Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ Going Global
One of the key objectives for FinTech Scotland is to contribute to putting the country on the global fintech map and this last two weeks has given us the opportunity to build a presence on the international stage.
Collaboration is key when going on the global stage and this is very much reinforced by the fact that Avaloq are one of the founding private sector partners of Fintech Scotland.
With the one hundred strong research and development team based in Edinburgh, Avaloq has built a tremendous reputation as a leading international fintech firm adopting a global footprint and mindset to drive innovation in the financial services sector.
Global Collaboration
Last week we had the opportunity to share Scotland’s global credentials and aspirations with two sets of guests from the Far East.
On Wednesday we met with four very innovative fintech enterprises from Hong Kong who had expressed an interest in expanding in the West and learning about Scotland’s fintech landscape which we were delighted to go into a great amount of depth on.
Then on Friday, with the excellent Graham Hatton and the brilliant Shirin Pang from Scottish Development International, we met with Sopnendu Mohanty, the Chief Fintech Officer from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and his team.
There was much to learn from these meetings and what particularly struck me was the fact the we were very much aligned in emphasising the importance of collaboration and inclusion in our fintech agendas.
Global Events
Earlier in the week Mickael and I had spent a couple of days in London at the Innovation Finance Global Summit sharing Scotland’s fintech strengths with our counterparts from international centres from around the globe, from Bahrain to Holland to USA to China to Africa.
Building these worldwide connections is going to valuable as we seek to encourage more fintech firms to consider Scotland as an ideal place for their international expansion as well as potentially opening doors to our home grown fintech enterprises to expand on the global stage.
The Summit gave us the opportunity to also catch up with Julian Wells and the team from FinTech North, our neighbours from across the border, who are doing a fabulous job in building the profile of the exciting fintech developments across Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.
We are delighted we will have the opportunity to share the conference platform with the FinTech North team at their Spring events as we look to collaborate on future initiatives .
A big thank you to Kent Mackenzie and the Deloitte team for facilitating our various engagements at the Summit. One of the highlights being of the Summit was to hear Louise Brett give one of the best presentations on the role of fintech as a progressive force for good, especially in improving diversity in the sector.
The value of diversity and inclusion was the key theme for our third Fintech Scotland symposium on Tuesday evening.
Awesome personal leadership stories were told by Jackie Waring of Investing Women, Loral Quinn of Sustainably, June Cook of ShareIn and Yvonne Dunn of Pinsent Masons, all made more special as the session was live streamed around the globe for those who could not join us in Edinburgh
A huge thanks to Yvonne, Hollie and the Pinsent Mason team for their fabulous hospitality for the event
Global Data
On the subject of events, the really big event in the last fortnight was, of course, DataFest which was a wonderful demonstration of how Scotland’s data driven innovation very much shines on the global stage across all sectors of the economy and society.
Thanks to Pardeep Cassells of BNP Paribus and Raymond Wales of Scottish Investment Operations, I had the opportunity to share thoughts on all things fintech and data driven innovation with a broad section of people from the international asset management sector in Scotland
We had a great conversation on the fintech issues ranging from collaboration to skills development and I am looking forward progressing these further in the coming months.
What a spectacular series of DataFest activities and events across the whole of the country over the week that the truly amazing Gillian Docherty and the DataLab team put on. What an inspiring role model leadership team DataLab are for all of us.
Later that week, meeting with the Sean Harkin to discuss how we can help his new data driven fintech enterprise, Symmetry Analytics, further demonstrated to me very clearly that we have the expertise and leaders in Scotland to use the data explosion in our lives to make a positive difference through value add innovation.
Global Leaders
Talking of global leaders, I’ve had the opportunity in recent weeks to meet with some brilliant people who are helping me think about how Scotland really does put itself on the global map for fintech.
Such as Paul Kiernan who has been terrific to work alongside connecting us with Australian fintech firms who are looking to establish themselves in Europe and Scotland. Thanks Paul you are a star player in the fintech world.
Then, it was absolutely fantastic to meet up last week with the truly inspiring Promilla Caughy from the EY Foundation who was recently recognized on the international stage as an Inspirational Role Model’.
Promilla is very much my international role model with her deep experience of international engagement and cultures as well her people based can do mindset on global collaboration and inclusion.
Then on Monday evening, I was fortunate to have dinner with Parveen Kaur who is responsible for some of RBS major operations in India.
Learning about the huge leaps India is taking in the fintech world from Parveen was very thought provoking and I am hoping we can benefit from Parveen’s expertise as one of our international ambassadors going forward. Thanks Lou Smith for such a super evening of fintech discussion
Great to hear that one of our very own fintech leaders James Varga, chief executive of The ID Co has been selected to go on a trade mission to the USA next month to showcase the firm’s expertise and engage with senior stakeholders.
Global Running
The global theme is going to run on as I have been invited to go to New York to share Scotland’s fintech progress at events next week in the Big Apple. More on this in my next Fuse blog!
In between the various fintech commitments, the trip across the Atlantic will give me the opportunity to join an inspiring global friend of mine, Paul Skinner, for an early morning 6 mile run around Central Park and maybe a longer run at Flushing Meadows!
Before I embark on this global running treat I hope my planned ten mile race at Strathclyde Country Park on Sunday beats the weather and allows me to test out how much pace I have in my legs for the global excursions!
The man behind Open Banking – Interview with Gavin Littlejohn
Open banking is a hot topic at the moment. On 13th January 2018, the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) came into force, bringing Fintech access to payments and payments data into the scope of regulation in the EU for the first time. This is a major change in the industry, one that will certainly generate a lot more innovation.
