From innovation challenge to Scottish ambition: How Finspector is building the future of financial promotions compliance
By Phil Clements, CFA, CAIA, FDP, CEO at Finspector
When we incorporated Finspector in March 2025, we had a straightforward thesis: the way regulated firms manage financial promotions compliance is broken, and AI can help to fix it. What we didn’t fully anticipate was how quickly the right ecosystem support could turn that thesis into a live, revenue-generating platform, or how Scotland would become central to our story.
Twelve months on, Finspector has gone from concept to commercial traction, with signed proof-of-concept clients, paying customers, and recognition as FinTech of the Year at the Scottish FinTech Awards 2025. A significant part of that acceleration came through our participation in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, and it’s worth explaining why.
The problem we set out to solve
The financial services industry has a marketing compliance bottleneck that most people outside the sector don’t fully appreciate.
Every time a regulated firm publishes a social media post, launches a marketing campaign, updates a website, or prints a brochure, that content must comply with a dense web of financial promotion rules. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) oversees this regime, and it’s getting stricter. FCA interventions on financial promotions nearly doubled from approximately 10,000 in 2023 to nearly 20,000 in 2024.[1] Additionally, the introduction of Consumer Duty[2] has raised the bar further, requiring firms to demonstrate that every customer communication is clear, fair, and not misleading.
Yet the tools most firms use to manage this process haven’t kept pace. Compliance teams still rely on spreadsheets, manual screenshot archiving, and subjective interpretations of rules around things like the “prominence” of risk warnings. Over 75% of content typically fails its first compliance review, and sign-off cycles stretch from three days to a full week.[3] For marketing teams producing hundreds of assets per month across LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and beyond, this creates an impossible bottleneck.
Finspector was built to break that bottleneck.
What Finspector actually does
At its core, Finspector is an AI-powered platform that automates the review, monitoring, and governance of financial promotions across digital channels including text, images, video and social media.
The key innovation is what we call the rule-to-check engine. Rather than relying on generic keyword scanning or static templates, our platform converts each firm’s unique compliance policies and regulatory obligations into machine-readable, deployable AI checks. For example, a firm might hand us their internal financial promotions checklist, a document that runs to dozens of pages of detailed guidance, and we transform it into a structured set of automated checks that our AI agent can execute against any piece of content in minutes.
This is powered by a combination of large language models, computer vision, and a regulatory knowledge graph developed in partnership with academic partners at the Cambridge Judge Business School spin-out, RegGenome.[4]
The platform operates through four key features.
- Inspect reviews content before publication, flagging potential compliance risks.
- Monitor continuously watches published content across social media channels to catch issues post-publication.
- Approve gives compliance teams a structured workflow for sign-off.
- Audit maintains a complete, time-stamped trail of everything that’s been reviewed, exactly the kind of defensible evidence regulators expect under Consumer Duty.
The practical result is that compliance review times drop from hours to minutes, marketing teams can increase their output without compromising on compliance, and firms gain a scalable oversight framework across every digital channel.
Why the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab mattered
The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab[5], known as FRIL, is a Glasgow-based centre of excellence in financial regulation innovation. It’s a partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the University of Glasgow, and FinTech Scotland, and it has become one of the UK’s most credible programmes for advancing regulatory technology.
Finspector was selected as one of four grant winners under FRIL’s Future of Wealth Innovation Call in 2026, receiving £50,000 to further develop our solution. But to describe FRIL purely in terms of funding would miss the point entirely.
The programme accelerated our development by an estimated three to four months. The grant enabled us to dedicate engineering capacity to core platform features, including the social media monitoring module, the rule-to-check extraction framework, audit reporting, and early ISO 27001 alignment work, that would otherwise have been delayed. In practical terms, it funded approximately 1.5 to 2 additional FTE-equivalents of engineering and product development time across the programme period.
More importantly, FRIL opened doors. The programme’s industry partner network provided warm introductions to senior compliance, risk, and innovation stakeholders at major UK financial institutions, conversations that would typically take three to six months to initiate through cold outreach. Feedback from those sessions was consistently encouraging. Partners described Finspector as a “strong, credible proposition with a clear problem being addressed,” operating in “a good space” with a “reasonable market opportunity.” That kind of validation from tier-one institutions carries real weight when you’re a young company trying to earn trust in a, traditionally, risk-averse sector.
