7 Key trends in the P2P lending industry to prepare for

Photo by Maciej Pienczewski on Unsplash

Author: Vit Arnautov, Chief Product Officer, TurnKey Lender

According to Statista, by 2025 the P2P lending market is going to be worth 1 trillion dollars while just in 2015 it stood shy at 64 billion. The industry develops astonishingly fast and it’s not just hype (unlike Bitcoin in 2017). I believe the reasons for lenders and borrowers to switch to P2P are logical and pragmatic, which is exactly why the market will keep growing. As a Chief Product Officer at TurnKey Lender, a company that creates intelligent lending automation solutions, I have to stay alert to any new trends and developments and I’ll be happy to share what I foresee for the P2P lending industry in the near future.

1. More small to midsize lenders will enter the game

For many, the rise of the P2P model opened the doors into the world of financial services. Nowadays, it costs less than ever to get into the lending niche. No need for enormous investments and staff. Even the regulations aren’t as complex as the ones conventional banks go through.

This means that the old-school financial institutions now have a swarm of smaller and hungrier online competitors. But despite being small, the new P2P lenders often provide better service due to recent advances in lending technology and fully automated lending processes.

2. Banks don’t intend to give up

Large institutions have a harder time adjusting to the realities of the digital world and it takes them a ton of time to change their gears. But the boards of directors do see market trends and understand the need to go P2P. Slowly but surely banks worldwide start to introduce P2P functionality.

One of the pioneers in this regard was the N26 direct bank which struck a partnership with auxmoney, a German marketplace lender. Another example would be Monzo with their new peer-to-peer functionality. As of now, it’s mostly digital banks who are willing to start offering peer-to-peer lending. But the old-school banks also have to adjust as they go through their own digitalization. And it’s not just a theory. A prime example would be the Royal Bank of Scotland. All the way back in 2015 the company started to formally refer clients to Funding Circle and Assetz Capital for p2p loans. We can also look at two community banks, Titan Bank and Congressional Bank, who are buying loans through the Lending Club platform.

Traditional institutions often choose to develop their own solutions instead of using and customizing the existing and tested products that are already on the market. This route takes more time, the systems often turn out slow, clumsy, and not user-friendly. This means that only the banks with a more agile approach will adapt to the market to compete against the light-on-their-feet competitors.

Keep in mind, that for many people big banks still bring a sense of security and reliability. So in the nearest future small and midsize lenders will need to work a little harder and to market a little more aggressively to prove to the customers that they are every bit as good or even better.  But P2P lenders are already doing really well and the big players in the field show that the success if very real to attain. Here are some growth stats of some of the leaders in the field:

• Lending Club – In Q4 of 2017 the company had issued $33.6bn in loans, while in Q4 of 2018 they were already at $44.5bn.
• RateSetter – The company announced that their 2017 to 2018 revenue growth reached 47%.
• Funding Circle – As of September 2018, Funding Circle has issued £6.3bn in loans. To reflect upon its growth the company has gone through an IPO.

3. Financial inclusion for underbanked areas

Take the two previous points into consideration and you’ll see that the market wins when a ton of smaller lenders compete with big banks. The loan prices go down and the businesses do their best to reach the previously underbanked areas and demographics. Global financial inclusion is the overarching goal of all the responsible members of the lending community and this competition serves this purpose perfectly.

The lending software providers create better solutions to process more of the right loans safer and faster and the lenders try to tap into new markets and demographics. For example, the AI-powered models used by Upstart (a p2p lending startup by ex-Googlers) result in 75% fewer defaults and 175% more approvals than those of traditional banks. The smart approval processes allow serving the people who were previously underserved in addition to providing a more flexible and fast online experience.

4. More markets and jurisdictions

The more governments see that P2P lending works, the more of them make it legal and start to work with it as they work with other financial instruments. Just last April the Central Bank of Brazil authorized P2P lending across the whole country and new governments join in all the time. For example, in Malaysia authorities introduced a P2P scheme for first time home buyers and in the US peer-to-peer lending is recognized and regulated by the SEC just as well as other financial instruments.

Some countries even go the route of Australia where financial startups can work without a license for a year which is called creating a FinTech sandbox.  Jurisdictions that used similar mechanisms to stimulate the growth of the FinTech sector include UK, Switzerland, and Singapore.

5. Regulations

Don’t expect P2P lending to be the new “Wild West” where lenders can do whatever they want without any consequences. Governments have learned the lessons uncontrolled ICOs taught them.

In addition, authorities have seen China’s bitter experience of letting P2P function without sufficient control. There it led both to drastic growth and to dramatic fall of the industry. So in 2019 more governments won’t only allow and encourage P2P lending, but will also come up with specific ways to control the niche.

FinTech is still very young and governments often have troubles figuring out how to work with it and regulate it. But it’s safe to say that in 2019 the authorities will be far more focused on P2P lending. No one is really arguing that P2P lending is a good thing which should be allowed and encouraged. But at the same time, there are many influential voices who call for proper regulation, which is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as the rules are written to realistically reflect the state of the market and technology, any regulation should only do good in protecting both lenders and borrowers. Some examples that already apply come from the UK, with the ongoing updates from the Financial Conduct Authority to regulatory framework related to the P2P lending market.  Also, in Canada, peer-to-peer lending is regulated under the same laws as securities. And in China, the government’s reaction to the meltdown of the industry was to tightly regulate the niche and weed out any wrongdoers before letting it grow any further.

6. The go-to choice for younger audiences

In Europe, over half of the P2P market is comprised of people aged 22-37. That’s no news that young people don’t want to deal with stuffy corporate organizations and choose the more user-friendly and up-to-date options when they can.

In addition to that young people often simply can’t get a loan on decent conditions from conventional lenders. Mostly since they simply don’t have the financial background baby boomers have. So the trend of young borrowers preferring the P2P lenders will continue.  

7. Fiat currencies prevail in 2019

For a while there it looked like every FinTech project needed to hold an ICO. P2P lending was no exception. But the trend is down for the best.

Either the public wasn’t ready for such a drastic shift of the paradigm or the technology and concept weren’t solid enough. Anyhow, it looks like we’re over ICOs for the time being. Even though projects may still effectively use blockchain as data storing and operating technology, there will be fewer crypto coins and more dollars and cents.

Final thoughts

It’s a great time to be in the P2P lending business. Not only are there still 3 billion unbanked people around the globe with no credit bureau score, but the technology we have makes it possible to get in the game without the huge investments. Now more than ever, all it takes is an entrepreneurial spirit and an idea.

Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ Action Packed Fintech Community!

This has certainly been another action packed few weeks with the fintech community as the financial innovation continues at pace across Scotland.

What makes meeting with the amazing fintech community of firms so exciting is the diversity of action orientated entrepreneurs across the country.

This was very much the case on Wednesday evening with our community FinTech Scotland Fusion evening in Edinburgh.

