Research in Action – How Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) Is Turning Insight into Impact for Industry and Consumers
FRIL is turning collaborative research into real-world solutions for the future of financial services – and, in turn, for all of us.
“There’s hardly an organisation you can talk to that isn’t interested in artificial intelligence and cyber security – the opportunities created and the challenges they might face,” explains Professor Eleanor Shaw OBE, Associate Principal External Engagement and Partnerships at the University of Strathclyde.
“As researchers, it’s really important that we use our expertise to explore those challenges with our external partners and find solutions. That’s how we drive impact.”
And the impact Eleanor describes isn’t just for industry; it’s for all of us, in our everyday financial lives.
“Imagine a world where, regardless of your postcode, you can access good-value, high-quality financial products: mortgages, insurance, advice and guidance. That’s the world we’re working towards at FRIL,” adds Eleanor.
Speak to almost anyone in financial services right now – just like many sectors – and you’ll hear the same underlying tension: the future is arriving faster than most organisations can comfortably absorb.
Technology and consumers. Opportunity and risk. Acceleration and anxiety. The list of modern paradoxes keeps growing. It’s enough to raise the pulse slightly.
That’s why addressing those challenges is at the core of the research undertaken by FRIL. This research is not theory alone. It is applied, fast-moving, tested, and shaped alongside industry and regulators – with real-world consequences in mind. Consequences that mean faster solutions for consumers, greater innovation capacity for banks, and new skills development programmes designed for the next generation of financial services.
“There’s a magic formula at the heart of FRIL, which is why we see the results we do. Actionable research is one of four key ingredients. The others are our Innovation Calls, Knowledge Exchange and Skills and Education programmes. Together, they drive impact and get solutions out into industry quickly,” explains Clare Reid, Strategic Innovation Director at FinTech Scotland. “Our partnerships with the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde are really important in driving research that shapes positive outcomes.”
Preparing for the future now
So, how does this actionable research actually work? Mark Cummins, Professor of Financial Technology and Lead Investigator at the University of Strathclyde, explains:
“At the University of Strathclyde translation of research has always been a key focus. We work in fundamental research and publications are critical – they build credibility, but we also work hard to translate that research into impact.
“At the University of Strathclyde, for example, we use cluster mechanisms to coordinate expertise across different areas. I lead our FinTech cluster, and those clusters are a key way of translating research for real-world impact.
“What FRIL brings is a mechanism for bringing all the stakeholders into one room: financial services, professional services, fintechs, regulators and others. That coordination gives us a reach that can be difficult to replicate in other ways.”
And that connection to industry and regulators is key:
“We draw on our academic knowledge to deliver applied research set by companies and regulators, and connect that directly to skills development and real industry challenges,” adds John Finch, Professor of Marketing at the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow and another Lead Investigator for FRIL.
FRIL research starts with real, live problems ranging from consumer vulnerability to operational resilience. The research activities bring banks, fintechs, regulators, and technology firms together to turn those challenges into direct, applied research built for a rapidly moving environment and evolving consumer needs. And it is a model that is appealing to action orientated academics.
“One of the key reasons I came back to academia was the chance to work on these white papers with industry,” says Steve Owens, a knowledge exchange fellow at the University of Strathclyde, and an engineer by trade. “We take real use cases and put academic research around them, then get that knowledge back out quickly. The focus is on getting useful insight into industry hands as quickly as possible.”
That research is increasingly boundary-pushing, and spans explainable AI, multi-modal generative AI, earth intelligence using satellite data, and agentic systems, but always tied back to regulatory and market needs.
The FRIL research model blends open and applied innovation. White papers are published openly so the wider sector can benefit.
Meeting needs
For banks, this means the research environment that FRIL offers becomes a home for strategic insights.
“We’re an insight-led team,” explains Nicole Alston, Programmes and Community Engagement Manager from Natwest. “FRIL gives us visibility across disruptive technologies and emerging sectors. We know we can’t build everything internally and that this is a two-way exchange.”
And that two-way exchange is critical, because at the centre of this high-tech research, is a clear purpose to tackle very human needs.
“If we apply technology correctly in financial services, we can drive greater inclusion and economic prosperity,” Eleanor reminds us.
