Scotland’s Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation visits fintech Origo
Blog written by Anthony Rafferty Managing Director at Origo.
Origo was delighted this week to welcome Ivan McKee, Scotland’s Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation to our Edinburgh headquarters.
He visited to talk about the work we do on behalf of the UK financial services industry, in particular to see a demonstration of our world-leading solution for the Pensions Dashboard and to hear about the important work being developed in Scotland to make the Pensions Dashboard a reality.
The purpose of the Pensions Dashboard is to find and display an individual’s pension savings on one screen and is intended to encourage people to engage with and, where appropriate, take action on their retirement income planning.
In his official comment on the visit, Mr McKee pointed out that Scotland is
“a highly competitive business location, with investment built around the quality of our research and innovation as well as the skills of our workforce.”
He added:
“Origo looks set to reinforce our reputation as a centre of excellence for financial services and FinTech by transforming the sector’s operating efficiencies. This includes the introduction of their Pensions Dashboard which will allow members of workplace pension schemes to see all of their pension savings at the same time in one private, secure place.”
At Origo, we are excited by the potential for Pensions Dashboard to not only benefit millions of consumers and potentially improve their financial outcomes, but also to help to drive further innovation in the pensions market by facilitating an open pensions environment.
We have been at the heart of the Dashboard project since its announcement in 2014, responsible for helping develop and prototype the core technology ”“ the Pension Finder Service ”“ and we were selected to provide a prototype to the HM Treasury sponsored Pensions Dashboard Prototype Project, which was the project managed by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
More recently we provided input to the Department for Work & Pensions’ Feasibility Study and we have continued to develop the technological solution to an advanced state of readiness ”“ testing to an anticipated 15 million users, for example.
Our remit from our foundation in 1989 (making us one of the UK’s longest established FinTechs in Scotland and the UK) has been to improve the financial services industry’s operating efficiencies, lowering costs for market participants and improving outcomes for consumers.
In this respect we work collaboratively with government, other industry bodies as well as product providers, platforms, financial advisers, portals and software suppliers, to find new ways to cut costs and make processes more efficient.
Other industry-critical work we have carried out, for example, has enabled significant reduction in the amount of time it takes to transfer pensions (from c.50 working days to an average of 11 calendar days) and ISAs, as well as delivering and servicing digital IDs for 8 out 10 financial advisers in the UK.
The Minister met staff around the building and we talked also about Origo’s aspirations for the future of FinTech in Scotland and the UK, which we believe is very bright indeed.
Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ FinTech and All That Jazz!!
Friday nights in Glasgow are always special but there was something extra magical a couple of weeks ago with the University of Glasgow FinTech Society awards event.
Even though I had only stepped off the plane from New York 24 hours earlier my jet lag was soon forgotten with the wonderful atmosphere generated by the Society’s student members.
This was no surprise because this energetic and inspiring Society has already established itself as the largest student led fintech society in Europe and the various team presentations demonstrated that they are a world class group.
The vibrant ambience was complemented by a terrific University jazz band who warmed up the audience prior to my presentation for the evening. And yes, fintech and all that jazz do mix extremely well!
This was an ideal fintech Friday evening with brilliant academics such as John Finch, Head of the Adam Smith Business School, awesome leaders Eve Wallace and Keith O’Donnell of Morgan Stanley and fantastic fintech players Iain Niblock and Jordan Stodart of Orca Money and Margery McConnell of Previse.
Massive congratulations to Elisabetta Trasatti, Kamal Chauhan and the whole organizing team, for an amazing evening, Scotland’s fintech future is very bright in your hands.
FinTech Jazz’ Players
The evening in Glasgow also gave me the opportunity to catch up with Dino, Viktor and Antreas from the exciting fintech enterprise Bifrost Wealth.
Very excited about the journey ahead for the Bifrost team with the focus on bringing through the human qualities in using new financial technology to meet customer financial needs.
I was also inspired by the diverse international backgrounds of the team members working together in Scotland to advance their innovative proposition.
This further reflects the global nature of Scotland’s fintech community, something we are very proud of in demonstrating that Scotland is very much open and welcoming to everyone from Europe and the rest of the world.
I’ve mentioned in previous blogs how I feel very privileged in my role to meet so many brilliant fintech leaders and entrepreneurs from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences.
Meeting Christine Bamford and Jane Lewis of Women’s Coin was another great example of this earlier in the day, thank you Maggie Morrison for the introduction.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming the Women’s Coin team to Scotland’s diverse fintech community in the near future.
Then on Thursday it was fabulous to catch up with entrepreneur Alan Moody to learn about the terrific fintech enterprise Avrium, another great firm with a diverse international team spread across all parts of the globe. Brilliant.