Action Packed Entrepreneurs

Awesome spotlight sessions from fintech entrepreneurs Daniel of Listing Ledger, Tynah from Money Matix, Adam from Sage City, Dave from The ID Co and Bhairav from Avrium to a very engaged audience.

Once again it was a wonderful buzzing atmosphere of fintech talk, all magnificently overseen by our very good friend and seasoned entrepreneur Aleks Tomczyk.

Big thank you to Kirsty Irvine and Ewan Fleming of Johnston Carmichael for their great hosting of the evening and being such fabulous supporters of the fintech community.

It was a more formal format but just as action packed for the two Fintech Practitioners meetings we held in Glasgow and Edinburgh in the last fortnight.

A great range of conversations on key topics from funding to commercialisation to people development with a spectrum firms from across the fintech community.

Some really key actions from these meetings for FinTech Scotland which we will follow through with the FinTech Network Integrator team at Vivolution and Scottish Enterprise.

Thank you to our strategic partners Anneli at Dentsu Aegis and Yvonne at Pinsent Mason for hosting these valuable meetings with the fintech community.

Prior to this, we had the opportunity to share some of the fintech developments with Government Minister Kate Forbes at Scottish Parliament, who takes a keen interest in the fintech innovation.

The meeting gave us the opportunity to mark the fact that the Scottish fintech community is now over one hundred innovative firms in Scotland.

Fantastic to have some of the newer fintech firms Xpand Access, CU Apps, Womens Coin, Money Matix, Zortrex join us for fabulous session at Parliament along with the fast growing team from Amiqus.

Later that week I really enjoyed catching up with James Gumble to hear about the terrific innovation development by the Xpand Access team, playing a huge role in demonstrating the value of innovation and collaboration.

Another wonderful example of this is from the team at Soar who have recently won the Scottish Edge award, big congratulations to entrepreneurial Andrew Duncan and colleagues.

Similarly, with my catch up on Tuesday with the terrific Rab Campbell of Wallet Services as we plotted how to extend the entrepreneurial action across a range of collaboration initiatives. Thanks for the much need almond biscuit Rab!!

Action Packed Collaboration

The action packed collaboration was very much alive with the fintech community and a diverse range of participants at the European Innovation and Technology event at University of Edinburgh this week.

Brilliant action sessions as always from exciting entrepreneurs Loral from Sustainably and Phil Gillespie.

This was alongside hearing from the engaging Kate of Sainsbury Bank, David from Lloyds Bank and Anurag of Baillie Gifford on their approach to fintech collaboration.

Also joined by Damien from University of Edinburgh to share insights on the crucial role of academia as part of team Scotland in developing fintech.

Great to work with our European colleagues Fergie Miller in delivering the event to a full house and super enthusiastic audience.

This European collaboration also came alive when we hosted a fintech day with fifty executives from the large French bank, Banque Populaire a week or so ago expertly organised by Mickael.

Terrific sessions in sharing their innovations from James of The ID Co, Chris from Nexves, Jim of Renovite and Laura from Amiqus.

Many thanks also to Mark Curran of CYBG for joining us as well to share the fast moving open banking developments with our French friends.

Earlier this week, we were delighted to work with Kevin and the SDI team and Erin Ellis and the World Congress Team in hosting a trade mission of seven fintech firms from Toronto.

Wonderful to hear from the exciting Canadian entrepreneurs and their interest in working in Scotland and becoming part of our vibrant community

It was great to bring them together with some of the Scottish community such as entrepreneurs Bryan Eldridge of Qwallets and Nick Jones of Blockstar at an engaging session with Simon and the IBM team.

This was followed by a super reception at Bute House, home of the First Minister, hosted by Minister Jamie Hepburn.

Global collaboration opportunities are stretching far and wide. It was brilliant to meet up with the inspiring Radoslaw Szmit and Kamil Kwecka of CShark Ventures to discuss the mutual opportunities in Scotland building on their great expertise from Europe.

Thank you also to Kent Mackenzie for inviting me to share the fintech collaboration opportunities with the Deloitte Global Digital Council members recently, great to have the engagement and support.

The global interest in Scotland is certainly growing and it was great to meet with Martin Rueda from fast expanding London fintech firm Iwoca recently and share how the Scottish community is developing.

This was also the discussion with Avere Hill of Singapore fintech firm Cynopsis as well as Andrus Alber, the founder of Bankish from Estonia, both of whom we look forward to seeing in Scotland very soon

Similarly, when meeting up with Consul General Andrew Jackson from the UAE Embassy this week to discuss the potential international trade opportunities for Scottish firms building on the success of firms such as Qpal and IceFlo in this region

Thank you to Hamira Khan and Grace Glass for setting up.

The global opportunity was one of the key themes for the event at Scottish Parliament earlier this week on the plans for the exciting new Scottish Stock Exchange

Always inspiring to hear from Tomas Carruthers who is leading the initiative and also meet up with team making Project Heather come alive such as Edwin Hamilton, Michelle Thomson and Martha Walsh.

The event was also valuable in catching up with some key friends from across the broader ecosystem in Scotland including David Clarke of SIFI and Frazer Lang of SABE as well as media guru Terry Murden of Daily Business

Action Packed People Events

Events with action packed people has certainly been a major theme this last fortnight.

For example, thank you to Nicola Anderson who expertly took the platform recently for FinTech Scotland at the recent SFE event on cyber security

Another example was the impressive Digital Scotland conference in Glasgow a few weeks ago and it was a privilege to be invited to participate on the stage with so many brilliant speakers.

I really enjoyed our afternoon session with the awesome Cat Leaver of Brand Scotland and fabulous Melinda Matthews of CodeClan along with the wise heads of Gerry McCusker and Donald McLaughlin.

Thank you to expert leadership chairing by Alisdair Gunn and super engagement by Hamish Miller, Will Peakin and the super Future Scot team

This carried on to the weekend when I was asked to contribute to the Executive Women Leadership Programme at University of Edinburgh with the fabulous Maeve Gillies and Jacqui Gale on Saturday.

Thank you to the wonderful Judy Wagner and Susan Murphy for the opportunity to join many great leaders such as Sam Bedford, Clare Carswell and Ailsa Sutherland amongst many others.

On the subject of people inspiration, it was terrific to meet up with the brilliant Dr Susie Mitchel and Laura Bell who are leading on the CanDo Innovation Summit plans for Glasgow later this year.

We are delighted to be involved with the Future of FinTech session which will showcase a number of people from across Scotland leading on financial innovation.

This is something I shared with the brilliant chair of FinTech Scotland, David Fergusson this week as we talked about the plans for the coming months and longer. I always value the insight feedback from these sessions with David.

Last week I had the pleasure of sharing the progress of the fintech innovation being driven by a diversity of people in Scotland with Executive Chair Ian Campbell and Bob Martin of Innovate UK.

The engagement with senior figures from across financial services is so important to FinTech Scotland taking forward its plans and it was excellent as always to have a catch up with Philip Grant and of Lloyds and Colin Halpin of HSBC this week.

