles,” Sène said in the latest conversation with head of agents Lara de Castro. You can listen to the conversation in this podcast.
Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona has introduced payment and validation of the single bus ticket with a bank card as an alternative to cash. Here’s how to do it.
After cash ticket sales were abolished in March 2020 to avoid users and drivers coming into contact with cash in the wake of the pandemic, payment by QR code was introduced. An unattractive system, especially for occasional users who had to download the TMB app, register, buy a ticket via their bank’s app, and then get a QR code to swipe on the bus reader.
The new system is easy, fast, completely digital, and allows you to pay for a single ticket with your bank card on Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) buses, which has already installed card readers on its entire fleet of 1,070 vehicles. In addition, payments can also be made using mobile phones or smartwatches.
This initial phase has been implemented on the Barcelona bus network, but it is expected to be extended throughout the metropolitan area, the metro, and railway lines in the near future. According to the director-general of the Autoritat del Transport Metropolità (ATM), Pere Torres, “there is already a working group with Renfe and FGC to be able to use the bank card as a single ticket, but it will take a few months yet”.
Much quicker and simpler
Now, all you have to do is hold your debit or credit card, or your mobile device or smartwatch up to the reader, which registers the data and manages the ticket purchase. This eliminates the need for a physical ticket altogether and the electronic transaction serves as proof of ticket in the event of a ticket inspection by an inspector, who will have access to the last four digits of the customer’s card to check that payment has been made.
11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!
11Onze is proud to share that our website, La Plaça, has been shortlisted for the International UX Design Awards. The awards are one of the most prestigious international awards, and distinguish the impact of the best designers when thinking and creating, not only the digital product, but also the user experience (UX).
The design of the 11Onze website was led by the fincom’s Art Director, Laia Gubern, in collaboration with WONDR, a globally successful digital product development agency based in Ireland. The nomination defines La Plaça as “the world’s first private fintech social network, offering a Netflix-like banking experience to empower consumers with knowledge about money and finance”.
The awards are assigned by the International Design Centre Berlin (IDZ), Germany’s leading institution promoting design as a driver of business and social innovation. The jury members come from design-oriented consultancies and companies, institutions and creatives.
Among them are experts with many years of experience in different competencies and specialisations, who guarantee the prestige of the evaluation, which takes place in a multi-stage procedure, and which assesses the projects in the fields of user orientation and design quality.
The virtual award ceremony for the main prizes will take place on 1 March 2022, but there will also be a special prize for public voting open until 28 February, which you can enter via this link.
The work of 11Onze and Wondr at the design level can therefore add a new recognition in addition to the Centauri Award it already received at the last Vega Awards.
Citizens, especially the most vulnerable, feel that financial institutions no longer count on them. Since 2008, we have gone from having 62,000 ATMs throughout Spain to around 49,000. And last year, traditional banks laid off more than 19,000 workers. That is why the Spanish government is demanding that banks take strong measures against financial exclusion. But will they do so? And what does 11Onze propose? In a new episode of L’Estat de la Nació, 11Onze’s head of agents, Lara de Castro, answers the question.
“The traditional entities are closing offices, reducing the number of employees… And, obviously, the service cannot be what it used to be,” Lara de Castro explains. This situation, she warns, is causing “discontent” among a whole section of the public that “banks have decided that they are no longer useful,” because they no longer consider them “technologically intelligent.” “Older people feel abandoned, obviously,” the head of agents warns.
Against this contempt, De Castro defends the 11Onze proposal for the community. “We live in a society that divides us so much that we forget that the community has a lot of strength. And it is the strength of the community that can make us overcome all these objections from the big banks,” she says. And she adds: “We can’t forget that the younger ones have to help the older ones, and vice versa. If we don’t help each other, what are we left with?.”