The structured pilot process was equally valuable – we onboarded live pilot clients during the programme, converting compliance policies into automated AI checks and deploying them against real content. One early engagement involved converting two detailed policy documents into 82 separate AI checks, covering jurisdictions spanning the UK, Europe, Australia, the US, Asia, and the Middle East. The feedback loops from these pilots (we tracked 23 distinct feature requests from early users) directly shaped our product development and reduced false positive rates.
Scotland as a strategic base
One of the less obvious outcomes of the FRIL programme is that it crystallised our commitment to Scotland as a long-term strategic base.
This wasn’t a foregone conclusion, Finspector is a UK-wide company, and our team and clients span multiple regions. But the depth of the Scottish fintech ecosystem, the quality of the academic institutions, and the genuine support from organisations like FinTech Scotland and Scottish Enterprise have made a compelling case.
We’ve already appointed a dedicated Account Manager based in Scotland, and we’re planning to bring on interns over the summer to support product development and operations. But the ambition goes well beyond that. Over the next three to five years, Finspector looks to potentially establish a permanent Scottish operational hub, and we’re targeting a Scotland-based team of around 20 by 2029.
Scotland already has a strong reputation in financial services and a growing fintech cluster. Our goal is to contribute to that by positioning the country as a centre for AI-driven regulatory technology innovation, a niche where Scotland can genuinely lead.
What comes next
Since 1 January 2026, Finspector is in active commercialisation mode with an aim of targeting 25 to 40 regulated firm clients over the next 12 to 24 months.
On the product side, Q2 2026 will see the launch of website monitoring and domain-wide scanning, enhanced security controls for ISO certification, and continued platform improvements driven by client feedback. Later this year, we’ll expand social monitoring automation, introduce version control and historic comparison features, and target our first enterprise-scale deployment. International rule libraries covering the EU and UAE are planned to follow, along with API integrations with compliance workflow systems.
We also participate in the FCA’s AI Supercharged Lab and AI Spotlight programmes, giving us a dual regulatory endorsement that few early-stage RegTech firms can claim.
A reflection
The FRIL programme has been transformational for Finspector. We entered with a strong technical foundation, we’re leaving with live pilots, paying customers, and a clear path to scale.
But perhaps the most lasting impact is strategic, FRIL didn’t just help us build a product faster; it helped us see where we should be building it. Scotland’s combination of regulatory expertise, academic depth, financial services heritage, and genuine ecosystem support makes it the right place for a company like ours to grow.
We’re just getting started.
Phil Clements is CEO of Finspector, an AI-powered RegTech platform for financial promotions compliance. Learn more at finspector.ai.
[1] https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-steps-action-against-misleading-financial-adverts
[2] https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/consumer-duty
[3] https://intelligencebank.com/insights/what-are-the-top-marketing-compliance-challenges/
[5] https://www.fintechscotland.com/research-innovation/financial-regulation/
Finance and Health Lab National Conference
On 19 March, FinTech Scotland hosted the Finance and Health Lab (FHL) National Conference at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, marking the completion of Phase 1 of this programme. The event brought together leaders from financial services, fintech, academia, government, healthcare, and the third sector to share learning from academia, industry, and from the Lab’s first Innovation Stimulation Open Call and to explore the future of financial wellbeing in an ageing society.
The Finance and Health Lab was established to address a growing reality: as populations age, financial health and physical health become increasingly interconnected. Changes in income, housing, care needs, cognitive capacity, and social circumstances create complex challenges that sit across multiple systems. No single sector can address these alone. FHL was designed to catalyse collaboration, evidence-led innovation, and practical experimentation to improve outcomes for people in later life.
Setting the Context
The conference opened with reflections on the programme’s purpose and progress to date. Discussions on the implications of demographic change highlighted both the scale of the challenge and the opportunity for innovation. An ageing society is not simply a policy issue. It reshapes how financial services must operate, how products are designed, and how support is delivered across the life course.
A research showcase featuring leading academics explored the evolving relationship between health and wealth in later life. The evidence underscores that financial insecurity and poor health often reinforce one another, yet services are rarely designed with this interplay in mind. Bringing rigorous research into direct dialogue with industry practitioners is a core objective of the Lab.
Designing Future-Ready Services
An industry panel examined what it will take to build financial services that remain effective as customers age. Trust, accessibility, and long-term resilience emerged as central themes.