Action Packed Innovation

On Wednesday I very much enjoyed meeting up with the brilliant Kristen Bennie to hear about the action pack innovation with fintech community across RBS.

We are delighted we will be working more closely with Kristen and the team on this in connecting with the innovative activity across Scotland and wider.

Another example of driving this action packed innovation is the plans with Sopra Steria and University of Edinburgh to develop a new fintech accelerator programme.

Very much value the great ongoing strategic support of Craig Wilson and Rob McElry from Sopra Steria on this

This last couple of weeks has seen a number of strategic meetings with organisations looking to support and engage with the breadth of fintech innovation across Scotland.

For example, we very much enjoyed the conversation with Alex Foster, Michael Woodman, Daniel Thomas at BT on the mutual innovation opportunities.

Thank you, Craig Muirhead, for arranging and we are looking forward to progressing your relationship with the fintech community

Similarly, great to catch up this week with Kevin Spence and Gary Fegan to consider potential strategic innovation actions we can work on together with Fujitsu.

Action Packed Running

Action packed running has also been a theme over this last couple of weeks after the Edinburgh marathon.

This has included a challenging trail race in Denny near Falkirk on a Thursday evening as well as a fabulous 10km race at Kirkintilloch on a perfect summer evening this week.

Both of which have helped me up my pace along with my fastest Parkrun race of the year last Saturday!!

All of which I am hoping will produce a faster marathon time in July when this race comes along in a few weeks time.

In the meantime, it is the Glasgow 10km race on Sunday through the glorious city which is always so special and a father’s days treat for me! People certainly do make Glasgow. Until Next time!

Keeping up with digital lending in 2019-2020

Photo by Philip Veater on Unsplash

Blog written by Vit Arnautov  – Chief Product Officer at TurnKey Lender

Customers become more and more demanding. Especially as millennials become a bigger fraction of the financial products’ users, businesses should be prepared to work for their loyalty. The onboarding process for getting a new vendor of anything gets so easy that lenders can’t stay still. There are market trends no one can ignore and here are the ones lenders worldwide should take into account.

AI and machine learning

For lending niche, artificial intelligence and machine learning aren’t just hype words anymore. Neural networks are the real deal and lending businesses globally already use them to make credit decisions faster and more accurately. Adobe has carried out a research in which makes it clear that over 20% of financial services companies are already using artificial intelligence to streamline their business processes with 41% planning to use it in the nearest future.

One might think that both AI and machine learning sound like the most expensive technological solutions you can get for your lending business because of their complexity. But software vendors are often the first to adjust to the trends and there already are ready-made LAAS (lending as a service) platforms that utilize custom-tailored algorithms and AI for decision automation and almost instant credit scoring.

Blockchain

It’s a real pity, that this tech got so deeply connected just with cryptocurrencies in many people’s heads. But FinTech industries never perceived blockchain so one-sidedly. For them, it really does grant a more secure way to store and operate data. So businesses will keep on developing new ways to use this tech. The truth is that the vast majority of digital lending is still reliant on old-school relational databases. Putting that same data on distributed ledgers of blockchain will often mean much stronger security. At the same time, this can increase operational costs for bigger businesses.

There’s no doubt that in 2019 blockchain will be implemented in many more financial services and products. But it doesn’t mean that everyone should use it because this really isn’t always the right choice. So before you choose blockchain for your company, consult with experts on whether it’s the right way for you. Overall, now that the crazy bitcoin hype is gone, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more seasoned and rational use of blockchain. Which will, in turn, bring way better results.

Alternative lending to keep growing

During the rise of the sharing economy, it’s only logical that alternative, or peer-to-peer, lending will be gaining more traction.

Image source: Morgan Stanley

Even though some bigger banks worldwide try to adjust and reach the underserved demographics, alternative lending firms still tend to do it better. Often, because they adjust to the market quicker and many clients don’t have a credit score that would let them get a loan from a big bank. At the same time, we have investors who are actively looking for attractive yield-generating ways to make their money work. So the trend looks up for P2P lending in the years to come. But the Achilles’ heel of the smaller alternative lending companies continues to be regulatory compliance. Which brings me to my next point.

Regulations

The continuous rise of regtech

Just as the digital lending niche grows, the number of regulations does too with new notices from regulating bodies published every day. Regulations are scary even for the big players, even though they often have whole dedicated departments working on compliance. In 2019 the trend will continue with governments taking a closer look at the FinTech in general and lending in particular. The problem is that small and midsize businesses often don’t have the budgets to have a compliance staff. And all of this would be quite depressing for the people eager to enter the lending market if it wasn’t for the developments in the RegTech sphere.

RegTech, as a separate branch of FinTech, will be of special interest to lenders in 2019 since these solutions will be the ones to both save the businesses operational costs and protect them from the enormous fines that may hit at any moment.

New regulatory sandboxes

At the same time, there’s hope for more regulatory sandboxes to arise in 2019. For example, Norway wants to open up to FinTech innovation by means of a sandbox, about which I’m sure local entrepreneurs can’t be happy enough. As more tier-1 legislations test this approach to innovative tech, more join in. So in 2019, we can keep our fingers crossed and wait for a regulatory sandbox snowball effect freeing FinTech entrepreneurs of the need to think about compliance at least for a little while.

PSD2 directive in full effect

Europe is a huge lending market. And in 2019 the long-anticipated PSD2 directive is supposed to take full effect. For those out of context, PSD2 is a directive that works across the EU and it’s aimed at increasing financial competition for conventional banks through lowering entry barriers into the field. At the same time, it will dictate the usage of reliable identification systems and strengthened data protection. The main point though is that now customers will be able to use services of third-party financial services company through their bank, through an obligatory open API.

Focus on millennials

Even though baby boomers still hold the largest capitals, millennials are quickly becoming a bigger demographic in terms of using the financial services. In addition, they are more likely to switch to a new lender or choose a digital P2P lender as their first one for that matter. So companies in 2019 will keep their focus on younger audiences by means of creating better products, interfaces, and offers.

Striving for financial inclusion

The trend of trying to serve the unbanked or underbanked regions and demographics will continue. While that’s an important mission on its own, it’s also dictated by the fact that customer acquisition cost in developed countries is getting higher and the competition stronger. At the same time, there are billions of people without proper access to financial instruments. So in the years to come it’s reasonable to expect businesses actively working to reach new locations and demographics with lending products.

Digital only lending companies

Even with today’s state of technology, it seems very unnecessary to go to a brick-and-mortar branch to get a loan. The future of lending is without a doubt digital and there is plenty of companies proving it on their example. In 2019 the trend will continue with businesses creating personalized flows and experiences for online borrowers.

Final thoughts

In terms of technology, it’s now easier than ever to get into the lending business. Barriers are low, good lending solutions have all the needed functionality out of the box. And this is a big reason why overall, the competition in the lending field will continue to grow. New businesses join the race all the time and win users over by offering better interfaces, faster processing, more personal support and of course better interest rates. As a result, users are getting more demanding. On a high-level everything that’s going on is great everyone involved: for the industry, for the borrower, and for the lenders.

Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ Exhilarating FinTech Energy!

The fintech energy across Scotland is just so exhilarating in so many ways!

It is an energy that is driving the rapid growth of the fintech community and this has been wonderful to experience again at first hand over this last few weeks.

Innovative Energy

For example, innovative energy has been very much in evident at a variety of meetings such as with Stephen Henry of the exciting Asura Financial as well as with Laura Bosworth and Mel Alexander from the awesome Amiqus team.

Then there were the engaging discussions with Chris Herd of Nexves and Kevin Hollister and Keith Harrison of Guiide at the Scottish FinTech meet up. Big thanks again to Scottish Fintech stalwarts Sergei Miller Pomphrey and Bobby King for being at forefront of community energy.

Last week it was a fascinating catch up with Garry Williams of Phoebus to talk about his innovative future plans and potential for expansion in Edinburgh.

Earlier in the week it was another wonderful meet up, this time with the very special Fife Fintech community to catch up with old and new friends.

Thank you to Iain Shirlaw for the celebratory cake and organizing a valuable discussion in the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy.

I get a lot of my energy in seeing the fintech community come together, such as at the University of Edinburgh Futures Institute meeting on Wednesday evening.

Wonderful to see energetic entrepreneurs Helene Rodger of MoneyMatix, Christian Burgin of Visible Capital, George Kelsey and, very new to the community, Nanik Ramchandani of Trade Phi.

It was a great mixer’ event organized by Gbenga GB’ Ibikunle from the University of Edinburgh to share the developments of the fintech cluster being led by the University of Edinburgh

On top of all this engagement there have been some magnificent news from a range of innovative enterprises.

Modulr raising £14m capital to grow, LendingCrowd raising nearly £20m to support SME growth, Money Dashboard hugely successful crowd funding of £2m in 24 hours and then Soar receiving a major financial injection to take their innovation to the next level. Wow!!

These examples of the vibrant fintech community in Scotland is something I find myself sharing with global innovators and entrepreneurs on almost a daily basis on phone calls and in meetings.

For example, it was great to catch up recently with Ambreen and Sophie from Monese to hear about their exciting journey and the potential of being in Scotland.

Then it is spectacular to see all this come alive on line and in print through the Scotsman Fintech supplement this week.

Huge thanks to the brilliant David Lee for leading on such a comprehensive supplement and to the Scotsman team for bringing Scotland’s fintech progress alive.

Collaborative Energy

The innovation across the fintech community really comes alive when combined with the collaborative energy from a range of participants.

This is a theme I shared at the awesome Fintech North conference in Leeds on Thursday.

Building on the success of the Manchester conference, this was another wonderful occasion and it was a privilege to be part of the event with a really buzzing atmosphere.

It was an opportunity to meet a diverse range of people from the Leeds community including David Hoghton-Carter, Glynn Robinson, chairman of BJSS, Daniel de Wolf of Flybits and Andy Thompson (again) of Sandstone. All I hope to see in Scotland soon.

As well as people from the broader fintech ecosystem, David Beer of Fintech Alliance and Peter Cunnane and Clare Black of Innovate Finance. Clare led on terrific session on Fintech and diversity in the afternoon sessions.

Over lunch it was great to catch up with the engaging founder Kyle MacDonald and non exec director Mark Spink of Scottish fintech Financial Cloud to talk through collaboration opportunities in Glasgow especially in the credit union sector.

Also, terrific to meet up with international guests Muhamed Farooque of Excelledia and Kyoungrok Lee and Min Sungjun from Samsung Life, all of whom I look forward to welcoming to Scotland next month.

Thank you once again to inspiring FinTech North leaders Julian Wells and Chris Sier as well as the fabulous Fintech North and Whitecap Consulting and White Label Crowdfunding teams. Magical

Very much looking forward to hosting the FinTech National Network meeting in Edinburgh in June and the collaboration conference in the Autumn in Glasgow.

One area of collaboration I highlighted to people was between fintech and the public sector. For example, the work to develop a new payments platform with the Scottish Government is a hugely exciting collaboration opportunity for fintechs.

It is a real pleasure to be working with inspiring leaders Trish Quinn and Hugh Wallace along with the impressive team Clare, Martin, Alex and Carron at the Scottish Government.

Very much looking forward to the buzzing energy at the collaboration event in June to share more with the fintech community and wider stakeholders.

On the subject of large scale collaborative energy, fantastic to see the news about Lloyds Bank major tech job expansion in Edinburgh.

Last week I was delighted to be invited to the Lloyds Bank pre AGM dinner to talk with Chair Norman Blackwell and give examples of Lloyds Bank energetic support of the fintech community in Scotland.

The collaboration energy was very much part of the discussion with the CYBG Innovation Team a week ago as well.

Great to have such an engaged and imaginative audience looking to develop even closer working relationship with the fintech community.

Many thanks to the inspiring Sam Bedford, Gary McLellan and Jack Mckenna, looking forward to progressing the opportunities.

Also very much encouraged by the meetings with the Barclays team, Ben Davey and old colleague Steven Roberts, especially with the exciting build of the new Barclays campus in Glasgow.

Thanks also to Colin Carmichael and the Sopra Team for a terrific working session with Mark Daisley and the BNP Paribas team

I am very encouraged by the large financial services institutions who are looking to work with us to bring the fintech community in to a closer working relationship to support innovation.

Many thanks to Ali Law of Royal London and David Skinn of Aviva for valuable conversations over the last week or so.

A completely different area where the collaboration energy is beginning to be so powerful is our fabulous engagement with the Money Advice Scotland team

It was very much a huge privilege for me to present at their annual conference in Dunblane on Friday as a double act with my colleague Nicola Anderson.

Infact, it was really quite emotional, as the work of the front line money advisers is something I have recognised as hugely valuable since my childhood.

Just magical to be there with real experts who are focused in supporting people when faced with the most difficult of financial circumstances.

Very much appreciate Yvonne McDermid and David Hilferty giving me us the opportunity to share the role of fintech in supporting their work.

Expert Energy

This expert energy is crucial to the thriving fintech ecosystem and the universities play a crucial role.

This also was a key theme at the Fintech North conference, and it was great to be on the stage to discuss this with Chelsea Hardy, Andrew Maeer, Iain Clacher, George Lodorfos and expertly chaired by Eve Roodhouse of Leeds Council. Very much a shared agenda of inclusive growth.

I am thoroughly enjoying working with the brilliant expert team at University of Strathclyde, Daniel Broby, Devraj Basu, Martin Hughes and James Bowden in developing the plans for the fintech cluster in Glasgow.

Their expertise in bringing together the academic intellect with entrepreneurial new enterprises in the magnificent Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow is certainly fueling fintech energy and enterprise.

