Fintech to fight climate change

Season 1, episode 7

Listen to the full episode here.

With COP26 taking place in Glasgow later this year, there is a real focus on the climate change issue. As all participating countries are asked to submit their new long-term goals to address the global climate emergency, we are asking ourselves today how fintech can participate in this global movement.

The United Nations, in their Principles for Responsible Banking, have recognised Financial Services as one of the components that will help tackle climate change.

Fintech, as a movement, is already trying to tackle economic and societal issues such as financial inclusion, better financial outcomes, better money management tools, etc. Can it also provide new innovative solution to combat climate change?

With our distinguished guests we’ll explore the role fintech can and ought to play in the race to save the planet. Will touch on some themes such as ESG, digital currencies and much more

Guests:

Daniel Broby – Director at the Centre for Financial Regulation and Innovation at Strathclyde Business School

Zee West – Co-founder at Picnic Bank

Natalie Jackson – Consultant at the Global Ethical Finance Initiative

Survey – FinTech Scotland Research & Innovation roadmap

This survey is directed at those with an interest or involvement in the Fintech sector in Scotland.

Whitecap Consulting is supporting FinTech Scotland in the development of a ten-year research and innovation roadmap to support the growth of Scotland’s digital economy and the wider development of FinTech innovation across the UK.

This roadmap will build on the work of FinTech Scotland to date, and inform priority focus research themes and the unmet needs of consumers, businesses and society.

This survey will help us identify appropriate opportunities for cross-sector enablement of FinTech innovations to achieve the UK’s overall industrial strategy.

Take the survey

Thank you for your participation. Any answers you give in this online survey may be attributed to individuals or organisations within the report, however only with your prior approval.

Fintech, a force for good?

Season 1, episode 6

Listen to the full episode here.

Fintech is a movement that focusses on customer outcomes, transparency, and democratisation of the financial services sector. Using data and technology, fintech firms are looking at tackling societal and economic issues. Together with our guest we’ll discuss the role of fintech in tomorrow’s world. With Duncan Cockburn, Founder & CEO at OneBanks, Eishel Quinn, Co-founder & Chief Product Officer at Sustainably and Dominic Chalmers, Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow Adam Smith Business School, Convenor of the MSc Financial Technology

Innovations in the world of payments

Season 1, episode 5

Listen to the full episode here.

The world of payment is being disrupted like never before, accelerated, in part, by the recent economic and societal changed imposed by COVID19.

Contactless payments, rise in online transactions coupled with increased concerns around fraud and cybersecurity mean that the sector is undergoing some unprecedented changes.

In this episode we explore what those changes mean in terms of innovation and from a regulation perspective with 3 fantastic guests: 

Genevieve Marjoribanks, Head of Policy and ExCo member at Payment Systems Regulator

Myles Stephenson, Chief Executive at Modulr

Brian Coburn, CEO at Br-dge

Fintech Innovation Roadmap to drive a digital enabled net zero economic recovery

FinTech Scotland is developing a ten-year business-led research and innovation roadmap which will support the growth of Scotland’s digital economy and development of fintech innovation across the UK.

This implements one of the recommendations highlighted in the recent Kalifa FinTech Sector Review which referenced Scotland as the second largest fintech cluster in the UK and the opportunity to build on this position through strategic research and innovation.

The roadmap will advance the FinTech Scotland Cluster in a number of ways, including

  • Develop priority innovation themes such as financial inclusion, net zero and well-being
  • Align research strengths and capabilities with innovation priorities and drive efficiencies
  • Enhance Scotland’s national and global reputation for fintech innovation
  • Shape innovation challenges and influence future Government Innovation strategies

 

The roadmap is being developed in collaboration with the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence (GOFCoE) and together they have appointed Whitecap Consulting to progress the initiative. The work builds on the FinTech Scotland “Research and Innovation for UK FinTech” report published in January 2021 as well as the academic-led research and innovation roadmap recently developed by the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with regional Universities.

 

Nicola Anderson chief executive of FinTech Scotland said

The roadmap will further advance and grow Scotland’s fintech Cluster and it will bring insight and specific focus to accelerate fintech Innovation. Working with Whitecap consulting and across the Cluster we will identify a suite of progressive actions that will enable positive economic outcomes”.

 

Kevin Collins, chief executive of the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence said

We’re delighted to be working with FinTech Scotland and Whitecap Consulting on this roadmap and is essential to ensuring we prioritise the needs of financial and fintech businesses, including key skills gaps as well as provide an opportunity to align businesses and academics effectively.”