Participants highlighted the need to move beyond reactive support models toward proactive approaches that anticipate vulnerability and support people through major life transitions.
Importantly, the discussion recognised that innovation in this space must balance commercial sustainability with public benefit. Aligning these objectives is challenging but essential if solutions are to scale.
Showcasing Innovation
The afternoon sessions highlighted solutions developed through the Innovation Stimulation Open Call. Participating startups delivered rapid demonstrations of tools and platforms addressing issues such as financial vulnerability, planning for later life, support for carers, and accessible digital services. Follow-up discussions allowed founders to engage directly with industry stakeholders and policymakers.
A session led by Smart Data Foundry demonstrated how responsibly governed data can generate new insights into the links between financial behaviour and broader social determinants of wellbeing. This work illustrates the potential for data to support more targeted interventions while maintaining public trust.
Collaboration in Practice
Throughout the day, one message was clear: progress in this space depends on sustained collaboration. The Lab has created a structured environment for organisations that do not typically work together to share expertise, test ideas, and identify barriers to implementation.
Beyond the formal sessions, the conference enabled valuable informal engagement among senior leaders across sectors. These conversations are critical for building the partnerships required to translate early innovation into real-world impact.
Key Insights from Phase 1
The closing discussion reflected on what the programme has demonstrated so far:
- Financial health in later life is a systemic issue requiring cross-sector solutions
- Evidence, lived experience, and innovation must be integrated from the outset
- Trust, accessibility, and dignity are foundational design principles
- Data can unlock new approaches when used responsibly
- There is strong appetite across industry and public services to continue this work
Phase 1 has shown that structured collaboration can move beyond dialogue to tangible experimentation and learning.
Looking Forward
The National Conference marked an important milestone, but not an endpoint. The insights, partnerships, and prototypes developed through the Finance and Health Lab provide a foundation for future phases of activity.
FinTech Scotland remains committed to working with partners to advance solutions that support healthier, more financially secure lives as people age. The challenges are significant, but so is the opportunity to redesign systems around real human needs.
Phase 1 has demonstrated what is possible when diverse sectors come together with a shared purpose. The next stage will focus on deepening this work and translating innovation into scalable impact.
Assure Continuity with Operational Resilience
How can critical Information and Communication Technology (ICT) providers help bring stability, security, and innovation to financial institutions?
The financial services sector is front and centre when it comes to the demands of regulatory oversight aimed at improving operational resilience. As a strategic ICT partner to many financial organisations, Sword see that these regulations bring two clear headline responsibilities – mandatory security requirements and minimum security standards. This is not whole story, as understanding the innovation opportunities afforded by tackling resilience requirements is key to building competitive advantage. We asked Rob Mossop, COO at Sword, to talk us through how financial institutions can navigate compliance and drive excellence across critical financial and national infrastructure.
Financial institution regulations for operational resilience
Security regulations are tightening for financial institutions across the UK and Europe, including EU regulation DORA, the UK CSR Bill, and NIS2 (learn more in the glossary below). These regulations are designed to guide organisations as they look beyond their own infrastructure and operations, encouraging them to think of the broader impact on how disruption affects customers, not just internal systems. This means it’s important for organisations to reengineer ways of working and reporting methods for operational resilience, to develop a deep understanding of dependencies on critical systems and their tolerance for disruption.
Scrutiny on critical ICT providers
Critical third-party ICT providers play a key role in improving resilience, often responsible for the IT and digital infrastructure on which organisations’ critical systems run. Your strategic technology providers should help you to interpret and implement resilience requirements, and under tightening regulations like the UK CSR Bill, will become subject to regulations directly. Strong partnerships will help protect your organisation against threats and demonstrate a robust supply chain to regulatory bodies.
Resilience as the foundation for innovation
Many organisations are moving beyond baseline regulatory requirements, driving increased growth and customer engagement through the smart use of the data and technology operational resilience requires.
The data needed to demonstrate compliance can become central to understanding your operations, customer behaviour and product performance. Innovative organisations are leveraging their improved operational resilience with third-party assurances, to adopt new technologies that boost effectiveness and performance. This combination of insights from critical system behaviour and deeper knowledge of (and trust in) third-party providers, allows organisations to understand what customers need from their products, and iterate toward that need more quickly, with lower risk.