Consumer vulnerability and consumer duty are recurring themes across FRIL research, but all of these areas are deeply nuanced where ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions won’t cater for the needs of all those in society. John helps explain:
“Vulnerability isn’t always permanent; it can be linked to life stage and personal circumstances. Insights from firms who see this day to day often reshape how and where we focus our research.”
Those insights are increasingly being translated into practical tools, and Advanced AI research is being applied directly to consumer outcomes.
But what does all of that actually mean? Well, just a few of those examples include identifying potential discrimination in financial decision-making, bringing financial advice and guidance to the masses rather than the few, and building voice-led digital interfaces that help people with reading or learning difficulties access support more easily. This is work that matters for everyday people.
And for technology partners, the value lies in bringing together the academic rigour with market urgency.
“We take hypotheses from industry challenges and shape them into structured research with academic partners,” says John Donoghue, Chief Technology Officer at Sopra Steria, a major tech firm with over 50,000 employees worldwide.
Students are embedded too – through live projects, dissertations, and industry-defined challenges, with the aim of building future skills alongside present solutions
“Students and researchers test and explore the challenges through projects and dissertations, then play findings back to us. We feed that directly into our product and strategy thinking,” adds John.
“This matters because we want to stay at the front edge of the industry,” he explains. “Working on challenges alongside – or ahead of – our clients helps us respond proactively and differentiate.”
People and collaboration
Across every voice we speak to, there is one theme that repeats: collaboration is essential – critical, even:
“Actionable research is crucial,” adds Kal Bukovski, Head of Academia and Research at Sopra Steria. “We bring together regulators, firms and technical practitioners so everyone takes something practical away. It’s about answering the what, why and how, not just describing the problem.”
With such a focus on technology, it may be surprising that what really drives FRIL’s research environment is a community of people who place a strong emphasis on meaningful and productive relationships. Mark explains:
“Our research, skills and education activities are all built on relationships. FRIL gives us a unique environment to build those and to translate research into real use.”
Research with purpose
This is research that doesn’t sit still. It moves quickly into white papers, innovation calls, student projects, product strategy, workforce upskilling and regulatory thinking. Kate Blatchford- Hick is Head of Consumer Investments Policy and Market Analysis at the Financial Conduct Authority and explains how the work drives impact for the regulators:
“FRIL’s research is really valuable as part of the market analysis, horizon scanning and insight work that we do. The work on AI and open finance, for example, helps deepen the evidence base around how emerging technologies are shaping consumer decision-making, both now and in the future. That, in turn, strengthens the FCA’s ability to anticipate market behaviours, risks and innovation, and helps us prioritise policy work that responds to both the opportunities and the potential risks.”
And while insights from FRIL are actively informing regulation and policy, they are also shaping a new generation of skills programmes designed for a rapidly changing sector. Earlier this year, FRIL launched the FRIL Skills Academy. The academy is a first-of-its-kind skills and education platform created to address capability gaps and support career development across financial and professional services and the wider fintech community.
Delivered with academic partners at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow, the Skills Academy responds directly to the accelerating pace of technological change, particularly in areas such as AI, data quality, and regulatory compliance, where talent shortages continue to slow innovation and increase recruitment costs.
FRIL research has highlighted persistent skills gaps across the sector, reinforcing the need for sustained, strategic investment in workforce development to maintain the UK’s global competitiveness.
“This is a new benchmark for how academia and industry partner at pace,” says Clare Reid, Strategic Innovation Director at FinTech Scotland.
And this point leads us to the nub of FRIL research. This research doesn’t just help us understand change, it informs how we shape it. That’s what makes this model so distinctive.
“I believe in this research because it’s about doing good quickly, we’re not just producing journal outputs, but creating real industry impact and addressing real consumer needs, right here and right now,” concludes Mark.
At the centre of FRIL’s research is a common theme – in a world of rapid change, we need to think differently and act boldly. That same mindset runs through the fintech world, where pushing boundaries, breaking ground, and creating new ways forward are part of the DNA.
As Kal puts it: “Fintech is a kind of art: you have to think beyond the limits and create something new that genuinely serves the right purpose.”
And that is FRIL research.
‘Innovation in financial regulation’ might not sound like the catchiest tagline, but it is at the heart of making the world better for all of us – today, tomorrow and in the decades that come.