Bringing together the consortium of stakeholder expertise across the central belt in Scotland is a huge strength in developing the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence.

My meetings this last few weeks with a cross section of key players such as Simon Pink and Mairi Cairney of IBM, Anneli Ritari-Stewart and Richard Gill of Dentsu Aegis as well the brilliant team at Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Liz Mcareavey and Alex Haramis very much reinforce this.

Broadening the potential range of experts contributing and supporting fintech is key and it was valuable to discuss this with Graham Burns, John and Nia from FWB Park Brown team. Very much looking forward to working with the Aberdeen community on this

Earlier this week I delighted to have the opportunity to share progress on the Global Centre of Excellence with Government Minister Ivan McKee.

Damien McGarrigle and Kevin Collins are doing an excellent job on leading the initiative along with the awesome Gavin Littlejohn driving the amazing global engagement.

The open banking and finance opportunity was highlighted recently by Caroline Stevenson of Womble Bond Dickinson in a great article in the Scotsman.

I had the opportunity to learn about Caroline expert work as part of a six mile running meeting’ around Arthurs Seat one very early morning this week.

What could be better than combining my two passions of running and fintech!

Running Energy

I am going to need all the running energy I can muster this weekend with the Edinburgh marathon on Sunday!

Being only six weeks back from an eight week injury lay off, I know I will need to take it steady over the 26.2 miles, so the pressure is off in many ways when it comes to how fast I go.

This will be the first of three marathon this year and I’ve been helped back to running fitness with a couple really enjoyable races in Coatbridge and Balerno over the last couple of weeks.

The latter made all the more enjoyable on a lovely Monday evening by running most of route with Carron Macnab of Scottish Government when we ended up talking as much about fintech as running!!

Maybe talking fintech is the secret for the marathon this weekend but who will I find to chat with!! Until next time.

Scotsman fintech event: what has fintech ever done for us?

Fintech has made a huge impact on the financial services sector and the wider economy of Scotland ”“ but what did it ever do for us?

That’s the subject of a quick-fire panel discussion at Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow on Wednesday, 5 June, with experts from across the fintech field, including Nicola Anderson of Fintech Scotland, Professor Eleanor Shaw of the University of Strathclyde and Louise Smith, Head of Intelligent Automation at RBS.

The panel is completed by young entrepreneur Daniel Sloan of BankPal, Chris Brown of Deloitte and Callum Sinclair of Burness Paull.

If you are a member of the fintech community, or interested in the sector in any way, we would love to see you there for the rapid-fire discussion around seven key topics, each representing a letter of fintech:

FINANCIAL INCLUSION

Last year’s discussion asked if fintech could be an agent of positive social change. How are we doing in terms of financial inclusion and does fintech in Scotland still have that social purpose?

INNOVATION

How is the sector coming together in a collaborative way to deliver genuine innovation, through initiatives like the Glasgow City Innovation District? Are we seeing any tangible outputs?

NEXT GENERATION ENTREPRENEURS

How is Scotland doing at creating a generation of fintech entrepreneurs who can provide the economic powerhouses of tomorrow?

TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY

What are Scottish fintech businesses doing to build customer trust ”“ and are they being fully transparent about their use of data? Can Scotland use trust and transparency as its fintech USP?

EMPLOYMENT

Last year, Fintech Scotland’s company map had 40 businesses on it. This has now doubled to 80-plus. Scotland is also attracting fintech jobs in large financial institutions. Is fintech starting to drive significant employment growth?

CONSUMER DATA

As consumers become more aware of the importance of their data to large tech companies, how can fintech help them to realise value from that data?

HOME-BUYING JOURNEY

How can fintech have a positive impact on the way we buy and sell homes? Does it have the power to bring together the whole home-buying journey in a simpler, more seamless way? And can this approach be rolled over into other aspects of our lives, such as travel and tourism?

To book your free place to this event click here: https://www.scotsmanconferences.com/

Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ The Energy Fueling FinTech!

There has been a frenzy of energetic fintech activity over the last few weeks even with the interruption of a sunny Easter break.

I’ve seen this energy fuel innovation and collaboration across a diverse range of engaged fintech participants and it is really exciting to be in amongst the activity.

For example, a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege to judge to the fintech innovation pitches by the University of Edinburgh entrepreneurship students along with David McLeay from Scottish Widows.

I was blown away by the students creative and imaginative new business models to reinvent financial services, many of which could complement propositions being developed by Scottish fintech firms.

Congratulations to Ben Spigel, the Chancellor’s Fellow at the Business School, for leading such a talented group of students. Many of whom I am sure we will hear about in the fintech community in the future.

Energetic Talent

Another example of this energetic fintech talent was catching up with Elisabetta Trasatti and Andrea, the very inspiring President and Vice President of the University of Glasgow Student FinTech Society

Absolutely fantastic to hear about their plans for the year for the Society, recognized as one of the largest student fintech student groups in Europe, and how they are engaging with the fintech sector.

Excited about working with the team, especially looking forward to an energy charged evening with Jazz band and more at the Society’s pitch final competition later this year!

My meetings with the brilliant team at University of Strathclyde have further demonstrated how much terrific energy is going in to develop the fintech talent for the future.

I am very excited to be working with the fabulous Martin Hughes, Daniel Broby, Devraj Basu and Tim Bedford in shaping the emerging fintech cluster in Glasgow and connecting with the financial services sector.

Similarly, working with Ksenia Siedlecka and the University of Edinburgh team on the development of the newly launched European FinTech Digital Office focused on new research areas and investing in new enterprises.

There’s a huge amount of interest in the fintech collaboration event being planned for June and it is great to be working with our European colleagues and fintech firms such as on this initiative.

On Tuesday it was great to catch up with the fabulous Michael Young whose energetic MBN Solutions team do so much in supporting development of talent for the sector.

Michael and the team bring a huge amount of energy to the collaboration initiatives across Scotland, especially through their very successful meet up programme.

Energetic City Collaboration

Later that evening on Tuesday, Michael as well as Elisabetta joined me at the Glasgow Economic Leadership meeting where skills development and collaboration were a key part of the discussion.

I very much appreciated the engagement of the group on how we further develop fintech collaboration across the City and thank you to Mark Napier, and JP Morgan for hosting the session.

This energetic city collaboration was also very much in evident when I was invited to present at the FinTech North conference in Manchester a couple of weeks ago.

A wonderful atmosphere generated by a diverse audience and terrific fintech entrepreneurs sharing their innovative propositions to a very engaged audience.

For me it was also special to meet up with some great entrepreneurs such as Adam Bickell of Jamtoday and David Smith a wonderful colleague from 20 years ago, who gave an awesome presentation explaining the Uinsure proposition

The FinTech North conference captured everything that is so special and energetic about the fintech movement and it was a real privilege to be part of it.

Huge thanks to the inspiring leaders Chris Sier and Julian Wells along with the whole FinTech North and Whitecap Consulting team for delivering such an innovative community driven occasion.

