Inbest and MaPS launch New benefits calculator
In collaboration with Scottish fintech firm Inbest, the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has introduced a benefits calculator.
The tool, which is free of charge, will be integrated into the MoneyHelper website of MaPS to assist individuals in determining the benefits and social tariffs for which they may be eligible.
Entitledto.co.uk claims that there may be billions of pounds in unclaimed benefits across the United Kingdom. By entering their basic information, users will be able to conduct a quick search and receive results in less than a minute.
The calculator will then request that they complete a more detailed search to verify their eligibility for any potential claims. MaPS emphasizes the importance of identifying other sources of income and any available assistance to help individuals manage their money and pensions, given the rising cost of living.
This initiative was launched after MaPS launched a new campaign in the previous month to increase awareness of the free help and advice available.
Michael Royce, Senior Policy and Propositions Manager at the Money and Pensions Service, said:
“The most common reasons why so much goes unclaimed in benefits is that people are unaware of what they’re entitled to or assume that they aren’t eligible.
“We look forward to working closely with Inbest and hope that making their benefits calculator available through our MoneyHelper website helps millions of households who are currently missing out to maximise their income.”
Manu Peleteiro, founder and CEO at Inbest, said:
“We are thrilled to partner with MaPS and power their MoneyHelper benefits calculator. Working with MaPS colleagues is a fantastic learning experience, and their input is crucial to continuously improve our calculator and shape our product roadmap.
“We are looking forward to working with MaPS and contributing to the delivery of the UK’s Strategy for Financial Wellbeing by helping people access the benefits, grants and social tariffs they are eligible for.”
€9m Investment by Ingka into Scottish fintech DirectID
DirectID, one of the leading fintech in Scotland, that specialises in credit risk assessment, risk analytics and predictive modelling, has announced that it has received a minority investment of €9m from Ingka Investments, the investment division of Ingka Group.
DirectID’s main objective is to promote financial inclusion worldwide through its global credit risk score, by providing advanced data to optimise credit and risk decisions in an increasing number of countries. The company provides risk managers with a real-time dataset that can drive efficiency, improve decisions and lifetime value across the credit lifecycle. DirectID’s insights enable decision makers to assess risk better, regardless of age, location, and past credit performance.
James Varga, CEOand Founder of DirectID, said:
“We’re proud to join Ingka Investments’ portfolio of market-leading firms. We are excited to be shaping a new global standard in credit scoring that enhances people’s lives by enabling access to products they need in an affordable way. Our coverage, advanced insights and predictive models provide a unique opportunity to achieve this by creating the world’s first real-time, inclusive, credit score based on open finance data.”
The funding received will help expedite the launch of DirectID’s most advanced predictive models for credit and risk, built from open banking data. Additionally, the company plans to expand its credit risk offering into new markets and accelerate the development of models for each stage of the credit lifecycle, from originations through portfolio management to collections.
Peter van der Poel, Managing Director of Ingka Investments, said:
“We are pleased to have made this investment in DirectID and are confident of their continued growth in the open banking market. They have developed an innovative solution with the potential to complement and disrupt the traditional credit and risk market and help drive financial inclusion for more people. Open Banking-enabled credit and risk insights is an area we believe can add value to Ingka’s financial services proposition in the future.”
This investment is just the latest in a series of investments made by Ingka Investments, which aims to strengthen Ingka Group’s core retail business by investing in innovative companies in areas such as digitalisation, customer fulfilment, fintech and sustainability. These investments support the ongoing transformation of Ingka Group to become more affordable, accessible, and sustainable.
Important changes for fintechs as R&D tax relief regime changes
Blog written by Saifur Rahman, Senior Technical Consultant at Leyton.
The UK’s Research and Development (R&D) tax relief regime is undergoing significant changes starting April 1, 2023. These changes include the amount of relief that can be claimed, the types of activities that qualify, and how businesses can claim relief. The changes aim to keep the UK competitive in cutting-edge research, ensure that the reliefs are effective, and use taxpayer money efficiently.
