Morgan Stanley appoints Angela McCann as Head of Glasgow office
Morgan Stanley today confirmed the appointment of Angela McCann as Head of Glasgow
In her new role, Angela will be responsible for overseeing Morgan Stanley’s Glasgow office, which supports a wide range of business functions and plays a key role in Morgan Stanley’s global operations. Having joined Morgan Stanley in 2006, she brings over two decades of experience across a broad range of Finance leadership positions.
In addition, Angela will continue to serve as Head of Glasgow Finance, a role she has held since 2022. She is also a senior champion of Morgan Stanley’s socio-economic inclusion strategy and serves on the Firm’s EMEA Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures Committee.
Angela McCann, Managing Director and Head of the Glasgow office, said“Glasgow has been an important part of my career, and having grown up in Scotland, it is a real privilege to take on this expanded role. The office plays an important role in supporting Morgan Stanley globally, and I look forward to building on the strong foundations already in place while continuing to invest in our people and the local community.”
Angela’s 20-year career with Morgan Stanley includes nine years in New York, where she held senior Finance roles and led key strategic initiatives within Corporate Tax.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Angela worked for six years in financial management roles within the telecommunications sector across several international locations including the Philippines, Taiwan, Atlanta and Seattle. She is also a Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA).
NatWest becomes first UK bank to launch home-buying guidance in ChatGPT
Users can now explore buying or re-mortgaging options within one of the world’s most used AI platforms.
On 30 April, NatWest Group has announced that it has become the first UK bank to offer an app in ChatGPT, providing NatWest-specific home-buying and re-mortgage guidance. This marks a new way for consumers to access trusted information and begin their home-buying journey and is an important step as NatWest continues to invest in technology and AI to meet customers’ evolving needs.
NatWest now appears in the ChatGPT app store alongside well-known platforms such as Rightmove and MoneySuperMarket. This means customers and non-customers can add and tag the bank in a query to receive NatWest‑specific mortgage and home‑buying guidance without having to leave the platform. Users will then be signposted to NatWest-owned channels to take the next steps, including to access specialist advice, appointments for colleague support or digital mortgage applications.
Consumers can explore their mortgage options and support decision-making in a more personalised way, with ChatGPT drawing on publicly available NatWest APIs to calculate how much they could borrow, test affordability and deposit scenarios, and receive tailored mortgage rates. By sharing details such as their income and monthly outgoings, users can receive responses grounded in real numbers, returning to the conversation later as their circumstances or questions evolve.
Conversations within the app are clearly branded as NatWest, so customers understand when they are receiving responses from the bank.
Solange Chamberlain, Retail CEO, NatWest Group said: “As technology and AI open up new ways for people to access information and think about their finances, NatWest is focused on meeting customer needs by showing up in the right places at the right time.
Buying a home is a major financial decision, and we want to support those early mortgage planning conversations wherever they may take place. By bringing trusted NatWest mortgage guidance directly into ChatGPT, we’re giving consumers more choice in how they explore their options in a more personalised and accessible way.”
NatWest continues to transform the digital mortgage experience and currently leads the market with the largest flow of digital new business. This builds on its recent partnership and integration with Rightmove, that sees Natwest provide home buyers with an instant fully digital NatWest mortgage decision in principle when applying through Rightmove, enabling customers to then complete their full application online.
Modulr and Sardine partner to bring real-time, AI-enabled fraud detection to automated payments
Sardine, the leading agentic risk platform to fight financial crime, today announced a partnership with Modulr, the payments automation platform built to scale. Through the partnership, Sardine will support Modulr with a suite of integrated fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions.
The integration, as part of Modulr’s broader investment in financial crime and risk management capabilities, enables Modulr to leverage Sardine’s platform to detect and stop financial crime across card and real-time payment rails, while strengthening AML compliance and operational controls as the business scales. It is integrated into Modulr’s Risk & Compliance Hub – a connected set of tools and infrastructure that spans the entire customer lifecycle and is built to protect customers, reduce friction, and prevent financial crime.
Businesses are increasingly expected to move money instantly, yet many fraud and AML systems were built for slower settlement cycles and manual investigation workflows. By integrating Sardine’s risk platform directly into its payment infrastructure, Modulr is able to leverage the latest technology to prevent and manage financial crime.
“Real-time payments fundamentally change how fraud and AML needs to be managed,” said Soups Ranjan, CEO and Co-Founder of Sardine. “When funds move instantly, risk decisions need to happen just as quickly. Modulr’s platform delivers critical capability for automated payments, and we’re excited to help ensure those payment flows remain secure as they scale.”