One of the people behind the open banking movement is Gavin Littlejohn. We met with Gavin to get his view on what’d been achieved to date in terms of open banking standards but also on the future of the industry.
What got you interested in open banking?
Money Dashboard was my second fintech business and I began working on it in 2005, making it a pioneer of the independent services using an open model of account access. Customers could engage all of their different financial brands in a unified service. At the time and for many years thereafter, banks were strongly discouraging customers from using Money Dashboard and other such services.
Whilst a battle raged on social media between the fintech participants and banks about whether the data belonged to the customer or the institution, and whether the customer had a right to share their financial data with other firms, it was not until in 2012 and 2013 when my own bank provider wrote to me discouraging me from using Money Dashboard and similar services that it became obvious that more fundamental changes were needed.
We engaged with the Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and I also managed to secure UK government cabinet level support through HM Treasury to drive through some changes.
We continue to campaign for all customer financial data to be made available for the customer to share in a safe and helpful way, but at the time the train leaving the station was in payments, with the EU wide PSD2 drafting nearly completed. HMT identified a way to include access to only payment data, rather than all financial data, by coupling account aggregation or data access to PSD2.
This was a late addition to the directive. HMT agreed to push for this change and suggested that I lead the formation of a trade association to give the banks and regulators a party to negotiate with.
That’s why the Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA) that I’m chairing was created. When I left Money Dashboard in 2015, I was asked by the fintech industry to stay on and lead the campaign for standards through FDATA.
How do you explain the fact that the UK seems to be leading the charge?
PSD2 set the legal and regulatory basis of third party market access, including providing some clarity on the liability model, but did not do as good a job in establishing the technology standards, which was envisaged as more of a competitive market rather than the standards based approach that the UK market sought to achieve.
HM Treasury encouraged the fintech and banking industry to negotiate the design principles of an Open Banking Standard in 2015. FDATA had a significant role in this, with our members co-chairing 4 out of the 6 working groups. It was a key milestone and set the framework for a standards based approach which is now a widely admired concept. The key thing was that it was an inclusive process, with lots of contributions to help shape and refine.
In 2016, the CMA, who had been following the process carefully during their review of effective competition in banking, decided to step in and require that the nine largest UK banks by current account, form an entity to fund and deliver the Open Banking Standard, creating an impetus for execution that is both standardised and delivered earlier than some other countries that are also exploring open banking. I was asked to represent the fintech interest on the steering group of the Open Banking Implementation Entity.
Our fintech firms are already testing APIs from the banks and a lot of attention is being paid on making sure they all conform to the standards. There is much work to do, but we are moving in the right direction.
Where do you see Scotland’s biggest opportunity around Open Banking?
We are lucky in that we have a great concentration of knowledge and talent in this space. Some Scottish companies have mastered the data. Money Dashboard, the ID Co. FreeAgent and Castlight have shown real mastery of the categorisation of customer transaction data and have built some business models on top that customers really value. As a result of that, some Scottish firms are already market leaders in this space.
How do you think Open Banking will benefit society as a whole?
Open Banking will create an environment where the quality of the experience will empower the customer and reduce inertia. Data science will enable innovation to be at the customer level not at the product level. In short, more customers will be on the right products at the right time and at the right price, fraud will be reduced as the standards kick in and financial inclusion will improve for many as data driven innovation solves more customer problems.
Do you see Open Banking widening its scope to insurance, savings products and other asset classes?
Some of the technical artefacts of Open Banking Implementation Entity ”“ such as the Directory – might be used in other markets. As customers we all have a wide range of financial relationships. They are all part of what is called the “financial self”. To be fully formed you need all your financial data to be enabled so we can empowered to make decisions in full possession of the facts and risks. It would be really strange ”“ in the long term ”“ for customers to be able to access half of their financial data under a legal basis through a tech standard and for the other half to be out with the liability model. It has surely all to be brought into the standard methodology.
Do you think Open Banking will allow for disruption of a scale similar to the one observed in other sector such as hotel, transport and travel?
Providing they can create services, then yes. Both fintechs and banks can position themselves as the 3rd party provider. What I mean is that banks don’t have to be losers here. If they win the customer consent with a strong proposition, they can access data from other banks just as the fintech firms do. Banks who don’t embrace this change might get reduced in their importance. Open Banking will enable people to optimise their financial self (affordability, lending, AML, savings, investment, money management). We’ve only scratched the surface of this. The open banking movement is gaining momentum across the world and the level of innovation will be transformational. FDATA is increasingly a global trade association and is operating now on several continents.
Are you happy with the current standards around Open Banking?
Happy with technical output of the UK Open Banking, yes. The specifications are strong. Banks are now building. We now need to get the other banks to converge as well as credit card issuers and others. A good outcome would be to have an internationalisation of the artefacts to get to a point where standards are the same.
What role do you see FinTech Scotland playing in ensuring Open Banking become an opportunity for the Scottish economy?
FinTech Scotland can help the country position itself as a Global leader in data science with top research coming from universities, some firms, the Data Lab and the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre. We have the opportunity to combine data with leading data science skills and deep insight to customer problems in financial services to produce a really strong cluster.
You’re travelling a lot at the moment; can you tell us where you’ll be in the next few months and why?
I’m just back from Singapore and have been working with the North American FDATA group and the Indian Group. Coming up I’ve further work in these markets, plus plans are forming for further visits in the EU, Central and Eastern Europe, South America, China, S.E. Asia, Australia and Russia.
If we don’t deliver standards now it will be very difficult to do it later. Collaboration and sharing of issues and best practise between markets and regulators is a sensible step.
The only chance for convergence to a single standard is now.
