Drivers for Growth? People, Technology and Regulations- a collaborative approach
Driven by digitalisation, fintech is one of the most important innovations embedded in everyday transactions, supported by emerging technologies including automation, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, smart contracts, and machine learning.
While fintechs are here to stay, the image of the future is a little uncertain. Challenges such as the modernisation of financial architecture and changing consumer perceptions, the disruption of existing service models, incumbent employers and regulatory frameworks posing double edge implications for the overall ecosystem, and to access human capital, a discussion initiated by the University of Dundee Business School inviting FinTechs, regulators and Academics.
Regulators’ concerns have become increasingly complex because of technological integration and at times, fintechs exist in an environment with limited guidance. This challenge is underscored by regulatory regimes that multiply across countries, states, and even regions, a point emphasised by Professor Hisham, Birmingham University Business School, added how the terms around fintechs are not”¯comprehensive or standardised, which needs to be addressed in order to enable the”¯ecosystem to”¯grow.
Quicker responses from financial markets are crucial in terms of developing new instruments to battle the challenges about security and reliability of data and in terms of developing the regulatory framework, fostering relational and behavioral trust with consumers.
We must understand that regulations can be a barrier too, another point emphasised by industry experts, emphasising the need for a more balanced approach that allows flexibility and innovations. Najia ( Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan) shared a regulatory perspective by adding that attitudes are shifting as a result of regulatory sandbox initiatives, providing a safe environment for early-stage development for fintech start-ups to test their innovations without the need for full license, thereby, playing another critical role in the development of fintech, ultimately breaking down the current regionalism of the sectors.
Nonetheless, different countries are at different stages of fintechs growth, for developing countries like Pakistan, a bigger issue is contract enforceability, suggesting that the biggest challenges are from the other side of the table, hence being mindful of the fact of how”¯the investors are and can be protected. This signifies the emergence of new developments and technological innovations that can help to develop a global friendly fintech ecosystem, breaking down the current regionalism of the sector.
“”¦.Fintech innovations will only become more pervasive in everyday transactions as their adoption increases and more inclusive and open regulatory frameworks allow them to grow.” [Stephen Ingledew, CEO at FinTech Scotland]
Opportunities abound for fintechs to engage in dialogue with regulators and raise awareness of rapidly emerging technologies and consequences they may have for market integrity, stability, and sustainability. Knowledge shared between regulators and fintech companies can enhance regulators’ awareness of consumer habits, behaviours and desires.
The technology supports the human understanding, where the growth opportunities are, but it will never replace a human in making those decisions, a point emphasised by Clive representing ACCA and Morris, Dean of Dundee Business School, adding that Digital transformation requires a transformation of people, technology, and processes, with people being the most important factor.
The key challenge organisations are facing globally, is the right talent. Despite searching for it, businesses are not getting the right people to assist them in this particular transformation. You can’t really have one without the other, Marijus (NCR) and James (Zudu), Tayseer (SadaPay) and Hazel (Candocollective) continuing the debate, suggested that people are extremely important, especially development of human capital, we need to put more emphasis on people’s learning, not only in their own skill set and knowledge, and also for their cross-functional flexibility.
After all, everything connects and technology, human capital, and businesses are dependent on each other now maybe more than ever before. The importance of educators was emphasised by most participants in reducing the gap between the needs of FinTechs and the offer of the current human capital market.
Overall, the promises offered by fintech certainly far outweigh the risks, at least in the medium to long term! However, we need to act now and get the regulatory environment and the human capital market “fintech ready”.
Participant organisations:
University of Dundee Business School ; SadaPay; Sehatkahani; Fintechscotland; Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan; Candocollective; Birmingham University Business School; Zudu; NCR; ACCA; Tez Financial Services
Flock selects Scottish fintech AutoRek
Scottish fintech AutoRek, just announced that Flock had joined their now extensive list of clients.