Simplified, trusted, IT partnerships
Most organisations have a network of IT and digital providers, each delivering different services. Establishing a clear plan for how you would operate through disruption together, and the role each plays in response, is critical. Choosing capable ICT providers who have strong processes in place to assure resilient operations that meet compliance requirements is increasingly important.
Simplifying your partnerships around a small set of strategic partners with whom you engage directly in support of your operations resilience plans will help you to meet your regulatory needs and best prepare for disruption. Quickly identifying where disruption could occur in your supply chain can show fragility points and allow you to strengthen resilience, particularly when it comes to disruption response, where your IT partners need to understand their role in ensuring tolerance thresholds are not breached.
You should expect your technology providers to bring a wider view of processes and systems, moving beyond purely technology-based recommendations to encompass broader organisational needs, such as target operating models and service operating models.
Disruption to critical systems is rarely a “single provider” issue. Leaning on the operating models of your IT partners, and integrating them into your own, will help to ensure that multi-partner responses are easier to manage and monitor during an event.
M&A activity under the microscope
Financial institutions with intensive M&A programmes may find themselves under increasing scrutiny from all sides. Integration of systems and processes, or a need identified through due diligence and pre- or post-merger analysis, may add to compliance requirements. It’s important to keep a centralised view and protect all organisations involved to avoid inheriting bad behaviours, processes or suppliers that bring vulnerabilities. If you anticipate divesting, it’s equally important to prove that you’re selling a resilient, disruption-tolerant organisation that is ready to meet and report on compliance requirements.
Steps to take today
Current regulations do not provide detailed blueprints or formats for how organisations should track compliance. It is up to you, and your technology partners, to define these processes.
Take these regulations as a trigger to prepare against disruption and lay the ground for service progression – engage with your critical suppliers, map your third party dependencies, and proactively orchestrate threat lead penetration testing exercises. Begin thinking now about how the data and technology you invest in can move your understanding of business operations and customer behaviours onwards, to spot innovation opportunities early.
Engage your suppliers in your planning, and ensure that your operating model and technology decisions are supportive of those plans. We all need to understand our role in the wider ecosystem of protecting our financial infrastructure to deliver critical customer services that are more tolerant of, and more responsive during, disruption.
Terminology Glossary
DORA – Digital Operational Resilience Act – EU regulation in place from 17 Jan 2025 to strengthen digital resilience of financial entities.
UK CSR Bill – UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill was first read to parliament 12th Nov 2025, making amendments to 2018 legislation that aim to make essential and digital services more secure.
NIS2 – Network and Information Security 2 Directive is an EU cybersecurity law.
What next?
If you’re interested in more information on how to build operational resilience, you can read more about Sword’s services here – https://www.sword-group.com/uk-platform/
To get in touch with someone at Sword to find out how we can help, please email uk.info@sword-group.com
About Sword
Sword is a leading business technology company headquartered in Aberdeen, employing 650+ people across the UK. Our mission is to solve complex challenges, build operational resilience, and create efficiencies for organisations in the Finance, Energy, and Public Sectors.
Should GPs and banks be talking to one another? Definitely, say academics
For decades, health and finance research has been done in isolation. Yet, the challenges we face in these areas are often interconnected – especially as we live longer. With patient consent, an unlikely partnership between GPs and banks could spot warning signs earlier, cut through stigma, and unlock vital support.
The search is now on for compelling evidence to show that data sharing is viable and that current innovation can benefit everyone, with risk monitoring, transparency and consent at the core.
Read the latest article from the Finance & Health Lab by downloading the PDF.
Lab Read Editor: Margot Wilson
Journalists: Isabel Woodford and Callum Clark
Designer: Nikita Steinberg
Every Life Moment Is a Money Moment
By Dia Banerji, Founder and CEO, Cherpa.ai
Separation. Redundancy. Having a baby. Losing a parent. Caring for an ageing relative. Retiring.
Every one of these moments comes with money questions. And for most people, those questions arrive at exactly the wrong time, when you are stressed, stretched, and trying to hold the rest of life together.
In some ways, I have been trying to make money simpler for people my whole career. I spent over 20 years in financial services, building products, shaping propositions, and working with customers at scale. I saw the best of what our industry can do, and I also saw a pattern that kept repeating.
The people who need help most are often the least likely to get it.
Not because they are not capable. Not because they are not trying. But because the industry still expects people to work out what they need, hunt it down across multiple sources, and then stitch it together for themselves, translating generic education into decisions that make sense for their own lives, often in the very moments they have the least capacity to do so.