Finding your Finance Seat at the Fintech Table
Fintech is a rapidly growing area that has captured imaginations in recent years; from entrepreneurs and CEOs to office workers catching up over a coffee. However, the integral role of the accounting professional within a fintech has perhaps slipped beneath the radar for many. It is worth lifting the lid on this innovative industry and looking at the highs and lows of working in finance for a fintech SME.
Taking stock of the fintech landscape
Financial technology is at the heart of a fintech business and as technology evolves it has the potential to change the way we carry out transactions and work. The industry, in line with the rate which new technology is advancing, is fast paced and always looking for new ways to challenge convention. The big trends in fintech to be aware of this year include diversifying cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the increasing use of blockchain, improving the reach of contactless payment technology, greater competition between SMEs and large firms and increasing regulation.
Where do I fit in as a finance professional?
Most fintech organisations are progressive SMEs, where the function of the finance team evolves as the organisation grows. At an early growth stage, the finance team will often be outsourced. As the SME grows in terms of transaction volume and product and service offering, in the interests of cost and efficiency, the finance function tends to be brought in-house.
According to Andrew Robinson, iMultiply Senior Consultant this is a key time to join the business:
“Once a fintech, as with any SME, hits a critical point in the growth curve they will be looking to bring an agile finance team on board. The ability to roll up your sleeves and embrace variety and challenge are crucial. One minute you might be transaction focussed and the next you might be producing the management accounts and working with the CEO on finance strategy and company projections.”
What skills do I need to work for a fintech?
A recent PwC report revealed that 61% of CEOs believe that innovation is a priority, while 75% of executives are concerned with not having enough ideas. Bearing in mind this emphasis on innovation, you need to bring the right mind-set to this exciting sector. Although SMEs look for a variety of skills, we have set out the top three attributes which are a priority for fintech and SME employers:
Analytical Mind: You need to be able to solve problems, but also demonstrate logical thinking, strong numeracy skills and the ability to analyse data and information. If you can demonstrate strong analytical ability, you will be in high demand.
Dynamism and Adaptability: A lot of the firms working in this sector operate very much within a growth environment and will be looking for accounting professionals who have the ability to work across departments and position functions. Being able to bring new ways of working and showing an entrepreneurial spirit is key for being successful.
“You will need to be the right cultural fit. Working for an SME or fintech is like riding a rollercoaster ”“ you need to embrace change and enjoy the peaks and troughs. Adapting to evolving business needs and bringing a powerful blend of technical expertise, commercial nous and the ability to connect to different functions will enable you to rise quickly in the business”, confirms Kirsty Mackenzie, iMultiply CEO.
Resilience: This sector is unpredictable and things may not always go to plan, so developing resilience skills and the ability to bounce-back is highly prized.
The future of fintech is right there in the name. The industry has a heavy focus on finance and technology, and the remit of finance and technology is constantly changing. The only thing that we can know with any certainty is that the fintech market is set for further disruption and that the rewards for those who get the mixture of innovation and practicality just right will be enormous.
One thing’s for sure – it’s an exciting time to be a part of the industry, and it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to develop. As an accounting professional, if you spot the right opportunity with one of these SMEs, perhaps you’ll be the one to usher in the change.
Scotland’s Fintech: A Tale of Two Cities or Two Towers? Part 2
“The old world will burn in the fires of industry. The forests will fall. A new order will rise. We will drive the machine of war with the sword and the spear and the iron fist”
JR Tolkien, The Two Towers, Lord of the Rings
Scotland’s Finance is enjoying a renaissance, a digital economy, should then history dictate tomorrow’s Fintech? In re-imagining Edinburgh versus London, the Two Towers, can Scotland compete as a viable alternative hub on grounds other than simply cost? In this Part 2, of the article, we explore the UK hub economy as it exists, versus regional ecosystems outside of London and the role education has to play? This then is no history lesson..
Old paradigms, new challenges
Our focus for Fintech naturally gravitates towards Edinburgh and its historical ties with London (the City’)? London and Edinburgh make a fine pair, Tolkien’s Minas Morgul and Orthanc, his Two Towers’. Indeed Edinburgh has served its London master well as an affordable outsourcing location and profited from it. In Part 1 we highlighted the operational leverage of outsourcing jobs from London to Edinburgh.
Whilst cheap has always been attractive; lower paid roles can become quickly commoditised. The first indication of the danger was global-sourcing to the likes of India. Here executives were exploring new lower cost locations. Just as our industry was coming to terms with globalisation it got hit by the Great Financial Crisis. The sense of being at the brink’ changed the long term strategies of many boards and many roles have been targeted by Digitalisation sooner. If you hear agile working’ at work then buckle up.
Unsurprisingly decision-makers and executives tend to be a little shy when it comes to their own synthesis. That will come later. The near-term problem is when those attractively valued skills become superfluous to automation. Fewer roles become a negative feedback leading to emigration, fewer graduate roles, resulting in brain drain, making the country less attractive to investment.
The fintech opportunity
Is then Fintech threat or opportunity? It is a question I am sure that my friend Professor Chris Sier asked himself when he became a champion for the Northern PowerHouse’ and establishment of its Fintech hub (Fintech North’). The reality is that over the last 50 years the UK has moved from manufacturing to a service-based economy and with it the North of England lost its economic leverage in the investment and political apparatus within UK Plc.
Meanwhile Scotland (specifically Edinburgh) benefitted from that industry rotation just as the North, Birmingham and other parts of Scotland suffered. Why? Today UK Plc, unlike say Germany, operates a single hub economy that has gravitated wealth and investment around London, the South of England and Edinburgh. London, itself as a global city, a metropolis of both finance, commerce and politics. It enjoys the multiplier effect that stems from such agglomeration, greater GDP per capita and tax receipts, just as other parts of the UK suffer flat or falling GDP, wage disinflation and stagnant productivity.