“For Modulr to provide our customers with the ability to run mission-critical finance operations accurately and at scale, we need strong compliance that gives peace of mind without adding friction – which is why we are partnering with tools like Sardine, and building a Risk & Compliance Hub that monitors every step of the customer journey to prevent financial crime,” said Ben Taylor, Chief Operating Officer at Modulr. “For our customers, that translates to streamlined and low-friction onboarding, a better money movement experience, and crime prevention infrastructure that keeps pace as their business grows.”
Modulr’s payments automation platform streamlines money movement with greater accuracy, control and reliability – built to scale and powering use cases across payroll, supplier payments, lending, and travel. Sardine backs that network with a track record of protecting over $1T in transaction volume across a global customer base of enterprises and financial institutions. Sardine also operates the fastest growing fraud data consortium, spanning more than 5.5 billion devices, 670 million consumers, and 2.8 million businesses. By protecting funds across some of the highest risk industries in financial services, Sardine gains early visibility into emerging fraud patterns. That intelligence helps Modulr’s customers stay ahead of evolving threats.
Glimzer x Sprint Enterprise: a live data feed for UK financial advice firms
By Glimzer and Sprint Enterprise Technology
Every UK financial advice firm faces the same problem. Client information sits in one system, while plan and valuation data sits in another. Keeping them in sync leads to manual data entry, duplicated work, and advisers switching between logins to find what they need.
We’ve teamed up to address this.
From today, Glimzer and Sprint Enterprise are connected by a live data feed via Sprint’s FINIO data hub. Financial advice firms can stop entering the same information twice, stop switching between systems for current valuations, and work from a single, up-to-date view of each client plan, with far less manual reconciliation.
The problem we’re tackling together
Ask any practice manager where their time goes and manual admin will be near the top. Plan valuations entered into spreadsheets. Provider data keyed into the CRM by hand. The same client details entered multiple times because different systems require them. Advisers logging into one tool to check a figure, then pasting it into another.
None of this is new. And none of it is really an adviser’s job. It’s what happens when systems that weren’t built to connect are expected to share client data.
The fix is simple in principle: connect the systems, let the data flow, and remove the need for manual workarounds. In practice, it requires two teams committed to building it properly. That’s what this partnership delivers.
What the integration does
FINIO is a data hub that provides a single integration point, covering multiple investment platforms – with data normalised, reconciled and enriched and acts as a conduit between software providers and financial advice firms. With this integration, that data now flows directly into Glimzer.
Advice firms can access the data they need without logging into another system, without relying on spreadsheets, and without uncertainty about whether the data is current.
Why we’re building this way
Glimzer’s approach to integrations is focused. We prioritise a small number of integrations that work well with high-quality partners, rather than building a long list that only partially works. The teams we integrate with need to share our focus on reliability, responsible data handling, clear support, and delivering real value to UK financial advice firms.
Sprint Enterprise Technology, the team behind FINIO, fits that approach. Their data hub is widely used across the UK advice market, and a data feed like this requires a partner who will build and support it properly. Working with Gary, Emma, and the wider Sprint team has been straightforward from the outset.
A bit about FINIO
FINIO is built by Sprint Enterprise Technology. It sits between UK investment platforms and the tools financial advice firms use, consolidating plan and valuation data from multiple providers into a single feed. Firms using FINIO benefit from one source of data that is normalised, reconciled and enriched that would otherwise need to be gathered from each platform separately.
A bit about Glimzer
Glimzer is a CRM and practice management platform built specifically for UK financial advice firms. The aim is simple: give firms their time back. Less admin, more time with clients. It’s built in the UK and designed around how advice firms actually work.
What Tom says
“Manual admin is one of the biggest time drains in any UK financial advice firm. Duplicate data entry, switching between systems to find a single number, and maintaining records manually all add up. Every hour spent on this is an hour not spent with clients. Partnering with FINIO was an obvious step. Dan, Gary, Emma, and the wider Sprint team have been great to work with and made the build process smooth.”
Tom Matthieson, Founder, Glimzer
What Gary says
“We’re pleased to welcome Glimzer into the FINIO ecosystem. We focus on working with partners who are building well-designed, practical tools for UK financial advice firms, and Glimzer fits that well. By connecting to FINIO, firms can access reliable, up-to-date investment data within their CRM, helping reduce manual work and improving day-to-day efficiency.”
Gary Shepherd, Business Development Director, Sprint Enterprise Technology
How to switch it on
If you’re a Glimzer customer already using FINIO, get in touch and they’ll guide you through enabling the feed for your firm.
