Lloyds Banking Group’s 2025 Launch Innovation Programme
Lloyds Banking Group is bringing back its Launch Innovation programme for 2025. Applications are now open for this initiative which offers a great opportunity for tech innovators from any industry to collaborate with one of the UK’s largest financial institutions.
The 12-week programme will provide expert mentorship from Lloyds’ senior management and industry specialists and enable selected participants to run a commercial proof of concept with the financial group. This initiative is designed to support ambitious entrepreneurs and innovative businesses looking to make an impact in sectors ranging from finance and technology to health, travel, and beyond.
Why start-ups should apply
The Launch Innovation programme presents a real opportunity for start-ups to gain exposure and validation in a real-world banking environment. Past success stories like Caura, Doshi, and MyPocketSkill demonstrate the transformative potential of this initiative.
Caura, a smart motoring app, secured a £4m investment from Lloyds’ fintech investment team, demonstrating the programme’s ability to take start-ups to the next level. Similarly, Doshi’s collaboration with Lloyds has helped gamify financial education, and MyPocketSkill is leveraging behavioural science to empower young people financially.
This programme is perfect for start-ups looking to refine their business models, access mentorship, and explore potential funding opportunities.
A Unique Opportunity for Start-ups Across All Sectors
Lloyds Banking Group’s commitment to innovation goes beyond financial services. The programme is open to start-ups across a diverse range of industries, including technology, health, sustainability, and consumer services. Lloyds Banking Group aims to provide customers with the best-in-class services and enhanced user experiences.
Participants will benefit from:
- Hands-on mentorship from senior industry experts
- Opportunities to develop and test innovative solutions
- Insights into scaling and commercialising their products
- Potential partnerships and investment opportunities with Lloyds Banking Group
For more informations and to apply click here
Equifax UK and CienDos Partner to Revolutionise Financed Emissions Reporting
FinTech Scotland’s strategic partner Equifax UK has partnered with Scottish fintech CienDos to launch the Financed Emissions Calculator™, a game-changing solution designed to streamline sustainability reporting and help financial institutions track their carbon footprint with greater precision.
Transforming financed emissions calculations
The Financed Emissions Calculator™ is the first-to-market solution that automates the traditionally manual and error-prone processes of measuring financed emissions. Built on Equifax’s fully cloud-native infrastructure, this innovative tool combines Equifax’s commercial credit insights with CienDos’ advanced emissions data methodologies. The result? A powerful platform that provides lenders with robust, auditable, and transparent carbon values based on sector-specific emission factors.
Financial institutions can now:
- Enhance accuracy in emissions reporting
- Improve traceability of carbon data across portfolios
- Align with regulatory compliance under frameworks like IFRS S2
- Make informed lending and investment decisions to support net-zero targets
Why financed emissions matter
Financed emissions are the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions indirectly attributed to financial institutions through their lending and investment activities. Unlike direct emissions, which stem from an organisation’s own operations, financed emissions come from the projects and businesses that banks, insurers, and asset managers fund. In many cases, financed emissions make up up to 95% of a financial institution’s total carbon footprint, forming a crucial part of Scope 3.15 reporting requirements.
Until now, many institutions have relied on high-level estimations and manual spreadsheets, making it difficult to track real-time emissions or project future climate impact scenarios. The Financed Emissions Calculator™ changes this landscape by offering an automated, data-driven solution that enhances transparency and enables more effective decision-making.
Equifax UK’s ESG Product Manager, Brad Davies, emphasised the critical role of financial institutions in tackling climate change:
“The role of financial institutions in helping to combat climate change is gaining significant attention, but indirect financed emissions associated with loans and other credit lines are among the most complex to track. By integrating environmental data with leading financial risk assessments, the Financed Emissions Calculator™ empowers UK lenders to measure and mitigate their climate impact. We’re excited to partner with CienDos to fill the knowledge gaps for clients with this first-to-market solution.”
CienDos Chief Executive Julia Salmond highlighted the collaboration’s impact on simplifying sustainability reporting:
“Equifax and CienDos have a shared vision to simplify the complex reporting requirements around financial firms’ carbon footprints. As a critical player at the heart of the UK financial ecosystem, Equifax’s extensive commercial credit data successfully combines with our own market-leading emissions data technology to help transform the management of portfolio emissions for firms, delivering greater accuracy and precision for their financed emissions reporting needs.”
