Major Financial Institutions Unite to Drive Innovation in Operational Resilience

A coalition of leading financial institutions including Sword Group, Natwest, Morgan Stanley, Dudley Building Society, The Tipton, Unity Trust Bank, M&G, Pinsent Masons, Tesco Bank, Aberdeen, KPMG and EY have joined forces to launch a UK-wide innovation challenge focused on strengthening operational resilience across the financial sector. Delivered in partnership with FinTech Scotland through the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), and collaborating with SuperTech WM to help expand the reach and impact across the UK, this initiative calls on fintech innovators to co-create next-generation solutions that can safeguard the financial system in an increasingly digital world.

Operational resilience is a top priority for the UK’s regulators, including the FCA, Bank of England and HM Treasury, as the sector adapts to growing digital disruption, complex supply chains, and rising consumer expectations. This challenge reflects a shared commitment from industry to proactively address these risks through collaboration and innovation.

In the face of escalating demand for seamless digital services, the challenge is designed to source practical, scalable solutions that can help firms stay resilient, responsive, and secure. It will offer selected fintechs the opportunity to work directly with financial institutions, gain valuable insights into real-world resilience challenges, and receive expert input from leading academics from the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow.

Successful applicants may also be eligible for up to £50,000 in grant funding to accelerate the development of their solution. The programme will culminate in a showcase event in Glasgow, where participants will present to industry and regulatory stakeholders.

FinTech firms from across the globe are encouraged to apply before the deadline on August 15^th. More details can be found here.

Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland: “This challenge is a powerful example of how collaboration can drive meaningful change. By bringing together fintech innovators, academic insight, and industry expertise, we’re not only responding to the increasing demands of the digital economy, we’re actively shaping a more resilient and adaptive financial system for the future.”

Rob Mossop, COO Financial Services and International, Sword: “As a trusted technology partner, we recognise that operational resilience is moving beyond meeting regulatory requirements. It has become a business imperative with clear impact on business growth. We understand the critical role that trusted and adaptable solutions play in helping financial institutions respond to disruption and build competitive advantage. We are excited to see how this challenge brings together the best of industry, academia, and innovation to utilise technologies that don’t just withstand disruption but enable agility and enhance trust in the face of it”

Hilary Smyth-Allen, CEO SuperTech:“Our longstanding partnership with FinTech Scotland, to expand the reach of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, has delivered fantastic impact in previous programmes for both the fintech innovators and financial services participants. We look forward to seeing the collaborative opportunities arising from this open innovation challenge focusing on operational resilience.” 

Nicole Alston, Innovation Engagement Manager, NatWest: “Natwest Group are proud to support this challenge, which represents a fantastic opportunity to work hand-in-hand with fintech innovators to shape the next generation of operational resilience. By combining industry insight with fresh thinking, we can build smarter, more adaptive systems that protect customers and maintain trust”

Luke Scanlon, Pinsent Masons: “Strengthening operational resilience isn’t just a regulatory expectation, it’s a shared responsibility across the financial ecosystem. This challenge is a compelling example of how partnerships between fintechs and industry, can drive innovation that’s both agile and aligned with evolving regulatory frameworks. It’s a chance to build practical solutions that work in the real world”

Samuel Kennedy, Head of Operational Risk, Dudley Building Society: “For building societies, operational resilience is fundamental to maintaining the trust of our members and communities. This challenge is a chance to work alongside fintechs to explore innovative solutions that protect continuity of service, while ensuring we remain agile and responsive in a changing digital landscape.”

Will Lynch, Group Deputy COO, Aberdeen: “Aberdeen’s involvement in FRIL has shown the power of collaboration in tackling complex regulatory and operational challenges. We are looking forward to contributing the next phase of FRIL in an increasingly important part of the regulatory landscape.”

David Owen, Head of Business Risk at Unity Trust Bank: “Operational resilience isn’t just about meeting regulatory compliance; it is about reinforcing our customers’ confidence that we can withstand disruptions and continue to serve them effectively. At Unity Trust Bank, resilience is fundamental to our double-bottom-line approach: it supports sustainable business growth while deepening the trust that our socially minded customers place in us. By collaborating with fintech innovators, industry partners, and thought leaders, we are developing smarter, more adaptive systems that not only ensure continuity but also strengthen the core principles of ethical banking.”

Tom McFarlane, Partner, EY – “Building on the success of our collaboration with FRIL, we’re delighted to be supporting this innovation challenge focused on strengthening operational resilience. The FRIL programme presents a unique opportunity to deepen our relationships with innovators across the cluster – bringing together diverse thinking, regulatory insight, and practical expertise. Through these collaborations, we can co-create solutions that are not only innovative, but also scalable and grounded in the realities of today’s financial landscape.”