If you’re a financial advice firm reviewing CRM options and want to see how Glimzer works, book a 30-minute call and they’ll walk you through it.
Building societies face growing “Digital Delivery Gap” as member expectations outpace communication infrastructure
New research from Legado highlights structural challenges in communication infrastructure despite rising digital expectations from members
Building societies are facing a growing “Digital Delivery Gap” as member expectations for simple, digital communication continue to rise, while underlying systems and processes struggle to keep pace.
New research from UK fintech Legado highlights a structural challenge across the mutual sector. The Building Society Insight Report 2026 finds that 91% of building societies say their communication systems are not fully integrated with core member platforms, while 73% rely on three or more systems to manage communications.
At the same time, 82% of organisations continue to send more than a quarter of communications by post, and only 18% say members can complete most key actions fully online.
This gap is emerging as member behaviour shifts. 72% of members already use digital platforms to manage their accounts, and 80% would be willing to sign documents digitally if available.
Founder and CEO Josif Grace said:
“Building societies have made strong progress in digital banking, but communication has not evolved at the same pace.
The challenge is no longer digital adoption. It is how communication is delivered. The opportunity now is to simplify that experience and make it consistent for members.”
The research also highlights the impact on member experience. 22% of members say they have been unsure whether their building society received or processed a document they sent, reflecting a lack of visibility across communication journeys.
Legado will be sharing findings from the report at the Building Societies Association Annual Conference, taking place at the EICC in Edinburgh on 28–29 April, where the team will be available at stand 22.
The Building Society Insight Report 2026 is intended to support a wider industry conversation around how the mutual sector can modernise communication while maintaining the trust and accessibility that define the model.
The full report is available here.
Legado, headquartered in Edinburgh, supports financial institutions in delivering secure digital communications, document management and signing workflows. Its clients include FNZ, Quilter, Scottish Building Society, Moneyhub and Co-op Legal Services.
University of Glasgow and Lloyds Banking Group announce groundbreaking agentic AI research programme
- The University of Glasgow and Lloyds Banking Group have launched a four‑year research partnership to explore how AI can support software and data engineering.
- The project will help Lloyds Banking Group implement agentic AI at scale within their software engineering practice, while giving University researchers a unique opportunity to study large‑scale engineering transformation in a real‑world setting.
- The partnership will create a PhD, a Masters of Research and a post‑doctoral role.
- The project’s findings will guide how Lloyds Group scales the use of agentic AI across wider data and engineering teams and contribute to the development of best practice, national policy and industry standards.
A new research partnership between the University of Glasgow and Lloyds Banking Group is setting out to explore the potential of AI to support software and data engineering.
Over the next four years, the partners will explore how large language model-based coding tools called agentic AIs could support and enhance the work of software and data engineers at Lloyds Banking Group.
Agentic AIs are software tools which act as semi-autonomous ‘agents’ to complete tasks of varying complexity. In software and data engineering, they are already being used to write and debug code, solve technical problems, and perform a variety of project management tasks.
As the UK’s largest digital bank, Lloyds Banking Group is investing significantly in developing new digital software and services, alongside training and new skills for colleagues, to support its 28 million customers.
The University’s research team and Lloyds Banking Group will work together to design experiments that test the efficacy of agentic AI for high priority activities in individual software teams. The team will use a variety of empirical software engineering research techniques to gather evidence, such as data mining.
The project will help Lloyds Banking Group implement an agentic AI approach to software and data engineering and measure the impact across their organisation. At the same time, it will provide software engineering researchers at the University with a rare opportunity to study and contribute to a large-scale transformation to software and data engineering practice.
The collaboration will create a PhD and a Masters of Research position at the University, along with a post-doctoral research associate post to work with Lloyds’ software engineering teams.
Dr Tim Storer, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science, will lead the University’s side of the partnership along with colleague Dr Peggy Gregory.
Dr Storer said: “Agentic-driven software engineering is a fast-developing sector with the potential to enable human engineers to work more efficiently by automating some tasks and allowing them to focus their skills on higher-level work.
“However, there has been relatively little research in industry on how integrating agentic AI into software engineering practices can be done effectively in large-scale organisations.
“We’re delighted to be partnering with Lloyds Banking Group on this groundbreaking project. Together, we will enable the Group’s plans to increase their software development capacity, produce high-quality research for the benefit of all, and influence national policy and industry standards.”
Lloyds Banking Group’s contribution will be led by Dr Shane Montague, Head of Research Engineering, with executive sponsorship from Professor Andrew McDonald, Enterprise Data Provisioning, Technology Platform Lead.