 

Richard Coates, Managing Director of Whitecap Consulting, says:

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work alongside FinTech Scotland and the GOFCoE team on this interesting project. The development of FinTech Scotland’s Research & Innovation roadmap calls for us to utilise a combination of our core strength in strategy and planning, our extensive work across the UK’s regional FinTech ecosystems, and our experience working with and connecting key stakeholders across public, private and higher education organisations.”

Cryptocurrency, towards global adoption?

Season 1, episode 4

Listen to the full episode here.

Cryptocurrencies are regularly featured in the press. Sometimes it’s about Bitcoin reaching a new high, sometimes about a new ICO launching. More recently we learnt that tech giant Elon Musk had bought into the digital currency movement.

There have been many debates since Bitcoin launched in 2008. There are those who believe crypto is just a temporary craze and those who believe it’s the future of money.

With global tech giants launching their own coins and new crypto reaching new highs, we discussed whether now was the start of global crypto adoption.

For our fourth podcast we’re bringing industry experts together to discuss the topic and listen to their views on the future of cryptocurrency.

Guests:

Temple Melvillle, Director at The Scotcoin Project

Nick Jones, CEO and co-founder at Zumo

Zion Schum, Founder and CEO at Leutheria

AI and fintech applications

Season 1, episode 3

Listen to the full episode here.

On the 22nd of March 2021 Scotland’s AI Strategy was published. AI is playing a growing role in the development of fintech solutions. In this special episode that launches during the UK fintech week we hear from two fintech firms that have built their proposition around AI as well as Gillian Docherty, OBE, CEO at The DataLab, member of the Steering Committee that led to the creation of Scotland’s AI strategy and Chair of the AI Alliance in Scotland. We’re also joined by Simon Pink, AI & Data Leader for financial services at IBM. In this episode we discussed how Scotland will become an AI powerhouse, the evolution of AI and ethics implications and look at two firms using AI in the fintech space to deliver better outcomes for firms and citizens.

The Future of Wealthtech

Season 1, Episode 2

Listen to the full episode here.

In this episode we welcomed: 

-Chris Turnbull, CEO at Airfunders

-Ross Laurie, CEO at Visible Capital

-Iain Niblock the newly appointed CEO at Money Dashboard. 

We spoke about new innovations impacting the world of Wealthtech from Open Banking to AI.

The conversation also took us to Open Finance as a natural and needed evolution of Open Banking and what it means for the future of digital financial advice and guidance. 

Finally we asked ourselves whether people would ever move to full robots advice solutions or if they’d always value the human interaction.

Fintech in Scotland

Season 1, Episode 1

Listen to the full episode here

An introduction to the fintech sector in Scotland with:

-Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland

-Kent MacKenzie, Partner and Global Head of Fintech & Regtech, Advisory Services at Deloitte

-Alberto Macciani, CMO at fintech Paysend

Together our guests covered what makes Scotland a great place for innovation generally and for fintech more specifically. The recent UK Fintech Sector Review commissioned by the UK Treasure highlights Scotland as the second UK fintech hub in number of firms. We explore the strength of a nation whilst discussing areas of improvement and what’s in train for FinTech Scotland in the coming years.

Global partnership for fintech Paysend and Mastercard

Scottish fintech Paysend just announced a strategic partnership with Mastercard.

The partnership will increase Paysend’s global reach and bring better outcomes for both businesses’ customers.

2021 is shaping to be a very successful year for Paysend after announcing they had reached 3 million customers in January  as well as having experienced hypergrowth from the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, since their technology enable customers to manage their money in a safe, secure, fast and low-cost way.

Thanks to this partnership will boost the new Paysend Global Account, combining its Global Transfer together with account/product services. It will also offer a platform for strategic expansion in order to  increase the capacity for inter-regional transactions.

Ronald Millar, Co-Founder & CEO of Paysend said

“Our partnership with Mastercard will bring even more freedom to Paysend customers who want to hold, spend and send their money on a global scale. We will be working with Mastercard on collaborations programmes to bring the benefits of our multi-currency service to more people around the world, so they can spend freely and flexibly on their travels”.

Jason Lane, Executive Vice President Market Development Europe at Mastercard added:

“We are thrilled to be able to partner with Paysend. This partnership is an important milestone in delivering choice of payments, in particular in a cross-border environment, and allowing people to pay how they want, anywhere, anytime.”