Soar and Acquired enter partnership
Another great example of partnership between fintech firms has been announced today. This is partnership with a purpose as the main objective is to enable ethical finance companies to compete more effectively with mainstream providers.
Scottish fintech Soar and London Payments Technology Platform Acquired.com collaborating to help credit unions and other ethical organisations provide better and transparent services.
Award winning fintech, Soar, has developed a cutting edge banking technology platform which is already being used by 10 credit unions around the UK. With the partnership with Acquired they will be able to provide more services including automated reconciliation and for the first time – complete transparency over the entire payment life cycle.
“This is an important partnership for us and a statement about how we intend to improve business processes for our ethical clients. It will also allow their customers to view, manage and pay for a variety of services through one mobile and desktop application.
Our clients will not be playing catch up with mainstream players as they are now enjoying the latest cutting edge tech, which is a match for any organisation in the financial services sector.”
Soar’s founder and CEO, Andrew Duncan
“Acquired.com was born in the highly regulated Consumer Finance sector and has always been committed to helping businesses serve their customer better. We believe that credit unions play a key role in offering fair and transparent banking and credit products to communities all around the country, which we are delighted to play a part in.
Using our award-winning payment technology, Soar’s clients will be able to gain a much better insight into their customers using our rich payment data.”
Rob Clark, Managing Director of Acquired.com
In the last quarter Soar has been awarded over half a million pounds of research and development grants and this new partnership is seen as a further boost as the company looks to expand throughout the UK and into overseas markets.
Master students to undertake Financial Services projects
University of Strathclyde students on the MScs Actuarial Sciences and Quantitative Finance undertake a summer project as part of their MSc. Some projects are co-supervised by industry partners and are based on their business interests.
We are currently seeking ideas from industry for projects taking place in summer 2020.
Companies participating in the scheme in previous years benefited not only from the direct project outputs but also from accessing talented students. This can be a route to recruitment and developing a closer relationship with the university.
The Students benefit from the exposure to business. They see the problems that industry are interested in and get experience working with business. This improves their employability upon completing their MSc.
Project subject matter is flexible. It needs to be quantitative in nature and relevant to the financial sector. Projects last 12 weeks from late May to late August and the actual work can take place at the company or at the University, or a mixture of both. Industry supervision can be light touch or more intense, to suit the project and supervisor; it can also be at a distance using phone and internet communication if, for example, the industry supervisor is based overseas. No fees to students or to the University are involved.
Companies submit project ideas to the University and students select and apply for them. Industry Supervisors interview students and select the best match. Students are also assigned an academic supervisor. The student’s project plan, final report and oral presentation are judged by both the academic and industrial supervisors.
For summer 2020 projects, ideas from industry are invited by 14 February 2020 using a short pro-forma.
For further information, or if you have any questions, please contact Ian Dwyer by email at ian.dwyer@strath.ac.uk
Cryptoassets businesses and Money Laundering Regulations
From January 2020 the FCA will be the UK supervisor for cryptoasset businesses in respect of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing, under amended Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs).
Cryptoassets are developing change connected to the financial services sector.
Both the concept, and the underpinning distributed ledger technology are attracting significant attention and the UK Government established a Cryptoassets Taskforce in 2018 as part of its FinTech Sector Strategy.
The Taskforce published its final report in October 2018, providing an overview of its perspective on the subject, including the underlying technology, the associated risks, potential benefits and a way forward with respect to regulation in the UK.
In reaching conclusions the Taskforce outlined the need for action to mitigate the risks for consumer harm, prevent the use of cryptoasset for illicit activity and guard against threats to financial stability that could emerge in the future.
It’s report sets out three broad types of cryptoassets and typical uses, which together help establish a framework for considering the impact, potential risks and need for regulation.
In setting out its role the FCA has specified a range of Cryptoasset activities that are captured under the new regime and businesses conducting these activities will be required to comply with the MLRs.
The businesses include existing financial institutions that offer the option to convert cryptoassets to fiat (government issued currency), or accept cryptoassets as collateral against a loan or purchase.
