Major Financial Institutions Unite to Drive Innovation in Operational Resilience
A coalition of leading financial institutions including Sword Group, Natwest, Morgan Stanley, Dudley Building Society, The Tipton, Unity Trust Bank, M&G, Pinsent Masons, Tesco Bank, Aberdeen, KPMG and EY have joined forces to launch a UK-wide innovation challenge focused on strengthening operational resilience across the financial sector. Delivered in partnership with FinTech Scotland through the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), and collaborating with SuperTech WM to help expand the reach and impact across the UK, this initiative calls on fintech innovators to co-create next-generation solutions that can safeguard the financial system in an increasingly digital world.
Operational resilience is a top priority for the UK’s regulators, including the FCA, Bank of England and HM Treasury, as the sector adapts to growing digital disruption, complex supply chains, and rising consumer expectations. This challenge reflects a shared commitment from industry to proactively address these risks through collaboration and innovation.
In the face of escalating demand for seamless digital services, the challenge is designed to source practical, scalable solutions that can help firms stay resilient, responsive, and secure. It will offer selected fintechs the opportunity to work directly with financial institutions, gain valuable insights into real-world resilience challenges, and receive expert input from leading academics from the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow.
Successful applicants may also be eligible for up to £50,000 in grant funding to accelerate the development of their solution. The programme will culminate in a showcase event in Glasgow, where participants will present to industry and regulatory stakeholders.
FinTech firms from across the globe are encouraged to apply before the deadline on August 15th. More details can be found here.
Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland: “This challenge is a powerful example of how collaboration can drive meaningful change. By bringing together fintech innovators, academic insight, and industry expertise, we’re not only responding to the increasing demands of the digital economy, we’re actively shaping a more resilient and adaptive financial system for the future.”
Rob Mossop, COO Financial Services and International, Sword: “As a trusted technology partner, we recognise that operational resilience is moving beyond meeting regulatory requirements. It has become a business imperative with clear impact on business growth. We understand the critical role that trusted and adaptable solutions play in helping financial institutions respond to disruption and build competitive advantage. We are excited to see how this challenge brings together the best of industry, academia, and innovation to utilise technologies that don’t just withstand disruption but enable agility and enhance trust in the face of it”
Hilary Smyth-Allen, CEO SuperTech:“Our longstanding partnership with FinTech Scotland, to expand the reach of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, has delivered fantastic impact in previous programmes for both the fintech innovators and financial services participants. We look forward to seeing the collaborative opportunities arising from this open innovation challenge focusing on operational resilience.”
Nicole Alston, Innovation Engagement Manager, NatWest: “Natwest Group are proud to support this challenge, which represents a fantastic opportunity to work hand-in-hand with fintech innovators to shape the next generation of operational resilience. By combining industry insight with fresh thinking, we can build smarter, more adaptive systems that protect customers and maintain trust”
Luke Scanlon, Pinsent Masons: “Strengthening operational resilience isn’t just a regulatory expectation, it’s a shared responsibility across the financial ecosystem. This challenge is a compelling example of how partnerships between fintechs and industry, can drive innovation that’s both agile and aligned with evolving regulatory frameworks. It’s a chance to build practical solutions that work in the real world”
Samuel Kennedy, Head of Operational Risk, Dudley Building Society: “For building societies, operational resilience is fundamental to maintaining the trust of our members and communities. This challenge is a chance to work alongside fintechs to explore innovative solutions that protect continuity of service, while ensuring we remain agile and responsive in a changing digital landscape.”
Will Lynch, Group Deputy COO, Aberdeen: “Aberdeen’s involvement in FRIL has shown the power of collaboration in tackling complex regulatory and operational challenges. We are looking forward to contributing the next phase of FRIL in an increasingly important part of the regulatory landscape.”
David Owen, Head of Business Risk at Unity Trust Bank: “Operational resilience isn’t just about meeting regulatory compliance; it is about reinforcing our customers’ confidence that we can withstand disruptions and continue to serve them effectively. At Unity Trust Bank, resilience is fundamental to our double-bottom-line approach: it supports sustainable business growth while deepening the trust that our socially minded customers place in us. By collaborating with fintech innovators, industry partners, and thought leaders, we are developing smarter, more adaptive systems that not only ensure continuity but also strengthen the core principles of ethical banking.”
