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20 Companies Selected for Consumer Duty Focussed Innovation Call

We’re delighted to confirm the 20 Fintech companies selected to advance to the next stage of our third Innovation Call launched from our Financial Regulation Innovation Lab in partnership with SuperTech West Midlands.

This innovation challenge focusses the theme of consumer duty which is impacting the whole industry. The call was developed in collaboration with 14 leading industry partners: PwC, Tesco Bank, NatWest, Lloyds Banking Group, Equifax, and Barclays, alongside essential community-focused institutions like Dudley, Advance Credit Union, Secure Trust Banks, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, TSB, Castlemilk Credit Union, Coventry and Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust (CWRT), and Moneyline.

With the new consumer duty regulation, financial services organisations are required to make sure they are providing better outcomes for their customers. This means using all data and technologies available to support new the development of better journey, products, services and much more.

Thanks to this call, fintech firms have a unique occasion to work alongside established industry leaders and world-class academics to develop new thinkings and solutions to enhance customers’ financial well-being.

We are continuing to collaborate with the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow to align the initiative with the latest academic research hence advancing innovation in financial regulation across the UK.

Selected Fintechs

Out of 44 applicants from around the world, 20 innovative companies have been selected after demonstrating their commitment to tackling consumer duty challenges through innovative solutions.

Congratulations to Ask Silver, Creditflow, docStribute, EngageSmarter, Guiide, Hope4U, Haboo, Inicio.ai, Malted AI, MyArk, National Support Network, nestegg, planda, Profylr, Sibstar, TellJo, Truzy, UniVeri, VouchSafe, and The Wisdom Council.

For the next few months, they will gain insights into industry challenges and refine their propositions. The programme will involve industry workshops, mentorship, and opportunities to refine concepts with direct feedback from industry partners.

Some of the most promising Fintechs may also be awarded grants of up to £50,000 to support further development of their ideas.

Programme Launch

The selected fintechs gathered in Glasgow on 5 November at the University of Strathclyde’s Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) to meet industry partners and start building with all involved parties.

FCA TechSprint 2024 ”“ A Catalyst for Inclusive Financial Technology

Embracing Innovation for Financial Inclusion: FCA’s TechSprint Initiative

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a new TechSprint focussing on the topic of Financial Inclusion. The application period will run from the 19th of January until the 13th of February. The cohort- based sprint will then run from 7th March to 30th May 2024. This initiative is aimed at leveraging technological solutions to foster financial inclusion, a critical step towards a more equitable financial landscape.

A Virtual Journey Culminating in Glasgow

The three-month TechSprint will be conducted virtually, allowing widespread participation and collaboration. The event will culminate in an in-person showcase on 30 May 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland, offering a platform for participants to present their innovative solutions.

The FinTech Scotland Research & Innovation Roadmap identified that with advances in new data sources and emerging technology capabilities being developed by Academia and innovative SMEs within the sector Scotland has the history, the experience and the capabilities to take a leading role on the development and acceleration of solutions and widening access to inclusive products and services.  Companies like Inicio, InBest, Amiqus and ClearScore are great examples of leading innovative fintechs spearheading the use of data and technology to support financial inclusion.

Glasgow is also home to the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) which launched in December 2023. The FRIL project is funded by the Glasgow City Region (GCR) Innovation Accelerator programme led by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation. The GCR accelerator supports the UK Government’s levelling-up agenda which at its foundation supports sustainable and inclusive economic growth across all the nations and regions. An inclusive banking and financial sector is integral to achieving this. This Techprint is designed to tackle challenges spanning not only access to financial services but also issues encountered throughout the consumer journey.

Tackling Key Problem Statements

The TechSprint is structured around three fundamental problem statements:

  1. What technological solutions can help to increase the probability of consumers being accepted when they apply for everyday financial services, such as basic bank accounts, credit or insurance products?  
  2. What technological solutions can help to deliver positive outcomes for consumers when a firm declines their application for a product, or when at a subsequent point in the consumer journey they become excluded because the product is no longer suitable for their needs?”¯ 
  3. How can technology, including AI, be deployed to ensure that firms deliver good outcomes across the board to groups of consumers who have been excluded or not well-served in the past, particularly in retail banking, payments, credit and insurance?

Leveraging the FCA Digital Sandbox

The FCA’s unique digital sandbox will be a central resource in the TechSprint, offering access to both real and synthetic data. Participants are encouraged to bring their data or explore other data sources to fuel their innovative solutions.

Building Diverse and Dynamic Teams

Participants in the TechSprint will form diverse teams including visionaries, challengers, and thinkers, ensuring a breadth of perspectives and ideas. These diverse teams are expected to bring their unique personalities and approaches to the table, fostering creativity and innovation.

The TechSprint will encourage collaboration among a diverse range of industry participants and stakeholders. Teams are encouraged to engage in collaborative discussions and sessions throughout the event. The focus is not just on competition but on collective innovation and knowledge sharing.

A period of heightened focus

The TechSprint will contribute to a wider programme across Scotland focused on financial inclusion. FinTech Scotland, Financial Inclusion Scotland, Scottish Financial Enterprise, and Smart Data Foundry are all working in collaboration with industry, regulators and government on a range of initiatives all focused on driving financial inclusion, for people, and businesses.  There are a number of initiatives under way for 2024 that create the opportunities to collaborate and drive action on this important agenda.

Solutions will be multifaceted and will require a large degree of public and private sector collaboration. FinTech Scotland’s cluster management approach brings together consumer groups, academia, the financial services sector, technology innovators, data experts, regulators and government and fosters the right environment for collaborative problem solving.

Getting Involved in the Tech Sprint

Interested parties are invited to apply for participation or mentorship in the TechSprint. Applicants are asked to provide detailed information about their experience, data sets, additional resources, and expertise. The FCA stresses the importance of diversity in applications, reflecting its commitment to inclusivity.

Further information on how to get involved, deeper dives into the use case statements and frequently asked questions as well as a detailed participation pack can be found here

Please include a point that the sprint opens for applications on 19th of January – running until the 13th of February.

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!