I was given the opportunity in Manchester to share the stage as well as catch up with the terrific Charlotte Crosswell, chief executive of Innovate Finance

It was a recognition of our shared values for the ambition for the fintech movement and the mutual opportunities that prompted us to agree to more formally collaborate going forward.

Hence the announcement on Monday this week of a new Fintech National Network to provide collective support for FinTech Scotland, FinTech North and Innovate Finance fintech communities.

Our aim is to see our collaboration activities and engagements provide more support and we are looking forward also to FinTech Wales and FinTech Wales joining with us in the coming months.

The new Network was announced at the Innovate Finance Global Summit in London which a number of the Scottish fintech community attended.

Including Professor Jane Lewis from Womens Coin, a newer member of the Scottish community, who was invited to share how the exciting developments were taking shape in Scotland. Big thanks to Jane.

The week before was another global event, EIE 2019, with many Scottish fintech firms taking centre stage to share their propositions to an international investor audience. A huge accolade must go to Steve Ewing and the team for a fabulous occasion

Big congratulations to everyone who participated, and a special mention to Callum Murray of Amiqus for winning pitch presentation of the day.

Global Energy

Scotland’s fintech activity is certainly attracting global energy, for example it was terrific to welcome the delegation of Hong King and Singapore fintech innovators to Edinburgh on Thursday.

It was great to share the Scottish fintech developments with a diverse range of firms in the morning with Graham Hatton from Scottish Development International.

Then in the afternoon, to have an engaging session in the afternoon with our friends from the Far East with a fantastic mix of people from Scotland’s fintech community, considering collaboration opportunities.

Great to meet Bettina Wong and Charles Lam of Cybersport and Avere Hill of Cynopsis, Ivy Tse of FreightAmigo as well see Joel Ko, again who has exciting fintech plans for Edinburgh

All brilliantly hosted by the fabulous Kent Mackenzie, Chris Brown and the Deloitte team who are doing so much to develop the global fintech collaboration and energy.

The event with a global diversity was wonderful to be part and embodies everything that Scotland’s fintech is all about. All fantastically organized by Karen Craib and Mandy Cooper from Scottish Enterprise.

Sandwiched in between the two events I was given the opportunity to talk about embracing diversity through fintech at the Women in Banking and Finance conference on Thursday.

An absolute privilege to be on the stage in front of a big audience with the inspiring Sue Liburd, Wincie Wong of RBS and Maggie Craig of FCA.

All expertly hosted by the fabulous Andy Nicol, chief executive of Abstract, who do terrific people leadership work in this space.

Many thanks to Niamh Sims and Nomi Puri for inviting me to join you and for a terrific event and energetic atmosphere.

Scotland is certainly contributing to the positive global energy, for example, it was great to catch up with Chris Tait and Omar Shaikh to discuss the fintech participation in their Global Ethical Finance conference

Delighted we are working together on this global exciting event in October which very much reinforces Scotland’s leadership role in sustainable finance as well as fintech.

Also, on the global energy theme it was a pleasure to catch up this week with Gurjit Singh Lalli, the curator of TEDx for Glasgow, about the amazing event planned for June and future role for the fintech community.

I am hugely excited about the global energy being generated by the planned fintech festival for Scotland in September which Mickael is working hard on.

Excellent strategy meeting with the terrific Rory Archibald of Visit Scotland and Karen Craib of Scottish Enterprise who are doing such fantastic work to help us prepare for the festival later this year.

Talking about how we build on this global energy with developing the strategic international opportunities for Scottish fintechs was the key part of the valuable discussion with Lorraine Mallon and Andrea McLeish from SDI this week.

Strategic Energy

Sharing the strategic energy behind the fintech developments in Scotland is always a key role and there have been so many interactions over this last few weeks to do this

For example, we very much valued the opportunity to present to the team at the Financial Conduct Authority and great to meet the teams shaping the regulatory landscape for future fintech progress and good consumer outcomes.

Thank you to Ed Smith and the team for arranging with Nicola for this. We followed this up with a great conversation with Tom Kegode and the innovation team at Lloyds Bank who are leading some terrific strategic fintech collaboration initiatives

Over this last few weeks I have also had the opportunity to discuss the strategic developments with other major financial groups

For example, very enjoyable and constructive conversations with Ali Law of Royal London, Peter Bole of CYBG and Bob Hair of Cazenove.

Along with exploring strategic fintech collaboration opportunities with Jim McCumesty of SAS, Neil Delany of Contis and Kirsty Irvine of JCCA. Brilliant to have their engagement win working with the Scottish fintech community.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to share FinTech Scotland future plans with a broader engaged audience at the FiSAB (Financial Services Advisory Board) quarterly meeting chaired by the First Minister and Jim Pettigrew of CYBG.

It was great to have fintech on the agenda along with the terrific work being led by Barry Connolly of RBS on skills and Helen Page of CYBG on the social impact of financial services.

Both significant pieces of work align with the fintech developments on skills and inclusion and it was great to continue the conversation on these at the Scottish Financial Enterprise AGM on Thursday evening all expertly organized by the magnificent SFE team.

Thank you, Graeme Jones for the FinTech Scotland progress shout out great to be there with the SFE members. Many congratulations to the awesome Sue Dawe for being elected to the SFE Board

Energetic Running

After an eight week injury lay off, I am back out running energetically and what a really amazing feeling in so many ways.

This included a return to the race circuit with the Stirling half marathon last Sunday which was just wonderful.

Coming up are races in Coatbridge, Dalkeith and Balerno as well as a few Saturday morning Park Runs, all before the Edinburgh marathon at the end of May.

Although I’m having to control my running energy at the moment, so I don’t pick up another injury but despite this I have fallen in love with running event more!! Until next time

How AI helped Interactive Investor with Customer engagement

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Blog by Michael Mauchline, Industry Leader, Marketing Automation & Personalisation at Watson Marketing

Very often when AI and investment are mentioned together it is about Robo Advice or high frequency trading. However, in the case of Interactive Investor AI proved useful for customer engagement.

IBM Watson Marketing works with Fintech clients to improve customer engagement as well as boost digital revenues. Interactive Investor deployed the technology in 2018 and have since been able to inspire thousands of customers to actively engage in their portfolios:

• increased newsletter open rates by over 80% through personalising content based on a customer’s segment
• improved clickthrough rates more than 70% by sending emails to customers at optimal times based on an individual’s behavior

Those results were achieved by the personalization of investment content based on customers’ segments. Going beyond segment, personalization was achieved for each individual.

Personalisation isn’t all to do with the content itself but also about send time. By learning about people’s habits IBM Watson was able to send email at the most appropriate time for each individual.

Head of CRM at Interactive Investor, Phil Ireland explains how this happened:

“IBM Watson has been an integral tool over the last six months in helping my team achieve specific objectives set by our business. The platform has allowed us to dynamically target our customers with personalised information. For example, the platform has allowed us to target customers who hold any of the top 20 stocks within our business dynamically with news relating to that stock and provide updates on the performance of each stock.”