Earlier on in the day on Thursday there was an important workshop session with a range of firms from the fintech community to discuss the opportunities to improve the accessibility to investment funding for young and emerging firms.
Big thank you to Mark Roger and Kevin Lonnergan of Vivolution for pulling together the session as well as the insightful Gary Torbett and Paul Funnell of Scottish Investment Bank for leading the engaging discussion.
Really valuable engagement with the fintech community and thank you to everyone who came along.
We look forward to progressing the actions in the coming months in this critical area to support the growth of fintech firms to achieve success at scale.
One fintech firm which is certainly a role model on how to successfully grow to significant scale is FNZ which has transformed how the financial services sector serves people in achieving their financial goals.
Therefore, it was fantastic to catch up with Lorraine Straiton, Richard Bolger and Alasdair Munro on Tuesday to hear the latest on their journey in becoming a fintech unicorn.
The world class FNZ leadership team is using technology to bring market leading engagement in financial services and has been doing so now for over a decade from their Edinburgh base.
I’m really looking forward to FinTech Scotland supporting the FNZ team as it embarks on the next stage of expansion on a global scale. It is wonderful to have FNZ part of Scotland’s fintech community.
Innovative FinTech Jazz’
The FNZ team joined us at the fintech academic and industry workshop this week along with fellow fintech Avaloq and large financial institutions such as Lloyds Bank and RBS as well as the FCA.
This was a fabulous opportunity to bring the professors from the University of Edinburgh together with senior leaders to discuss the latest opportunities with innovative financial technology.
A special thanks to Lorraine from FNZ and Nikita Filippov of Avaloq for putting up with my fintech and running ramblings over dinner!
Thank you also to Alice Dreano and the University team for putting on an engaging fintech event with a great deal to take away and consider.
The event once again highlighted the value of leveraging the innovation strengths of universities to help Scotland achieve the global fintech ambitions.
This is something I discussed with Mike Emmerich of Metro Dynamics and John Reid when we met up last week on how to maximise the opportunities across the fintech ecosystem and beyond.
In this respect, talking with Jarmo Eskelinen on Tuesday about his new role in leading the University of Edinburgh Data Driven Innovation programme gave me a great deal of encouragement.
As did the discussions last week with Gordon Donald of the University and Mark Sanders and Greg Whiting of Accelerate Places on the potential development of an exciting new innovation hub in Edinburgh.
Emerging new places for fintech collaboration working with the universities across Scotland is a terrific opportunity to enable more innovation, for example following the model of Strathclyde University
I was excited to hear from Adrian Gillespie and Olga Kozlova this week on the FinTech Scotland space in the University of Strathclyde’s exciting Technology and Innovation Centre from next year.
FinTech Collaboration Jazz’
The growing collaboration opportunities with universities to support fintech development was very much on the agenda for the SFE Fintech Development Group last Friday afternoon.
It was a wonderful way to finish of fintech Friday’ and Graeme Jones, Lou Smith and myself very much valued the engagement from the broad spectrum of financial services leaders.
It was really encourgaging to hear the interest to get involved in the various priority areas of collaboration next year which will be crucial if we are to achieve our ambitions. Many thanks to Murdo of KPMG and Clare of EY for making it a very useful session.
My apologies for my disco’ and marriage’ analogies throughout the Friday afternoon in seeking to articulate the value of fintech collaboration!
Creating a collaborative environment was a key part of the conversation with Andrea Young from the Govt. Department for Digital and Culture and Mike Jackson of Tech Nation as we considered the opportunities of working more closely together.
Mickael and I very much welcomed the opportunity to share our progress and considering how this could have a wider application to facilitate innovative collaboration across the ecosystem in Scotland and beyond.
The introduction of the new Fintech Scotland digital platform in the next week or so will be a key part of this and Mickael has been working flat out night and day as always to ensure the next stage of the implementation is ready to go.
The digital platform will help us highlight how collaboration also stretches into cross sector themes such as cyber and I was delighted to hear from Nicola about the wonderful Scottish Cyber Awards evening on Wednesday.
Martin Beaton and the team should be very proud of their Trailblazer recognition, very much deserved.
Mickael is working closely with the Dentsu Aegis steam on the digital platform and so it was good to catch up with Anneli Ritari-Stewart and Chris Marsh last week on how we utilise their expertise even more with the fintech community in 2019.
Similarly with IBM and it was good to meet up with Simon Pink this week to discuss building closer links between the innovations across the fintech community and the new technologies such as AI.
In recent weeks I’ve been very much encouraged by the collaborative discussions with larger technology organisations seeking to help the development of innovative enterprises in the fintech ecosystem.
