"‘La Plaça’ Attracts Over 10,000 Members"
Fintech & Finance News explains how ‘La Plaça’, 11Onze’s social media platform, has attracted more than 10,000 members, in the news story published on 24 August 2021
You can read the original article here
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“Catalan based fintech start-up 11Onze – a champion of community projects and sustainability – is supporting the festival by becoming its main sponsor.” UK News Group
UK News Group reports on the Vinari awards and the sponsorship of 11Onze, talking to James Sène (founding president) and Natàlia Cugeró (managing director).
“The mission of 11Onze has been clear since its inception. We exist to serve and empower the people of Catalonia, and the Vinari awards is an initiative that celebrates the innovation, hard work and resilience of the wine industry which is recovering from the impact of the pandemic that slowed economic growth in the sector.” said James Séne, Founder, 11Onze.
“Catalonia is a world-class wine region and we are super pleased to support hardworking locals and I believe, like fine wine, our community will mature and grow. At 11Onze, we are all about supporting small and medium businesses. In these tough times, they need community and financial support more than ever. Supporting this world-class wine festival is our way of saying we are here for you and we celebrate your success,” said Natalia Cugueró, CEO, 11Onze, who is the force behind this partnership.
UK News Group
You can read the original news here
Photo: Natalia, CEO 11Onze (Right), delivers VINARI award to the best young white wine: blanc LaFou Els Amelers 2020, de LaFou Celler (DO Terra Alta) Credit: Jordi Play.
Funds Society, the leading publication for investment professionals, explains how the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has certified over 50 11Onze agents.
“The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), the international certifier of the financial sector, has examined more than 50 agents from the fintech community 11Onze, which is based in London, is aimed at the Catalan market and will soon offer its financial services to individuals and companies.
The 50 or so professionals have received training through the Barcelona-based IFA Financial Institute, a CISI-accredited training centre. The agents have studied the International Introduction to Securities and Investment qualification, recognised by the CNMV to comply with MiFID II, the European directive on markets in financial instruments.
Humanising customer service
In its first phase of the launch, 11Onze has opted for around 50 human agents as an alternative to the artificial intelligence chatbots and call centres that abound in the financial sector for customer service and advice. The team will offer fintech customers personalised information and advice on their personal finances to help them make informed and wise decisions; it is gender-balanced and age-balanced, and is coordinated by Lara de Castro. The bank has introduced the professionals to customers – with whom they share a private social network, La Plaça – through video presentations in which they show their personal and professional profiles and their daily lives.
Chaired by James Sène and with innovation and proximity as its flagship, 11Onze was born thanks to the initiative of nearly 150 founding shareholders and is defined as a digital financial community in which knowledge is shared among peers to achieve financial wellbeing and advice is given to customers to help them plan their financial future successfully. The Catalan fintech aims to empower individuals and SMEs by offering them an alternative to big banking, and to build community by providing them with a platform where they can interact with each other and even do business.
The assessments
CISI’s director in Spain, Rosa Mateus, said: “It gives us immense satisfaction to be able to collaborate in the training of professionals from new players in the sector such as the fintech 11Onze, whom we thank for their trust. From the Spanish office of the Institute, we hope to be able to certify the knowledge of the teams of many more entities in the new digital financial world: neobanks, challenger banks, fintechs, BaaS… The prestige, rigour and value of the CISI brand are within your reach and at your disposal”.
Natàlia Cugueró, Chief Revenue Officer of 11Onze, said: “The appropriate training of our agents, with very diverse profiles, is essential in order to provide an excellent service to our customers and advise them on their financial decisions. We have chosen the CISI to certify our team because of its reputation as a leading professional body in the financial services sector, its reputation and its worldwide presence.”
You can read the original article here:
Finextra, The Fintech Times and Fintech & Finance, all leading publications in the international fintech community, echo the new micro-documentaries on 11Onze agents published in La Plaça.
“11Onze deploys agents to humanise its banking services”
“Whereas most banks and fintech service providers leave customer interaction limited to AI chatbots, and elusive call centre employees, digital community fintech 11Onze has introduced its well-rounded agents via video clips on La Plaça (11Onze’s private social network). The fly-on-the-wall reality TV-style mini-documentaries follow the agents around, capturing their day-to-day lives, loves, and cares. Agents with varied backgrounds and interests share their views, expertise and show how they think and act, bridging the gap between digital and real-world – offering a human touch to its digital services.