The regime will also apply to new businesses and developing business models such as peer to peer providers, digital wallet providers offering a crypto service such as exchange or custodian services, Cryptoasset ATM’s, and issuers of cryptoassets.
Fintech innovators are taking advantage of the growing cryptoasset trend. Some are aiming to make crypto work seamlessly with traditional currencies by developing technology capability that will enable cryptoassets such as Bitcoin to convert to fiat money. It presents new opportunities and challenges for many and is another developing example of the potential directional change digital will bring to financial services.
All impacted businesses will be expected to comply with the MLRs in relation to cryptoasset activities by 10 January 2020. The expectations include the ability to demonstrate that each business has thought about the respective nature, scale and complexity of its activities and the associated risks. Businesses also need to have the appropriate controls in place to mitigate risks and will be expected to keep these under review and regularly assessed to ensure they remain fit for purpose and relevant.
In setting out its responsibilities and the approach it will take to this work the FCA has signposted firms to a number of existing resources to help build an understanding of its expectations when it comes to managing financial crime risks.
These include the FCA’s Financial Crime Guide: to countering financial crime risks, the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) website, and recommendations from The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) an inter-governmental and global body. Further detail on the FCA’s approach can be found here.
Liberation: Banking
So, if you’ve been following the news lately you probably have heard PSD2’ and Open Banking’ mentioned at least a couple of times.
There’s a lot of fuss going on about them and we wanted to prepare all that we could find into a short article to get you up to date.
What is PSD2?
PSD2, formally referred to as the Second Payment Services Directive, is a regulation that covers the entire European Economic Zone.
PSD2 has been on the radar of European economies since 2015. It’s a major step towards keeping up with the rapid digitalization of the commerce industry.
PSD2 aims at making online payments more secure through various regulations that make online fraud much more difficult and third parties more accountable.
If you are remotely interested in finance and fintech you probably know all of these already. In case you have no idea what PSD2 is, you can check this comprehensive guide about the PSD2 regulation.
Other than regulating and securing the way online payments are done, PSD2 actually has paved the way for one of the biggest finance experiments ever.
What is Open Banking and Why Should I Care?
Open Banking is a gigantic experiment that is set to liberating the banking sector by returning the control of financial data to consumers.
This is possible thanks to a small detail that was introduced with PSD2. PSD2 allows third-party financial services to access banking data easier and more secure.
A bit of a history lesson here. Personal finance solutions aren’t something new and there are many successful companies that have provided such services. However, what they lacked was a consistent and secure way of getting access to the financial data of consumers.
The widespread method that these solutions relied on was named as screenscraping. When using third-party financial assistants, users would provide their username and passwords to the third-party software and the software would periodically login into the bank accounts and save the screen of the account information.
Based on the data they gathered, they would give suggestions to the user on how to better spend their money.
As you can guess, screen scraping wasn’t the most consistent or safe method of gathering user data. After all, who would feel safe sharing their banking credentials to someone else? On top of that, if you were using multiple banks you wouldn’t have a complete picture of your finances.
This is where PSD2 promises a safer and better ecosystem for third-party financial services to thrive.
In addition to making online payments safer, PSD2 also has provisions that aim at liberating banking data. Traditionally, your financial data (how much you spend, where you spend, what you but, etc.) was kept safe by banks. Now, to be honest, banks have historically done a great job of protecting their clients’ financial data.
The only problem here is that the data does not belong to the banks. It belongs to the consumers who normally have almost zero control over how the data is utilized.
With PSD2, banks will still be the keepers of the data. But, they are forced to share the data with verified third-party services only when requested by the user. This will be done through an Application Programming Interface (API). So, you won’t share your password with anyone and your data will be provided from a safer and more reliable channel.
Even better, you get to decide which data points will be shared. An option that was previously impossible through screen scraping.
By default, you shouldn’t care too much about Open Banking unless you’re relying on 3rd party financial service providers.
Is Open Banking Good?
On paper? Yes.