For example, on Monday the meeting with Douglas Adam, Mike Foster and Anthony Burgess of DXC Technology, a major employer in Scotland with whom there a number of mutual areas for development as we go into 2019
Then on Wednesday, catching up with Murray Farquharson of Salesforce, it was very clear that there was much we could potentially do together to in working together to benefit fintech enterprises.
For example, with their Ventures and Fintech Accelertor programmes, both of which align with our strategic collaboration plans and it will be great to progress with Murray and colleague Vicki Lintern.
Of course, it’s not just about technology and we had a great catch up to plan areas of 2019 strategic collaboration focus with Yvonne Dunn from the leading fintech lawyers Pinsent Masons last week.
Strategic FinTech Jazz’
Talking strategic fintech was very much on the agenda at the KPMG 30 Voices in Edinburgh last Wednesday evening with a wide ranging conversation.
I was delighted to join a very distinguished panel of Melissa Kidd-Davies from Redburn, David Duffy from CYBG, Andrew Freeley from Computershare, Blair Turnball of Aviva, all expertly charied by KPMG’s Anton Ruddenklau.
Thank you to Catherine Burnet, Penny McLoughlin and the team for an enjoyable where the focus consistently came back to the need for financial services to better serve consumers.
The customer focus was also central to the meeting with David Macmillan, Managing Director of Prudential, last week as we talked though the various strategic initiatives of working together next year.
Then on a more global scale, it has been extremely beneficial and insightful meeting up with Kent Mackenzie and Chris Brown of Deloitte this last few weeks to consider the strategic priorities for global strategic fintech collaboration.
Massive thanks to Kent and Chris as always and looking forward to progress with Sharon, Graham and Fraser at Scottish Development International as they continue their valuable broader work on global financial services opportunities.
This was also the topic of my train journey meeting with my international mentor Promilla Caughey from the First Ministers Policy Unit.
We spent the 50 minute journey to Glasgow putting the world to right and being excited about how the Scotland is Now’ international message can be leveraged to build global trade on a bigger scale.
Thank you as always Promilla for your ongoing counsel and guidance.
On a more specific part of the world, it was really useful to meet up with Lan-Ling of PA Consulting to hear about fintech lessons from the Nordics as well as seeing the ever youthful old colleague Gavin Neilson.
The developing role of Scotland in the global fintech ecosystem was the focus of conversations with the Morgan Stanley senior leaders on Monday evening and their opportunity to work closely with the innovative fintech enterprises in Scotland.
Very much enjoyed the discussion with Megan Brewer, who was over from New York, along with Roland Fejfar and Keith O’Donnell and looking forward to taking forward to mutual areas for development.
The end of the week gave me the opportunity to meet up with David Fergusson, the Chair of FinTech Scotland and, of course, chief executive of Nucleus Financial, another of the bright shining stars of the fintech ecosystem.
As always, valuable insight and counsel from David as we reflected on a fast moving first year for Fintech Scotland and a magnificent and successful year of delivery by the Nucleus Financial team. Wow, just amazing.
Running And All That Jazz
Delighted with my recovery from the USA marathon a couple of weeks ago and now ready to take on one of the toughest and most exhilarating half marathon races there is!.
This Sunday it is the Pentland Seven Resevoirs Half Marathon and yes it is as brutal as it sounds for those of you who know the Pentland Hills!!
Despite this, it will be my third time for this special race which only allows just over 100 runners!
This will be a good warm up for the Water of Leith Half marathon the following Saturday which Shery managed to get me admitted to, which I am even more excited by as a new race for me. Looking forward to seeing running buddy Angus McLean on the start line for this one.
Such a fabulous couple of races in the run up to the festive season alongside some very exciting meetings as we sprint to the end of the fintech year with jazz very much still in my ears from that Friday night in Glasgow!!. Until next time
Global outlook #3 ”“ New Zealand ”“ Xero, Bringing great experience to accounting
This week in our Global Outlook series we spoke to Sam Daish, General Manager, Data Innovation at Xero, about the development of AI in the accounting sector:
Sam, can you tell us how your business has changed in recent years?
The fundamental change is one of scale. Xero is growing fast. So in the data space our scope to deliver innovation for customers is exploding. At the core of accounting software are products, services and functionalities to make routine accounting activity easier. Easier’ now equals automation. So our core skills around creating easy to use and beautiful products and features are being extended to include machine learning and AI, which also widens and deepens our client offering.
What has enabled this change?
Two things, data and our expertise in AI development. Data really enables us to power beautiful experience for our customers. We work closely with small businesses and our partners to create smart interactions. Machine learning is the engine that uses that data to create tailored experiences to all our customers.