FinTech companies awarded £250,000 to accelerate new developments that drive good consumer outcomes
Five fintech firms have each been awarded £50,000 to propel developments that support financial inclusion, accelerate financial resilience and deepen consumer engagement in financial services.
FinTech Scotland, in partnership with the University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow, announced the outcome of the latest Consumer Duty Innovation Call from its Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), an Innovation Accelerator project funded by Innovate UK.
Backed by 14 leading financial institutions, the initiative connected 20 global fintech businesses with industry leaders to develop data-driven solutions that enhance consumer outcomes in financial services. Participating fintechs worked closely with senior representatives from PwC, NatWest, Lloyds Banking Group, Equifax, Barclays, Tesco Bank, TSB, Advance Credit Union, Secure Trust Bank, and Dudley Building Society.
The fintech entrepreneurs showcased their solutions in a pitching event at PwC’s Glasgow offices in January. The results saw five fintech firms awarded £50,000 each to develop solutions further and drive real-world impact:
Docstribute – Deepening consumer engagement and improving customer understanding of complex documents.
Ask Silver – Building consumer confidence through an easy to access tool that identifies and reports scams for vulnerable consumers.
NestEgg AI – Driving financial inclusion by enabling easier access to affordable credit and responsible lenders.
MyArk – Deepening financial resilience through enhanced data insights to identify indicators of future financial distress, enabling quicker appropriate interventions.
Profylr – AI-driven risk and compliance insights for financial institutions enabling improved decision making and outcome tracking.
These fintech businesses will continue the collaboration with the industry leaders in the FRIL programme, refining the solutions to ensure real consumer impact while driving the evolution of financial services.
This Innovation Call expanded its reach through a collaboration with SuperTech West Midlands, which enabled credit unions, building societies and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) like Moneyline to engage in the programme.
Each of the FinTechs participating in the process offers a solution which enables financial services to be more inclusive, accessible and consumer focused. Utilising emerging technologies and advanced data insights continues to drive meaningful impact, shaping a fairer and more transparent financial future.
Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland, commented:
“This latest Customer focused Innovation Call highlights the power of collaboration in driving better outcomes for individuals. By bringing together ambitious fintech firms and leading financial institutions, not only enhances good consumer outcomes—it accelerates development of inclusive digital financial services and supports the evolution of the future digital economy.”
Hillary Allen Smyth, Exec Director Supertech, said:
“We’re so proud to have been the first region to collaborate with the FRIL programme and the team at FinTech Scotland. All of our West Midlands partners have gained enormously throughout the innovation call and these grant awards will undoubtedly help to better serve consumers. But they are only a small part of the wider programme impact and through this collaboration, it’s an impact that will be felt far beyond Glasgow’s borders.”
Fraser Wilson, Financial Services Regional Leader, PwC, said:
“Each of these companies are tackling real challenges with fresh thinking and practical solutions and it’s clear that their work has the potential to improve how the financial services sector delivers for consumers. As a business that puts technology at heart of our strategy, hosting the event at our Glasgow offices and seeing these ideas, and the passion from these innovators, was fantastic. It’s this kind of collaboration that pushes forward real progress for the industry and consumers alike.”
Robert McKechnie, Director, Consumer and ID Fraud Products said:
“Equifax is proud to support the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab and its grant award winners of its most recent Consumer Duty Innovation Call in which we sponsored a Use Case. Innovation in financial regulation is key to a more secure and inclusive ecosystem, and we look forward to seeing the potential impact these innovators solutions may have on the industry.”
New Centre of Excellence for digital trust launched by Scottish industry leaders and academic experts
Leading experts in technology and finance have joined together to launch a new Scottish Centre of Excellence for digital trust – which will aim to make the digital world safer and more resilient.
Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) will host the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Digital Trust and Distributed Ledger Technology, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow and Fintech Scotland, and thanks to initial funding from Scottish Enterprise.
The Centre is part of a wider aim to position Scotland as a global leader in digital trust innovation, supporting a range of industries from financial services to healthcare and beyond.
As more infrastructure, data and transactions move online, digital trust technology has an increasingly important role to play in in building resilience and security, while guarding against threats like cybercrime.
By being industry-led, the Centre will look to solve real-world challenges in digital trust and distributed ledger technologies, delivering immediate benefits to the financial services sector and beyond. The team behind the project hope it will go on to support new start-up and spin-out companies, while working alongside established firms.
