Exploring the Digital Pound: The Bank of England’s Latest Update
The Bank of England and HM Treasury have shared their latest update on the progress towards a potential digital pound, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that could serve as a base for the next generation of retail payments in the UK.
The two bodies are moving through the design phase, their focus remaining on developing a detailed blueprint for how a digital pound could work in practice. This includes rigorous experimentation through the Digital Pound Lab and continuous collaboration with industry stakeholders. Together, this work will inform a joint assessment by the Bank and HM Treasury, with a decision on next steps expected in 2026.
The update also introduces two new design notes that explore the technical and practical dimensions of a digital pound:
- Alias Service: Examines how using account aliases (such as email addresses or phone numbers) could simplify retail payments, enhancing usability and security. The paper also explores the Bank’s potential role in enabling such a service across the payments ecosystem.
- Offline Payments: Explores how the digital pound could support deferred offline transactions, including applications in transport, vending, and other unattended terminals. The paper also considers how device-to-device payments could operate securely without a live internet connection.
The exploration of a UK digital currency represents a great opportunity for innovation across the financial services sector. New payment architectures, trust frameworks and identity services will offer fintech innovators in Scotland and across the UK an opportunity to play a role in shaping and testing these emerging models.
We’re looking forward to collaborating on this initiative through the Digital TRUST Centre of Excellence that FinTech Scotland recently set up in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow and Scottish Enterprise.
Celebrating Scotland’s FinTech Champions
On Wednesday evening, the Scottish FinTech Awards returned to Edinburgh, bringing together the Scottish fintech cluster for a night of recognition, networking, and inspiration. The awards, organised by Digit and held as part of the Scotland FinTech Festival and hosted at the EICC recognised organisations and individuals pushing the frontier of financial innovation in Scotland.
The breadth of categories underscores how far fintech in Scotland has matured, from climate impact and digital transformation to partnership models, RegTech, and AI/data usage. This year saw a threefold increase in terms of entries which reinforces the claim to being a meaningful a leading fintech cluster, alive, competitive, and attracting global attention.
In the last 12 months the FinTech Scotland cluster recorded 8 % year-on-year employment growth in 2024 and 11,300 people are now working in fintech across Scotland.
The winners
- FinTech of the Year: Loveelectric
- Climate & Environmental Impact: CienDos
- Best Start Up / New Entrant: Finspector
- Best Use of Data / AI: Aveni
- Digital Transformation: GoCodeGreen
- Financial Services Innovation: Mylo (Aegon)
- Financial Technology Partner: Snugg
- Outstanding Leader: David Ferguson (Seccl)
- Social Impact: Stellar Omada
- Special Recognition: Adam Betteridge (TSB)
- Evangelist: Sheetal Dash (Barclays)
- Best Fintech Collaboration: Level E Research & Aberdeen
Best RegTech Innovation of the year
At FinTech Scotland, we were particularly proud to see the RegTech Innovation award go to the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL). It’s not just a win for FinTech Scotland but for the whole cluster as demonstrated by the diversity of people on stage to collect the awards from fintechs to established financial firms, from universities to FinTech Scotland colleagues.
The award is an affirmation of the vision behind FRIL and the collaborative approach we believe is essential to the future of regulation, compliance and consumer outcomes in financial services.
Finwise School Ltd
Simple Financial Planning
FinTech Scotland strengthens fintech cluster with global leaders CMS and Mastercard
FinTech Scotland has announced that law firm CMS and international payments leader Mastercard have joined the Scottish Fintech Cluster as Strategic Partners; an exciting development enhancing the cluster’s collective strengths. The new strategic partners bring additional world-class financial and professional services expertise that will support fintech innovation and accelerate economic growth across Scotland and the UK.
Their involvement reflects the continued momentum for growth across the FinTech Scotland Cluster and its commitment to collaborative innovation, to shape the future of next generation financial services.
Payment giant Mastercard is championing fintech developments across the world and is driving innovation in fields such as AI and Open Finance, both themes closely aligned to FinTech Scotland’s Research and Innovation Roadmap. This new partnership will present fintech businesses in Scotland with more innovation and collaboration opportunities that can build new commercial pathways and access to global markets.
CMS, which has more than 5,000 lawyers across 70 offices worldwide, brings extensive expertise in advising high growth fintech and established financial institutions in cutting-edge developments that are transforming the financial services sector. Their expertise in fields such as digital assets and blockchain technology supports Scotland’s plans for the new Centre of Excellence in Distributed Ledger Technologies developed by FinTech Scotland in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University.
The two new strategic additions further strengthen an already dynamic group of over 35 strategic partners, all working together to shape a world-class environment for fintech development and regional growth. The diversity of experience and perspective within the cluster continues to drive impactful collaboration and positive impact for the sector and society. These partnerships align with the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy announced on the 23rd of June, highlighting firstly the importance of industry-wide collaboration in delivering economic growth alongside more place-based approaches and the importance of regional clusters to deliver successful growth.
Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said: “We are delighted to welcome CMS and Mastercard to the FinTech Scotland Cluster. Their global reach, commitment to innovation, and deep sector expertise align perfectly with our ambition for the future of fintech innovation in Scotland. Together with our existing strategic partners, we are building a purposeful, connected, and impactful fintech Cluster, driving action for positive economic gain.”
Bruce Harvie and Fiona Henderson, Partners at CMS Scotland, said: “We are delighted to announce CMS’s strategic partnership with Fintech Scotland, a collaboration that underscores our shared commitment to driving innovation, excellence and growth across Scotland’s financial services ecosystem. This collaboration brings together our deep industry expertise and Fintech Scotland’s dynamic cluster to support the development of cutting-edge solutions that will benefit businesses and consumers alike. We look forward to contributing to Scotland’s thriving fintech community that champions collaboration, sustainability, and economic growth.”
Tackling the eSignature challenge in financial services
For established financial firms and fintechs, getting documents signed is a routine part of doing business. However, in regulated sectors, this far from a simple click and can be time demanding. The challenge is ensuring that each signature is genuine, the signer’s identity is verified, and the process stands up to legal and compliance scrutiny.
The problem: when speed meets risk
Digital transformation has made signing a document as easy as pressing a button, but not all eSignatures are created equal.
- Click-to-sign methods offer convenience but can leave gaps in proving who actually signed.
- In high-value transactions such as lending agreements or investment contracts, these gaps create legal and regulatory risk.
- For scaling fintechs, enterprise-grade solutions that meet evidentiary standards can be expensive, with licensing fees adding hidden operational costs.
This leaves many firms in a bind: how to balance speed, client experience, and compliance without breaking the budget.
The solution: a verified approach
Syngrafii emerged from a unique collaboration between CEO Matthew Gibson and Canadian author Margaret Atwood, initially to create remote wet-ink signatures for book signings. That invention evolved into a secure document execution platform designed for high-trust environments.
The system combines:
- Biometric ink signature capture – recording pressure, speed, and stroke data.
- Live video signing sessions – visually confirming the signer’s identity in real time.
- Tamper-proof audit trails – preserving every step of the transaction in a MasterFile™ for evidentiary use.
The result is a signing process that mirrors the assurance of in-person signing, but with the reach and efficiency of digital.
For growing fintechs, Syngrafii’s Pay-As-You-Sign™ model removes the barrier of large annual license fees. Firms pay only for the transactions they complete, making enterprise-grade compliance achievable without committing to long-term, high-cost contracts.
Use cases range from:
- Client onboarding with ID verification.
- Loan and mortgage approvals requiring verified signatures.
- Wealth management agreements where client trust is paramount.
View Syngrafii’s profile on FinTech Scotland’s website.
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/
Why Scottish fintech GiftRound made UX a priority?
For GiftRound, creating a frictionless, intuitive and customer-centred experience is core to their mission: making it easy for people to contribute to group gifts online.
As the platform gained traction and the customer base grew, founder Craig Forsythe saw the opportunity to strengthen the user journey and make every interaction more seamless.
“User experience isn’t just about how things look,” Craig explains. “It’s about making people feel confident using the platform, whether they’re setting up a collection or chipping in for a friend’s birthday.”
The GiftRound team began looking more closely at how people moved through the product, from the first visit to completing a group contribution. Small moments of friction, unclear messaging, or awkward flows were quietly affecting engagement and satisfaction.
To explore improvements, GiftRound partnered with design studio Interaktiv for a free user experience design workshop.
In just an hour, they had:
- Identified specific ways in which the brand could be elevated to reflect the strength of the product, then set out practical steps for how that could be done.
- Pinpointed parts of the user journey that weren’t working as hard as they could, and made recommendations on how to go about fixing them.
What began as a one-hour design conversation led to a deeper review of the platform, a new brand, thoughtful changes across the customer journey, and a new website.
“The UX changes we made have had a huge impact for our team and for our customers,” Craig says. “It’s made the whole GiftRound experience feel easier, faster, and more enjoyable.”
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.
Bringing Cash Closer to Digital: OneBanx Integrates Cash Access into Banking Apps
Scottish fintech OneBanx is launching a strategic initiative to ensure cash access doesn’t get left behind by working with partner banks to embed cash withdrawal and deposit functionality directly into mobile banking apps.
This new integration means customers will soon be able to use their bank’s app to initiate transactions at OneBanx kiosks, without needing a physical card or third-party wallet. It’s a move designed to enhance customer experience while making in-person cash services more accessible through digital channels.
While digital wallets have simplified spending, OneBanx aims to complement this trend by boosting the utility of banks’ own apps. The company’s joint white paper with Enryo, “Cash as Payments Infrastructure,” reinforces the point: most people in the UK still use cash occasionally, even in an increasingly cashless society.
The integration also offers tangible benefits for banks:
- A seamless customer journey within their existing app;
- Greater engagement with less digitally-active customers;
- And a cost-effective way to extend reach without reopening branches.
Pilots with partner banks are underway, with full deployment expected later this year.
“Our goal is to create real-world utility for digital banking while still supporting essential in-person needs,” said Javed Anjum, CEO of OneBanx. “This initiative helps banks stay connected to communities in a way that’s sustainable and scalable.”