Flock is an innovative firm all about reinventing business models around insurance. They are looking to build a global, fully digital insurance company for connected commercial vehicles to mitigates risk, rather than just paying claims.
AutoRek was chosen by Flock because of its flexibility.
Flock will be using AutoRek to:
- Automate bordereau, bank and payment reconciliation requirements
- Calculate broker payments to generate statements to brokers and paid bordereau
- Take various external data sources from other insurance organisations, as well as from the general ledger
- Underpin Flock’s Insurance Broker Accounting (IBA) operations
Gordon McHarg, CEO at AutoRek, added,
“It is excellent to have Flock come on board as a new client. We are delighted to be seen as a flexible and adaptable tool to help fast-growing companies like Flock scale their business. We look forward to continuing this partnership over the coming years.”
Piers Williams, Insurance Lead at AutoRek, added,
“We are excited to work with Flock, they are disrupting the insurance industry with innovative new products. Behind their exciting business is a foundation of leading software solutions that are enabling the business to achieve its objectives. Flock will be deploying AutoRek’s bordereau reconciliation and financial control solution to deliver end-to-end automation.”
AutoRek listed in RegTech100 List
Scottish RegTech company, AutoRek, just announced it has been selected as one of the world’s most innovative RegTech companies as part of the annual RegTech100 list.
Autorek was selected amongst a long list of nearly 1,200 companies produced by RegTech Analyst, a specialist research firm, for its innovative use of technology to solve a significant industry problem and generating efficiency improvements across the compliance function.
The Scottish company is a financial controls, regulatory reporting and data management platform which provides complete and seamless control of data. Despite the pandemic.
Kemal Sangrar, Head of Product, AutoRek, said
“We are delighted to be listed in the RegTech100 for the fourth consecutive year. This award is recognition of our commitment in delivering regulatory reporting solutions to the financial services industry and testimony to innovative strategy underpinning our product. We have had a great year with the launch of AutoRek 6, with many clients looking to upgrade in the coming months.”
Mariyan Dimitrov, Director of Research, RegTech Analyst, added,
“Banks and other financial institutions are investing heavily into AI capabilities to automate highly manual regulatory tasks, support digital onboarding processes and monitor for fraudulent activity. The RegTech100 list helps them filter through all the vendors in the market by highlighting the leading companies in sectors such as identity verification, risk management, communications monitoring, information security and financial crime prevention.”
A full list of the RegTech 100 is available at www.RegTech100.com.
AutoRek selected by Superscript for Bordereau Reconciliations & CASS 5 Automation
Scottish fintech AutoRek just announced that Superscript would come on board as a new client.
Established in 2015, Insurtech Superscript is disrupting the business insurance distribution model, placing customers at the core of their business. It uses a flexible monthly subscription model suited to the fast-changing needs of today’s small businesses. With Superscript, customers can obtain quotes, set-up their cover in minutes, pay, modify, or cancel their cover any time, easily.
Autorek will be used by Superscript and become part of their digitally driven architecture to deliver end-to-end automation and to enable the business to scale and meet its exciting growth plans.
Gordon McHarg, CEO at AutoRek, added,
“We are delighted to have a client such as Superscript come on board. It is an exciting time for both Superscript and AutoRek in terms of growth plans and we look forward to collaborating on this project and building on our relationship.”
Piers Williams, Insurance Lead at AutoRek, added,
“We are excited to work with the team at Superscript, particularly as they are strong players in the new wave of digitally driven Insurance firms. We have built our Bordereau solution based on the market need and are looking forward to working with the team at Superscript to implement our market leading solution to deliver end-to-end automation.”
Anil Sharma, Chief Financial Officer at Superscript, said:
“Superscript has ambitious growth plans, and we are scaling quickly. As we are managing an increasing amount of policy transactions, the implementation of AutoRek’s technology will help increase efficiency for the finance team. Importantly, it can be incorporated seamlessly and will be a useful addition to our existing systems.”