Based at ENU, the Centre will bring together two other leading digital trust technologies research labs at the Universities of Glasow and Edinburgh.
Developed alongside FinTech Scotland, the Centre’s plan has an initial two-year focus on delivering, innovation, actionable research and skills training to support industry led research calls around areas such as digital payments, digital assets and digital identity.
Professor Bill Buchanan from ENU’s School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment, and Director of the Centre, said:
“Scotland has the opportunity to lead the way when it comes to digital trust technology.
“We have digitised a great deal of our work, but many aspects of privacy, security and resilience still need to be fully understood.
“Advances in computing technology will see many of our existing methods of establishing digital trust facing a range of risks, making the work of this Centre all the more significant.”
Nanik Ramchandani, CEO of the Centre, said:
“This is a significant step forward in Scotland, and will help build a solid foundation towards enhancing digital trust.
“In a world where the dark side of AI is making it impossible to distinguish between the real and not, continued innovation to strengthen trust using privacy preserving technologies is essential”.
Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland, said:
“The new Centre for Excellence in Digital Trust is another important tool that helps us showcase Scotland’s leadership in fintech and digital innovation.
“This initiative complements the FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap, developing new technologies that will shape the future of finance and the wider economy.”
Derek Shaw, Director, Scaling Innovation at Scottish Enterprise, said:
“Scotland has global competitive advantages in several industries, including fintech.
“Establishing a Centre of Excellence in Digital Trust Technologies builds on the country’s strength in this area by developing an environment that encourages collaboration between industry and academia with the aim of creating new disruptive technologies and, ultimately, investment opportunities, scalable businesses and jobs.”
Professor Aggelos Kiayias, Chair in Cyber Security and Privacy at the University of Edinburgh, said:
“At the blockchain technology laboratory of the University of Edinburgh, we are excited to contribute to the establishment of the Digital Trust Centre of Excellence.
“It represents an important step in advancing secure and trustworthy technologies in Scotland and addresses pressing societal and industry challenges that are of worldwide relevance and importance.”
Professor Muhammad Imran, Head of School at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering,said: “
This initiative comes at a crucial moment, as digital trust becomes the cornerstone of our digital future. It will support our commitment to ensuring the resilience, security, and widespread adoption of transformative technologies.
“At the University of Glasgow, we will contribute our expertise to this crucial initiative, driving innovation that will shape industries and improve lives globally.”
Initially running for a two-year period, the Centre of Excellence will bring together the expertise of ENU’s Blockpass ID Lab, the Blockchain Technology Lab from the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Glasgow’s Trustworthy Connected Systems Lab.
During that time, it will aim to create a world-leading capability for knowledge exchange, innovation and skills development that translates into increased jobs, talent, company creation and economic development in Scotland.
While the Centre is based at ENU, its scope and ambition extend across the UK and beyond. It is a hub for innovation that will support sectors as diverse as finance, energy, healthcare, and public services.
The Centre’s aims align closely with the 2022 FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap published by FinTech Scotland, which highlighted the importance of advancing technologies in digital payments, digital identity and secure digital assets, as well as the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework.
The Centre also responds to ambitions within the Scottish Blockchain Roadmap, which was published by the Digital Trust Taskforce in 2023 in response to a report highlighting a £4.3bn opportunity for Scotland through the adoption of blockchain technologies. The roadmap is focussed on generating demand-led innovation to drive adoption across Scotland’s future industries, including financial services, energy, manufacturing and health. It will see organisations work with the Centre to unlock innovation from trust technologies across Scotland.
15 firms selected to tackle financial crime
We’re thrilled to announce the 15 innovative firms selected to progress to the next stage of our Innovation Call on Financial Crime. These firms will work hand-in-hand with industry partners and academic experts to tackle challenges of financial crime head-on.
Each firm brings a unique perspective and solution to the table, showcasing the power of diverse collaboration in tackling one of the most significant issues facing the financial sector today.
In this blog, we spotlight each of these firms, showcasing their vision, solutions, and the impact they’re set to make as they join us in shaping a safer financial future.