We started our Machine Learning journey back in 2015 with one of our yearly hackathons called Xplore. Those events are all about freedom, fun and discovery.
During this Hackathon, our team, created a machine learning algorithm to streamline account code prediction for invoices.
Rod Dury, our founder, became really enthused by it and was quick to get resources aligned behind it. Rod often says that
“this new solution put Xero on a new pathway as we discovered a problem we didn’t even realise we had”.
The growth of expertise we have in AI today compared to three years ago is amazing to be part of.
What’s the type of problems you’ve been solving?
A good example is the development of customer data augmentation tools. In order to sign-up for Xero businesses only need an email address and an address.
Those are very often the only details we hold on the businesses of our clients. With machine learning we can augment that data automatically by looking at things such as business websites.
Our solution analyses the words used on the website and tag some attributes and areas of interest based on the language used.
For example, it is possible to derive the industry they operate in and whether they have physical shops or are purely digital businesses. That approach has kick started a range of natural language initiatives and changed the way we think about businesses.
What do you do with those data?
Well, it’s a massive lift in how we understand the businesses of our customers, and so what they might need from us. For example, many plumbing businesses are not only interested in plumbing projects. They might also need assistance with regulatory changes in the construction industry more widely.
They might have a retail shop as well as carry out design and plumbing work, so they are not only construction companies they are also retail and professional services companies. We can then develop appropriate tools for those businesses.
Can you tell us about more innovations happening at Xero?
Absolutely. Our data was telling us that small businesses didn’t have time to enter bills in our system. Following the same customer led approach we came up with the email-to-bills functionality that we previewed at Xerocon Atlanta. This optional piece of software will enable users to forward PDF bills from any supplier to their Xero account.
Our solution can recognise accounting figures, suppliers names, VAT, etc. We estimate a 25% time reduction when creating and editing a bill. And bills are just the beginning. Any automation that saves our small business owners time and improves reporting accuracy is worthwhile and worth exploring according to the Xero mentality.
Why is New Zealand a great place for financial technology companies to thrive?
The Fintech space at the moment is all about collaboration and connection – technology is moving at such a pace that you can’t focus on everything. Partnering allows you to access niche capabilities and we are seeing a lot of born from companies working together. It also doesn’t hurt having Fintech NZ pulling us together and making those connections.
Another key benefit for us is that we are able to watch and learn from what is happening in bigger markets like the UK or Australia, so that we can choose the best bits to implement in NZ and then potentially take global.<
While NZ is geographically distant from many markets, technology and diversity closes that distance very effectively. NZ really is a melting pot for so many ideas, experiences and people to come together, and technology helps connect that to the world.
Finchat”¦ Can fintech alone fix financial wellbeing?
From savings and investments, to utilities and insurance, fintechs can help consumers in many ways, such as switching their energy provider and signing up for an insurance policy within their banking provider’s app, as well as having access to personal spending analytics to gain a better understanding of your financial health and circumstances.
This is very true for many people, but what the wall of sound often fails to mention when it discusses how fintechs can help people manage their money is that there are many people for whom these new tools offer very little in their circumstances.
An American study reported by The Financial Brand mentioned a lot of interesting findings about how so-called “finhealth” (new sub-brand dubbing of fintech, specifically products and services to help people manage their financial health) could help Americans save cold, hard, after-tax cash – specifically, $2,000-$3,000 on a median income of $45,000.
Is fintech for the few or the many?
Fintech alone however, cannot be the sole saviour of people’s financial health – there’s just too much disparity of wealth and poverty in our society to think that a personal finance management app can solve it all.
Money management tools, or personal finance management apps, are fantastic and give that little bit of extra insight into your finances, but they’re not much help when you’re budgeting on the pound coins in your pocket rather than any cash in your account.
The challenge with these offerings is that they’re for people who can afford to save – when you’re on the bread line, we need more intervention and greater societal change to help those most in need.
There’s no doubt in my mind about the potential positive effects fintech, or finhealth, could have on those who are privileged enough to benefit from their services, but fintech isn’t the end-game – it’s a targeted enabler, not a ubiquitous elixir.
The awesome Jim Marous quotes another great, Ron Shevlin, in discussing the article in The Financial Brand:
“If we’re willing to pay $5 for a flavored latte, it’s not inconceivable that we would pay $5 for a finhealth product or service.”
And the study mentioned above also makes note that 30% of Americans have too much debt to handle.
The thing is, those who are spending $5 for a flavoured latte are not those who need the help the most, and they’re also not those who have too much debt to handle.
Fintech can only enable. Bigger changes are needed
Fintech cannot do it alone when there are huge socioeconomic issues surrounding poverty, homelessness and financial inclusion.