The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab is part of the larger Glasgow City Region Innovation Accelerator programme. Led by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation, the pilot Innovation Accelerators programme invested £100m in 26 transformative R&D projects between 2022-25 to accelerate the growth of three high-potential innovation ecosystems – Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and West Midlands. The programme was boosted by an additional £30m of public funding for 2025/26 spread equally across the regions. Innovation Accelerators is piloting a new model of R&D decision making that empowers local partnerships to harness innovation to drive regional economic growth, attract private investment, and develop future technologies.

Accelerating growth in Scotland’s financial services sector

EY’s new report “Accelerating growth in Scotland’s financial services sector” is a growth playbook for one of Scotland’s most important industries. Developed by EY and based on a September 2024 survey and in‑depth interviews with senior leaders across banking, insurance, asset‑management and fintech, the study runs each insight through EY’s Financial Services Accelerant Framework to model where the greatest levers for expansion lie.

What it says about Scotland’s financial services economy

The report states that if Scotland can pull the right “accelerators”, gross value‑added (GVA) could be 21 % higher by 2028, adding 16,000 jobs and lifting average annual growth to roughly 4 % well above the historic 2 –3 % trend.

EY’s recommendations focus on a three year policy sprint: visa reform to attract global talent, narrowing tax differentials with the rest of the UK, bolstering digital and physical infrastructure, and targeted R&D funding, especially for fintech innovation.

Fintech

Fintech is one of three key growth sectors identified in the report (alongside green & sustainable finance and asset management). Scotland already hosts a thriving fintech cluster spanning payments, Open Finance, WealthTech and RegTech, recognised internationally as an industrial cluster.

Sector leaders see talent as the decisive variable. Demographics and labour supply rank as the No. 1 factor in creating a globally competitive hub, with regulatory clarity in second place.

FinTech Scotland’s CEO Nicola Anderson, who contributed in the report said :

“Scotland’s industry‑wide innovation strategy for fintech and financial services is set out in the FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap… The University of Edinburgh, for example, has more AI expertise than anywhere else in Europe and has a history of AI expertise in other sectors.”

Read the full report

FinTech Scotland Festival: Accelerating Regional Fintech Innovation

The eighth annual FinTech Scotland Festival will take place between the 22^nd and the 26^th of September 2025, showcasing the innovation of the Scottish fintech cluster.

Bringing together entrepreneurs, policymakers, global financial leaders, investors and innovators to demonstrate how the Scottish fintech cluster is translating the UK Government Modern Industrial Strategy into tangible economic growth, jobs and attracting the capital to scale enterprises in the UK and globally.

Across five days the festival will showcase fintech businesses and FinTech Scotland’s strategic partners who are fostering economic growth by driving innovation in Financial Regulation, Open Finance, Payments, Climate Finance utilising expertise Artificial Intelligence, Distributed Ledger Technologies and Quantum.

The festival highlights how the fintech cluster is aligned behind the new UK Government Financial Services Strategy unveiled on Tuesday, 15 July by demonstrating productivity improvement through digital innovation, the role of regional cluster leadership and supporting the national payment vision.

FinTech Scotland has built a week with key events including a Global Fintech Forum for international visitors, the Annual Fintech Summit on fintech trends, an awards ceremony to recognise fintech excellence and a day of workshops and knowledge sharing to support the growth of fintechs in Scotland

Nicola Anderson, CEO, FinTech Scotland, said:

“The FinTech Scotland Festival supports the UK Government’s ambition to make the UK, the world’s fintech capital. It will demonstrate how regional clusters can deliver jobs, inward investments, exports and societal benefit. I’m looking forward to welcoming individuals and organisations from around the UK and beyond to develop new connections and collaboration opportunities.”

Discover the festival agenda at www.fintechscotland.com/events/

Aveni brings wealth-management heavyweights together to accelerate responsible AI

Edinburgh-based fintech Aveni has brought together a new Customer Advisory Board made up of senior technology and operations leaders from Succession Wealth (part of Aviva), Schroders Personal Wealth, 7IM and Rathbones. The group will act as a sounding board for Aveni’s product roadmap while driving industry wide collaboration on safe and effective AI adoption in financial advice and wealth management.

By pooling insight from four major advice firms, the board will help ensure new tools are built with practitioners, not just for them. It aligns with the collaborative ethos we see across the Scottish fintech community.

Early priorities include balancing client expectations, regulatory obligations and operational pressures. Regular workshops will provide an agile feedback loop so that lessons learned in one organisation can quickly inform solutions used across the market.

Building on FinLLM

The board’s formation follows Aveni’s May launch of FinLLM, one of the UK’s first domain specific large language models trained on financial services data and aligned with FCA and forthcoming EU AI Act requirements. Early benchmarking shows FinLLM outperforming general purpose models on specialist tasks while maintaining strong baseline accuracy.

How Agentic AI can redefine Financial Services

In this episode we explore the transformative potential of Agentic AI in the financial services industry.

We look at how this emerging technology is enhancing personalisation, optimising operational processes, and redefining financial inclusion. We dive into into areas such as customer support with conversational AI as well as the transformation of risk modelling and compliance.