Amiqus – amiqus.co
Amiqus is the UK’s most trusted compliance and onboarding platform supporting more than 500 organisations of all size and sectors; including the UK Government, The NHS and FNZ. Over 2.5 million people have been through Amiqus checks to date, and currently in the region of 74,000 checks are run monthly by our clients. We do this through offering a singular platform that can perform the whole ID Verification and onboarding process, end to end.
Amiqus was announced in Deloitte’s annual Fast 50 awards as the fastest-growing technology company in Scotland, the 20th fastest-growing in the UK and the 5th fastest-growing fintech in the UK. This growth has meant that we have the ability to continuously reinvest back into the product and innovate the ID Verification process. We are dedicated to continuous improvement and innovation in this area and would relish the opportunity to do this in conjunction with FRIL and the challenge sponsors.
Argus Pro – https://arguspro.co.uk/
Argus Pro offers the comprehensive FinCrime HealthCheck™, which evaluates the effectiveness of all aspects of anti-financia
l crime (AFC) policies, procedures, processes, controls, and compliance culture, going far beyond traditional assessments. The FinCrime HealthCheck™ identifies gaps across teams, functions, geographies and leadership, aligns with leading regulatory frameworks and best practices outlined in the FCA’s Handbook and Financial Crime Guide, JMLSG, and the Wolfsberg Group’s Principles for Auditing for Effectiveness, and provides tailored recommendations to enhance effectiveness.
Our proposed platform, delivered as part of this Innovation Call, will combine this assessment with cutting-edge tools to deliver bespoke interpretations of current LRG updates, detail specific obligations, and anticipate future regulatory requirements, ensuring firms stay ahead of risks.
Barrier – https://www.barriernetworks.com/
At Barrier, our mission is to help our customers build cyber resilience and develop strategies to defend against cyber-attacks. We are a cyber security service provider and are proud to be associated with 2 global leading identity solution vendors in responding to this innovation challenge:
-V-Key, an end-to-end innovative proposition designed to revolutionize identity authentication and authorisation processes, enhancing both security, efficiency & privacy
-Sumsub, a global identity verification provider, leverages cutting-edge technologies to provide a seamless end-to-end secure identity verification experience.
In participating in FRIL, we will seek to validate our collaborative proposition and its potential to transform the identity verification and authentication landscape with partners engaged in the programme.
Datavillage – https://www.datavillage.ai/
Datavillage empowers organizations to combat financial crime by enabling secure data collaboration and access to fraud cases, flagged companies, suspicious accounts, devices, and more. This approach enhances the detection of fraud patterns, enables the fine-tuning of AI models, and supports advanced analytics for more effective prevention and response.
Through participating in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, we would like to leverage insights and feedback from industry partners to refine and scale solutions for broader commercial deployment.
DX Compliance – http://dxcompliance.com/
Our proposed solution uses Generative AI that offers a unique opportunity to address these challenges by automating the repetitive aspects of alert reviews, enhancing the decision-making process, and providing more nuanced risk assessments. The core proposition involves developing an AI-powered system that leverages large language models (LLMs), deep learning, and natural language processing (NLP) to support and augment human decision-making not only along the KYC processes.
We look forward to working with partners across the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab to deepening our understanding across the challenge statements and broader financial crime domain.
Encompass – https://www.encompasscorporation.com/
Encompass enables fast, accurate identity validation and verification of corporate customers and a gold standard approach to KYC. Our award-winning corporate digital identity (CDI) platform incorporates real time data and documents from authoritative global public data sources and private customer information to create and maintain digital risk profiles.
With encompass the world’s leading banks improve customer experience and increase business opportunities through consistent regulatory compliance and risk mitigation.
Through close collaboration with FRIL partners, we want to explore how our existing corporate identity platform can develop further to benefit organisations and their specific requirements for their Know Your Business onboarding and maintenance processes.
Haelo – https://haelo.io/
HAELO is a RegTech innovator transforming Governance, Risk, and Compliance in
Financial Services. Our Horizon Scanning solution, REGENESIS, delivers instant access
to regulatory updates at a glance providing early detection of changes and empowering management to mitigate risk and avoid costly breaches.
Our IO (Intelligence Overlay) platform is at functional prototype stage and is designed to work in concert with REGENESIS to create a golden thread connecting regulation with obligations, controls and personal accountabilities. Through the FRIL programme, we would like to work with industry partners to develop our approach in the application of this platform and its role in the financial crime domain.