It’s not just about complex and cyclical issues like fees being leveraged on the poor to enable financial institutions’ revenue models. There is a tax on the poor and that tax is simply the negative balance on the things they cannot afford after income.
But maybe there’s a place for government initiatives and corporate social responsibility? Maybe we could provide free products and services to those below an earnings threshold to help those most in need?
Maybe we could look at credit scoring and determine good character on low incomes to allow favourable rates rather than penalising the poor for being poor? A great example of a company trying to change the way we see credit is Castlight Financial whose CaaS (Credit as a Service) offering and Affordability Passport have the potential to significantly change how people are assessed for credit.
Castlight analyse real-time spending patterns and connect directly to your accounts ”“ rather than a monthly report on irrelevant data like how many accounts you have open!
It behoves us to check our privilege when discussing fintech – it has huge opportunity but we have to make sure societal change maintains pace against technological advancements and we design in inclusion and accessibility at every step, or we risk increasing the divide instead of closing it.
Applied Fintech Project – Final Event and last update
Blog written by Elisabetta Trasatti, Vice President at UoG FinTech Society
Last Friday night, an entertaining final event at the Glasgow University Union concluded the first Applied FinTech Project (AFTP), organised by the UoG FinTech Society.
Almost one hundred people, including students, professionals and academics, attended the event. With two keynote speakers, a buffet dinner, and the UofG Jazz band playing throughout the evening, the project could not come to an end in a more successful way. In the words of one of the AFTP mentors,
“the event was very well organised: great location, very good and fitting music, and a great jury.”
In case you are hearing about the Applied FinTech Project for the first time, here is a quick run through the ideas and aims of the project.
The AFTP has been designed as an experiential learning opportunity for students, who got the chance to work in teams on a hands-on FinTech case over the course of four weeks.
The project was launched in September with an Information Session at the University and immediately gained the attention of students from different degree subjects and years of study. When reviewing applications, the UoG FinTech Society board was immediately impressed by their quality. Applicants ranged from Computer Science to Engineering, to Economics, Philosophy, Business and Psychology students, and all showed great interest in FinTech, as well as a strong desire to develop their team working and communication skills.
The 25 selected participants, both Undergraduate and Postgraduate students, were divided into 5 teams and given a case provided by the startup Orca Money regarding its expansion strategy in the EU. The teams also got the chance to participate in a workshop organised specifically for them by Deloitte and were assigned a mentor to guide them throughout the project. The mentors, working at Previse, Castlight Financial, Deloitte and Morgan Stanley, both communicated with the teams via email and met with them in person, in order to talk through the challenges the students were facing in their research and give them useful advice.
Last Friday, the teams’ presentations clearly showed all the hard work and dedication that each one of them had put into the project. Not only they presented their findings, but also produced a detailed written report which the judges could read through to get a better understanding of their solutions. As with the mentors, the UoG FinTech Society could not be prouder of having such a great board of judges, of both academics and professionals, participating in the final event.
Another tremendous feature of the evening was the chance for attendees to hear two inspiring keynote speakers. Stephen Ingledew, CEO at FinTech Scotland and Keith O’Donnell, Technology Innovation Lead at Morgan Stanley, provided insights into the Scottish FinTech ecosystem, the current and future trends in FinTech and the ways in which large companies like Morgan Stanley are encouraging innovation in this sector.
The project participants all seemed to enjoy the event and provided positive feedback also regarding the case, their respective mentor and the overall experience they got from participating in the AFTP. As one of the participants stated,
“it doesn’t happen every day to have people say Hey, I worked on an EU expansion strategy for startup X during my second year of university!’ (Imagine saying this in an interview!).”
As it has proved to be such an enriching experience for the students involved, the UoG
FinTech Society hopes to see the Applied Fintech Project become an established society tradition for the years to come. Reaching and involving even more students in the project is one of the society’s main aims, for which the students’ feedback is shaping up to represent a very effective marketing tool:
“How to absorb business knowledge, make new friends and communicate with industry experts in one month? Join the AFTP!”.
Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ The Buzz from a New York Fintech Mission!
Much of this last fortnight has been across the North Atlantic on a fintech mission to one of the world’s largest fintech centres, New York.
An action packed mission of meetups, presentations and conversations sharing examples on how Scotland’s fintech innovation is positively reshaping the financial sector has left me buzzing.
As I reflect on this buzz and start to write this fortnight’s blog on the plane journey home, I am struggling a bit on how best to share so many insights in a few hundred words. But here goes!
FinTech Meetup Buzz
Last Thursday it was straight of the plane and onto a one of New York’s major monthly fintech meet up events with Kevin Reynolds from SDI and Mark Roger from Vivolution.