Technology then can be THE great enabler, a means to rebalance the economic hot spots of the UK. However it is vulnerable to policy error, inward and external investment naturally gravitating towards London, as new Technology companies seek to target Finance firms from Old Street across to Finsbury Square and into the heart of EC2 and Threadneedle. In doing so they set up shop close by.
Dickens or Tolkien?
The sheer gravity of London cannot be underestimated and it leaves the other centres vying for the scraps. How then should Edinburgh and Scotland respond? Coordination. Either Scotland (Edinburgh) seeks to pursue Dickens’ tale of two cities’, competing directly and openly with London, or are we left in a somewhat Tolkien-esque the Two Towers’ scenario, un-separable and subservient? Do we continue to operate as a satellite of the UK capital or increasingly compete for innovation and inward and external investment? This is the key question I pose to Fintech Scotland, under the stewardship of my friend and ex colleague Stephen Ingledew.
After all, Edinburgh (as the de facto main financial centre of Scotland) has effectively defined itself as much by its relationship to the City of London as it has through its own trading status. This link has been further reinforced as US banks set up front office operations in London and back office in Scotland, extending the tendrils between the two. Yet that relationship looks far less secure in a digitalised world for two reasons.
Firstly traditional Finance is in long-run demise and disintermediation, with it relationships between firms are changing from partner to competitor, as the value chain compresses. In the race for operational supremacy, insourcing becomes outsourcing in a capital lite’ world as employees are unceremoniously morphed into the Gig economy. You just need to count full time employees (FTE) v contractor heads in any of today’s big Finance firms to smell the coffee.
Secondly the requirement for affordable moderately skilled administrative staff, as an outsource centre for London, will become less attractive. Workforces in traditional roles will reduce simply as an effect of Digitalisation. We need only examine the realities of the once Scottish Insurance and Banking leviathans; now ostensibly under the control of firms South of the border or overseas. Workforces are rarely preserved on grounds of nostalgia or political intervention. Competitiveness, tax breaks, public-private partnership and or some other economic or political incentives are needed.
London, “the precious”?
The shifting political landscape, North-South divide, rise of Labour populism and Brexit paranoia appears to have drawn out a more inclusive tone in the Government’s latest strategy thinking.
“It is also a strategy that recognises and respects the devolution settlements of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. With many of the policies that can drive productivity being devolved, it
is a strategy that necessarily brings our work together with that of the devolved administrations as we work in partnership to get the best possible outcome for every part of the UK.”
IS the One-Britain-One-Fintech a dangerous game to play?
Outwardly it is clear the UK Government is battling hard to maintain its balance (see chart) of foreign inward investment post Brexit. Inwardly it seeks to appease the industry outside of London that it is doing all that it can to build better commute links back into the Capital. This policy is not about evenly spreading investment but enhancing the City’s global standing as a hub, which the Conservatives still laud since the Big Bang’.
Why Edinburgh shouldn’t be the new London
The challenge then for Scotland is to compete but also to not replicate the single-hub flaw of the UK model. We should invest and promote Fintech across Scotland’s centres not simply hub its focus around Edinburgh. It is very attractive to run your winners but we need to think about the shape of Scotland’s economy in 25 years from now, not just the next 5 years. Fintech like other modern industries should be an opportunity to replace the old primary and secondary industries lost over the last 50 years, the main driver of unemployment, low wage growth, migration and low productivity in the regions.
Our close neighbours at Fintech North’ are well aware of the challenge. As Chris Sier noted: “There is a deep vein of skills, resources and opportunity in the Northern Powerhouse, but for its potential to be realised it is important that we build a strong FinTech community, which means the public and private sectors coming together and enlisting the support of key stakeholders such as our universities.. Over the last year there have been many positive developments in building the FinTech economy in the UK outside of London, including the FCA’s regional sandbox, the impending launch of Nexus at Leeds University and a number of other initiatives. Events like FinTech North help build the regional FinTech community, and supporting them is therefore very important to grow the regional and national FinTech economy.”
It is important then to have a consistent voice in London and overseas. Fintech Scotland, Scottish Financial Enterprise and Scottish Development International (SDI) can provide this, a voice that represents the Scottish Fintech industry as a whole. Outwardly we should seek to partner firms in London while competing where possible for; investment, for students, for intellectual and entrepreneurial capital. After all to create a self-sustaining Fintech ecosystem requires; initial capital + intellectual capital + workforce + start up ventures + ongoing external investment. Just as Chris Sier realised, inwardly we need to encourage competition but also collegiate working across the different Fintech hubs and incubators in Scotland; Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Stirling and others.
New paradigms, new opportunities
Whilst history in Finance carries little utility anymore; Scotland can still leverage its rich and long pedigree of learning and quality tertiary centres to bridge the old economy to the new. For example if we look at the current Fintech courses available in Scotland today then we can see they are distributed across the major centres not just Edinburgh. A quick google search of UK Fintech courses lists the new prestigious Oxford and Imperial courses as the top results.
However it was the University of Strathclyde that offered the first Fintech Masters course in the UK, Stirling followed shortly after with its new Masters course ready for the 2018 intake. Meanwhile Edinburgh University, in the now classical Oxbridge model, created Fintech Innovations’ and, in conjunction with the Scottish Government and private sector, to form Fintech Scotland.
The locality is understandable but the focus must extend far beyond auld reekie and just one university. . We should remember that our own Universities are in direct competition for research, overseas students and, within their own walls, competition between faculties for funding exists. We need to short-circuit these frictional fiefdoms. In learning Finance and Fintech will become interchangeable.
