FinTech Scotland

Lending money is a process that has long been around and for many years it was left undisrupted. People are very familiar now with credit scores and the idea that to get credit you need credit. New solutions and technologies are coming to disrupt this market to make financial products more accessible to a greater number of people. In this episode we’ll look at how Open Finance is changing the stat...

By Now Pay Later is not something new. Offline, it’s a process that goes back several decades. Online we’ve started to see offers develop in the last 10 years with a real acceleration powered by fintech innovation in the last 5 years. In the UK this market represents $27Bn and is expected to reach $55Bn by 2028 according to Payments Cards and Mobile. Recently we’ve started to witness the appearanc...

On November 10th, 2022, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) was approved by the EU. It is designed to standardise IT risk requirements in the financial sector to ensure that all participants of the financial system are subject to a common set of.    Amongst other things it introduces an oversight framework for critical third-party providers.   In this podcast we will discuss how this new...

In this special episode with speak with David Tracy, Head of Data Science, at Smart Data Foundry on the week they presented their new Aisle proposition at Innovate Finance Global Summit. What is synthetic data is? How is it different from real-world data?   We'll explore how it will speed up innovation and collaboration in the fintech world, what the risks and benefits are and much more.   Dav...

Scaling up a fintech business is a crucial part of a company’s life, moving from launching and validating a proposition to growing, onboarding clients and driving revenue. At that stage companies will focus on marketing, sales, recruitment which are all important considerations. It is however paramount to also look at resilience to protect customers/clients, adhere to new regulation, be investor r...

In July 2022, the FCA published its Consumer Duty. Regulated firms need to implement the new rules by the end of July 2023 for open products and July 2024 for closed books of business. Firms will need to review their products, communications and customer journey. It will impact most areas in those organisations such as governance, reporting, product design, pricing, distribution, servicing and sta...

When thinking about payroll generally most people would assume that it is something that works well. You work, you get paid. However, payroll is being disrupted like never before. According to software company Intuit, one in four workers say they have had paycheque errors. And cloud company Kronos found almost half of workers who have had two or more paycheque errors will look for a new job. Socie...

The FinTech Scotland Research and Innovation Roadmap highlighted the growing focus on climate considerations for the financial services sector. Whilst this is in part driven by consumers, demanding better transparency for the products they invest in, this is the launch of new regulations that is accelerating the move to a more sustainable financial sector. Financial services providers are facing g...

The fintech sector is growing at pace with more and more entrepreneurs launching their own innovative firm. Whilst starting a new company can be difficult, scaling one to the next stage isn’t any easier and comes with its own challenges. What makes a start-up different is its size, allowing it to be more nimble, faster and more agile which in turns allows for faster innovation. As it grows, employ...

Fintech innovation is powered by data. New solutions appear every day, always consuming new data to develop new services to help people and organisations deal with money. Innovators are constantly in search for new data sources. The Scottish space sector has developed to be one of the largest in Europe. This industry, thanks to technology advances, can generate an incredible amount of data, from c...

As we transition to a more sustainable future, data, technology and innovation will help to drive and accelerate the insights, products and services to enable the changes needed. Earth Observation Data can enable new innovations that can help to advance financial inclusion, incentivise better climate related behaviours, and support the net zero agenda. Scotland has built significant experience in...

Fintech firms around the world are becoming more and more vocal about how difficult they find it to hire new colleagues. Whether it is the skills gap or the increase in salary levels, start-ups and scales-ups are not always best equipped to compete in a global and highly competitive market. At the same time, many fintechs from around the world have and are still choosing Scotland to expand, findin...

Financial Regulation Innovation (RegTech) was highlighted in the FinTech Scotland Research and Innovation roadmap published in March 2022 as an essential area of focus for the financial sector. Understanding and managing regulatory requirements costs financial institutions millions of pounds every year. As regulation evolves all the time to protect consumers, so do new tools and technologies. In r...

The NFT movement seems to have taken the world by storm. For most people it came out of nowhere and when most people are grappling with the idea of digital currencies, they now have to deal with non-Fungible-tokens. Digital currencies are changing everything and not just the way we deal with money. However, it’s not just about coins anymore. Today, in the episode we’re speaking about how it’s affe...

According to the Office for National Statistics, 87% of adults in the UK reported an increase in their cost of living in April 2022. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects household incomes after tax and adjusted for inflation to start falling in Q2 2022 and not recover until Q3 2024.Since Russia invaded Ukraine, economic forecasters have raised their expectations for consumer price inflatio...

Whilst the fintech movement often makes headlines with those firms that are trying to replace traditional financial institutions, there are many more fintech firms out there trying to work, collaborate or sell to those incumbents to help them deliver better outcomes to their customers. In this podcast we discuss the opportunities for increased collaboration and some of the challenges? Has the pand...

In March 2022, FinTech Scotland released its 10-year Fintech Research & Innovation Roadmap for the UK. In collaboration with leading universities, large financial institutions, fintech businesses, citizens, industry experts and senior officials this report explores the opportunities that will help the UK maintain its fintech leadership globally. In this episode we explore what this roadma...

The fintech movement hasn’t just disrupted the way customers and citizen deal with money and access financial products or large financial institutions digitise themselves. Fintech is transforming how SMEs work and organise themselves. In this episode we’ll explore how fintech is transforming SMEs. We’ll discuss adoption rates, opportunities and challenges faced by fintechs trying to sell their sol...

The Digital Banking Report Research by The Financial Brand shows that Customer Experience is the number 2 priority (just after digital transformation) for financial institution around the globe. New entrants and changing customer expectations have fuelled this need for a greater focus on customer led design. COVID-19 has accelerated this trend by requiring companies to adapt to a fully digital wor...

According to the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) cyberthreats are on the rise, with more and more Phishing attempts, Identity Theft, Ransomware. The COVID-19 seems to have been an accelerant with attacks on homes, businesses, governments and critical infrastructure. In this podcast we’ll discuss the issue with cybersecurity experts. What are the current threats and those to watch o...

Saying that women are under-represented in fintech is an understatement. According to a 2018 LendIt survey, only 37 per cent of fintech employees are female, with representation dropping to just 19 per cent at C-suite level. There are however some great success stories. Anne Boden, CEO at Starling Bank or closer to home Jude Cook, CEO and co-founder at ShareIn, Loral and Eishel Quinn at Susta...

With COP26 taking place in Glasgow later this year, there is a real focus on the climate change issue. As all participating countries are asked to submit their new long-term goals to address the global climate emergency, we are asking ourselves today how fintech can participate in this global movement. The United Nations, in their Principles for Responsible Banking, have recognised Financial Servi...

Fintech is a movement that focusses on customer outcomes, transparency, and democratisation of the financial services sector. Using data and technology, fintech firms are looking at tackling societal and economic issues. Together with our guest we’ll discuss the role of fintech in tomorrow’s world. With Duncan Cockburn, Founder & CEO at OneBanks, Eishel Quinn, Co-founder & Chief Product Officer at...

The world of payment is being disrupted like never before, accelerated, in part, by the recent economic and societal changed imposed by COVID19. Contactless payments, rise in online transactions coupled with increased concerns around fraud and cybersecurity mean that the sector is undergoing some unprecedented changes. In this episode we explore what those changes mean in terms of innovation and f...

Cryptocurrencies are regularly featured in the press. Sometimes it’s about Bitcoin reaching a new high, sometimes about a new ICO launching. More recently we learnt that tech giant Elon Musk had bought into the digital currency movement. There have been many debates since Bitcoin launched in 2008. There are those who believe crypto is just a temporary craze and those who believe it’s the future of...