The problem is not knowledge, it is design
Financial services impact everyone and it should work for everyone.
Yet the experience most people have is fragmented and exhausting. One app for budgeting. Another for savings. Another for pensions. Another for benefits. Another for insurance. Each tool does something useful in isolation, but real life does not arrive in neat categories.
If you are going through a separation, you might need to rethink your mortgage, update your pension beneficiary, understand what help exists for short term bills, and decide what to tackle first. Those are connected questions, but our tools split them into separate journeys, leaving the person to join the dots. We assume information equals empowerment. Too often it is just cognitive load, and when life is already full, it becomes disengagement rather than better decisions.
The same is true for financial education. The industry has invested heavily in it, and rightly so, but it is usually delivered at a distance from real life, generic, broad, and rarely anchored to the moment someone is actually living through. It tells you what people like you should think about, not what it means for you, right now, in your specific situation.
And if the choice is between a webinar on pension consolidation and the next season of Bridgerton, I know which one I am choosing, and I have worked in pension!
People do not need more content. They need clarity.
The advice gap, and the missing middle
There is another layer to this. Regulated advice is essential for big, complex decisions. But most everyday money questions are not asking for a product recommendation. They are asking for direction, options, and reassurance.
People want to know things like:
- What support can I access right now
- What should I change first
- What am I missing
- What is the “obvious” thing that everyone else seems to know
Often the most valuable intervention is not a recommendation. It is connecting the dots.
Before we built anything, we surveyed people about money confidence. Nine in ten told us they could improve. Many said they feel anxious just thinking about their finances. A meaningful number said they do not seek help from anyone at all. And the words people used stuck with me:
“I don’t need a PhD in financial products. Just tell me what’s relevant to me.”
“My budgeting app shames me for buying a coffee. Too many apps, too little help.”
“Make me feel safe asking stupid questions.”
That last line matters more than it seems. Because the real barrier is often emotional. Shame, fear of getting it wrong, fear of being judged, fear of being sold to, fear of admitting you do not understand.
What should the future feel like
I believe we are entering a new era of financial support. One where the default experience is not search, not generic content, and not a cold handoff into a process designed for specialists.
The future should feel more like this:
One front door. A conversation. Your life context. The options that matter to you.
Not to replace regulated advice, and not to turn every question into a product journey. Instead, to help people navigate the messy, human moments where money is involved, which is most moments.
To do that well, three things have to change.
First, we have to start from life moments, not financial categories. Life is the organising system. The tools should follow.
Second, we have to make information genuinely usable. That means connecting it, prioritising it, and presenting it in plain language, with next steps that feel doable.
Third, we have to treat trust and privacy as design requirements, not legal footnotes. Many people are understandably reluctant to share bank data with a new app.
Building a new front door to financial support
Cherpa exists to meet people right where they are. When life changes, money questions do not arrive neatly labelled. They arrive tangled, emotional, and urgent, and yet we still ask people to navigate a maze of tools, terminology, and generic content.
So we are taking a different approach. We start where real life starts, with the moment, not the product. One conversation that helps someone orient quickly, join the dots across the areas that matter, and move from noise to a clear set of options and next steps. The ambition is to create a trusted front door, a place people can begin, without needing to hand over more data than they are comfortable sharing.
That shift, from fear to agency, is the outcome I care about.
Why this is personal
I lost my dad when I was fourteen. I watched my mum try to navigate a financial system that gave her no useful answers during the hardest moment of her life. That memory has never left me.
It is one thing to know, intellectually, that help exists. It is another to live the reality of not being able to find it, understand it, or know what applies to you.
That is why I keep coming back to this belief.
Every life moment is a money moment. And nobody should have to face them alone.
Dia Banerji is the Founder and CEO of Cherpa.ai, based in Edinburgh.
Behind the Scenes at the Skills Academy
“When you look across financial services, the message is the same everywhere: the pace of technological change is relentless, and people and industry need to keep up,” explains Christine Sinclair, Programme Director for FRIL.
And that is exactly what sits behind the FRIL Skills Academy – a pioneering, demand-led, skills and education platform created by the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL).
“With the speed of change, the biggest risk is to do nothing,” adds Christine.
The Academy is delivered in partnership between Fintech Scotland and the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow. It is a practical response to real skills gaps identified across the sector from work within FRIL’s Innovation Calls and research.