The mission of Fintech Scotland is “FinTech Scotland aims to promote sustainable economic growth through innovation, collaboration and inclusion.” It is the last word that is so critical. I was encouraged by Stephen’s first update as CEO, which promises an inclusive approach to embrace collegiate investment and partnerships and meetings both in and outside of Edinburgh.
So step forth Fintech Scotland. My advice to Stephen Ingledew is to be bold when competing with London but to not repeat the mistake of London. After all we are only five million people and geographically and digitally just next door to one another. Put another way we number significantly less than the London metropolis. Our infrastructure links (bar the far North and South) are far more able to support our population than the road-jammed, high-rise, tube squeezed malaise of London.
Let us create a sustainable, multi-centre, ecosystem to share Fintech skills, build synergies, foster accessible learning and opportunities both inside and outside of the University system. In doing so Scotland galvanises itself as a centre of technological advancement on the global stage, to attract students and investors and from that catalyse start-up hubs around those centres. A nice example could be linking Strathclyde University with Stirling University courses, cross-over projects between Finance and Fintech syllabus and tapping into the gaming industry in Dundee.
The idea of exploring Gamification in Fintech would be pretty obvious in California yet not here. Strange. By building creative and collegiate links, between learning centres, Scottish Fintech becomes a vibrant multi-hub success, fully leveraging the talents across Scotland and not localised around one centre. Otherwise we risk Fintech becoming little more than a defensive strategy to protect the current industry rather than something altogether more ambitious and progressive. Recall I posed whether Scotland’s Fintech should resemble Two Towers’ or Two Cities’? What would Dickens think; what indeed would Gandalf the Grey?
The future of Scottish Fintech is neither. It is something new, not something set in the past. Stephen has the most amazing and challenging role ahead of him to achieve that.
Scottish Friendly launches challenger brand
My Prime, is innovative in that it offers a low cost investment ISA to higher net worth customers. The solution is all about streamlining cumbersome fund selection processes.
However, whilst the product is interesting what is really good to see is the change of focus from commercial to customer-led.
Scottish Friendly’s Commercial Director, Neil Lovatt, said: “With My Prime Investments we’ve created a brand that aims to provide investments that have the needs of the potential customer firmly in mind. The rest of the industry remains fixated on creating bewildering products and then attempts to fix’ the customer.
“Our mission is to fix the product. So we’re always putting the needs of the customer first, by offering straightforward investing, to entice more people to invest.”
This piece of content isn’t financial promotion and we are not promoting Scottish Friendly’s product. This blog doesn’t constitute advice. Our goal is to inform on the launch of a new brand.
Scotland’s Fintech: A Tale of Two Cities or Two Towers? Part 1
By JB Beckett. In re-imagining Scotland’s new vibrant digital economy, should the history of today’s Finance dictate tomorrow’s Fintech (Financial Technology) map of Scotland? Is Scotland’s Finance and its Fintech tied to London or somehow distinct? Yes or no. In this first of a 2-part article, we explore the dichotomy of enjoying and suffering being a satellite to a hub economy, as Edinburgh is to London. This then is no history lesson..
Historical ties
In the UK when we talk Finance, two cities are quickly mentioned. London and Edinburgh. As most know, Edinburgh’s illustrious financial services history dates back centuries, to the establishment of The Bank of Scotland in 1695 to support the growth of Scottish business, RBS in 1696, the banks placed Scotland on the financial map of the UK despite competition from London. They later bank-rolled the City of London. It saw the introduction of paper money in Scotland; it opened up the opportunity for trade south of the border and the renaissance of a geometric-Anglo city for the modern Georgian world: the Edinburgh New Town.
However should our focus for Fintech revolve around solely Edinburgh and its historical ties with London (the City’)? Standing as the two key financial centres of UK Finance, London and Edinburgh make a fine pair, what Tolkien might have named Minas Morgul and Orthanc, his Two Towers’. Unassailable in their power share. However as Dickens wrote in a Tale of Two Cities’, the opportunity is also a threat:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way””in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
Scotland’s financial sector
“Through the centuries,” said Graeme Jones, Chief Executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, to a reporter “our financial scene has played a huge part in the fabric and prosperity of Scotland as a whole”. He’s right of course, the addition to banking, the increase of international trade during the 1700s led to marine insurance. Then a growing demand for life insurance during the Napoleonic Wars: families of soldiers paying premiums in anticipation of the worst. Scottish Widows was established in 1815 to service those war widows and remains today in name (albeit a subsidiary of Lloyd’s Bank).
Meanwhile Scotland’s rich tapestry in asset management can trace roots back to Robert Fleming and the first ever investment trust in 1873. In Dundee, Robert saw the massive profits being made by the owners of Dundee’s jute industry and realised they needed to invest it somewhere. It was a model that would be copied across the rest of the UK. Then with every new development in Scottish financial services, so grew the legal profession, the accountancy and Actuarial profession, academic institutions, mathematics, economics, in Edinburgh.
“It’s clear to see,” says Graeme, “that the origins of the Scottish financial services industry aren’t predated anywhere in the UK. As we started to export and import, our home-grown economy started to grow.” Edinburgh thus stands aloft proudly on its heritage; even if millennials today might as easily interpret heritage as old’. Don’t forget that Amazon was only created in 1994 yet millennials cannot remember BA (Before Amazon) and that Jeff Bezos has a balance sheet larger than the entire Scottish Finance industry in totality.
Scotland, using experience to prepare the future
Today, Scotland’s Finance employs around 100,000 people directly and a similar amount again in support services. Scotland’s financial services sector is a vast economy compared to the size of its total populous. In a post-industrial, post-manufacturing age it is one of the country’s biggest sectors, generating around £8 billion for the home economy per annum.