That is why 11Onze works to weave strong links within its community. This is how the ‘11Onze a Casa (‘11Onze at Home’) service was born. “In addition to the 24/7 telephone service, where you are attended by a person, and not a robot that takes you through a lot of phases, we now also attend by video call,” De Castro explains. “If the person receives help from a family member to get in front of the screen, we act as guides with a lot of agility. And it’s working very well,” the head of agents says.
In fact, ‘11Onze a Casa’ is a service that the fincom set up in advance of Spanish regulations that oblige financial institutions to offer a closer service 24 hours a day. “And it was about time! If traditional banks, which were bailed out by the state, haven’t done it yet, it’s because they don’t want to. This past year banks have made extraordinary profits in the middle of the pandemic,” Lara de Castro denounces. Because, indeed, there are no more excuses against financial exclusion.
“The community can beat traditional banks”
At 11Onze we have set ourselves the goal of teaching how finances work, because we want to be a tool for Catalonia and because it is essential for citizens to have a good financial education. That is why we have set up the ‘11Onze School’ project. Institut Cendrassos was the first school to receive a training session. We explain how to join our educational programme!
The financial system is the great unknown and, even more so, the world of fintech. That’s why at 11Onze we have made a range of basic knowledge about economy through the Learn section, with courses, training sessions and the documentary series ‘El Diner’. Now, we are going a step further to extend financial education with ‘11Onze School’.
We have launched the initiative with a virtual talk by 11Onze agents Mireia Cano and Coral Santacruz. The session allowed the students of the Higher Level Training Cycle in Transport and Logistics at the Cendrassos Institute in Figueres (Girona) to learn about what a fintech is and the current context of finance. To do so, the 11Onze team first explained the key concepts of the economy and then the various payment systems that exist. “The telematic session was very interesting. I can only thank 11Onze for their work,” Professor Medard Oriol says.
In this first session, 11Onze agents were able to observe a growing interest and confidence in the world of cryptocurrencies, while, on the other hand, there is very little knowledge about how money actually moves. “Questions started to arise early on, some of them related to physical currency and scriptural currency, a concept that not everyone is familiar with, but which we immediately associate with shares or cryptocurrencies,” Mireia Cano says.
For young people, digital banking is no longer a mystery, although many are surprised to see all the processes behind it. “Young people are beginning to have their first contact with money through their personal accounts and they have a more direct relationship than a few years ago. Almost all of them have the financial application on their mobile phones and this offers them more proximity,” Cano explains.
Also, in the session, agents have detailed how the Deposit Guarantee Fund would have to protect our savings in case of bank failure. “And the big question came up: ‘Who puts up this money?’,” the agent recalls. The question perfectly exemplifies the importance of fintechs compared to traditional banks, because they guarantee the money 100% in case of bankruptcy, because of the technological security they offer and because of the proximity with which they treat their clients.
Are you interested in economics? Write to us!
‘11Onze School’ offers training sessions on the world of fintech in educational centres, companies and professional schools. If you are interested in receiving a training session by 11Onze professionals, please contact us at [email protected].
11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!
During the pandemic, families have saved more than ever, but with inflation soaring, what will happen to the money we have saved? Can we make the most of them? 11Onze’s executive assistant, Núria Rambla, answers these questions with all sorts of tips for saving in a new episode of L’Estat de la Nació.
“There is a very curious phenomenon. Savings have increased by almost 5%, but it is savings that have been kept in traditional current accounts, which do not earn any interest,” explains Rambla. Moreover, she points out, even if these savings have been kept in longer-term interest-bearing deposits, they are not yielding any return.
“While interest affects us positively, inflation affects us negatively,” Rambla summarises Rambla. And in an inflationary context, in which, as the executive assistant recalls, we have closed the year with 6.5% inflation in the State, the purchasing power of families is affected. “With high inflation, the ideal is to invest the money saved,” she admits, and, if possible, by diversifying it. “There are different products and everyone can choose as they see fit. That’s why at 11Onze we always try to educate our community well,” Rambla says.
