FinTech Scotland and TSB Launch latest Innovation Labs programme to Combat Fraud and Enhance Trust in Digital Banking
FinTech Scotland unveiled today the latest innovation programme in collaboration with TSB Labs at Money20/20, Europe’s largest fintech conference.
TSB Labs, the award-winning fintech accelerator, is once again partnering with FinTech Scotland to identify, support and scale innovative solutions tackling some of the most urgent challenges in banking. This year, the focus is on preventing one of the nation’s most prevalent crimes – fraud, while delivering a seamless customer journey.
The programme builds on the success of previous cohorts, which resulted in several pilot projects as well as being recognised at the Scottish Financial Technology Awards for Best Financial Services Innovation..
The 2025 innovation programme is now open to fintechs from across the globe who are ready to deploy real-world solutions in a live retail banking environment. Interested parties can apply here.
Nicola Anderson, Chief Executive of FinTech Scotland, commented:
“We are delighted to be partnering once more with TSB and announce this innovation programme at Money20/20. TSB Labs is a powerful example of how established financial institutions can partner with fintechs to deliver real impact for customers. Thanks to our work on the topic of fraud as part of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, we’ll be bringing a significant amount of knowledge, expertise and connections to this programme from across the Scottish Fintech Cluster.”
The Lab’s three challenge statements invite creative, practical solutions in:
- Smart Messaging and Education: improving fraud detection through timely, trusted, and effective customer communication.
- Empowered Customer Controls: making faster decisions about authorised payments by giving customers more control and clarity.
- Seamless Resolution: transforming fraud reporting and resolution into a streamlined, customer-centric journey.
Richard Daniels, Fraud and Financial Crime Operations Director at TSB, said:
“Fraud is constantly evolving, and so must we. The TSB Labs programme is a brilliant opportunity for us to work shoulder-to-shoulder with innovative fintechs to find smarter, faster and more effective ways to continue protecting our customers.”
The programme offers two phases of structured engagement, culminating in a final pitch to TSB decision-makers and the opportunity to progress to pilot deployment.
Full details and the short application form can be found on FinTech Scotland’s website . Applications close on 25 June 2025.
Applications Open for the JPMorganChase Fintech Forward Programme
Applications are now open for the JPMorganChase Fintech Forward Programme, a new 12 week in-person and virtual accelerator designed to help fintech leaders realise their business vision.
Backed by JPMorganChase’s extensive network, the programme offers tailored support to help scale high-potential fintech companies across the UK.
Selected fintech leaders will gain access to a suite of resources designed to drive sustainable business growth. These include:
- Executive sponsorship for a senior JPMorganChase leader
- Mentorship from an experienced advisory team
- A customised programme focused on strengthening a founder’s network and impact
- Opportunities to present to JPMorganChase stakeholders, external investors and partners
- A sponsored trip to Slush, one of Europe’s leading startup events, held in Helsinki
To reduce barriers to participation, travel, accommodation and other reasonable costs for in-person events will be covered by JPMorganChase if required.
The programme begins with two days at JPMorganChase’s Glasgow Technology Centre on 10th and 11th September 2025 with full-day in-person sessions in London every two weeks. Virtual sessions every other week for between 3-4 hours per week. The trip to Slush 2025 takes place between 18th November and 21st November 2025.
Who should apply?
We are seeking applications from businesses that:
- Apply technology to create scalable solutions within financial services.
- Have a live product demonstrating market traction, with annual revenues not exceeding £1 million.
- Show a commitment to making a positive impact on individuals and/or businesses in the UK.
- Are dedicated to active participation in the programme.
We are actively encouraging applications from founders or business leaders who have encountered obstacles to growing their business, including a lack of proximity to funding and networks, and/or those addressing the needs of underserved consumers, businesses or communities.
Applications are assessed on a rolling basis, and early submission is encouraged. The deadline for applications is 27 June 2025.
Forging the Future of Financial Services: TSB Spotlight Innovation in Open Banking
Three fintech innovators, Sikoia, Credit Canary and Aperidata, have been named winners of the 2024 TSB Innovation Labs programme, a partnership between TSB and FinTech Scotland. This is a collaborative effort to shape the future of financial services through responsible use of data and technology.
Now in its fourth year, the Innovation Labs programme offers early-stage fintech firms a platform to explore real-world applications of their technology. With access to expert mentorship at TSB’s Technology Hub in Edinburgh, the cohort has worked over the last year to develop propositions that aim to improve customer experiences across banking.
The focus of this year’s winners is very much Open Banking technology to simplifies and accelerates customer support.
Sikoia is working to streamline finance applications, potentially reducing barriers for new customers. Meanwhile, Credit Canary and Aperidata are exploring solutions to improve credit scoring and accelerate lending decisions. All three firms will now develop proof of concepts in partnership with TSB, testing how their solutions might translate into practical improvements for customers.
The TSB Labs programme has previously seen success with fintechs such as Lightning Reach, which helps users access benefits and financial support through a single portal. Since its implementation, TSB customers have accessed over £160,000 (£500 per customer) in grants. Another alumnus, ApTap, has supported customers in saving more than £65,000 (£150 per customer) on broadband bills by helping them switch to better deals.