Consequently Scotland is becoming an attractive base for the Fintech entrepreneurs and Edinburgh (the UK’s largest financial hub outside of London) lies at the heart of it all.
Unreservedly, Edinburgh has prospered both through Retail Banking, Insurance, Life Assurance, Wealth Management, Fund Management and Asset servicing on behalf of UK and global institutions. While Edinburgh’s own financial exchange (the smoker’) is long gone; Scottish-based employees have continued to provide expertise in securities servicing, investment accounting, performance measurement, trustee and depositary services and treasury services since London’s Big Bang’ in 86 and before.
Post 2009, Edinburgh has again helped mitigate the recessional pressures across the rest of Scotland for the better part of a decade. That and devolution being a defining feature versus the North of England. Yes, Edinburgh has enjoyed a long history in Finance and its links with the City remain as strong ever since the Scottish Banks capitalised and founded the Bank of England. Scotland’s Economic and Actuarial sciences have been the very DNA of Finance ever since.
However the role of Edinburgh is not assured simply by history, the brand names that still occupy it or by virtue of attractive postcards on Princes Street. Edinburgh is a fantastic city to work in, often wet but full of fresh air that someone in Shoreditch could only dream as they knock elbows for space, tabbing through green space images on social media as they sip their tenner’s worth of artisan flat white.
Scotland, a fintech capital
As effectively ground zero’, then, after 200 years of shaping the modern (old) Anglo-Saxon finance industry, Scotland’s commutation to Financial-Technology (fintech’) or Finance 2.0 asks probing questions about our collective will to transform. It is about new skills but also a new persona of what Scotland’s Finance will look like, how it will be shared and shaped by Fintech. This has far reaching social, economic and political questions that reach deep into our collective psyche, ambitions, collegiate working practices, start-up investment, regional disparities and culture.
How does Scotland become a true global Fintech centre to rival London, Berlin, New York or the Bay area? As Dylan sang times are a changing’. Once the actuaries of Edinburgh and Glasgow held court for the industry, but those days are fading fast. The mutual giants demutualised then quickly became owned by non Scottish conglomerates. As the older actuaries retire they leave behind over 70% of members of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries under the age of 40 and over 50% of members being non qualified students. Actuaries are already somewhat redundant in terms of predictive modelling but eek sufficient living from changes in longevity rates, cash flow matching and quasi investment analysis. They face an uncertain future as adaptive intelligence and self-learning synthesises, assimilates and optimises 200 years of Actuarial rules in the blink of an eye.
Moreover, in excess of 35,000 people work in Edinburgh’s financial and insurance quarter while more than 90% of all Scottish fund managers (like Baillie Gifford) are based in the city region. Many firms represented host asset servicing teams, client management but fairly minimal front office except for home-grown firms like Baillie Gifford, Scottish Value Management and Kames. The city is home to Europe’s second largest asset fund manager, Standard Life Aberdeen, as well as retail and challenger banks, platforms, Actuarial consultancies and ethical finance providers. In many cases the majority of the staff can be typified as support function or middle Office’ just as the majority of Glasgow’s workforce might be described as back office’ or more politely operational support’.
An urgent need to change gear
All of these roles will be reduced in some way, as companies shift CapEx from people to technology. Even without Brexit, in 10 years we only see 10% of those current roles left in their current form. Some will disappear, others change. Those decisions will be made in London, Paris or New York not Edinburgh. If that’s true then the productivity enjoyed by Edinburgh from London today will deteriorate.
That leaves a hole in the Scottish economy that Fintech must aim to fill. Only slightly less gloomy, a 2017 report by the Centre of Financial Regulation and Innovation by Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow revealed that Scotland could, in a worst-case scenario, lose over 14,063 jobs (14%) in its financial services sector over a 10-year period, the worst-case prediction seeing a loss of £597m in taxable salaries. Conversely in a best-case scenario, investing in Fintech could inversely “lead to the creation of an additional 14,959 jobs in the Scottish banking industry” adding £1.1bn back to Scotland’s taxable income. The report’s co-author, Daniel Broby, told the Herald Scotland that the two outcomes call for a streamlined and coordinated’ approach for the development and adoption of Fintech.
Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ FinTech Across Scotland
This has been especially evident in the last two weeks as I have had the opportunity to see, hear and discuss the fintech progress in a number of cities and regions, all of which are advancing Scotland’s global ambitions.
Dundee
Meeting Fraser Edmond, chief executive of the newly formed insurtech enterprise Broker Insights was a fantastic way to start the week and hear how data driven innovation is very much alive in Dundee.
Applying new approaches to the use of data in the traditional world of commercial insurance is already setting Fraser and his team on an exciting path to revolutionise how the sector operates.
Brilliant to see the Broker Insights innovation being led from Dundee and I can see them following in the global footsteps of a more established successful Dundee international fintech, NCR.
Of course, NCR are one of the world leaders in applying new technologies to payments and transactions, something they have been doing in Dundee since the 1940’s!
Mickael and I had a fantastic meeting with the senior team of this very important employer in the area but who are also redesigning the world of payments at a global level.
We are very fortunate to have NCR in the Scottish ecosystem and from our conversations on Monday there is much we can progress together. We have already introduced the NCR team to a couple of new emerging Scottish fintechs to develop collaboration opportunities.
Fife
Just down the road from Dundee is the region of Fife, which has a long track record of using new technology in the financial services space to be at the very forefront of innovation.