A safe haven for investments
This is how you can invest in affordable investment packages, so-called ETFs, cryptocurrencies, immobilised assets and precious metals, among others. “The classic safe haven for investors will always be precious metals. This year, for example, gold has risen by 20% and silver by 70%,” the executive assistant details. Until now, investment in precious metals had been considered to be aimed at large investors and fortunes, but 11Onze is working to ensure that this type of savings product, like so many others, can reach household economies and be more affordable for families.
“With savings in your account, you lose money”
11Onze kicked off the FintechTalks talking about cryptocurrencies with CTO Raul Arribas at the Monday coworking. He explained the basic concepts of cryptocurrencies while answering questions from the audience. Agent 11Onze Xavi Viñolas details how it went.
It’s already dark in Barcelona even though it’s only six in the evening. There’s an hour left before the audience starts to enter, and Gerard and Pere place the 11Onze logo on the stage. There are three high chairs, one where Raul will sit, and to his right Xavi Bassons, CEO of Monday, and Gemma Vallet, CMO of 11Onze, who will ask him questions.
Inside, everything is almost ready. Outside, Monday’s staff set up some tables for drinks outside at the end of the event. Monday’s courtyard is a kind of restored ‘frontón’ court. And during the lecture Raul will be exactly that, a ‘frontón’ court that will be bouncing back the increasingly precise questions from the audience. The event is sold out and Raul doesn’t know it yet, but he will end the evening chatting animatedly with some members of the audience.
The talk begins with introductory questions by Gemma Vallet and Xavi Bassons: What are cryptocurrencies, how do they work, will they end up replacing current money? But the conversation becomes more sophisticated with questions from the audience: can cryptocurrency miners collaborate with each other to control the system? Is it possible for current regulators to issue cryptocurrencies, or will they cease to be of interest to the public? How many of the 8,000 cryptocurrencies that currently exist will still exist in a few years’ time? And the most common question, formulated in various ways: which cryptocurrency do you like the most? Which one would you invest in?
Raul Arribas answers the most complex questions with exuberant technical precision. And he does not shy away from the debate. When asked whether we can trust the value of a cryptocurrency because there is no regulator, he answers by asking whether we can trust the value of any currency, because it is set by a regulator in its own interests. When asked how cryptocurrencies can help the environment, he responds by asking how the global financial system is helping the environment. It is an interesting dialectic: we demand things from technology and new finance that we do not demand from the companies, governments, and organisations that currently control the economic system. But it also opens a door of hope: “the technology is here, now it’s up to us”.
The interaction with the audience continues with a barrage of questions. An Argentinian guy suggests that perhaps his country will be a world power in cryptocurrency mining, given the low cost of energy. Others question the stability of digital currencies, and everyone enthusiastically wants to know which cryptocurrency they should invest in. Raul doesn’t shy away from it either: “I don’t know, if I knew I’d be rich! This is part of the fun of these new projects, they are an unknown quantity. Will they consolidate? Which ones will disappear? Raul compares it to the dot-com bubble. It is true that many of them disappeared, but that did not mean that neither websites nor technology businesses disappeared. On the contrary: those that did consolidate became giants that have shaped the world. A similar pattern may occur with cryptocurrencies, but it is now unpredictable.
Raul does not shrink back, and answers all questions diligently and professionally, insisting not to be taken for an oracle, that he cannot predict the future of cryptocurrencies. But the exchange with the audience also highlights the entrepreneurial spirit of our society, which not only accepts paradigm shifts, but celebrates them and wants to be part of the change.
Eight o’clock in the evening arrives, and now it is time to relax on the terrace over a beer. Three guys get closer and ask what Les Peles (the token of La Plaça) are. Others approach Raul to finish asking something they haven’t mentioned during the chat. People with interest, learning how to face the future and asking, asking and asking and asking. The conversation is underway, 11Onze’s goal of building a financial community is consolidating. Soon, you will be able to see the full talk at La Plaça.
11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!