Lasting Asset – https://lastingasset.com/
LastingAsset is a Trust-tech on a mission to stop fraud. Our core solution is a cryptographic device-to-device encryption protocol that tackles the growing menace of impersonation fraud. By combining advanced cryptography with decentralised identity management, it enables individuals and organisations to authenticate counterparties with unparalleled accuracy and privacy.
During the programme we will also pursue our innovation on fraud information sharing via a decentralised fully homomorphic encrypted network.
Pytilia – https://pytilia.io/
Pytilia propose to address the ‘strengthening operational efficiencies in alert dispositioning’ challenge to optimise the manual review of KYC-related alerts, powered by our “always learning” feedback loop engine. We have successfully used a solution blueprint combining rules-based & AI-powered logic to identify anomalies/alerts and present these for inspection & action by human analysts in our:
•winning pitch for FRIL’s inaugural Innovation call on “Simplifying Compliance”;
•PoC solution for the FCA’s recent Market Abuse TechSprint;
•Innovate UK-funded Cyber-AI Hub project (demonstrating its cross-domain applicability)
During the FRIL programme, guided by this previous experience, we propose to focus on the feedback loop aspect of such hybrid systems. We look forward to working with partners to demonstrate KYC alert filtering, prioritisation and reinforcement learning using scenarios/data relating to the alert review process.
SenGuard – https://senguard.co.uk/
SENGUARD protects older adults from financial fraud by using real-time data analysis to detect and prevent scams before they happen.
SENGUARD’s innovative approach to financial crime prevention combines cutting-edge technology with a deep understanding of vulnerable users’ needs. Our solution not only addresses current financial crime patterns but is designed to evolve and adapt as new threats emerge.
With support from partners in the FRIL programme, we can enhance our capabilities and scale our impact in protecting vulnerable users from financial crime.
Serene – https://www.myserene.io/
Serene leverages AI-driven insights to identify vulnerable consumers at heightened risk of scams, helping financial institutions prevent financial crime proactively. By using real-time detection, tailored interventions, and scalable integrations, we align with regulatory frameworks like FCA Consumer Duty and PSR reimbursement requirements, ensuring compliance while enhancing customer protection.
Through participating in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, we would like to collaborate with partners and validate Serene’s predictive model for identifying scams through Vulnerable Characteristics.
Sopra Steria – https://www.soprasteria.co.uk/
Our innovative solution called the Optimised Decision Engine (ODE), leverages our unique and patent pending AI engine to generate and optimise human-interpretable rulesets for business decisioning, particularly in detecting fraud, scams, and money laundering. Unlike traditional black-box AI solutions that often lack explainability, ODE prioritises transparency, trustworthiness, and auditability, ensuring that its outputs are clear and comprehensible.
Through participating in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, we look forward to working with partners to exploring the calibration of the tool with a wide range of data volumes and types, understanding the optimal configuration for each dataset.
Swordbreaker – https://www.swordbreaker.co.uk/
Ingenious protection against ransomware with minimal access to the systems and no access to the data it protects. The product we are building doesn’t just raise the alarm; it actively disrupts cyber criminals as they try to steal your data and sabotage your systems.
Swordbreaker’s solution can protect any operating system, including legacy and Operational Technology (OT) from bulk data theft and file encryption. It works on its own or alongside existing security tools to reduce your risk from ransomware.
We would like to work with FRIL partners to deepen our understanding of their risks in financial crime and their regulatory requirements to help us shape our first solution and design Swordbreaker’s product suite for the future.
Threat Fabric – https://www.threatfabric.com/
ThreatFabric enables safe & frictionless online customer journeys by integrating industry-leading threat intel, behavioural analytics, advanced device intelligence and over 10.000 adaptive fraud indicators. We will be seeking to progress two propositions centred around 1) Data-driven, Digital Fraud and Scam Detection and 2) Proactive Mobile Threat Intelligence (MTI).
As part of the FRIL programme, we would like to explore whether new data sources can be used to provide further coverage for the hardest-to-detect fraud and work with partners across data such as telecommunications, smshing and location data.
VeriFoxx – https://verifoxx.com/
Verifoxx enables financial institutions to share verified intelligence, to tackle financial crime and fraud, but without any data ever leaving its owner, reducing privacy and commercial risks. Leveraging Privacy Enhancing Technologies such as Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), Multi-Party Computation (MPC) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), Verifoxx addresses the critical challenge of how different companies can collaborate and connect data points, but without ever exposing their data.