Survey – FinTech Scotland Research & Innovation roadmap
Whitecap Consulting is supporting FinTech Scotland in the development of a ten-year research and innovation roadmap to support the growth of Scotland’s digital economy and the wider development of FinTech innovation across the UK.
This roadmap will build on the work of FinTech Scotland to date, and inform priority focus research themes and the unmet needs of consumers, businesses and society.
This survey will help us identify appropriate opportunities for cross-sector enablement of FinTech innovations to achieve the UK’s overall industrial strategy.
Take the survey
Thank you for your participation. Any answers you give in this online survey may be attributed to individuals or organisations within the report, however only with your prior approval.
AutoRek nominated for duo of awards
AutoRek, the leading software provider to global financial service firms, has been shortlisted for the Best CASS Solution’ and Best Wealth Management Solution’ categories at the Systems in the City Financial Technology Awards 2021.
This isn’t the first time AutoRek has won the Best CASS Solution award, after winning the title last year – the first time the award ceremony has been held virtually in its 18-year history.
Lyn Canavan, Head of Marketing at AutoRek, commented, “We are delighted to be recognised again as a provider of the Best CASS Solution’, and also in the Best Wealth Management Solution’ category by the Systems in the City Financial Technology Awards judging panel ”“ this is testimony to the team’s continued hard work in consistently striving to offer superior solutions.”
Goodacre, a specialist business and technology consultancy, organised the awards as an endorsement for suppliers of systems and services to the regulated financial services sector, with three independent judges overseeing the selection prciess.
The Awards provide an important point of reference for user firms assessing the suitability of their operational infrastructure
Omnio selects AutoRek’s reconciliation solution
AutoRek, the Scottish fintech and leading software provider to global financial services firms, has announced Omnio as the latest addition to its ever-expanding list of digital banking/payment clients.
Omnio, a high-growth financial services infrastructure provider, provides a singular platform that combines the best of banking capabilities and customer engagement/loyalty. With operations in the UK and Europe, and headquartered in London, it supports many of the leading corporates and financial institutions in providing innovative and effective banking, payment and loyalty solutions.
AutoRek will provide the core reconciliation solution, including internal and external reconciliations between Omnio’s payment processors, bank accounts and ledger system. AutoRek’s solution seeks to replace its existing manual Excel process by providing end-to-end automation and will facilitate increased efficiency and control, as well as provide automated reporting and real-time Management Information to ensure the team’s business users and management are provided with quality MI through a variety of dashboards to fulfil their daily activities at the optimal level.
Laurence Sproston, Head of Reconciliations and Settlements at Omnio, commented, “We approached AutoRek to provide us with a solution to help automate our reconciliation processes. Our main goal in pursuing this partnership is to save time, costs and ensure operational resilience as we move forward to a new way of working. The AutoRek team adopts a collaborative approach for implementation and have provided us with an automated solution ensuring our regulatory, data integrity, workflow and management information needs are met.”
Gordon McHarg, CEO at AutoRek, added, “We are pleased to welcome Omnio to our increasingly growing client portfolio. The payments industry is evolving rapidly and we are proud that AutoRek’s capabilities meet the challenges facing the industry including volume of data. We are looking forward to establishing a good relationship with Omnio and building upon it over the years.”
Nick Botha, Banking and Payments Lead at AutoRek, who led the deal commented, “We are delighted to be working with the Omnio team. Following the turbulent year defined by COVID-19 and with the constant changes taking place in the digital banking and payments world, we are extremely proud that Omnio has selected the AutoRek solution to be the glue between their internal and external systems.”
AutoRek takes on the Big Apple
AutoRek, a leading Fintech software provider to global financial service firms, is the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce’s selection for representing Scottish business in its virtual trade mission to the state of New York.
On the 23 and 24 March, the two-day event aims to attract Scottish companies from the Fintech sector that show interest in international exporting and expanding. 16 company-strong delegations that will participate in a market awareness session, and two business-to-business meetings based on specific requirements, with support from the Chamber’s local market partner.