The academy, which launched officially in January, brings together a portfolio of short courses, microcredentials (which gain academic credits), and executive education that help people across financial services and beyond to understand, adopt and apply new technologies responsibly and effectively.
So, that’s the context. But what are people actually learning at the Academy, and what difference does it make?
Here, we explore the stories of several participants to find out:
Closing the gap, accelerating progress
Professor Mick O’Connor started his working life as an apprentice welder in the Clyde shipyards and is now a serial entrepreneur, academic and managing director of multiple high‑tech businesses spanning regtech, spaceports and drones. When Mick’s regulatory technology firm Haelo won one of FRIL’s first Innovation Calls, he was already building AI-enabled solutions. But as we often find, the more we learn, the more we realise we need to learn.
“I’d never been formally taught AI,” he says. “I’m not a coder. I had an enthusiastic amateur understanding, but I owed it to myself and the business to understand more.”
So, he enrolled in the AI and Regulatory Technology in Financial Compliance microcredential at the University of Glasgow.
“I still wouldn’t describe myself as an AI expert,” he explains. “But I can now talk comfortably with people who are. I can translate the customer problem into user stories, and then into technical requirements.”
And this has helped Mick bring together the business and technical teams required to make the Haelo magic happen.
“We talked different languages. This has helped close that gap,” he explains.
And while the gap may have narrowed, Haelo’s trajectory has accelerated.
“As a direct consequence of FRIL, I developed a technology roadmap. I didn’t have that before. I started with the problems then understood the technology I needed to solve them.”
Haelo is now preparing to launch its first product, designed to be sector-agnostic, capable of pivoting across highly regulated industries including pharma, rail, nuclear, space and aviation.
“I’ve said to FinTech Scotland that this is such a great story,” he reflects. “I can demonstrate that the whole genesis of that product and building the business has been seeded by FRIL.”
Joining the dots between rockets and regulation
“My job is business development,” says Derek Harris. “I need to understand what my clients are doing, especially around satellite launching. These courses helped me have that conversation.”
Derek is Director of Business Development and Communications at Skyrora, which builds small launch vehicles for launching satellites into space.
You might not associate the FRIL Sklls Academy as an enabler for the Space industry but the sectors intersect in surprising ways.
Satellites may orbit the earth, but their impact is grounded in everyday systems: encryption, cybersecurity, data protection, which is also the invisible infrastructure behind banking and digital security.
And similarly, Derek’s career has bridged those two worlds. Before rockets, he spent 15 years in financial services.”
“When it comes to Space and Finance, we have one of the biggest finance areas outside London and Frankfurt. But we also now have a fully forming space industry where the two can work hand in hand.
“So, if we can identify what data is required by financial institutions, these courses can help turn wish lists into actual products,” he explains.
Micro-credentials in AI Implementation and Financial Crime Prevention gave him a structured understanding of how space-enabled data connects with financial regulation and risk.
“These courses helped me fill in the dots,” explains Derek.
And it wasn’t just what was being taught that was helpful, it was the way it was being taught too.
For someone who is dyslexic, the flexible online format was crucial.
“I could go back, relook, learn at my own pace, even while on the go and in between flights. I could jump online and do 30 minutes. That made a huge difference,” explains Derek.
And his biggest surprise about the Academy? “It’s not as well-known as it should be,” says Derek.
“If all the banks were doing this, it would be a game changer. And it’s the customers who would win at the end of the day.”
Confidence to challenge and connect
“The Digital Transformation course brought learning to life with real-world examples, group work and problem-solving,” says Joanne Seagrave, founder of Norwood Risk and Compliance, who offers yet another perspective on the Academy’s impact.
“As a result, I felt empowered to grow my scope within the fintech community, which inspired me to develop my role as a board advisor to start-ups.”
With 25 years in financial services and experience supporting fintechs through FRIL as an industry partner, she joined the course not out of necessity, but curiosity.
“I wanted to take my understanding to a more in-depth level,” she says.
The micro-credentials allowed her to explore business strategy through a technology-led lens, from generative AI to distributed ledger technology, grounding innovation in commercial and regulatory realities.
“The course gave me confidence to be curious,” she explains. “Whether that means challenging compliance teams to use technology more effectively or factoring risk in at the early stages of a project.”
What surprised her most was the diversity of the cohort.