Tom McFarlane, Partner, EY – “Building on the success of our collaboration with FRIL, we’re delighted to be supporting this innovation challenge focused on strengthening operational resilience. The FRIL programme presents a unique opportunity to deepen our relationships with innovators across the cluster – bringing together diverse thinking, regulatory insight, and practical expertise. Through these collaborations, we can co-create solutions that are not only innovative, but also scalable and grounded in the realities of today’s financial landscape.”
The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab is part of the larger Glasgow City Region Innovation Accelerator programme. Led by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation, the pilot Innovation Accelerators programme invested £100m in 26 transformative R&D projects between 2022-25 to accelerate the growth of three high-potential innovation ecosystems – Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and West Midlands. The programme was boosted by an additional £30m of public funding for 2025/26 spread equally across the regions. Innovation Accelerators is piloting a new model of R&D decision making that empowers local partnerships to harness innovation to drive regional economic growth, attract private investment, and develop future technologies.
FinTech Scotland Festival: Accelerating Regional Fintech Innovation
The eighth annual FinTech Scotland Festival will take place between the 22nd and the 26th of September 2025, showcasing the innovation of the Scottish fintech cluster.
Bringing together entrepreneurs, policymakers, global financial leaders, investors and innovators to demonstrate how the Scottish fintech cluster is translating the UK Government Modern Industrial Strategy into tangible economic growth, jobs and attracting the capital to scale enterprises in the UK and globally.
Across five days the festival will showcase fintech businesses and FinTech Scotland’s strategic partners who are fostering economic growth by driving innovation in Financial Regulation, Open Finance, Payments, Climate Finance utilising expertise Artificial Intelligence, Distributed Ledger Technologies and Quantum.
The festival highlights how the fintech cluster is aligned behind the new UK Government Financial Services Strategy unveiled on Tuesday, 15 July by demonstrating productivity improvement through digital innovation, the role of regional cluster leadership and supporting the national payment vision.
FinTech Scotland has built a week with key events including a Global Fintech Forum for international visitors, the Annual Fintech Summit on fintech trends, an awards ceremony to recognise fintech excellence and a day of workshops and knowledge sharing to support the growth of fintechs in Scotland
Nicola Anderson, CEO, FinTech Scotland, said:
“The FinTech Scotland Festival supports the UK Government’s ambition to make the UK, the world’s fintech capital. It will demonstrate how regional clusters can deliver jobs, inward investments, exports and societal benefit. I’m looking forward to welcoming individuals and organisations from around the UK and beyond to develop new connections and collaboration opportunities.”
Discover the festival agenda at www.fintechscotland.com/events/
How Agentic AI can redefine Financial Services
In this episode we explore the transformative potential of Agentic AI in the financial services industry.
We look at how this emerging technology is enhancing personalisation, optimising operational processes, and redefining financial inclusion. We dive into into areas such as customer support with conversational AI as well as the transformation of risk modelling and compliance.
We discuss whether Agentic AI is paving the way for a smarter, more connected financial ecosystem.
We also discuss the challenges and opportunities this technology brings, including ethical considerations, regulatory hurdles, and the need for collaboration between academia, industry, and policymakers to ensure responsible innovation.
Guests:
- Alexandra Birch – Reader at the University of Edinburgh
- Derek Shanks – Technology Platform Lead at Lloyds Banking Group
- Joseph Twigg – Founder and CEO at Aveni
- Rich Wilson – Founder and CEO at Gigged.ai
LastingAsset
Advancing ESG
Everyone’s talking about ESG, but how do we move from ambition to meaningful impact?
This new report from the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) unpacks that challenge and points to a clear answer: regulatory innovation.
While ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles have risen to the top of board agendas, the path to embedding them meaningfully into financial services is still full of complexity with ambiguous frameworks, inconsistent data, and evolving disclosure standards. But amid that complexity lies an opportunity for change.
This paper flips the conversation. Instead of focusing on ESG as a reporting burden, it highlights how purpose-driven innovation, especially from fintechs, can reframe ESG as a strategic advantage.
Highlights include:
- How fintechs are creating tools that democratise ESG insights, enabling smaller firms to lead, not lag.
- The power of transparency tech, enabling consumers and investors to make informed choices in real time.
- Regulatory leadership as a catalyst—not a constraint—for embedding long-term sustainability in financial decision-making.
Through FRIL’s ESG Innovation Call, the report captures the pulse of the ecosystem: entrepreneurs, regulators, academics, and institutions coming together to explore how data, collaboration, and innovation can unlock the next wave of ESG progress.