Meeting up with the very knowledgable Iain Shirlaw, the economic development adviser of Fife Council along with serial entrepreneur Gordon Povey of Trisent and Euan Stillie IT director of Ingenico (another long standing fintech enterprise) made it a fascinating afternoon.
There was much to learn about the creativity being driven from the Fife region and we got particularly excited about bringing the potential opportunities alive with blockchain as a significant game changer in Scotland and in our global reach.
The opportunity to connect up some of these developments with the wider ecosystem would even further demonstrate that fintech can play a key economic role across all of Scotland and wider afield.
Glasgow
I am certainly seeing a thriving ecosystem in Glasgow and there are numerous people and organisations making fintech happen across the City.
This was very much in evidence at the fintech event on Thursday where I had the privilege to share the platform with the brilliant Callum Murray, the founder and CEO of Amiqus ID , a fantastic enterprise leading the way in addressing some of the regulatory friction in the financial sector.
There was much to learn from the comments of the attendees, particularly in respect of the importance education and skills development. A big well done to Steve Chown and the RBS team for putting on a terrific event and to the great sessions by Juliana and Lal of Whitecap Consulting.
Of course, Glasgow is also the home of some very prominent global financial institutions who have a significant base in the City. For example, really enjoyed meeting up with Khalid Rafiq and Robert Keenan of Morgan Stanley to hear how they are embracing this age of innovation and how we can share insights to put Scotland even more on the global fintech stage, especially back in the USA.
Whilst talking of Glasgow, I must mention the University Of Glasgow FinTech Society team who I met at our event on Thursday evening.
Fantastic to hear how the team had grown the Society to over 100 in a short period and being embraced by students from all disciplines and nationalities. Really motivational to hear and it gives me great optimism about our future on the global fintech stage.
Edinburgh
A massive thank you to David Fergusson and the terrific team at Nucleus Financial for hosting our first ever Fintech Scotland symposium on Wednesday evening.
The theme was collaboration and the real value of working together came through in the excellent presentations by David along with Michael Roe of Origo Services, both of which demonstrated the huge role they play in fuelling the innovation of the pensions and investment sector.
It was also great to have expertise of David Dalton Brown from TISA along to share his examples of how the combined effort can help fintech enterprises can address the regulatory and policy challenges our sector sometimes faces.
I came away from this inaugural symposium reflecting on the diverse range of people all committed to making fintech a success across all of Scotland.
My thoughts on this were then reinforced the following night at our second symposium, this time with the theme of innovation. Two fantastic businesses driving change in the lending space, Ultimate Finance and Orca Money. From different start points, Ron and Iain were just brilliant in showing how to use technology and innovative engagement to meet customers needs.
This was vividly brought to life by Anneli Ritari-Stewart , the wonderful director of Dentsu Aegis iPropect and Keira from Ultimate Finance who explained the importance of innovative and data-driven marketing to to really focus on meeting customer.
Global Scotland
Denstu Aegis team were great hosts for this second event. They also bring some excellent international perspectives into the ecosystem that I believe all fintechs, established and emerging, can learn a great deal from.
There has been a strong international element to the conversations and opportunities wherever I have been since being in role and this bodes well as we seek to help fintechs across Scotland grow their global footprint in working with major global players.
Insightful meetings with Mick James of RGAx, one of the world’s largest reinsurance firms, and Yvonne Dunn of Pinsent Masons, the well respected European legal authority on open banking, reinforced this to me.
The international dimension was very much on the agenda last Thursday, 8th March, for International Womens Day. I had the privilege to join the inspiring Jackie Waring for the Investing Women Ambition and Growth conference. What a magnificent way to celebrate the importance of inclusion.
Alloa
After the snow put paid to my first race of 2018 a few weeks back, the Alloa half marathon this Sunday is long anticipated.
I’m far from peak fitness but it will be amazing to be with a couple of thousand runners from across at least twenty different countries on the roads of Clackmannanshire, putting Alloa very much on the international stage.
This will then set me up for the Global Fintech Summit in London with Deloitte on Monday and Tuesday where we’ll be sharing Scotland’s fintech story on the stage. A story I’ll also be sharing with guests from Hong Kong and Singapore later that week when back home in Scotland.
I’ve certainly got lots to say on this global stage about what Scotland can do and is doing in the fast moving fintech world and I’m looking forward to sharing opportunities across other regions of Scotland in the coming months. Until next time.
Stephen
Fortnightly FinTech Fuse – Inspiring FinTech
Inspiring is one of the most frequent words I have used over this last fortnight to describe the wide ranging conversations with people who are making things happen in the Fintech world.
Inspiring because their ideas that are driving innovation across Scotland are in themselves fuelling even more creativity and the possibility of additional new initiatives.
Inspiring Enterprise
Inspiring Talent
Some of our innovative enterprises in Scotland have been demonstrating their inspirational performance for a good number of years, talking with Lorraine Straiton, Commercial Director at FNZ and their twelve year journey is a good example.
The chat with Lorraine was very much on the skills and talent required to help financial and technology enterprises strive forward to create sustainable and inclusive growth.
This is where FinTech Scotland’s bridge’ role with the universities across Scotland is going to be crucial in helping to ensure we have a diversity of talent and expertise to take forward the thriving and innovative ecosystem
So, progressing the development of specific Fintech leadership programmes with Douglas Graham, Frances Green and other key colleagues at the University of Edinburgh is going to be a crucial focus in the coming months.
I’m looking forward to meeting up with the exciting academic teams at Stirling and Strathclyde in the coming weeks to hear how we can also support their valuable work in developing FinTech talent.