The place was buzzing and we were made most welcome by Empire Starts Up team and engaging people from fintech firms such as Henry O’Brien from Quovo and Kim Lytle from Socure as well as larger firms such as Iris Otano from Bank of America.
The event focused around a fascinating fireside chat’ with Brandon Krieg one of the founders of fast growing fintech firm Stash Invest.
Brandon’s insights very much reminded me of many of Scottish fintech firms who are also focused on improving people financial well being.
We did not hesitate in suggesting to Brandon that the Stash fintech philopshy would be very much at home in Scotland when they were ready to expand to Europe.
The meet up buzz continued early the next morning at the Citi bank fintech event aptly named politely confidential’.
Thank you to Maria Deam, the leader of Citi’s significant fintech developments, for inviting us to be part of the event
Terrific buzz from several hundred people and it was great to talk with leaders from exciting firms such as Gene Vayngib of Tradle and Joyce Fecci from FIS (a global fintech with a base in Fife).
From the stage much of the discussion centered around Open Banking and it was interesting to get the US perspective from Citi’s Andres Wolberg-Stok, a conversation that can continue at the Global Open Banking Summit in Edinburgh this coming December.
The buzz carried over to the fintech dinner on Monday evening that I was delighted to jointly host with Peter Mathieson, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and George Baxter, chief executive of Edinburgh Innovations.
A wonderful group of senior leaders from diverse backgrounds kept a lively conversation going throughout the evening with topics ranging from fintech skills to the importance of fintech ethics.
It was a great opportunity for George and myself to share how Scotland is driving innovation through academia and industry collaboration.
Our guests for the evening provided us with terrific constructive feedback, especially on being much bolder in our ambition to be the top country for data driven fintech innovation!
Thank you to everyone for joining us for the dinner and we will take on board your valuable insights, especially in how we promote Scotland’s fintech buzz to the world.
FinTech Innovation Buzz
Promoting the virtues of the growing fintech community in Scotland was on the agenda for the meeting we had with Paul Barnes-Hoggett, Co-Founder of Alice, the rapidly expanding fintech helping customers with their regular spending commitments.
The innovative Alice story is hugely inspiring and their enterprise would be a wonderful addition to the Scottish fintech community when the time is right, hopefully in the near future.
Similarly, for Intenta, the early stage data analytics enterprise which already has a global reach through its founder Gudmundur Kristjansson.
Thank you to Robert Patrick of Citi for the introduction and an enjoyable discussion with George, Kevin and myself at the buzzing Roxy.
I’m looking forward to expanding the conversation with Gudmundur’s Icelandic fintech colleagues to develop mutual grounds for fintech collaboration and innovation.
On the subject of innovative use of data, it was great to catch up with the brilliant Peter Avery on 5thAvenue on Monday morning to hear about his exciting new venture Kalpada.
Knowing Peter for a few years I know his innovative approach to customer decisioning in financial services, will be destined for big success. I hope we can bring the buzz of Kalpada to Scotland soon.
I met Peter initially when he helped me deploy innovative IBM technology to improve customer financial engagement a few years back and it was IBM in New York I returned to on Friday afternoon.
Mark Roger and I had the opportunity to catch up with Stephen Leonard, General Manager for IBM North America, who has been hugely supportive of FinTech Scotland.
This was followed by an afternoon immersion in the latest IBM Watson developments at the impressive Astor Place centre.
Thank you Susan McLardy and team for setting up, we came away buzzing on the potential of how AI can fuel fintech innovations in Scotland at scale. We’re looking forward to progressing with Simon Pink and the IBM team.
Fintech Scale Buzz
The mission to New York provided the opportunity to learn how fintech is being applied at scale with some of the larger financial institutions.
It was great to catch up with Camilla Garcia, Francesca Lorenzini and Maksim Malukoff at the UK Dept of International Trade to share how we can connect more Scottish fintech firms into the New York buzz.
Kevin and I look forward to working with you in developing the two way fintech mission opportunities as well as the potential investment avenues.
I was hugely impressed to learn about global leaders Franklin Templeton approach to embracing fintech innovation through enterprise wide collaboration.
It was brilliant to hear engaging leaders Cihan Kasikara and Ed McGraw explain their model of innovation which positively engages all parts of the vast Franklin Templeton business.
We’re looking forward to welcoming Cihan and Ed over to Edinburgh soon when visiting their Edinburgh office.
We also hope to meet up with Remzil Kulkarni of Barclays over in Scotland soon as well with much excitement about the expansion plans in Glasgow announced recently.
Great to catch up with Remzil in New York and hear about the scale of the Barlcays data operations.