However, we still don’t know how things will play out.
The main idea of Open Banking is that it will transform the banking sector in such a way that it will become more competitive and innovative.
By giving control of the data back to the consumers and lowering the barriers to entry drastically, open banking is expected to force banks to innovate and adapt to the digital realities of our time.
The lower barriers of entry might make banking more competitive which should force banks to improve the quality of their services and also constantly innovate. At least that’s the assumption.
More actors, more transparent banking, better services, constant innovation. This is what awaits us if Open Banking will succeed.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves for a second here.
All of these sound great but Open Banking is an enabler and not a proposition in itself. It is what companies do with Open Banking that will make it a success or not.
It’s true that competition fosters innovation but we need to ensure that innovation only happens to benefit customers and/or clients.
If customers don’t understand the value they’re getting back they won’t share their data and Open Banking will fail.
Author Name: Su Kaygun Sayran
Author Bio: Grown up in various corners of the world, Su loves writing about all things tech. His experience with various SaaS businesses has enabled him to carry his passion for writing into the tech industry.
KPMG is searching for Scotland’s top tech pioneers
Scotland’s start-up community is flourishing. Amid a climate of political and economic uncertainty, it’s sometimes a challenge to find glimmers of light and optimism, but our country’s tech-focused entrepreneurs are exactly that.
Last year, research from KPMG revealed that more than £100m of Venture Capital (VC) had been injected into start-ups. As we head towards December, we’re on-course to smash that figure. As of Q3, the figure was over £95m. For some time now, the world’s investors have been paying attention to Scotland’s tech hub cities, and there’s no sign of that enthusiasm draining anytime soon.
But, despite the outstanding achievements of the innovations and disruptors, speak to many start-up founders and they’ll tell you getting in front of the right people at the right time can be their biggest obstacle to growth.
That’s part of the motivation behind KPMG’s Best British Tech Pioneer competition. Now in its sixth year, it was set up to spot talent and facilitate those golden opportunities. This year, our search is even bigger. Throughout January, we’ll be inviting entrepreneurs to pitch to a panel of experts at informal events in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The lucky ones will then be invited to our semi-final pitches in London in February where they’ll have the chance to pitch for a place at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona later that month.
Previous competition finalists have included Babylon Health, What3Words Echo and SafeToNet, and more than £100 million has been raised to date.
The application process is open now and companies can apply via our website. To qualify, you’ll need to own a registered UK company that’s been operating for less than five years, with revenue generated of between £1m and £10m, or you should have raised at least £500k in equity.
Does that sound like you? If so, apply now. The deadline is December 1st. Our Best British Tech Pioneer competition is about finding talent and providing the opportunity to immediately access a global audience. Get involved and let us help you unlock your international growth potential.
Ethical finance extending the reach
The Scottish Government become signatory (21/22nd September) to UN Principles of Responsible Banking joining a third of the global banking system ($47 trillion worth of assets)
It is impressive that the United Nations has secured so many signatories to the Principles of Ethical Banking.
My plea is that Scotland provides a special “Scottish” addendum and extends the principle of ethical finance to include positive action for the unbanked, near prime financial and credit excluded population in Scotland
In October Global Ethical Finance Initiative acted as pacesetter bringing together UN Multi-faith global power roundtable and a conference dedicated to ethical finance with a global reach.
It is encouraging to see leadership from the Church of England and Islamic Bank collaborating to spread and scale faith centred ethical standards in banking Scotland has a long been recognised as a champion of ethical finance. Gremlin Bank (bank for the poor) founded by Mohamed Yunis, more recently Castle Bank Co-operative in Edinburgh support for low-income families and MoneyMatiX community approach to teaching children and families to manage money (and debt) are just a few examples
It is against a backdrop of a long historical tradition in democratic banking serving the poor and rich alike that the vision emerged of a Scottish Investment bank. The vision is nearing reality as the Scottish Investment Bank bill proceeds through parliamentary processes. Central to the bill is a remit to include equality impact assessment ”“ focusing on ethical investment for inclusive growth. Linking the establishment of the Bank to the Equalities Act (2010) is inspired. Ensuring the needs of people who share one or more of the protected characteristics are met is exactly what is needed to provide inclusive growth.