R&D Expenditure Categories: The R&D expenditure categories will be extended to include the costs of datasets and cloud computing. This is particularly relevant for the growing fintech sector, as the use of big data and cloud computing is essential for the development of new financial technologies, processes and workflows. Whether you are running a trading platform ingesting financial data from the likes of Bloomberg or developing large scale data algorithms to understand market conformity ”“ the use of cloud computing and pure datasets will be vital in the R&D project and thus have the ability to account for eligible R&D tax expenses. However, it should be noted that such costs cannot be included in R&D claims on an all-embracing basis ”“ for example, where such costs relate directly to R&D activities, they can be included, but not where they relate to a “qualifying indirect activity” (e.g. where you are including a small proportion of non-technical personnel time attributable to qualifying R&D projects). Additionally, exemptions state that the costs of the data and usage cannot be utilised beyond the R&D project or sold on for commercial purposes.
Pure Mathematics: R&D in pure mathematics will also qualify for relief and can form part of the qualifying R&D activities of the claimants from accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023. This is relevant for fintech companies that use mathematical models and algorithm development in their R&D activities. However, the term “pure mathematics” is not yet defined in legislation, further guidance will be provided on this.
Refocusing Relief to UK Activities: One of the most fundamental changes in the Autumn 2021 Budget was to refocus the R&D reliefs provided to activities performed in the UK: for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023, subcontracted R&D work and the cost of externally provided workers (EPWs) will be limited to work undertaken in the UK. This may present challenges for fintech companies that outsource certain R&D activities to other countries. However, there will be specific exemptions where work outside the UK is permitted for geographical, environmental, social, or regulatory/legal requirements. Examples of such exemptions include deep ocean research and clinical trials, and, by inference, could include medical-tech trials in specific patient groups, international telecoms testing, or technology designed for extreme environments. HMRC will be providing further guidance on the exemptions before April 2023.
Overseas Branch: There is still some uncertainty for companies with overseas branches: currently there is nothing in the draft legislation relating to work carried out by staff of an overseas branch of a UK company ”“ so it is not clear if such costs will qualify for R&D relief in future.
Conclusion: In summary, the changes to the UK’s R&D tax relief regime will have a significant impact on the fintech sector, particularly in terms of the costs that qualify for relief and the focus on UK-based activities. Fintech companies should review their R&D activities and expenses to ensure compliance with the new regulations. We recommend that fintech companies monitor the situation and seek professional advice to ensure they are able to claim the reliefs to which they are entitled.
Photo by ThisIsEngineering: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-women-talking-beside-whiteboard-3861952/
Fintech and payroll, disrupting how people get paid
Season 3, episode 3
Listen to the full episode here.
When thinking about payroll generally most people would assume that it is something that works well. You work, you get paid. However, payroll is being disrupted like never before.
According to software company Intuit, one in four workers say they have had paycheque errors. And cloud company Kronos found almost half of workers who have had two or more paycheque errors will look for a new job.
Society is changing fast (even more so after COVID). In this podcast we’ll explore how those changes are impacting the way people work, get paid, pay taxes and how new fintech solutions are developing to make this possible.
Guests:
Ian Hogg – Chairman of The Work Tech Group that owns fastPAYE
Hayley Strachan – Director – Global Employer Services at Deloitte
Richard Tooth – Tax & Legal consultant at Deloitte LLP
Eira Hammond – Executive Director Global Payroll at Hi55 Ventures
New government initiative to promote women in STEM
The UK Government is launching a new initiative to encourage women to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Currently, only 29% of the STEM workforce is made up women. This new initiative will benefit from £150,000 of Government funding and will be used by Women Returners and STEM Returners to target women who have taken career breaks and promote core skills in an attempt to plug the STEM skills gap.
Joanna Kori, Head of People for fintech firm Encompass Corporation, commented:
“I am glad to see the Government promoting and providing tangible support to women looking to get into, or return to, STEM careers through investment and skills training. STEM careers are hugely rewarding, yet, as recent figures show, too few women are involved in the sector, and that needs to change. Women are poised to play a crucial role in resolving the skills gap, and it is vital that organisations provide the opportunities and training to empower women and encourage them to pursue a career in STEM. At Encompass, we work hard in this area, providing the balance of both autonomy and support to allow our talented female employees to thrive and be at the centre of the company’s growth.”