The aim of these micro-documentaries is for 11Onze users to get to know the people in charge of their financial affairs. Stressing the point that these are not some distant people acting as your managers, but members of the same community to which you belong. It’s a commitment to transparency, proximity, and strengthening community ties. An episode will be published every Thursday with the first episode, featuring the head of agents Lara de Castro.”
Fintech & Finance News and Finextra
You can read the original news in English here:
Lleida Ràdio interviews 11Onze’s CEO, Natàlia Cugueró.
What is 11Onze? What is a fintech community? How will 11Onze become a community banking platform? What are “peles”? The answers to all questions about 11Onze’s project in this Lleida Ràdio interview with CEO Natalia Cugueró.
Podcast UN DIA MÉS - UA1 Lleida Ràdio
The CEO of 11Onze, Natàlia Cugueró, was interviewed on Mireia Sans’ Cafè de la Ràdio at Radio Sabadell.
What is a digital fintech community? Why is it so important to train, interact and share within the 11Onze community? What are peles and what will they be used for?
All the answers in one conversation.
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INTERVIEW in Món Diari with Mercè Comas, businesswoman and one of the 148 founders of the 11Onze Banc. The owner of the Moto Auto Juni dealership-workshop in Catellbisbal states that the entity “will listen to people regardless of their ideology”.
You can read all the Món news here
“Neobank hopeful 11Onze to offer Catalans a non-Spanish alternative.”
With this headline, 11Onze Banc was mentioned today in the renowned international publication FINTECH FUTURES*.
Below, you can read the article written by
Ruby Hinchliffe 17 February 2021.
Digital challenger 11Onze is gearing up to become one of Catalonia’s first non-Spanish-linked banks.
With 148 founding members, the start-up intends to be a representation of the region’s 7.6 million population.
Terrassa businessman Jordi Roset, one of the bank’s founding members, thinks Catalans “need a bank that does not work for the establishment and the Spanish Deep State”.
“Catalonia does not have an entirely Catalan bank,” he explains in a blog post. He also references the independence vote in 2017, which saw an exodus of major banks out of Catalonia, including Sabadell’s move to Alicante and Caixa’s shift to Valencia.
An independent licence
11Onze is currently on the hunt for a banking licence from a state of the European Union, according to Spanish radio station alacarta. But not from Spain, because the start-up wants to maintain its independence from the country.
Catalonia, as an autonomous region of Spain, has no central bank. This is why 11Onze wants to become the country’s “central private bank”, according to Roset.
“There are countries with fewer inhabitants than Catalonia, which have safe national banks and are rich states,” he adds. “If we were independent, we could live up to countries like Finland, Australia, or Denmark and this is shown by the Catalan GDP.”
On its website, 11Onze says it will offer loans, current accounts, payments, and a marketplace for goods and services. As well as treasury and accounting solutions for both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and families. It also mentions a community banking offering “through its own platform”.
A filmset hiring process
At the end of last month, 11Onze Banco onboarded 70 new employees over a three-day programme, taking its total employee count to more than 100.
The start-up filmed the entire hiring process, which consisted of six “tests” in a three-storey factory, as part of its bid to remain truly transparent for its community.
“We don’t want to go through a traditional selection process because we’ve come to do things differently,” the fintech says on its website.
Isabel Custodio, the bank’s HR director, says “it has been one of the most important processes that I have lived in my long career”. One exercise sees three candidates role play around a discarded wallet with cash inside. Another sees a candidate try to assemble a stack of cards whilst balancing an umbrella under his chin.
The bank’s chief operating officer, Darren Smith, “personally reviewed” every CV. Smith, who is currently based in London, previously worked with NatWest as a contractor. His role was to determine “the future state target operating model” of the Mettle and the now-dissolved Bó.
Following its filmset hiring programme, the start-up is putting its new employees through 11Onze’s “academy”.
As for the capital underpinning its operation, it seems a number of the bank’s founding members are affluent business owners.
“My bet on 11Onze comes not so much for a monetary return but for a country yield,” says Roset. “I think the best thing we Catalans can do is invest in our country. One way to do this is to opt for your own banking structure.”
*FinTech Futures is a publication and digital publishing platform for the global fintech community, from industry veterans to startups, one of the leaders in fintech communication.
Its website attracts close to one million monthly page views and its daily newsletter is delivered to 35,000 key decision makers in financial services and technology. The brand is active on all major B2B social media platforms, with over 42,000 followers on Twitter @FinTech_Futures and over 21,000 members in LinkedIn groups.