“The platform has allowed us to automate our new customer welcome journeys and provide trigger based campaigns dependent upon customer behavioural actions. We’ve seen considerable uplifts in our KPI’s due to the impact of the IBM Watson platform.”

Read the full story at:

https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/interactive-investor

About Watson Campaign Automation

Watson Campaign Automation is a SaaS-based digital marketing automation platform that puts the power of data insights in the hands of the marketer to design smarter campaigns that exceed your customer expectations.  Use behavioural data from any source to create consistent campaigns across email, web, mobile push, SMS, social, group messaging and more.   Marketers can work smarter with an AI powered Watson Assistant for Marketing’.

• Improve Customer Engagement
  • Boost customer engagement and conversion with personalised experiences and offers that connect with your customers, when and where they expect it.
• Increase Customer Loyalty
  • Leverage AI-powered insights and capabilities to deliver the right message and offer at the right time in the right channel to grow customer loyalty and, ultimately, revenue.

Any questions? Contact Michael Mauchline 07764 666 813 mauchline@uk.ibm.com

Can fintech help employees engage with their work pensions?

Manuel Peleteiro, CEO of Scottish fintech Inbest.ai, Ed Owens from Pension Wise and Gavin Marshal, Senior Financial Wellbeing Consultant at HSBC will be on a panel discussing how technology, amongst other things, can help with engagement when it comes to workplace pension.

This panel will be part of a series of event organised around the latest behavioural research into employee engagement with workplace pensions schemes by Dr. Robertson-Rose of the University of Edinburgh. Her research shows how HR practices influence employee behaviour and explains what employers can do to help increase pension scheme engagement.

Each seminar will last approximately one hour and will be followed by refreshments and an opportunity to network.

These free seminars will be of interest to employers seeking to improve the financial well-being of their employees

Book your tickets

Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ Embracing our role in the European FinTech Team!

My travels and meetings over this last few weeks have again reinforced to me that Scotland’s fintech developments are very much embracing being much part of a wider European team.

With our shared values and ambitions, there are enormous opportunities to work with our European team partners in reinventing financial services through fintech innovation.

This was certainly brought alive on Wednesday evening in Edinburgh with the launch of the ground breaking European Innovation and Technology (EIT) Digital Office with its focus on fintech.

European Collaboration

The new fintech digital office based at the Bayes Centre will deepen relationships between Scotland and Europe, increase innovation and investment in new fintech initiatives, grow knowledge exchange across the continent and attract inward investment.

Working with the EIT team along with Scottish Enterprise, University of Edinburgh, Scottish Funding Council and Highland & Islands Enterprise, it has been terrific to see this initiative international come alive.

It was a privilege to share the platform with Willem Jonker and Morgan Gillies at the launch along with Scottish Government Minister Ivan McKee and Charlie Jeffrey from the University of Edinburgh to explain how the collaboration will boost innovation and investment in fintech.

The atmosphere for the launch was made special by having a packed diverse audience with us representing all corners of the Scottish ecosystem.

Including some of the exciting fintech enterprises such as Tynah and Helene from MoneyMatix, James from Xpand, Loral from Sustainably, Rab from Wallet Services, Daniel from Listings Ledger as well as Kevin from Hylomorph.

The event was a great opportunity to catch up with some of the inspiring people making things happen across Scotland driving innovation such as Poonam Malik, Jude McCorry, David Robertson, Jasmina Lazic, Martin Hughes, Amanda Fergusson and Daniel Broby, Terry Murden.

Thank you to Courtney Garner from SciTech Europa for making the long journey to be with us and to the terrific EIT and Edinburgh Innovation teams for making it all happen on the night.

The European collaboration opportunities were also very much in evident for my recent visit to Brussels with Graeme Jones and Clare Carswell of Scottish Financial Enterprise for a range of very constructive meetings at the EU.

There is so much mutual common ground in developing fintech collaboration opportunities and a huge thank you to the magnificent team at Scotland Europa, Sarah English and Marija Ivoninaite and Fraser Clark from SDI.

It was great to have the opportunity to present on Scotland’s fintech progress with an engaged European audience on the Tuesday evening along with Graeme and John Maciver from Pinsent Masons.

We made a number of great connections and I’m sure there will be many more visits to our European friends in the near future as we commit to work even closer.

I flew back from Beautiful Brussels directly to Glorious Glasgow to present at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries to speak at their knowledge sharing session.

It was wonderful to have a very engaging full house with so many of the profession interested in the role of fintech in shaping the future of financial services.

Thank you, John Taylor and Barry Shannon for inviting me to present as well as to Ji-Hyang Lee and Alan Watson for being terrific hosts for the session. I look forward to repeating in Edinburgh in June!

European Innovation

Europe was very much part of the discussion at the asset management dinner on Tuesday evening with Ministers Derek Mackay and Kate Forbes along with senior members of the investment world.

It was good opportunity to share the examples of how the Scottish fintech community is progressing innovation with the major financial institutions in these uncertain times and highlight the growing global interest in Scotland’s fintech sector.

Thank you to Graham Laybourn and the Baillie Gifford team for hosting the engaging evening as well as for the ongoing support from Anurag Agrawal in exploring new ways to develop fintech innovation in asset management.

There are a growing number of global fintech with a focus on asset management looking at setting up in Scotland due to the depth of Scotland’s investment sector.

Talking last week with Hamish Croll of Singapore based fintech BlueFireAi, there is no doubt the potential in Scotland is very much getting recognized.

The opportunities for fintech enterprises are also rapidly evolving in banking and it was great to catch up with Gary McLellan of CYBG this week to develop how we progress the collaboration opportunities

Thanks also Gary for allowing me to be one of your guinea pigs’ for your innovative approaches to online fintech innovations for personal data security, great to experience at first hand.

The RBS fintech accelerator demo day a week or so ago was another fantastic example of a large institution supporting new fintech innovators.

Inspiring pitches on the day including by Adrian James from Monily, Chris Herd from Nexves, James from Xpand.

It was great to be on the stage with Matt Perkins from FreeAgent and Karen Bird of RBS in sharing insights on developing fintech innovation through collaboration

Fantastic leadership by the RBS team Steve Chown and Janice Cunningham for running such a constructive event.

Unfortunately, I could not stay for all the fintech demos as Nicola and I had to dash off to Glasgow for the University of Strathclyde Enterprise Network event.

Another amazing evening listening to the budding entrepreneurs. I was particularly struck by the innovations coming from the Fing & Pay and Hotei fintech teams, both expertly mentored by our friend and fintech guru Nick Cousins.

Many congratulations to the always inspiring Eleanor Mackay, it is no surprise that Strathclyde has an enviable reputation across Europe when it comes to fintech innovation.

This is invaluable in developing the collaborative innovation opportunities for fintech entrepreneurs across Europe and the world.