What next?
Interested in the research generated by FRIL? Then check out our White Papers across a range of subjects.
If you’re interested in the work of FRIL more generally and would like to contact a member of the team email: FRIL@fintechscotland.com.
About FRIL
The Tipton selects docStribute® to modernise member communications
docStribute® and the Tipton & Coseley Building Society partner to improve the firm’s communications and strengthen member engagement
docStribute®, a UK RegTech company specialising in regulated customer communications, today announces a strategic partnership with the Tipton & Coseley Building Society.
The partnership reflects the Tipton’s continued focus on personalised service, deepening member engagement and meeting the requirements of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty.
A key priority for the Tipton is accelerating digital transformation, with the partnership forming part of a multi-year change programme to expand online services, enhance systems and create better retail and working environments.
Through the docStribute® platform, the Society wants to move towards an electronic-first approach for both regulated and general communications. It aims to reduce delivery costs, process important documents more quickly, and use less paper, thereby lowering the associated carbon emissions.
Beyond cost, efficiency and environmental gains, the partnership will help the Tipton in repositioning its regulated documents, so they are not just a compliance requirement, but an opportunity to engage with members.
By presenting information in a clearer, more accessible digital format for those who want it, the Tipton can build greater awareness and understanding within its membership. This in turn supports well informed financial decisions, in line with Consumer Duty expectations.
docStribute® enables the delivery of timely, relevant communications which are easier to access, read, and navigate. The result is improved engagement and measurable insight into how members interact with information, allowing the Tipton to continuously improve clarity and outcomes.
Central to this approach is docStribute’s AIDA, the Artificial Intelligent Document Assistant. Developed through docStribute’s participation in FinTech Scotland’s Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), it enables recipients to interact with regulated documents in a conversational way, helping them navigate complex information, ask questions, and receive clear explanations in real time.
The platform can also incorporate supportive formats such as short video and enhanced visual layers to aid accessibility and comprehension. Together, these tools support financial literacy and stronger understanding, while ensuring communications remain compliant and appropriately governed.
The platform uses Distributed Ledger Technology to protect the integrity of customer documents and create a verifiable record of what information was sent and when. This ensures communications remain secure, accessible, and compliant with the FCA’s Durable Medium requirements, while providing the sender with greater visibility of engagement and understanding.
Chris Ansara, CEO of docStribute®, said:
“We are pleased to be working with The Tipton & Coseley Building Society. Building societies have always been rooted in trust and community. Our role is to help turn regulated communications into moments that strengthen that trust by making important information clearer and easier to engage with.
“With AIDA, and enhanced formats such as video, we are adding another layer that actively supports member understanding, not just delivery. This partnership brings our total building society partners to four and highlights the sector’s continued emphasis on improving customer understanding through stronger engagement.”
Richard Groom, Chief Customer Officer at the Tipton, added:
“We are focused on increasing the proportion of compliant digital communications we send as this brings multiple benefits to our business and members alike. Adopting an electronic-first approach, in line with members’ preferences, is another step towards modernising our Society and will improve the overall standard of service we offer.”
The real constraint in advice firms is capacity
Insights from Tom Matthieson, Founder & Director, Glimzer
Capacity, not regulation
When people talk about the challenges facing financial advice firms, regulation is usually the first thing mentioned.
But in conversations with advisers, operations teams and firm leaders, a different constraint comes up far more consistently: capacity.
Not a lack of demand. Not a lack of intent to do the right thing for clients. Simply a lack of time and headroom in the day‑to‑day running of the business.
Advisers want to spend time with clients. Firms want to serve more people, improve consistency and grow sustainably. What gets in the way is the volume of administrative work required to keep everything moving. Manual updates. Duplicated data entry. Chasing information across systems. Maintaining spreadsheets alongside core platforms just to get a clear picture of what’s going on.
None of this work improves client outcomes. But it quietly consumes hours every week.
What’s striking is how normal this has become. Many firms accept admin drag as the cost of doing business, even though it directly limits how many clients they can realistically support. As teams grow, the problem often gets worse. More people means more handoffs, more checks and more effort spent reconciling information rather than using it.