We discuss whether Agentic AI is paving the way for a smarter, more connected financial ecosystem.

We also discuss the challenges and opportunities this technology brings, including ethical considerations, regulatory hurdles, and the need for collaboration between academia, industry, and policymakers to ensure responsible innovation.

Guests:

Alexandra Birch – Reader at the University of Edinburgh
Derek Shanks – Technology Platform Lead at Lloyds Banking Group
Joseph Twigg – Founder and CEO at Aveni
Rich Wilson – Founder and CEO at Gigged.ai

Listen now

Bridging the AI Divide, Highlights from BridgeAI’s Second Year

Artificial Intelligence is transforming industries, and the UK is determined to lead from the front. Innovate UK’s BridgeAI programme is a powerful engine bringing AI to sectors traditionally slower to adopt it.

In its second year, BridgeAI put AI into action. Over 3,400 organisations and 9,000 individuals have engaged with the programme, with over 450 projects funded and more than £120 million combined in grant and co-investment capital.

BridgeAI delivered tangible impact:

Practical AI Support: AI toolkits and strategic frameworks, accelerators, training and innovation vouchers.
Real-World Results: Case studies showed AI enhancing farming, pipeline inspections, performance tour logistics, and public transport capacity.
Skills and Standards: Training, new competency frameworks, and access to AI ethics and governance tools.

BridgeAI connects small businesses, researchers, and start-ups with the resources, funding and knowledge they need to innovate responsibly and confidently.

Read the full report

Advancing ESG

Everyone’s talking about ESG, but how do we move from ambition to meaningful impact?

This new report from the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) unpacks that challenge and points to a clear answer: regulatory innovation.

While ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles have risen to the top of board agendas, the path to embedding them meaningfully into financial services is still full of complexity with ambiguous frameworks, inconsistent data, and evolving disclosure standards. But amid that complexity lies an opportunity for change.

This paper flips the conversation. Instead of focusing on ESG as a reporting burden, it highlights how purpose-driven innovation, especially from fintechs, can reframe ESG as a strategic advantage.

Highlights include:

How fintechs are creating tools that democratise ESG insights, enabling smaller firms to lead, not lag.
The power of transparency tech, enabling consumers and investors to make informed choices in real time.
Regulatory leadership as a catalyst—not a constraint—for embedding long-term sustainability in financial decision-making.

Through FRIL’s ESG Innovation Call, the report captures the pulse of the ecosystem: entrepreneurs, regulators, academics, and institutions coming together to explore how data, collaboration, and innovation can unlock the next wave of ESG progress.

Read the report

Addressing Financial Crime

Financial crime is no longer just a back-office issue, it’s a frontline threat to trust, security, and resilience across the financial system. With scams growing more sophisticated and regulation constantly evolving, simply reacting isn’t enough. The sector needs to outthink and outpace criminal innovation.

Produced through the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) led by FinTech Scotland, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Glasgow, this report looks into how the UK financial services industry is embracing innovation to meet the challenge head-on.

Rather than listing problems, the focus is on real-world progress:

Fintechs using AI and privacy-first data sharing to spot fraud faster.
Financial institutions embedding intentional “friction” into digital journeys to protect vulnerable consumers.
Regulators promoting sandbox collaboration and cross-sector signal sharing to shift from reactive controls to intelligent, joined-up defences.

What makes this report stand out is the ecosystem it brings together:
15 fintech innovators, banks, telcos, regulators, and academic partners all contributing to one goal: disrupt financial crime before it happens.

Read the report.

Shaping better consumer outcomes

This report explores how the financial services sector can harness innovation to deliver better outcomes for consumers in line with the FCA’s Consumer Duty.

Produced through the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), a collaboration between FinTech Scotland, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Glasgow, the report outlines a practical and forward-looking roadmap for industry-wide transformation.

The introduction of the Consumer Duty marks a shift from traditional compliance to a proactive, outcomes-based regulatory approach. This paper highlights how fintech innovation, data insights, and collaborative ecosystems can help financial institutions meet evolving regulatory expectations and rising consumer demands.

Key themes include:

A changing regulatory and consumer landscape, with rising expectations for transparent, inclusive, and adaptive financial services.
Challenges for financial institutions, such as legacy systems, siloed data, and fragmented compliance efforts.
Opportunities for innovation, where fintechs play a crucial role in driving consumer understanding, supporting vulnerable customers, and automating compliance.
A call for ecosystem-wide collaboration, moving beyond isolated efforts to create shared standards, interoperable systems, and seamless consumer experiences.

The report features insights from the FRIL Consumer Duty Innovation Call, showcasing fintech partnerships that are already delivering tangible improvements in customer support, communication clarity, and regulatory monitoring. It concludes with a multi-year roadmap outlining the necessary steps for embedding Consumer Duty principles across the financial ecosystem.