Through the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, we would like to explore with partners how the financial services and telco sectors could exchange intelligence to investigate or even stop a scam from happening.
Funding Boost for Smart Data Foundry
Edinburgh-based Smart Data Foundry (SDF) secures £3 million in funding to launch a new Financial Data Service. This initiative, funded by Smart Data Research UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will provide researchers with unparalleled access to secure, de-identified financial data, helping to paint a clearer picture of the UK’s economic resilience and household financial health.
This new service will form part of a national network of six data services aimed at positioning the UK at the forefront of smart data research. By enabling access to financial behaviour data from households and businesses, SDF will empower researchers to tackle pressing societal challenges, such as the cost-of-living crisis, financial inclusion, and regional productivity disparities.
Transforming Research with Secure Financial Data
Dougie Robb, Interim CEO of SDF said:
“This initiative fosters data-sharing partnerships that unite academia, public institutions, and private enterprises to deliver outcomes that improve lives across the UK.”
SDF has already gained national recognition for its innovative use of anonymised financial data for public good, including partnerships with NatWest Group to analyse financial behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic and collaborations with Sage and CEBR on SME economic tracking.
A Network Driving National Innovation
The Financial Data Service is one of two newly funded services, alongside the Smart Energy Data Service, joining four existing services dedicated to imagery, geographic data, sustainable places, and data donations. Together, this network will accelerate the UK’s position as a leader in data-driven solutions, guided by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Stian Westlake, Executive Chair of the ESRC, emphasises the importance of this investment:
“Data infrastructure is as critical to our shared prosperity as transport or power networks. With this investment, we are paving the way for economic growth, improved public services, and a sustainable future.”
From Insights to Actionable Impact
The Financial Data Service will bridge the gap between financial institutions, researchers, and policymakers to tackle real-world challenges. Its findings will inform targeted policy responses to economic shocks, support innovation in financial inclusion, and enhance understanding of how communities experience financial change.
Magdalena Getler, Head of Academic Engagement at SDF, remarks,
“With the anticipated Data (Use and Access) Bill, we are entering a new age of empowered, secure data use. This legislation will enable transformative research that tackles societal challenges, from poverty to economic inactivity.”
Fintech Innovation in Scotland delivers growth with 8% Increase in employment
The FinTech Scotland Cluster recorded an 8% year-on-year employment growth in 2024 bringing the total number of people working in fintech to over 11,300.
The continued economic contribution by the cluster comes as Fintech Scotland reaches its seventh anniversary since formation.
This growth underlines the significant contribution fintech will make in delivering the UK Government Modern Industrial Strategy and the importance of clusters to “unleash the full potential of our cities and regions”.
The fintech cluster growth has been underpinned by increasing technology adoption and fintech partnerships with established financial firms, highlighted by the tenfold increase in the number of fintech SMEs since 2018 in Scotland.
A significant cluster development in 2024 has been Fintech Scotland’s successful implementation of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) which has delivered new jobs and investment to the local economy, achieving £18m investment for the region in its first year.
This has been achieved by bringing together twenty-five financial and technology institutions from across the UK to address over twenty industry challenges, attracting local and global fintech SMEs to create new products.
Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said:
“Our cluster initiatives are delivering a positive economic outcome through more jobs, investment and innovative SME businesses. The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab highlights our leadership in using collaboration and technology adoption to deliver this growth and shape the future of financial services.”
Catherine Martin, Vice-Principal Corporate Services at the University of Edinburgh:
“As a founding partner of Fintech Scotland, we are proud to be an active participant in the cluster and to support its impact by leveraging our world-renowned expertise in data-driven innovation, and interdisciplinary research to address real-world challenges in finance.”
Jane Martin, Managing Director, Scottish Enterprise:
“The remarkable growth of Scotland’s fintech sector reflects the strategic efforts by the whole cluster to develop a thriving innovative environment. Scottish Enterprise has been supporting this journey by providing early-stage investment and facilitating international market access”.
Jackie Leiper, Chief Customer Officer, Lloyds Banking Group:
“There’s a real buzz around the fintech sector in Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group is thrilled to be a part of that. We’re working hard to drive more digital investment here which will help us to build new skills and capabilities and make the country a global destination for financial services tech talent.”