Tools built for records, not delivery
A big part of this comes down to the tools firms rely on. Much of the infrastructure used in advice today was designed primarily to store records, not to support how advice is actually delivered in practice. Over time, firms adapt around these systems, building workarounds and manual processes to keep things running. The result is friction that feels unavoidable, but isn’t.
Small fixes that unlock capacity
At Glimzer, we’ve been spending time listening closely to how advice firms actually work day to day. What becomes clear very quickly is that small improvements in how information flows through a business can unlock meaningful capacity. Capturing data once instead of multiple times. Making workflows clearer. Giving teams visibility without having to build reports by hand.
This isn’t about changing the role of the adviser or introducing more complexity. It’s about removing unnecessary work so firms can use the capability they already have more effectively.
Collaboration matters
Being part of the FinTech Scotland community matters to us because these problems aren’t solved in isolation. They sit at the intersection of advice delivery, operations and technology, and they benefit from a shared perspective and honest discussion.
Our aim at Glimzer
We’re building in this space with a simple aim: to reduce friction, give advice firms back time and help them serve more clients without stretching their teams thinner. We’re keen to learn from others who are thinking about the same challenges, and to contribute to a broader conversation about how better infrastructure can support the future of advice.
Galveston Group
Glimzer
Protostars
Finance and Health Lab National Conference to convene cross-sector leaders at The Edinburgh Futures Institute
FinTech Scotland today announced the Finance and Health Lab National Conference, on 19 March 2026, an invite-only national event bringing together leaders from financial services, health, academia, government and the innovation ecosystem to explore how Scotland can lead the next wave of progress at the intersection of health and financial wellbeing.
Hosted at the University of Edinburgh’s Futures Institute, the conference will showcase practical insights, emerging innovation, and opportunities for collaboration focused on challenges that matter in later life and beyond — including inclusive service design, strengthening financial resilience, and building trusted approaches to data.
The Finance and Health Lab is designed to accelerate collaboration across sectors, connecting partners to test ideas, generate evidence, and support innovations to move from insight to impact. The conference will share what’s been learned so far and set out the next steps for continued ecosystem action.
What to expect on the day
The one-day programme (10:00–16:00, arrival from 09:30) includes:
- A keynote and guided discussion on the future of financial health in an ageing society
- A research insight showcase on health–wealth dynamics in later life
- An industry panel on designing future-ready, inclusive financial services
- A startup showcase and demonstrator session featuring ventures from the innovation call
- A data proposition session exploring trusted, ethical pathways for financial-health data use
- A closing conversation on scaling innovation through collaboration and national impact
Registration is invite-only, with a register interest option available via the event page.
Aleks Tomczyk, Chief Executive, FinTech Scotland, said: “Scotland has a unique opportunity to lead in innovation that connects financial resilience with healthier outcomes. The Finance and Health Lab National Conference brings partners together to share evidence, spotlight innovation, and build practical routes to collaboration and scale.”
Dr Andrea Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of Edinburgh Innovations, said: “This is an opportunity to align research, practice and policy and focus collective effort on innovations that can make a measurable difference for people as they age.”
Register interest
This event is by invitation only. Register your interest on the Finance and Health Lab National Conference page to receive further details.
In conversation with Financial Services: Why innovation really matters
The term ‘innovation’ might bring to mind a race for better technology, systems and smarter data, but beneath it all lies a fundamental question: how do we create a fairer financial future for all?
For most people, financial advice isn’t about products, platforms, or policy. It’s about life: buying a first home, protecting a family, surviving a setback, or planning for a future that feels uncertain.
Yet for millions, financial advice remains out of reach.
As one of the most significant regulatory shifts in recent years begins to reshape how people access financial support, the financial services sector is radically reshaping how advice and guidance is delivered.
This is just the kind of challenge that our pioneering Innovation Calls take on, led by our team in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL). Our latest call focused on the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Advice Guidance Boundary Review, a technical name for a very human issue: how to make financial help clearer, fairer and available to far more people.
Bringing together fintech founders, academics, financial services leaders, and regulators, FRIL’s Innovation Call creates a space where policy, practice, and possibility meet.
