Member Article

Two high street banks are launching a public innovation lab in Kensington this week

A new innovation lab devised by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks is coming to Kensington High Street this week that will help posit solutions to the some of the financial woes facing generation rent.

Studio B, which is touting itself as the UK’s first public innovation lab, is opening this Thursday (27 April) and is set to host a range of events and workshops that will showcase some of the most up-to-the-minute technologies and how they might be put to use in the banking sector.

The flagship store will utilise a number of crowd-pleasing technologies, including facial recognition to monitor user reaction, gaming, animation and video, to provide a ‘unique customer experience’ along with its programme of four-weekly workshops.

Invited guests and members of the public will work together to design, test and prototype innovations at the space which have the potential to make banking more inclusive and relevant to people’s lives, with workshops around voice recognition, money management and other topics all planned.

According to the two banks behind the initiative, the programme will bring together brands, charities and tech companies throughout its run, giving the public the chance to test the prototypes in real-time.

A branch will also be on-site allowing visitors and customers to do their banking at their Kensington pop-up site as well.

Helen Page, Group Innovation & Marketing Director, commented: “This inspiring space reinvents the way we engage with the public, allowing the next generation of customers to design the next generation of banking.

“We want to put the fun back into finance and help customers find practical solutions to the challenges they face. Studio B will help people build a better relationship with their money.”