I would ask that we open the debate under the auspices of Fintech Scotland to extend the provision of the Scottish Investment Bank to include fintech mobile innovation as a means of extending the reach to those who are unbanked or “near prime” (not able to access credit due to minor infringement of credit ratings)
I travel with hope in my heart that Scotland will be the first country to aim for zero unbanked. Adopting SDG’s as key drivers of Scottish policy and acknowledging that wellness sits at the heart of an economically vibrant country is pretty good stuff.
As Founder/CEO of Women’s Coin (digital currency of social value) I believe that adoption of ethical financing at Corporate and SME level extending the remit to include digital innovation, tokenisation, and local currencies will accelerate the spread and scale of adoption of SDG’s (UN Strategic Development Goals).
There has never been a more critical time for ethical financing and ethical leadership across all sectors Public, Voluntary, Charitable, Corporates and SME’s
Scotland can really set the pace, the vision and has the know how to create an inclusive society that fosters wellness as the key to economic vitality
Blog written by (Prof) Christine Bamford, Founder/CEO of Women’s Coin
#MorePowertoher #fintechscotland @finance4change @modulr
womenscoin.com
voluntier.co.uk
globalethicalfinance.org
Scottish Young Edge winners HubSolv ranked 33rd in UK’s top tech list
Technology directors gathered from across the UK last week on November 7th for the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards ceremony in London; one of the UK’s foremost technology awards programmes. The directors from Glasgow-based firm HubSolv Limited, Fraser Hamilton and Lewis Black, were among the guests, following Deloitte’s recognition of HubSolv as one of the top 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the UK.
HubSolv was one of the three Scottish firms to have made it to the influential list and ranked 33rd in the prestigious Technology Fast 50. The rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over the last four years, and HubSolv has experienced 1,058% growth.
The team at HubSolv have come a long way since its foundation only five years ago, when they designed their specialised software for the niche industry of personal insolvency. In 2015, the firm won a Scottish Young EDGE award ”“ a grant prize that recognises the most promising firms and businesses with directors under the age of 30. The following years saw the Glasgow team further developing tech solutions and extending their product portfolio, growing their client base and tripling their workforce.
“We’re thrilled to have ranked 33rd in the UK Technology Fast 50. Since we embarked on this journey back in 2014, we have strived to innovate and evolve our product offer, which aims to digitise processes for the industry. Deloitte’s ranking is a recognition of our achievements and denotes HubSolv’s accelerated growth as we concurrently progress with our software solutions.”
Fraser Hamilton, co-founder at Hubsolv
The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards came back in its twenty-second year. This year, the competition saw fintech businesses comprising 30% of the winners and fintech companies dominating the top three places. Revolut ranked first on the list; while Credit providers OakNorth and Dividebuy achieved second and third place.
“As part of the growing fintech community, it’s been very encouraging for us at HubSolv to see the pace of growth across the sector and a strong performance from fintech businesses, who have managed to thrive in spite of the recent waves of economic uncertainty in the country. These are exciting times for our team; we have promising plans in the pipeline and a talented, high-skilled team in place to support our growth and innovative development. We’re looking forward to seeing what 2020 holds for HubSolv.”