Here, we speak with two financial services leaders involved in the call to find out more about why innovation is so important to their firms, as well as the future of the sector:
- Maria Herrero Bullich – Chief Customer and Digital Officer, Insurance, Pensions & Investments at Lloyds Banking Group.
- Kate Murray – Strategic Projects Lead, Scottish Widows & Lloyds Banking Group.
Addressing the Big Picture
“For me, the utopia is that everyone who wants to do the right thing for their future has real choice. Whether they’re looking for simple guidance, clearer recommendations, or full financial advice. What matters is that people have different options, depending on their needs, and the freedom to decide which path is right for them,” explains Maria.
“It’s important to us to close the advice gap by building tools that help people think about their futures, especially those who can’t afford traditional advice, so they still have access to clear, targeted support when making important financial decisions.”
And this work matters, because the numbers are concerning. Millions of people across the UK still receive no financial advice at all, and while support exists, it is often out of reach for those who need it most.
The Advice Guidance Boundary Review represents a critical moment for the sector, an opportunity to ensure that more people can finally access support when making some of the most important decisions about their money.
Kate explains: “Our purpose is to help more people secure their financial futures, in a way that aligns with our wider goal of helping Britain prosper. There’s a real advice gap in the industry, and whether someone is our customer or not, we want to help fill that void so more people can move towards a more prosperous financial future.“
“At one end of the spectrum, people can’t afford advice –so they self-serve through available guidance, but don’t know what to do with it. At the other end, people can access full, holistic advice. In the middle, many don’t know how to save, invest or prepare for retirement. That’s where we see innovation and new solutions helping people understand their next step, whether that’s saving and investing more, planning for retirement, or putting more into their pension.”
Meeting Consumer Needs
And when we look more closely at this issue, it becomes clear that a one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t meet the diverse needs of consumers. Across the industry, firms are increasingly focused on developing more tailored ways to support those who are currently slipping through the advice and guidance net.
Maria explains: “There are parts of society that face very different challenges, from the gender gap in pensions to younger generations trying to save for the future. We’re focused on how to bring people who often have less financial confidence into the conversation and help them think about their futures.“
“Different groups need to be engaged in different ways. Younger people can be hard to reach, so we use techniques like gamification to encourage them to start those conversations. Others, such as people who feel less confident about investing, or women who may have taken career breaks and are worried about having enough for a comfortable retirement, face different barriers.”
These are very real issues, affecting everyday lives. Kate stresses the impact of what happens if the gap isn’t closed:
“Through work like our annual Women in Retirement report, we can see a massive gap in people’s financial futures. Significant proportions of society, who are working today, are on track to reach retirement without enough money, and that means going from work to a retirement in poverty.“
“That’s a serious problem, not just for individuals, but for the UK as a whole. It’s a systemic, government-level issue that needs to be addressed now, to prevent that happening for people as much as possible.”
Future Solutions Now
Finding solutions to these challenges requires a collaborative approach – different perspectives, experience and skillsets. That’s why this FRIL Innovation Call matters so much.
“It’s been so interesting to meet the fintechs and to connect with strategic partners, to better understand what they can bring to help us move at pace and innovate – so we can, at scale, support more customers to secure their financial futures,” says Kate.
“It’s been so interesting to meet the fintechs and to connect with strategic partners, to better understand what they can bring to help us move at pace and innovate – so we can, at scale, support more customers to secure their financial futures,” says Kate
“This is a huge opportunity for us. Scottish Widows has been involved in earlier calls, and this feels like a real chance to do things differently. At Lloyds Banking Group, we’re constantly trying to change how we innovate and move faster. Bringing in outside thinking, new technology, and completely different perspectives helps us bridge that and go quicker.”
And that’s why innovation in financial services is about far more than technology, systems, and data. As Maria puts it:
“We focus on creating experiences that aren’t built around products, but around people. It’s about understanding what they need, where the gaps are, and how to help them close them.”
The Advice Guidance Boundary Review. Just what does it all mean?
Advice: A regulated service where a financial adviser looks at your full financial situation and gives you a personalised recommendation.
Guidance: Support that points you in the right direction based on limited information you share, without telling you exactly what to do.
Boundary: The line that separates advice from guidance, defining how much information is needed and what a firm can or can’t recommend.
Review: The regulator’s process of consulting industry and consumers, and government to create clear new rules that will shape how these services work in future.