Nicola Pickering, VP of Customer Success & Delivery at Encompass Corporation, said:
“The opportunities and avenues available in STEM are vast and, with initiatives like this, will only increase. It is encouraging to see how far we have come in schools, in terms of expanding opportunities, and instilling in girls to have no limits in what they pursue. There is so much possibility to achieve in the tech industry and, with the evolution of flexible working, inclusion for women is greater than ever before, meaning they can fulfil exciting career ambitions while maintaining the positive work-life balance that many look for.”
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/happy-ethnic-woman-sitting-at-table-with-laptop-3769021/
FinTech and Space ”“ propelling Scotland forward
We all know that two heads are better than one so imagine the power of two of Scotland’s strongest and most innovative industries coming together to develop tools and capabilities to tackle large scale challenges.
“FinTech meets Space” event in January was the first in a series of joint activities between FinTech Scotland and Space Scotland to spark collaboration between the two clusters and harness the power of cross sector working.
The event brought together thought leaders, industry experts, academics, government agencies, innovators and corporates to start the process of understanding how two very different industries can utilise the capabilities of each other to face off to solve real time challenges.
“You don’t know what you don’t know, so be open to possibilities” was the provocation that started the day off, and it certainly worked. Conversations ranged from the strength of Scotland as a centre of excellence in both fields, to leading edge use of Spatial data to tackle unexpected issues in the health and social care sectors, to more focussed discussions on some live use cases within Financial Services.
These examples spanned a wide range of activities, including understanding insurance risks, building confidence in investments, supporting emerging regulatory requirements and a number of areas of ESG development.
Presentations from Global Surface Intelligence, D-CAT, AstroSat and Earthblox brought some of the possibilities to life, with a joint presentation from the FinTech and Space leads at the University of Strathclyde reinforced the potential for interconnection and collaboration.
The objective of this event was to introduce and to spark conversations between the sectors ahead of a broader Accelerator programme funded by the UK Space Agency.
The programme which will run over the course of a number of months will take the live problem statements and use cases which sparked such enthusiasm in the room and create the opportunity for us to all come together and start working on some tangible prototypes and solutions
We will build on the connections made in the room to form some long lasting relationships and potentially partnerships across our sectors. The potential is vast and the opportunity for Scotland to build on our strengths in both domains to become a world leader in this area is hugely exciting”¦”¦ watch this space!
Carbon Markets: How can fintech avoid green washing?
Season 3, episode 2
Listen to the full episode here.
The FinTech Scotland Research and Innovation Roadmap highlighted the growing focus on climate considerations for the financial services sector.
Whilst this is in part driven by consumers, demanding better transparency for the products they invest in, this is the launch of new regulations that is accelerating the move to a more sustainable financial sector.
Financial services providers are facing growing challenges around ESG reporting due to the difficulties around the availability of trustworthy data. This has led to mounting concerns around greenwashing.
In a bid to clamp down on greenwashing, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing a package of new measures including investment product sustainability labels and restrictions on how terms like ‘ESG’, ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ can be used.
In this podcast we discuss how to best avoid greenwashing moving forward.
Guests:
Colin Carmichael – Sustainability Director at PwC
Jules Salmond – Founder at Ciendos
Matthew Brander – Senior Lecturer in Carbon Accounting at The University of Edinburgh Business School
Open Banking – the UK’s next biggest export?
According to Accenture, there’s $416bn of revenue at stake for fintechs and banks across the world by the end of this decade. That’s roughly four times the size of the scotch whisky market ($91bn) – so is Open Banking the UK’s next iconic export? Maybe”¦ but only if we make some important changes
Last week, we released a piece of research – The Global Open Finance Index. It tracks the development of Open Banking across the world and focuses on the 23 countries where we’re seeing the most progress. Its findings are fairly stark. The UK’s position as a leader in the space, which was once completely uncontested, is now in serious danger of evaporating.
Countries like Brazil and Australia are accelerating with regulatory regimes that already go far beyond the UK’s initial blueprint whilst markets like India and the US are finding different approaches leveraging market forces and industry collaboration to create huge potential. India’s Open Banking standard now covers a group of more than 1 billion accounts whilst in the US 42 million accounts have coalesced under the FDX standard with zero regulatory push. Perhaps even more significantly, that regulatory push is coming in the US and soon. The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau (CFPB) is already in the late stages of consultation on how that process should be rolled out and they have the legislative backing to get it done.