Establishing international partnerships in the main aim of this trade mission, with the opportunity to explore joint ventures, distribution deals and other mutually beneficial practices.
Having been selected by the UK Government’s Department of International Trade to showcase the Best of British Innovation, AutoRek has continued to build overseas relationships. Just last week, AutoRek announced Scottish Equity Partners had completed a significant growth equity investment in its business, which will facilitate accelerating its US expansion plans.
SEP Invests in Glasgow Based SaaS Platform AutoRek
Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has made a significant growth equity investment in AutoRek, a leading Glasgow-based provider of Financial control, regulatory reporting and data management software. Over the past three years, Autorek’s cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) has experienced significant growth and investment from SEP, enabling them to extend further into the international market as well as accelerating additional product development.
About AutoRek
AutoRek is an industry-leading software provider to companies in the global financial services sector.
An industry leader at the forefront of financial data management, AutoRek’s customisable rules-driven platform allows firms to automate and streamline the collection, validation and reconciliation of data. This facilitates the necessary transparency for good governance and fulfilling regulatory obligations. Efficiency and cost reduction are delivered by eliminating spreadsheets and manual processing, as well as mitigating operational and regulatory risk associated with managing high volumes of data.
SEP Expansion
Increased regulation of financial institutions and growing demand for AutoRek’s financial control and regulatory reporting solutions have both been a result of the drive for greater integrity, transparency and accountability within the financial services sector. AutoRek’s software automates high-volume reconciliation, exception management and data analysis workflows, delivering operational efficiency and improved governance of financial and regulatory risk. Partnering with SEP will support the company to further enhance its proposition to address a $2 billion-plus per annum global regulatory and data management software market.
Andrew Davidson and Angus Conroy led the deal, with both joining the AutoRek Board. Angus said:
“AutoRek is a fast-growing and capital-efficient SaaS company, delivering business-critical functionality to financial institutions across the asset management, banking and insurance sectors. The company has an excellent reputation in the financial and regulatory data management market and a strong focus on product innovation. We are pleased to be working with the management team to help them achieve their growth ambitions.”
Gordon McHarg, co-founder and CEO of AutoRek said:
“We are delighted to have SEP on board as an investment partner to continue the successful evolution of the AutoRek business. SEP has extensive experience in the software sector and we are looking forward to working with them to build on our recent growth and to capitalise on the substantial opportunity within the global financial services market.”
UK Government picks AutoRek for US roadshow
Scottish fintech company, AutoRek has been selected by the UK Government’s Department for International Trade (DIT) to showcase the best in British innovation during a US roadshow.
The DIT’s RegTech Roadshow will take place virtually between the 22nd and the 26th February 2021 and provide ten innovative innovative firms the opportunity to meet industry stakeholders, regulators and potential partners. AutoRek was chosen after a very competitive selection process.
Commenting on the accolade, AutoRek CEO, Gordon McHarg, said,
“Joining the trade delegation, with other leading regulatory innovators is an exciting and invaluable opportunity for AutoRek to demonstrate our services. We have proven success in the UK and are accustomed to working with global financial services firms and are looking forward to helping revolutionise the way US companies manage risk, compliance and regulatory change.”
Kunal Khatri, Director for DIT North America, said,
“The UK has been at the heart of the global financial services innovation for decades, and in 2021 we will continue to lead the global FinTech and RegTech revolution. We’re excited to showcase the talent and expertise that UK companies have to offer. This roadshow is a great opportunity to deepen our bilateral engagement on financial services with the US and encourage private sector collaboration to make the world a safer, easier, and more equitable place to do business.”
AutoRek further strengthened its US offering by signing a partnership with iSoftware4Banks in November 2020. With AutoRek’s growing clientele – together with the nine other roadshow representatives, these companies combined service nearly every major top tier bank.