What next?
Enjoyed this piece? Hear from the perspective of the fintechs involved in the call. If you’re interested in the work of FRIL more generally and would like to contact a member of the team email: FRIL@fintechscotland.com.
About FRIL
Multimodal AI for Scaling Targeted Support: Navigating the FCA Advice–Guidance Boundary
Summary
The Financial Conduct Authority’s Advice Guidance Boundary Review (AGBR) seeks to address a persistent advice gap in UK financial services by enabling new forms of scalable, decision-relevant consumer support that sit between generic guidance and personalised financial advice. This challenge is particularly acute in pensions, where consumers face complex, long-term decisions but exhibit low engagement with traditional advice services. This white paper examines the potential of multimodal generative artificial intelligence to deliver targeted support in pensions while remaining within the advice–guidance boundary. Drawing on recent advances in Vision Language Models and multimodal conversational architectures, the paper develops a solution framework for speech-enabled, audio-visual digital advisors that are compliant by design. A Digital Pensions Advisor prototype is presented to demonstrate how such systems can interpret real consumer narratives, recognise and respond appropriately to vulnerability, and maintain boundary discipline when confronted with requests for personalised advice. The paper concludes by outlining a roadmap for strengthening auditability, explainability, and supervisory readiness, and by identifying future research directions, including the role of formal and informal information sources in shaping consumer understanding. Collectively, the findings suggest that multimodal AI can play a meaningful role in scaling targeted support in pensions while preserving regulatory safeguards and consumer trust.
Hao Zhang Digital Avatar demo
About FRIL
Finance and Health Lab launches Innovation Open Call for later life financial wellbeing solutions
FinTech Scotland today announced the launch of the Finance and Health Lab Innovation Open Call, inviting fintechs, startups, and innovators to develop and test ideas that address defined challenges affecting financial resilience, financial confidence, and quality of life as people age.
The Finance and Health Lab is a national programme led by FinTech Scotland, bringing together financial services organisations, fintech innovators, academics and public sector partners to explore how financial wellbeing and health interact and intersect in later life. The open call is designed to move beyond general discussion, creating space for evidence-led innovation, collaboration and practical experimentation that can inform future services, models and policy.
As the population grows older, changes in health, income, care needs and financial complexity increasingly shape people’s wellbeing. Through this open call, applicants are invited to propose solutions aligned to priority challenge areas focused on improving outcomes in later life.
Industry partners
Innovators selected through the open call will have the opportunity to engage with participating industry partners:
Priority challenge areas
The Innovation Stimulation programme is structured around a set of priority use cases reflecting pressing later life financial health challenges. Applicants should align their ideas to one or more of the following:
1. Predictive Financial Vulnerability Insights for Later Life
Using health, behavioural and financial data to generate early warning insights that help identify when individuals may be entering periods of financial vulnerability due to health changes.
2. Healthy Ageing Scenario Simulation for Financial Planning
Creating dynamic, personalised scenario planning tools that model the financial impact of later life health events — including longevity, income change and care transitions.
3. Data Quality and Ethical Data Sharing for Health and Wealth Insights
Strengthening permissioned, ethically governed data flows between health, financial and public sector systems to support better later life services — improving trust, transparency and data quality.
4. Cross-System Care and Financial Navigation for Ageing Populations
Helping people navigate fragmented ecosystems spanning health services, social care, pensions, insurance and benefits as needs evolve — reducing complexity and stress.
5. Empowering Later Life Financial Decision Confidence
Strengthening confidence and decision-making, reducing anxiety and supporting long-term wellbeing through complex or high-stakes decisions.
6. Age-Friendly FinTech and Inclusive Digital Service Design
Making digital financial services more accessible, trustworthy and supportive for older adults and those with health-related barriers.
Aleks Tomczyk, Chief Executive, FinTech Scotland, said:
“The Finance and Health Lab open call is about practical progress — bringing innovators and partners together to explore solutions that can strengthen financial resilience and support better outcomes as people age. We’re looking for bold ideas grounded in real needs, with the potential to be tested and learned from quickly.”
How to Apply
Applications open 4 February and close 12 February.
Learn more and apply on the Finance & Health Lab Open Call page.