So where does this leave UK fintechs?
I have no doubt that Open Banking and (eventually) Open Finance will have profound impact on the UK, revolutionising our credit market, bringing huge, excluded groups into mainstream finance and providing differentiated competition to the card rails, but in terms of the economics, the real prize is still on the table.
UK firms have built businesses that are designed to handle large quantities of API-driven transaction data. They’ve developed the security systems to protect the data, the skills to handle, clean and contextualise it and the case studies to prove how impactful that data can be. They are, in short, in a position of huge competitive advantage vs companies at the beginning of this journey in evolving markets. In order to maintain that advantage though, they have to keep working at the cutting edge of the technology, here the UK is falling down.
Australian firms are already working with Open Energy data, Brazilians are getting to grips with the wider financial product set through their country’s Open Finance programme.
We have to accelerate progress in the UK and the opportunity to do that is here.
On the public policy side, we need to establish a strong, independent body to preside over the future of the sector, we need to move on Open Finance, (the data bill is sitting in a drawer in parliament and should be moved forward as a priority) and we need to think about how we can build regulatory passporting into trade deals as we sign them.
On the market forces side we need more banks to take a leaf out of NatWest’s book and accelerate the development of premium APIs, we need to align on risk and liability frameworks for the use of these and work towards clarity for the market on commercial details. Finally we need better engagement between institutional lenders and retail lenders that use open banking data. Cost of capital is a major hurdle for Open Banking’s proliferation in the lending space and this both can and should be addressed.
This is a blockbuster agenda for 2023, but if we can get it done the prize for UK firms will be transformational. If we can’t, Open Banking will still have a major impact on our domestic economy but it might not be the firms hiring UK talent and paying UK tax that deliver it. This is not beyond us. There’s a lot to do but if we lace up our trainers, I’m very confident that we can make it happen.
docStribute partners with Penrith Building Society
Fintech startup docStribute just announced a partnership with Penrith Building Society, making their best-in-class DLT solutions available to the building society’s members.
Thanks to docStribute, the company will be able to reduce carbon emissions by 98%. This will be achieved by making important and sensitive documents immediately accessible digitally while increasing document security through a three factor verification check each time a document is opened. docStribute creates secure immutable hyperlinks through dSend (www.docstribute.com/dsend) to users, reducing the time their staff spend on preparing paper documentation. ,
This implementation will simplify the onboarding experience for mortgages, rapidly improving the speed with which Penrith can advance funds to their members.
docStribute utilises a DLT application that utilises a decentralised public network known as hashgraph, a secure, shared database that everyone can read from and write to, and a faster, more secure alternative to blockchain.
docStribute CEO Chris Ansara said:
“We are excited to work with Penrith Building Society. We share a desire to reduce the use of paper and reduce emissions in the financial sector. DLT is an alternative to paper communication and is certainly more environmentally friendly – Penrith are industry-leading in deploying our solutions. When using our technology, a 3-factor verification check is completed each time a document is accessed, so Penrith members are safe in the knowledge that documents and contracts are secure.”
Tim Bowen, CEO at Penrith Building Society said:
“At Penrith Building Society, we are passionate about protecting the environment. We have been partnered with Greener Every Day to help offset our new mortgage customers’ carbon footprint, and this new partnership with docStribute will help us further act on our environmental values by reducing our paper usage and therefore our carbon footprint. We also look forward to conducting our business communications in a more secure and efficient way through docStribute’s quality DLT services, particularly its future digital signature solutions, which will enable us to simplify and streamline members’ onboarding experience, offering choice for our members,”
This announcement follows docStribute becoming available on Mia-Platform Marketplace, as well as docStribute’s deals with global technology behemoth Salesforce to make its Document Distribution and future Digital Signature solutions available to its 150,000+ customers and the UK Government’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS) to be listed as a G-Cloud 13 supplier, making docStribute technology available to over 52,000 public sector and third sector organisations.