To add to this, the brilliant Steve Tigar, CEO of Money Dashboard shared with me some great ideas of how experienced people within some of our larger financial institutions could play an active role with emerging FinTech enterprises. We will look to progress this.
last week, and with the risk of embarrassing them both, they are very much role models to me on how to inspire talent and put it into action.
Inspiring Leaders
On the subject of inspiring leaders, this is an imperative across the whole ecosystem to drive collaborative actions in the FinTech ecosystem.
A great example of inspiring leadership was meeting Graham Smith, from Glasgow City Council this week to talk about his role at Tontine, the incubator and accelerator hub.
My colleague Mickael Paris had the opportunity last week to catch up with the inspirational Steven Morris to hear about how he is working with Stirling Council to establish a digital hub with the support of a new EIS growth fund. Please read more on this terrific initiative
Recent days have also involved conversations with Paul Lawrence of Edinburgh City Council and then with Douglas and Lindsay at PWC, all of whom are quietly but powerfully enabling actions to help a thriving fintech ecosystem.
There is a great deal of inspiring leadership such as by those mentioned that goes on behind the scenes and from people in many different roles that is often underestimated.
This was very evident to me when sharing the emerging plans for Fintech Scotland with the Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International teams this week. The wintry journey through the snow to Glasgow was more than worth it and I came away enthused on how we can drive new innovations through collaboation.
Inspiring Meet Up
Thursday was due to be my first FinTech Practitioners Forum and the opportunity to hear from thirty or so entrepreneurs and innovators but unfortunately the blizzard conditions meant it turned more into an inspiring meet up of four.
I was joined at Codebase by Stuart from Wallet Services, Stuart from Comcarde and Stewart from Allatus Unity for a very insightful conversation on what needs to be done to drive better collaboration and business growth.
From my point of view, it was more than worthwhile to brave the wintry conditions and be part of the discussion as well as enjoy the coffee treat that Stewart Pitt brought in to warm us up. Thanks guys for joining me even if the meet up was cut a little bit short so I could go to dentist and get a replacement tooth!!
Inspiring at Scale
One of the key objectives of Fintech Scotland is to facilitate productive collaborations across the Fintech eco systems, particularly in bringing together developing Fintech enterprises and established firms.
I have been encouraged by the opportunities on how we can do this following very constructive discussions with organisations such as IBM, Atos, Sopra Steria who have the capabilities and scale to help Scotland develop innovative environments to help small and large firms grow.
Alongside this, my meetings with global professional services players such as Deloitte, EY and Accenture gave me some very helpful insight on how we could learn from others around the world to develop fintech in Scotland
Innovation can be done at scale over time, as mentioned earlier FNZ have demonstrated this in Scotland and over a longer period and also the global player NCR with its important Scotland presence showed me how innovation through technology is an ongoing journey, or should I say an endless marathon!
Inspiring Running
Talking of marathons, it is due to be my first running race of 2018 this weekend, a half marathon round the Meadows in Edinburgh organised by the University’s students. I’m hoping the snow will have cleared to some extent to allow a safe and inspiring run!!
This will be the first of eight races leading up to the Edinburgh marathon in May and I am hoping to build up the pace over this coming months, I guess just like my ambition for the fintech pace in Scotland.
The next four weeks is going to be about starting to prioritise where the focus of activity and pace with stakeholders from across the ecosystem. More on that to come
Keep warm and keep inspiring!
First Minister praises “expertise and talent” of Edinburgh FinTech Origo
This blog was written by Anthony Rafferty, Managing Director at Origo.
Scottish Fintech and Insuretech received much praise from Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the recent ABI Annual Conference and we were delighted to come in for a specific mention in respect of our thought leadership on the Pensions Dashboard initiative, currently being run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
We were encouraged to hear the First Minister say that she and her government were keen to support companies that are “active in the Fintech field” and pleased to be cited by her as “one example of the expertise and talent that we have in our Insuretech sector.” Expertise, she added, on which government wants to build ”“ part of which initiative was the setting up last year of Fintech Scotland, a body which we at Origo firmly support.
Asked specifically how she saw the future role for Fintechs like Origo in Scotland in serving the rest of the UK in such pivotal industry projects as the Pensions Dashboard, Nicola Sturgeon said, “I think the future is bright and strong for companies like yours in Scotland.”
The Pensions Dashboard will allow consumers to access information on their pensions, wherever they may be, in one place. It is an initiative of enormous ambition and significant social purpose.
Pensions Minister Guy Opperman has tasked the Department for Work and Pensions with taking forward the development of the Pensions Dashboard, and a feasibility study is due to be published by the end of March 2018.
However, the pensions industry will need to be ready to respond quickly if it is to meet the Pension Minister’s challenge of a 2019 launch.
Origo is a not-for-profit financial technology company which is run by the industry, for the consumer. We were involved in developing a Pension Finder Service for the prototype Dashboard, which was demonstrated to the industry in April 2017. The Pension Finder Service is, in effect, the engine which takes the request for pension data from the consumer, delivers it to the pension company and then conveys the return data to the Dashboard interface ”“ another element of the project, which displays the information to the pension holder.
While the feasibility study has been ongoing, we have been continuing to work on the necessary technology and we are confident we can establish the central architectural components this year which will support the required Industry integration effort for a 2019 launch. Testing of our Pension Finder Service is being undertaken at population scale and we stand ready to deliver.
We believe that the Pensions Dashboard will be transformative in helping engage consumers with the vital information required to plan for better long-term saving and retirement outcomes. We can’t wait to see the industry’s collaborative work on this come to fruition.
About Origo
Origo is the not-for-profit FinTech company dedicated to improving connectivity between financial services companies, boosting efficiencies, improving performance and reducing integration costs for industry participants, while significantly improving financial outcomes for consumers.