Standard Life partners with FinTech Scotland on responsible investing

Standard Life, the UK’s most prominent long-term savings and retirement business, has launched its second annual Innovation Forum. The focus of the forum this year is to find and develop innovative solutions to help pension customers become more engaged with their investments, especially in terms of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors. The winning fintech partner will work alongside Standard Life to implement their solution for over three million customers.

The Innovation Forum aims to embed sustainability and prioritise the environment and people’s well-being in Standard Life’s operations. It seeks to find a fintech company that shares a commitment to responsible investing and can bring the benefits of digital innovation to savers. Potential ideas include ways to visualise how customer pensions are invested, methods to evaluate investments through ESG lenses, or demonstrating how investing responsibly now can lead to positive outcomes in the future.

This initiative is a collaboration between five organizations: TCS’s Co-Innovation Network (TCS COIN™) innovation ecosystem, Fintech Scotland, Women In Banking & Finance (WIBF), and Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE). The Innovation Forum builds on the success of last year’s event, which was won by Behavioural Finance, an Edinburgh-based company that uses psychometric testing to help users understand how their personality affects their relationship with money. Standard Life plans to introduce the wealth personality test developed by Behavioural Finance to some of its customers, with the goal of expanding it to more customers later this year.

This year’s Innovation Forum will follow a similar process, with fintechs presenting their innovative solutions to senior leaders across Standard Life and the wider Phoenix Group. Each shortlisted participant will work closely with a Standard Life mentor to refine their proposal before a long-term partnership is established with the winning company.

Standard Life’s Managing Director, Pensions and Savings, Colin Williams, said:

“This is a fantastic opportunity for Standard Life to connect with creative thinkers to enhance our proposition development and better support customers to engage with their investments and understand the impact they have on the world. This is key to our Group’s wider social purpose and sustainability strategy and follows the transition of £15bn of workplace assets to our new sustainable default fund. We are looking forward to hearing from innovators from across the FinTech Scotland, TCS COINTM and broader start-up community.”

Fintech Scotland Chief Executive, Nicola Anderson, said:

“We’re delighted to be partnering with Standard Life and Phoenix Group for a second year in a row to bring innovation and better outcomes to its customers. The first iteration of their Innovation Forum in 2022 was a real success and we’re very excited to see Standard Life’s plans for integrating the technology from Behavioural Finance into customers’ journeys. This year, they’ve set themselves an even bigger challenge as they’re looking to bring more innovation to ESG investing. Customer outcomes are directly linked to environmental and social issues, and vice versa – bringing this relationship to life is vital as we move towards a net zero future. At FinTech Scotland we identified Climate as one of the 4 key areas of focus in our Research and Innovation Roadmap and this innovation challenge will help us achieve our goal to move towards greener finance and have the sector contribute to the net zero agenda.”

Companies interested in applying can do so here.