“I’ve worked in financial services for over 25 years, but the community included people from charities, engineering, life sciences, public sector and software development, which made for some interesting discussions and led to diversity of thought,” she explains.
Shaping the future… and your future
So that’s a glimpse behind the scenes of the Academy and the programmes on offer. But let’s leave the final word around its impact to Christine:
“There are so many inspiring stories from people who’ve been through these programmes,” she says. “One participant told us he’d never been to college or university. He went straight into work and never had the opportunity to study formally. He was the first person in his family to take a university course, and it was our Digital Transformation programme.”
“Something clicked for him. After completing the course, he asked what else he could do. He’s now enrolled on a graduate apprenticeship degree. Another participant has gone on to apply for an MBA. So, these short courses aren’t just about skills, they can genuinely spark lifelong learning.”
“Short courses are powerful,” she adds. “They can change the course of someone’s career.”
If you’ve liked what you’ve read and would like to change the course of your career, then please check out the FRIL Skills Academy webpage. Or contact the Skills Team for more information at sbs-fril@strath.ac.uk. They are waiting to hear from you.
About FRIL
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
Launching Turnkey PI and unveiling our rebrand: a new chapter in insolvency technology
By Turnkey, the cloud-based insolvency software provider.
After over four decades of supporting insolvency professionals with powerful, reliable technology, we are introducing a new product, Turnkey PI, and stepping into a bold new era with our rebrand. It’s more than a refreshed logo or updated colour palette: it’s a reflection of who we’ve become and where we’re going.
A natural next step: Welcome Turnkey PI
For over four decades, we’ve been focused on doing one thing exceptionally well: supporting corporate insolvency professionals with robust, purpose-built technology. Since then, we’ve grown in experience, capability, and reach – and we’ve realised something: we weren’t just a corporate insolvency software provider anymore; we were becoming a broader technology partner to modern insolvency practices. Globally.
As a matter of fact, one of the biggest drivers behind our rebrand is something we’re incredibly proud of: the launch of Turnkey PI (Personal Insolvency). It’s an important step for us, and it signals something bigger: that Turnkey is growing to support the full landscape of the insolvency industry.
Turnkey PI goes beyond our existing capabilities by delivering connected, client-centric tools built specifically for personal insolvency practitioners. At its heart is a secure, intuitive Client Portal where clients can submit and track queries, upload documents, make secure payments, approve actions electronically, and monitor real-time case progress through a clear dashboard.
“This product matters because it can affect people who are in debt in an unbelievably positive way.” – Craig McDonnell, Director at Turnkey
Alongside this, a fully integrated Communications Hub centralises email, SMS, and WhatsApp in one place, automatically storing all correspondence against the case file. The result is a complete audit trail that strengthens compliance, improves transparency, and reduces administrative workload.
Over the years, our product suite has become more sophisticated, more integrated, and more intuitive. The old brand no longer fully represented the technology behind it. Our new look is modern, confident, and purposeful designed to visually express the clarity and ease our solutions deliver.
“This milestone brings our growth strategy to life – transforming our vision into delivery through a reimagined, modern brand that better reflects who we are today and provides a strong foundation for continued expansion.” – Deborah Baxter, CEO at Turnkey
This new phase is also a reflection of the people behind it. There’s a real sense of pride across the business in what we’ve achieved and where we’re heading, and it’s that collective energy that’s powering this next stage for Turnkey.
Merchant Transact 360: The Event Shaping the Future of Merchant Payments
Co-located with PAY360, Europe’s largest payments event, Merchant Transact 360 is the new, dedicated conference for merchant payment professionals. On the 25-26 March 2026, the event will welcome 400+ attendees, including 200+ leading merchants, for two days of curated insight, innovation and networking.
In an increasingly complex ecosystem, Merchants look 10-15 years ahead, anticipating how future generations will shop, pay and consume, Merchant Transact 360 brings the community together to explore what’s next at a time when seamless money movement and agile payments strategies are becoming central to growth.
A Merchant-Led Agenda
Shaped by The Payments Association’s Merchant Payments Working Group, with input from leaders at Spotify, BT, Frasers Group, Sky, DAZN and Jaguar Land Rover, the agenda reflects the issues merchants are tackling right now.
Across keynotes, panel discussions and closed-door roundtables, 50+ speakers will address the sector’s most urgent themes:
- Maximising revenue and reducing loss – Increase acceptance, optimise methods, fix failure points and mitigate emerging fraud.