On the subject of data, it was really useful to catch up with Quinten Fourie of Thomas Reuters to explore how we could work together in supporting fintech firms through a data sandbox similar to the one they have helped develop in Boston.
The scale of the data opportunity for fintech innovation in a broad range of areas is enormous and the meeting with the terrific Morgan Stanley leaders Khalid Rafiq, Keith O’Donnell, Eve Wallace and Robert Keenan before I set off for New York very much highlighted this.
Thank you to the brilliant Morgan Stanley team for the opportunity to share the Fintech Scotland plans with your teams at your fantastic new offices in Glasgow. I look forward to supporting your plans both sides of the Atlantic.
I also look forward to seeing Eve Wallace, the Orca team and Chris Brown of Deloitte this Friday night at the Glasgow University FinTech Society event on, a great example of collaboration which is creating a big buzz in Scotland.
Futures Institute Buzz
Scotland’s world leading universities play an ever growing role in developing the fintech opportunities, from skills development to collaborative innovation through to inspiring new start up enterprises.
Therefore, a key reason for the mission to New York this last couple of weeks was to support the wider programme of University of Edinburgh events and specifically the development of the Edinburgh Future Institute.
For example, on Monday it was exciting to participate in the Global Change Forum workshop session at the Tata Innovation Centre bringing together academia and industry.
The engaging presentations from Dr Karen Gregory and Professor Sian Bayne on the visionary role of the new Edinburgh Future Institute created a terrific buzz
This is very exciting that fintech is a key area of this development and talking this through with a wide range of people such as Jillian Powers and Frank Cogliano.
The following morning a breakfast event with the Global Scot community in New York expanded on the important role EFI will play, with the inspiring Professor Melissa Terras bringing alive the potential of the initiative to be based at the Old Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh.
Then an evening reception organized by Grant Spence and Rachelle Norry later that day with the University’s significant alumni group in New York provided the opportunity to share the buzz with an even broader audience.
Our inclusion in the strategic EFI development is a big statement in how fintech can play a major role in the economy and society, as well as contribute to the global fintech ambitions.
The significant role of universities in demonstrating the global role of fintech was also a key part of the discussions I had with Adrian Gillespie of Strathclyde University on progressing joint initiatives.
The exciting initiatives will further reinforce Strathclyde University along with Edinburgh as major driving forces, especially with the increasing engagement of larger enterprises.
Similarly, with Heriot Watt University, another highly respected University who focused their Edinburgh Business event on fintech the weekend before I set off for New York.
It was a privilege to join David Richardson of the University, Colin Garland of Competitions & Markets Authority and Stephen Flaherty of JP Morgan on the Friday evening to present to students at the restored Panmure House home of Adam Smith.
Wonderful to see the high levels of engagement in fintech and diversity of international students from all parts of the world and Scotland. Nicola, who participated in the judging on Saturday, and I were hugely impressed.
Massive congratulations to Elisabeth Wold, Lucy Patton and Eoin Spence and colleagues for brilliant leadership in running the very successful event and well done to the winning team.
Heriot Watt University are also leading on the Ethical Finance Initiative and it was through their conference a few weeks ago I met Gail Hurley from the United Nations Development Programme.
To continue our conversation on the potential role of fintech with the UNDP programme, Gail arranged for us to meet up at the New York HQ along with inspiring colleagues Malika Bhandarkar and Martin Sommerschuh.
Fabulous conversation on areas where we could potentially collaborate and build on their exciting developments with Karen Rodgers and the Scottish Government team.
Scotland’s Buzz
On Thursday it was straight off the return flight in Edinburgh and onto the Thrive in a Digital Age conference and the excellent RBS conference centre.
It was a privilege to be invited to share insights on career opportunities to several hundred attendees and along with John McKinley of DLA, Jenny Wood of RBS and Hugo Pinto of Accenture.
Tammy Hu, Aramide Akinkugbe, Mat Del Percio and the team did a magnificent job in leading the fabulous and buzzing event, all big stars for the future and you should all be very proud.
Unfortunately, I could not stay for the networking as I had to speed off to the Dentsu Aegis Whitespace offices for the Building Scotland Brand’ event with creative community.
Once again, the atmosphere was buzzing following excellent sessions by Cat Leaver, Charlie Smith and Stef Calcraft bringing alive Scotland Is Now’.
It was great to join the panel with Iain Valentine, Cat, Margaret Gibson , all expertly chaired by Chris Marsh
Adding to the positive buzz with feedback fresh from New York was a terrific way to finish off the day, even if my body clock could not quite work out what time it was!
On the way home, I reflected on how the buzzing fortnight had started in catching up with the awesome Rab Campbell from the wonderful Wallet Services team. Thanks Rab, lots to follow up on.