“Being digital will not compromise 11Onze’s ambition to offer a personal service” James Sène, Founder and Chairman of 11Onze Banc.
With these words Sène introduces 11Onze to the international community in his interview to Finextra, the leading platform and independent source of news and information for the global financial technology community.
Below, you can read the full article in Catalan published on 2 March 2021 originally in English on Finextra.
Over 148 private investors have become founding shareholders in a new digital community bank for Catalan people.
The new bank offers a mix of digital and traditional relationship banking services, alongside a private social network and B2B marketplace.
The startup is building on the strong sense of kinship shared by the Catalonian community, which erupted five years ago in a struggle to secure independence from Spain.
Jordi Roset, co-owner of the Petrolis Independents fuel chain, explains his decision to become a founding shareholder: “I am not investing in the bank like those shareholders who are all day looking at the stock market to see if they made a killing; for me it’s an investment for the future and the country.
“Moreover, as a Catalonian I would like to say that we saw many large banks with a long history here, decamp after the independence referendum in 2017. This really shocked all of us. To have a community bank like 11Onze, of which we are founding shareholders, gives me the confidence that it’s here for us and it will stay here for us, for our society and its business fabric.”
11Onze founder James Sène says being digital will not compromise its ambition to offer a personal service.
“When banks became digitised, they inevitably became distanced from their customers. Customers are often served by bots or strangers on the end of a phone line. 11Onze brings the local bank experience into a digital world,” he says. “Every customer will be connected to a dedicated 11Onze member whom they know by name and background. It’s not merely about going digital, it’s also about keeping it local and intimate.”
THE FINTECH TIMES describes 11Onze Banc as the first digital community bank in Catalonia in the news published on 9 March 2021
It highlights the vision of James Sène, Founding Chairman of 11Onze: “11Onze is a digital community bank based in Catalonia focused on serving and empowering local people”.
11Onze – the first digital community bank in Catalonia – gears up towards its launch with over 148 private investors already becoming founding shareholders as demand increases daily.
What is unique about 11Onze banc is that it is created to shift the balance of power from the few to the many. In an age where knowledge is power, it aims to share intelligence and know-how with its customers to help them control their financial future. It’s a bank largely owned by the Catalan people, serving its locals to build stronger communities – all with cutting edge innovation at its fingertips. It’s revolutionary on several fronts – from being the first bank ever to offer a private social network to its customers and provide a marketplace to do business with each other.
Investor’s impressions
“I am proud to be a founding shareholder”, says Jordi Roset, co-owner of the Petrolis Independents fuel chain, a franchise of Petro7, a brand of the Petrolis Roset S.L. “11Onze will be the bank for SMEs and ordinary people. I see it as an investment into our future. I am hoping my children and my grandchildren will be doing business with this bank! I am not investing in the bank like those shareholders who are all day looking at the stock market to see if they made a killing; for me, it’s an investment for the future and the country.”
“Moreover, as a Catalonian I would like to say that we saw many large banks with a long history here, decamp after the independence referendum in 2017. This really shocked all of us. To have a community bank like 11Onze, of which we are founding shareholders, gives me the confidence that it’s here for us and it will stay here for us, for our society and its business fabric.”
“I see it as a bank that listens to people, regardless of their ideology,” reveals shareholder investor Mercè Comas, entrepreneur, who had run Moto Auto Juni for more than 25 years. “I like the fact that it will be a bank to support personal and business projects, any project that is viable will have our support. This will be a true revolution in the sector.”
Founder’s view
“Our founding shareholders are people who share our vision,” confirms 11Onze founder James Sène “11Onze is a Catalonia-based digital community bank focused on serving and empowering the local people. I believe it is revolutionary “not only” in its vision but also in execution. We go beyond the normal challenger banks by using a digital platform for banking, offering a private social network and a marketplace to its customers to interact, engage and take control of their finance. We also aim to educate our customers on how to make the most of their savings and investments.”
Being digital will not compromise 11Onze from being personal, Sène adds. “When banks became digitised, they inevitably became distanced from their customers. Customers are often served by bots or strangers on the end of a phone line. 11Onze brings the local bank experience into a digital world. Every customer will be connected to a dedicated 11Onze member whom they know by name and background. It’s not merely about going digital, it’s also about keeping it local and intimate.”