European Entrepreneurs

It was super to catch up with entrepreneur Derick James, the founder and CEO of Symphonic, to hear about the brilliant progress his team has been making in Europe and wider alongside the move into the new office in Edinburgh.

Very much looking forward to sharing the Symphonic international innovation story with the fintech community in the coming months.

Similarly looking forward to working with experienced expert innovator George Kelsey with what he is brewing up for the fintech world! Reflecting on my catch up coffee with George this week, I must introduce to Derick James.

I’m thinking it could be another example of one plus one equals five in creating even more fintech innovation in collaboration and what a story that would be!

Last week we shared the awesome entrepreneurship story of FNZ who are a fabulous example of a Scottish based fintech expanding in Europe and worldwide in helping consumers manage their long term savings.

Another inspiring innovation example I learnt about in this last fortnight was Cortex Worldwide.

Terrific conversation with founder and chief executive Peter Proud and such a truly inspiring journey in scaling a market leading technology enterprise. Peter’s experience is invaluable, and I am keen to share to many budding entrepreneurs.

The European and global innovation can come in various forms and I really enjoyed meeting Jordan Stewart of AlbaFX in Glasgow recently and hear how his proposition can help small firms gain the most from international trade.

Very much looking forward to connecting Jordan with the growing fintech community to develop mutual valuable connections.

I had the opportunity to meet Craig Anderson of venture capital firm Pentech in this last fortnight as well and talk through how the fintech community was evolving and the emerging investment opportunities.

In this respect, I also had a very constructive conversation with Andrew Wilson of Charlotte Street Partners on how we could do more to help fintech firms present themselves to potential investors.

I’m hoping that talking about the how the Scottish fintech community of firms is developing will encourage more of the entrepreneurial activity across the country.

So, it was good to be interviewed on Monday by Kim McAllister for a new BBC Radio show which will give live in May on the exciting fintech developments and the impact on people’s lives.

Meeting the engaging media professional David Lee on the same day, who is writing the Scotsman supplement on fintech for May, was a good time to reflect the whirlwind of activity over this last twelve months.

I shared with David that a major strength of Scotland’s fintech progress is our diverse range of people.

Whether this is the data analytic expertise being developed by DataLab and the MBN Solutions team, something which was showcased at Aviva a couple of weeks ago in growing their data centre of excellence.

Then there is the fintech entrepreneurial expertise being developed in our universities

In this respect it was wonderful to share joint plans with Claudia Cavalluzzo and Georgia Goodall of Converge Challenge who do amazing with new entrepreneurs from our universities

The enterprise spirit was very much demonstrated to Nicola and me recently when we were asked to present to the University of Stirling fintech postgraduate students.

A terrific group of people and thank you Andrea Bracciali for arranging the session, really enjoyable and insightful as was the visit to Newbattle Community Campus to see first hand the wonderful progress of this new digital’ school environment

Newbattle is very progressive educational role model for the future and it was absolutely fantastic to spend time with Gib McMillan and leadership team and the inspiring students, in their hands we have a very bright future.

The conversation with David Lee also gave me the opportunity to reaffirm the ambition to be a top five global fintech centre one year into the journey and the importance of working with European and global partners to achieve this goal

European Partners

One such group of partners are of good friends in Ireland and it was just absolutely wonderful to spend a few days in Dublin as part of Scottish Irish Finance Initiative (SIFI) conference on fintech.

Such a warm and welcoming reception from our European partners and the mutual relationships being developed though the SIFI team are going to be invaluable going forward.

Massive thank you to magnificent SIFI trio David Clarke, Pete Townsend and Terry Quinn for organising as well as to the brilliant Dublin Business School team, Andrew Quinn, Andrew Conlan-Trant and Rory Mo-ran.

It was great to hear from so many new friends such as the inspiring Hesus Inoma and the amazing Susan Sweeney as well as Scotland’s leading fintech guru Daniel Broby of University of Strathclyde.

The trip to Ireland also gave the me the opportunity to meet up with Peter Oakes, the highly respected global fintech leader and founder of FinTech Ireland. Thanks Emma Shiel from SDI for arranging and joining us.

It was fantastic to hear first hand the story behind FinTech Ireland and the significant presence Peter has established in Europe and across the globe. Peter’s next trip was to help with the formation of FinTech Cyprus, another European partner for is to collaborate with.

It was poignant that we met Peter in the Hibernian Club and sat in the very chair that FinTech Scotland was conceived five years ago.

Looking forward to developing closer collaboration with Peter and the FinTech Ireland team as European partners.

My return from Dublin was via Hampshire (and Reading to see my mum) as I had the opportunity to meet up with Mark Hanson, Managing Director of Simply Health who provide valuable health insurance plans for millions of consumers.

The worlds of fintech, insurtech, healthtech all overlap, and we had a super conversation on some emerging innovations in this space and the potential to work in partnership with University of Edinburgh and entrepreneurs to explore further.

Collaborative partnership is also very much at the core in developing a Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence in Scotland and we are delighted the joint FinTech Scotland, University of Edinburgh, Scottish Enterprise and FDATA proposal has been shortlisted for funding.

A huge amount of credit for this must go to our very own European and Global Open Finance presidential’ leader, Gavin Littlejohn who is instrumental in the strategic development.

I’m looking forward to seeing Gavin next week when he returns from formidable open finance mission trip to Hong Kong, Australia and India.

The Open Finance initiative is facilitating further collaboration with partners and this is also true of the Ethical Finance Hub team based at Heriot Watt University

It was valuable to catch up with Chris Tait recently and talk through the fintech contribution to the Global Ethical Finance Forum which will take place in Edinburgh in October with many distinguished international partners.

Barry Wingate it would be super to work in partner with you on this following our chat a week or so ago!

International partnerships were the focus of the conversation with James Bernard of the Dubai DMMC, the enterprise agency, when we met in Edinburgh last week, thank you Russell Dalgleish for making the connection.

Encouraging a European and global innovation and growth mindset with the Scottish entrepreneurial community as a key focus of the conversation for the executive dinner of fintech organized by FWB Park Brown last Wednesday evening.

I very much valued the challenge and constructive feedback from the diverse group of successful business leaders from sectors outside of financial services and fintech and thank you to those who have reached out to follow up.

Big thanks to Graham Burns and Michael Dickson for expertly arranging and professionally hosting the engaging evening, I look forward to the next one, maybe in Aberdeen or even another European city?

Running Europe

Unfortunately, and to much frustration, my toe injury has not cleared up which means my running opportunities in Europe have been somewhat curtailed.

Whilst the buzz of the exciting fintech activity with so many fabulous people has kept me occupied, I am a bit of a bear with a sore head’ as I have not been able to get out and run.

I have tried swimming, but my limited breaststroke ability does not replace the three hour runs I so much enjoy!!

I know I will need to be patient in recovering but if I look angst when you see me you will know why!

Let’s hope I am going to be ready for the Stirling, Livingston and Lock Leven half marathons in the run up to Edinburgh marathon in May!! Until next time.