Catching up on my emails, it was inspiring to hear about the fantastic success of the Money Matix financial hackathon last weekend at the University of Edinburgh.
Looking forward to hearing more from Tynah, Helene and Mickael.
Marathon Buzz
When over in New York my buzz was maintained over the weekend by squeezing in a marathon on the Sunday in Harrisburg, a three hour journey from the east coast.
With only 1500 runners it was not quite the size of the New York marathon but the buzzing atmosphere and support from the super people of Pennsylvania was just fantastic.
Infact, at times, the buzz of the event made it quite emotional as I paced through the 26.2 miles, coming in fourth in the old persons’ age category and the number one international runner!!
The buzz and adrenalin from the marathon fueled me for the marathon’ of meetings and events which then continued in New York from Monday morning.
Finally, then, a massive thank you to Kevin Reynolds from Scottish Development International for joining me on this marathon mission’ and to Scott McQuarrie for fantastic leadership in making the University events a very big success.
Brilliant working with you in sharing the buzz of Scotland’s fintech ambitions. Until next time..
The E-waste Problem and How The Blockchain Could Solve It
The Problem
So exactly what is a blockchain? Has the technology been successfully adapted anywhere in the recycling industry? How could it be adapted for recycling e-waste?
What The Blockchain Is
Because of the unique signature and other processes for security, the information contained in these blocks is nearly impossible to corrupt.
Has the Blockchain Been Successfully Adapted to Recycling in General?
Their waste management was streamlined and the company saved more than $2,300 (U.S.) in operating expenses. This was accomplished with a pilot program.
How Could Blockchain Be Adapted For Recycling E-Waste?
There is something about specific data that can move a person or a company to act when that data puts them on the spot. If a landfill has a pile of e-Waste and has done nothing with it, the blockchain will tell you why. Again, bringing accountability to the table.
Conclusion
Fintech Workshop – trading internationally
-
Market analysis
-
Market entry
-
How to sell online internationally
-
An insight into opportunities in Germany and The Netherlands
-
One-to-one support from SDI’s experts on key areas including trading internationally and digital marketing
-
Plus, it’s the ideal setting to network with other like-minded Scottish businesses
Fintech onboarding guidelines by UK’s 5 largest banks
Using the blockchain to improve access to financial advice
This article was written by Suhail Ahmad, Founder and CEO of AdviserDirect.co.uk, a digital platform connecting small-medium enterprise with qualified business and financial advisers 24/7 to help solve money, management and growth challenges.
There is no shortage of business “experts” offering advice and services to small-medium enterprises (SME) across the UK. So why is it that in a recent survey of over one million SME’S, 49% said they avoid hiring advisers or consultants due to the costs. With 40% of all businesses stating they find fixed fees to be inefficient and the main reason for their dissatisfaction with the service they received. They don’t feel their getting value for money despite spending over £60 billion annually on external advisory and consultancy services.
When making a big financial decision is to seek expert advice from various sources in order to make the most informed decision. A good business or financial adviser can be an invaluable resource helping business owners avoid pitfalls and overcome roadblocks. Being an adviser myself for over a decade, I could sympathise with the pain and frustration faced by entrepreneurs and small-medium business owners. Many of whom simply can’t afford the time and cost of evaluating adviser or getting the most important second opinion. Often resulting in them making poor financial or as we would say “less optimal” decisions that have real consequences on the success of their businesses.
In addition to cost, trust and confidence in the ability of the advisers is key determining factor in choosing an an adviser. Connecting businesses with trusted and suitable advisers in a digital marketplace enables lower costs and improved speed of service. But how do you accelerate the speed of trust when advisers won’t necessarily meet in person and could be across the country or the world?
This is where blockchain technology has the potential for solving the trust issue by helping develop a secure trusted mechanism. Blockchain, originally developed as the accounting method for the virtual currency Bitcoin, uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) to verify transactions and is now being used in a variety of commercial applications worldwide. It’s ability to provide authentication and security could be a fast adoption and use of digital platforms for the delivery of advice.
AdviserDirect is launching a feasibility study to help evaluate the transitioning of its existing advisory platform on to the blockchain. Incorporating it’s existing AI research on to help businesses more seamlessly search, compare and access advisers most suitable for their requirements. Using smart contracts and smart identity can help build a more transparent reputation system providing businesses unparalleled confidence in the advisers, their experience and credentials. The blockchain will also enable peer-to-peer transactions and low cost micropayments so businesses can pay for advice by the minute and advisers can access their funds instantaneously.
To learn more about the blockchain and AdviserDirect initiative, please contact Suhail Ahmad at +44 (0)131 208 2786 or email suhail@adviserdirect.co.uk