Speaking on the latest announcement, Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland, said:
“We are delighted to witness the success of Sikoia, Credit Canary and Aperidata through the TSB Labs programme. These innovative fintech companies show how data and AI can be harnessed to deliver real impact for people and communities. At FinTech Scotland, we believe meaningful collaborations are the key to unlocking innovation and this partnership with TSB demonstrates the powerful outcomes that can be achieved when new innovative firms and progressive established companies work together to shape the future of financial services.”
Adam Betteridge, FinTech & Open Banking Lead at TSB said:
“We are incredibly proud of the progress made by these three innovative fintechs during the TSB Labs programme. Over the last 12 months, Sikoia, Credit Canary and Aperidata have demonstrated exceptional potential to help TSB customers get support more quickly. Their innovative solutions use data and technology in new creative ways to help provide an even better experience for TSB customers. We’re looking forward to what comes next.”
The programme reflects wider themes highlighted in the FinTech Research & Innovation Roadmap 2022–2031, developed by FinTech Scotland. Central to that vision is the role of Open Finance and collaborative innovation in addressing societal, economic and environmental needs. The roadmap points to a future where fintech drives financial inclusion, better consumer outcomes and a more sustainable economy.
Come meet FinTech Scotland at Money20/20 Europe
We recently announced that FinTech Scotland will be attending Money20/20 Europe between the 2nd and 5th of June in Amsterdam alongside Scottish Development International at the Scottish Pavilion – Stand 1F10. This will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase the dynamism of Scotland’s fintech cluster and connect with innovators, investors and partners from across the world.
Here are the events we’re organising or attending:
Monday 2nd June
7.00pm – 9.00pm | Elevator Pitches & Kick-off Night | Money Beach Club, Strandzuid
An informal start to the week with drinks, networking and a chance to hear from innovators. We’re looking forward to meet other exhibitors and sponsors at this exclusive event.
Tuesday 3rd June
3.30pm – 4.00pm | Elevator Pitch Session | Scottish Pavilion
Join us as a 10 brilliant Scottish fintechs share quickfire 3-minute pitches. No slides, just a great opportunity to meet potential partners.
4.00pm – 5.00pm | Drinks Reception | Scottish Pavilion
Meet the Scottish delegation for informal networking over Scottish drinks and conversation.
5.00pm – 6.00pm | Barclays Drink a Money20/20
Thank you to our Strategic Partners Barclays for inviting us to meet their guests at this invite only event. We’re looking forward to meet new fintech enthusiast and learn from the work they do.
6.00pm – 9.00pm | European Fintech Night | TNW City
We’ll be mingling with 200+ fintech leaders from across Europe including entrepreneurs, investors and financial institutions.
Wednesday 4th June
4.00pm – 5.00pm | Whisky & Gin Tasting | Scottish Pavilion
A true taste of Scotland! Sample some of our finest while connecting with fintech peers, investors and buyers.
Let’s Connect
If you’re interested in collaboration opportunities, want to learn more about or are simply curious about Scotland’s thriving fintech cluster, we’d love to meet you. You’ll find us throughout the event at Stand 1F10.
You can also connect with us directly by looking us up in the Money20/20 app or by contacting us at contact@fintechscotland.com to arrange a conversation.
Scotland Showcases Fintech Leadership at Money2020
Scotland’s thriving fintech cluster is set to showcase its growth at Europe’s largest fintech conference. Ten scaling fintech SMEs will showcase their businesses as they look to expand into new markets. With this force of fintech innovation, Scotland is showcasing the country’s thriving fintech cluster on a global stage.
This initiative, led by Scottish Enterprise and FinTech Scotland is a testament of Scotland’s fintech cluster’s exceptional growth which is seeing over 30% of its scaling-up companies exporting or ready to grow internationally.
Such a presence at one of the largest global fintech conference continues to signal Scotland’s growing reputation as a world-class fintech cluster, in line with the Scottish Government’s National Innovation Strategy which highlights fintech as a key sector for the country.
The Scottish pavilion will showcase the following companies:
- Aveni – AI-driven technology transforming financial advice compliance
- BigSpark – Next-generation data analytics and orchestration
- CreditNature – Focused on nature-positive credit risk and biodiversity
- docStribute – Secure digital document distribution
- Recast – universal media wallet to access media on a pay-per-view basis.
- Encompass – Global leader in KYC automation and digital onboarding
- Inicio –AI for ethical and accessible consumer finance journeys
- Korelabs – Product intelligence for financial services
- Transwap – Business accounts for the unbanked. Payment infrastructure for banks and fintechs
- OneBanx – Banking access for underserved communities
Delegates are invited to meet the companies and Scotland’s cluster leadership team at Pavilion 1F10.
Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland, said:
“We’re delighted to showcase the FinTech Scotland Cluster at Money 2020 and looking forward to expanding fintech growth with European partnerships. The strength of fintech innovation and growth in Scotland is demonstrated in the growth of the fintech SMEs and the businesses attending Money 2020. It’s a testament to the strength of Scotland’s cluster and the continued collaborative environment that drives innovation and commercial outcomes.”
Lorraine Anderson, who leads Scottish Enterprise’s Global Trade team for Fintech, said,
“Scotland’s fintech sector continues to go from strength to strength, with Money 20/20 providing an ideal platform for ambitious Scottish businesses to showcase their offerings.
“Fintech is a key area of focus at Scottish Enterprise and plays a vital role in transforming our economy through companies scaling-up, creating high value jobs and competing internationally.”
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.