Fintech Innovation in Scotland delivers growth with 8% Increase in employment
The FinTech Scotland Cluster recorded an 8% year-on-year employment growth in 2024 bringing the total number of people working in fintech to over 11,300.
The continued economic contribution by the cluster comes as Fintech Scotland reaches its seventh anniversary since formation.
This growth underlines the significant contribution fintech will make in delivering the UK Government Modern Industrial Strategy and the importance of clusters to “unleash the full potential of our cities and regions”.
The fintech cluster growth has been underpinned by increasing technology adoption and fintech partnerships with established financial firms, highlighted by the tenfold increase in the number of fintech SMEs since 2018 in Scotland.
A significant cluster development in 2024 has been Fintech Scotland’s successful implementation of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) which has delivered new jobs and investment to the local economy, achieving £18m investment for the region in its first year.
This has been achieved by bringing together twenty-five financial and technology institutions from across the UK to address over twenty industry challenges, attracting local and global fintech SMEs to create new products.
Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said:
“Our cluster initiatives are delivering a positive economic outcome through more jobs, investment and innovative SME businesses. The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab highlights our leadership in using collaboration and technology adoption to deliver this growth and shape the future of financial services.”
Catherine Martin, Vice-Principal Corporate Services at the University of Edinburgh:
“As a founding partner of Fintech Scotland, we are proud to be an active participant in the cluster and to support its impact by leveraging our world-renowned expertise in data-driven innovation, and interdisciplinary research to address real-world challenges in finance.”
Jane Martin, Managing Director, Scottish Enterprise:
“The remarkable growth of Scotland’s fintech sector reflects the strategic efforts by the whole cluster to develop a thriving innovative environment. Scottish Enterprise has been supporting this journey by providing early-stage investment and facilitating international market access”.
Jackie Leiper, Chief Customer Officer, Lloyds Banking Group:
“There’s a real buzz around the fintech sector in Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group is thrilled to be a part of that. We’re working hard to drive more digital investment here which will help us to build new skills and capabilities and make the country a global destination for financial services tech talent.”
KPMG UK joins FinTech Scotland further boosting fintech innovation in Scotland
KPMG UK has joined FinTech Scotland, the cluster management organisation for fintech in Scotland. The two organisations will work closely together to help foster innovation, accelerate growth and drive technology adoption within the Scottish financial technology sector.
KPMG UK’s commitment adds additional expertise to Fintech Scotland’s cluster continuing to develop Scotland’s leadership as a fintech cluster as well as supporting the firm’s plans for further growth in Scotland.
As a global professional services network, KPMG UK will bring some of the latest thinking in financial services innovation to a sector that is being disrupted like never before by new technologies such as AI, Distributed Ledger Technologies or Open Finance to name a few.
KPMG UK’s leadership will also play a crucial role in ensuring that Scotland’s fintech cluster continues to lead by example through purposeful innovation driven by collaboration to foster financial inclusion.
Fintech Scotland’s cluster includes over 250 fintech SMEs, 35 established financial and professional services institutions, global technology enterprises, world-class universities, regulators and a supportive public sector.
Ann Devine, Partner at KPMG UK, said:
“We’re excited to be working with Fintech Scotland and deepen our relationships with firms in this growing sector. Scotland is one of the key clusters for UK fintech activity and this collaboration demonstrates our ongoing commitment to local fintech businesses in the region.”
Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland, said:
“This partnership with KPMG UK strengthens our shared commitment to fostering innovation, collaboration, and growth in Scotland’s fintech cluster. Thanks to KPMG’s global expertise and the thriving Scottish fintech community, I’m confident we can accelerate innovation and support the scaling of innovative businesses that contribute to Scotland’s economic and societal progress.”
Financial firms, Telcos and Technology leaders launch a collaborative programme in International Fraud Awareness Week to tackle financial crime across the UK
As part of International Fraud Awareness week, 11 industry partners including BT, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Abrdn, TSB, Virgin Money, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Fujitsu, Equifax and Dudley Building Society are collaborating to launch an innovation programme focused on addressing financial crime.
FinTech Scotland, SuperTech West Midlands, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, brought together through the Innovate UK Innovation Accelerators programme, will lead the UK wide innovation call aiming from within the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab to tackle financial crime challenges.