Addressing Financial Crime
Financial crime is no longer just a back-office issue, it’s a frontline threat to trust, security, and resilience across the financial system. With scams growing more sophisticated and regulation constantly evolving, simply reacting isn’t enough. The sector needs to outthink and outpace criminal innovation.
Produced through the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) led by FinTech Scotland, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Glasgow, this report looks into how the UK financial services industry is embracing innovation to meet the challenge head-on.
Rather than listing problems, the focus is on real-world progress:
- Fintechs using AI and privacy-first data sharing to spot fraud faster.
- Financial institutions embedding intentional “friction” into digital journeys to protect vulnerable consumers.
- Regulators promoting sandbox collaboration and cross-sector signal sharing to shift from reactive controls to intelligent, joined-up defences.
What makes this report stand out is the ecosystem it brings together:
15 fintech innovators, banks, telcos, regulators, and academic partners all contributing to one goal: disrupt financial crime before it happens.
Shaping better consumer outcomes
This report explores how the financial services sector can harness innovation to deliver better outcomes for consumers in line with the FCA’s Consumer Duty.
Produced through the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), a collaboration between FinTech Scotland, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Glasgow, the report outlines a practical and forward-looking roadmap for industry-wide transformation.
The introduction of the Consumer Duty marks a shift from traditional compliance to a proactive, outcomes-based regulatory approach. This paper highlights how fintech innovation, data insights, and collaborative ecosystems can help financial institutions meet evolving regulatory expectations and rising consumer demands.
Key themes include:
- A changing regulatory and consumer landscape, with rising expectations for transparent, inclusive, and adaptive financial services.
- Challenges for financial institutions, such as legacy systems, siloed data, and fragmented compliance efforts.
- Opportunities for innovation, where fintechs play a crucial role in driving consumer understanding, supporting vulnerable customers, and automating compliance.
- A call for ecosystem-wide collaboration, moving beyond isolated efforts to create shared standards, interoperable systems, and seamless consumer experiences.
The report features insights from the FRIL Consumer Duty Innovation Call, showcasing fintech partnerships that are already delivering tangible improvements in customer support, communication clarity, and regulatory monitoring. It concludes with a multi-year roadmap outlining the necessary steps for embedding Consumer Duty principles across the financial ecosystem.
Live podcast episode from Money20/20
A conversation live from Money20/20 2025 in Amsterdam with 4 fintech businesses, part of a Scottish delegation that saw 10 fintechs exhibiting at Europe’s largest fintech conference led by Scottish Development International and FinTech Scotland.
Dan from CreditNature, David from BigSpark, Jamie from Aveni and Michael from Transwap offer their views on the conversations they’ve had, the speakers they’ve listened to and reflect on the impact that Money20/20 can have for their business.
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.
HAELO and RegGenome Partner to Launch Horizon Scanning Platform
The pace of regulatory change continues to intensify, with new updates emerging globally every few minutes. In response, Scottish fintech HAELO has partnered with regulatory data specialist RegGenome to introduce REGENESIS, a new platform designed to support compliance professionals in navigating complex and rapidly evolving requirements.
REGENESIS combines RegGenome’s structured and AI-powered regulatory datasets with HAELO’s automation capabilities to streamline the horizon scanning process. The solution targets mid-tier financial institutions and SMEs initially, with plans to scale toward larger firms.
The platform offers governance, risk, and compliance teams a single access point to regulatory information from hundreds of authorities across jurisdictions. It integrates into existing workflows, helping teams prioritise responses to emerging obligations while reducing reliance on manual tracking.
Key features include automated rule detection, curated insights, and contextual tagging to assist users in identifying regulatory developments relevant to their operations. This shift toward automation is expected to allow compliance professionals to reallocate time toward higher-value tasks such as risk analysis and controls assessment.
The collaboration between HAELO and RegGenome has already attracted attention from a broad cross-section of the industry. The platform was recently introduced to representatives from organisations including HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Citi, Baillie Gifford, Virgin Money, and FinTech Scotland.
Commenting on the partnership, Mick O’Connor, Founder and Managing Director of HAELO, said:
“I was looking for a partner who could deliver validated, explainable regulatory data. RegGenome demonstrated both the technical expertise and openness to collaborate in bringing effective GRC solutions to market.”
Mark Johnston, CEO of RegGenome, added:
“HAELO brings a practical approach to regulatory automation. This partnership complements our existing ecosystem and strengthens our efforts to help firms adapt to ongoing regulatory change.”