- Enhancing customer experience – Deliver seamless checkout experiences that match evolving payment preferences.
- Reducing operational costs – Cut fees, eliminate hidden costs and streamline your payments tech stack.
- Navigating compliance and regulation – Stay ahead of new open banking, data and security requirements with reduced internal strain.
- Driving strategic growth – Transform payments into a growth driver through analytics, fraud insights and cross-border expansion.
Purpose-Built for Merchants
- A two-day conference dedicated solely to merchant payments
- Peer-to-peer roundtables for confidential, experience-driven discussion
- AI-powered matchmaking to help attendees connect with the right people
- A VIP lounge exclusively for merchant teams
The event welcomes attendees from across retail, hospitality, telecom, travel and digital services, including members of our growing merchant community such as BT Group, Coop, Marriott, New Look, Flutter Entertainment and Sky.
Why Attend?
Merchant Transact 360 is the only event built for merchants rather than around them. It provides:
- Access to merchant-focused insights and practical case studies
- The opportunity to meet 200+ fellow merchants and industry partners
- Direct engagement with decision-makers who influence payments strategy
- A platform to showcase and discover solutions that drive measurable impact
Whether you aim to streamline costs, improve customer experience, reduce fraud, or re-position payments as a strategic growth tool, Merchant Transact 360 offers the essential space to connect, learn and lead.
Get your tickets here.
Use Code FintechScotland20 to save 20% off your delegate pass.
Where Banking Is Heading: From Vision to Execution in London this May
Banking Transformation Summit | 19–20 May | Tobacco Dock, London
The Banking Transformation Summit is the definitive gathering for senior executives driving real change inside Europe’s leading banks and building societies to shape what’s next in banking. Returning to London on 19–20 May, a verified audience of 1,000 decision-makers will convene at Tobacco Dock; a first-class venue delivering premium hospitality for all attendees, and located a convenient distance from London’s financial districts and major transport links for ease of travel.
What to expect: agenda and themes
Carefully curated to ensure high-value connection and strategic clarity, the two-day agenda addresses the decisions, technologies and leadership challenges actively reshaping banking today. Day One focuses on vision and where banking is heading, exploring what’s changing across the industry, the forces shaping the future of financial services, and what leaders need to be thinking about next as regulation, technology, and customer expectations continue to evolve. Day Two turns vision into execution, examining how ideas translate into action inside complex banking environments, what actually works in practice, and how teams move forward with confidence and clarity.
Across the two days, 150 world-class speakers will share practical, battle-tested insights and honest perspectives on what’s working today and what’s coming next, providing actionable, take-home learnings to apply to your own strategies. Through keynotes, panels, roundtables, lightning talks and demos, they’ll divulge exclusive case studies across six core themes, reflecting the most important challenges and opportunities banks are facing:
- The AI Frontier: Explore how generative AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics are transforming customer engagement, fraud detection, risk management, and operations.
- Intelligent Infrastructure: Learn how banks are simplifying legacy environments, improving resilience, and building the foundations for AI-powered transformation.
- Money in Motion: Discover how the flow of money is changing, with real-time payments, instant settlement, digital identity, and the platforms powering embedded finance.
- Trust in the System: Explore how banks are strengthening defences, improving detection and response, and protecting customers while still enabling innovation.
- Power to the People: Dive into how banks are redesigning services that are faster, simpler, and more relevant while meeting rising expectations and Consumer Duty.
- Human & Machine Leadership: Learn how banks adapt their culture, operating models, and ways of working as automation and AI reshape roles, teams, and decision-making.
Networking, audience and how to attend
Every detail has been centred around connection, from the event app with messaging and meeting booking functionality, to networking breaks and more informal drinks receptions – ensuring you network and connect with the transformation leaders driving real change. With 62% of attendees at VP-level and above, and more than 120 banks and building societies in attendance, you’re 5x more likely to meet a bank than at other European Fintech conferences.
This year, to protect the experience, attendance is capped at just 750 complimentary tickets for banks and building societies, and limited sponsorship opportunities are available on a first-come first-served basis.
Visit the links below to learn more.
Banks & Building Societies Apply to Attend for Free: https://hubs.ly/Q03_lXt10
Sponsorship Enquiries: https://hubs.ly/Q03_lYm90