Fraser Hamilton, co-founder at Hubsolv
Will the growth in fintech innovation be the solution to tackling one of society’s big issues? Financial exclusion
Homeless, no address, unemployed and no bank account ”“ the future is bleak
2 Million without a bank account. Between 10-14 million “near prime” adults have no access to credit, despite minor blemishes on credit history or can only access credit at high APR 29.9-39.9%
There is an urgent need to open access to financial services for those without an identity and are homeless. or on low-pay income. It isn’t just the homeless but families managing on low incomes where one bill too many pushes them into debt crisis ”¦. into the hands of loan sharks or high APR pay day loans and a continuing spiral of debt. If wellness sits at the heart of Scottish Government policies and values ”“ then we need to recognise the impact of debt, low income, lack of access to credit and insurance as key impact measures on mental wellbeing
Fintech Scotland range of innovative solutions, mobile payment systems, education, blockchain, crypto-currencies, wallets, tokenisation of voluntary work open the opportunity to create an equal and more inclusive society. Mobile friendly approach to Identity secured through biometrics, face recognition, top up payment cards/mobile payments are now able to provide evidence of credit worthiness. This is a modern pathway to a bank account, credit worthiness, access to insurance, credit and a verifiable credit rating.
March 2018 The Mexican Congress approved Fintech Law that aimed to regulate electronic payments, crypto currencies, crowdfunding and open banking. The fintech Law promotes innovation in the financial services industry, stimulates the growth of new business models and reduces entry barriers for Fintech firms. Fintech Law can significantly improve Financial inclusion. Fintech Scotland has taken a non-regulatory approach to supporting financial technology innovation. But the impact possibilities are with us now to work with traditional financial service to provide a integrated solution to financial exclusion. Scotland is on the brink of providing a “world-class” solution to inclusive growth through financial digital solutions creating the link between wellness and economic vitality
Blog written by (Prof) Christine Bamford, Founder/CEO Women’s Coin
Acknowledgement to PWC blog and report
www.womenscoin.com #MorePowertoHer @ChrisBamford12
Digital Asset and Blockchain Technology Partners launch Sextant for DAML
Digital Asset and Blockchain Technology Partners announced the availability of Sextant for DAML with early adopters Quantum Materials Corp
Counterfeit goods are a $1.8 trillion criminal industry with vast economic and human consequences. Using the latest in nanotechnology, smart contracts and blockchain, Quantum Material Corp (QMC) partnered with Digital Asset and BTP to deliver a platform that will allow manufacturers and buyers to determine absolute product identity.
QMC has released Quantum Dots, nanoscale particles so tiny you could line ten thousand of them across the diameter of a human hair. By varying properties such as wavelength QMC are able to produce billions of unique optical signatures. Impossible to copy, these can be incorporated in the production of almost anything, from aircraft components to luxury handbags.
These unique optical signatures are only useful, however, when paired with the technology that enables them to be read and identified securely. This is where Digital Asset and BTP have stepped in.
To verify an optical signature, an immutable and cryptographically secure digital twin is required – the perfect use case for blockchain. Combining their expertise in getting blockchain projects into production and generating real business value, Digital Asset and BTP partnered with QMC to provide a platform that will enable customers to verify the authenticity of their optical light signatures as simply as using a hand-held scanner or smartphone application.
By combining DAML, the leading smart contract language created and open sourced by Digital Asset, and Sextant for DAML, BTP’s blockchain management platform especially designed to deploy DAML onto distributed ledgers and databases, QMC has been able to get to market fastest and produce real value.
For more detail, check out the latest DAML blog
FCA’s Innovate’s Sandbox open for applications
Photo by Prateek Katyal from Pexels
The FCA’s Innovate’s Sandbox is currently open for applications until the 31st of December 2019!
As well as looking for applications from innovative businesses wanting to make positive changes in the financial services sector, this year the FCA has highlighted areas where it would like to see innovation. It’s particularly interested in receiving applications from firms with propositions that:
- make finance work for everyone ”“ by addressing issues around access, exclusion and vulnerability
- support the UK in the move to a greener economy ”“ by responding to the challenges posed by climate change
- use technology to overcome regulatory challenges ”“ by helping regulated firms comply with their obligations
It’s also highlighted 2 specific technology areas where the FCA would like to see more innovation and testing and applications are welcome from:
- federated learning and travelling algorithms
- complex scenario modelling and simulation
For more information on the process, eligibility criteria and lessons from previous Sandbox cohorts please use this link.
It would be great to see more applications coming from the vibrant innovative community in Scotland. Please get in touch if you’d like more information.
Good Luck!