Innovators worldwide are invited to apply to join the programme by 13 January 2025. Successful applicants will benefit from direct support from industry leaders, an unparalleled opportunity to refine and test their propositions within a robust framework. Participants will also gain insights through exclusive roundtables, masterclasses, and workshops led by leading academics from the University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, Aston University, and Birmingham City University.
This initiative builds on the momentum of three previous innovation calls launched this year by FinTech Scotland through its Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL). By publishing industry-led challenge statements, FRIL invites innovators to develop new solutions to address real world challenges. By focussing on non-competitive challenges, FRIL encourages collaboration across established institutions, delivering meaningful change in financial services and other sectors.
In addition, this fourth call further expands the geographical reach of FRIL. Having expanded recently on the call relating to Consumer Duty, launched in September, with the partnership with SuperTech West Midlands, the financial crime programme welcomes the addition of Greater Manchester Combined Authority to cement the development of FRIL as an asset for the whole of the UK. As the three geographies with Innovation Accelerator pilots, part of the government’s commitment to place-based innovation investment through Innovate UK, part of UKRI, the partnership is working to demonstrate the power of this approach and that of cluster-led innovation activity relevant to advancing the UK’s position in a priority sector
This collaboration will deepen FRIL’s impact in tackling financial crime, with a specific focus on five use cases provided by industry.
The call will conclude on 20 March 2025 with a showcase event, offering innovators the chance to present their solutions to a broad range of senior stakeholders.
Applications close on 13 January 2025. For more information and to view the programme’s use cases, please visit https://www.fintechscotland.com/what-we-do/financial-regulation-innovation-lab/financial-crime/
Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said:
“FRIL is all about the power of collaboration, bringing together diverse expertise to deliver better outcomes for all. By partnering with other UK regions, we are strengthening the UK’s position as a leader in financial innovation, connecting the best minds and resources to address some of the industry’s toughest challenges.”
Hilary Smyth-Allen, Executive Director SuperTech:
“Joining this latest thematic call with FRIL, we are building on the strong base of cross-regional collaboration of innovation endeavour. As the partnership expands, the undoubted winner is the UK; this time in tackling some of the biggest challenges facing industry and citizens as result of financial crime”
Paul Taylor, Managing Director, BT Business:
“By taking part in FRIL, BT will continue to co-innovate with industry partners on key challenges and priorities in tackling Financial Crime. It will allow us to explore FinTech solutions and harness innovation to ensure our customers and businesses are protected today and prepared for tomorrow.”
Paddy O’Keefe, Public Private Partnerships Virgin Money:
“Virgin Money is committed to tackling financial crime, and technology has a key role to play in effectively achieving that. Following the success of FRIL’s ‘simplifying compliance with AI’ programme, we’re excited to support the new ‘innovation to address financial crime’ programme and look forward to engaging with partners to help combat this important issue.”
Ali Fellows, Head of Compliance & Financial Crime, Dudley Building Society:
“Financial Crime prevention is something I am extremely passionate about, having worked in the financial services industry in this area for over 20 years. We have a huge part to play in this, and collaborative working is fundamental in helping drive the fight and shape the future. I am really looking forward to working with SuperTech WM and Fintech Scotland to see how innovation can help develop solutions to help make it harder for criminals to abuse our society and tackle the harm that financial crime causes.”
Robert McKechnie, Director, Credit Products and Strategic Alliances at Equifax UK, said
“This call aligns seamlessly to Equifax’s commitment to strengthen the financial services’ sector in their responding to criminal activities i.e. Identity and Fraud thus meeting their regulatory requirements. The ability to leverage innovative and emerging applications of technology plays a crucial role in the identification and disruption of financial crime and we are excited to be engaging across the FRIL programme to support the development of these solutions.”
Kwaku Osafo, Head of Economic Crime Prevention & MLRO, Insurance, Pensions & Investments Risk, Lloyds Banking Group said:
“Lloyds Banking Group are delighted to be participating in this unique collaborative programme focused on strengthening cross sector efforts to tackle financial crime and fraud. We are looking forward to engaging with industry, academia and regulatory colleagues to explore and harness cutting edge fintech solutions.”
FRIL is a project funded by the 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 to accelerate the growth of three high-potential innovation clusters – Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and West Midlands. This is a new model of R&D decision making that empowers local leaders to harness innovation to drive regional economic growth, help attract private investment and develop future technologies.