Dr Shane Montague said: “Lloyds Banking Group’s mission to Help Britain Prosper means leading innovation that genuinely improves how engineering gets done, with a focus on delivering enhanced digital services for our customers.
Each quarter, the partnership will task Lloyds Banking Group’s software and data engineers in Bristol, Manchester and Hyderabad to work with their agentic AI counterparts on a different type of task with the aim to measure the impact on quality and speed of delivery.
As the partnership continues, the Group will develop and improve their understanding of how to harness the benefits of agentic AI. Successful projects will be rolled out across the Group’s wider data teams, and eventually to all software and data engineering teams.
At the same time, Glasgow researchers will work alongside the teams to gather evidence on each project’s impact on efficiency, workflow and the day-to-day work of the teams.
Together, the partners will publish regular research papers documenting their work and develop best-practice documents to help organisations of all scales integrate AI into their software and data product development processes.
Tech giants urged to join fight against soaring scam ads in UK
Social media giants are being urged to join the fight against the soaring number of scam ads in the UK and to pay their fair share in combatting online fraud. The call comes ahead of the Government’s National Fraud Strategy, set to be published imminently.
The Payments Association (TPA), wants a Home Office-led overhaul of how online fraud is fought in the UK and set out the sector’s view on the way forward and how to take action at its PAY360 event in London this month.
Scam ads use AI tools to impersonate trusted brands and exploit social media algorithms to appear at the top of shoppers’ search results. They offer fake products or services to steal money or personal data.
Recent years have seen a surge in scam ads on sites like X, Facebook and Instagram. It is estimated that UK shoppers see an average of 185 scam ads a month.
The Payments Association wants a fairer regulatory framework for fighting online fraud. While social media platforms generate revenue from all advertising, real and fake, it is financial institutions that bear the brunt of combatting the crime.
Consumers conned by fake adverts lose money individually, and the total impact is adding up. According to recent data from Juniper Research, UK shoppers lost £44 million to fake ad scams in 2025 – that figure is set to rise to £84 million by 2030.
The fraud is called Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud because consumers are conned into voluntarily handing over their money.
Tougher consumer protection regulations have seen a mandatory reimbursement threshold for APP fraud imposed in October 2024 and payment service providers have reimbursed 87% of all scam-related losses since this was implemented.
But social media giants, where fraud originates, pay nothing to reimburse shoppers who become victims of crime on their platforms.
It is estimated that social media platforms generated £3.8bn in revenue from scam ads in 2025, roughly ten per cent of all social media ad revenue. Advertising on social media is set to grow by 120 per cent in the next five years to be worth £84bn by 2030.
Last month The Payments Association published its manifesto for 2026, called Making Britain a Payments Powerhouse.
It outlined plans for the Home Office to draw up a new “shared responsibility framework” which would see liability for economic crime “shared proportionately amongst stakeholders based on origination data”.
The UK is a major target of scam ads. In 2025 alone it is estimated to account for 95 billion scam ad impressions – this figure is set to rise to 137 billion by 2030.
Riccardo Tordera Ricchi, TPA Vice President – Policy and Government Relations, said: “Payment firms are expected to stop fraud at the point money is transferred when the real crime has been committed upstream – through digital communication and scam advertising.
“It cannot be right that while social media platforms benefit from the revenue generated by online fraud, consumers and payment firms are left to pick up the bill for that crime.”
The Payments Association wants Ministers to tighten Britain’s National Fraud Strategy (of which a major update is due imminently) by extending the Economic Crime Levy to both social media and telecoms companies.
The levy is a government charge imposed on more than 4,000 businesses regulated under Anti-Money Laundering laws.
Depending on their size, companies pay a flat annual fee – ranging from £10m to £1bn – to fund initiatives to combat money laundering and economic crime. From next month (April) thousands of larger firms will face substantial increases in the fee.
At its PAY360 event this month, The Payments Association will publish a paper also calling on social media giants to do more to detect and prevent online fraud.
It wants big tech and telecoms firms to sign up to the Online Fraud Charter, improve fraud detection protocols and strengthen verification of online advertisers.
The Association is also calling for new legislation to allow for better data sharing across industries and the creation of a new UK Digital Payments Fraud Centre – an independent hub that uses AI to detect fraud trends and co-ordinate responses across payments, telecoms, e-commerce and law enforcement.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves last year signalled the Government was considering a greater role for tech and telecommunications firms in battling fraud.
Finance and Health Lab National Conference to convene cross-sector leaders at The Edinburgh Futures Institute
FinTech Scotland today announced the Finance and Health Lab National Conference, on 19 March 2026, an invite-only national event bringing together leaders from financial services, health, academia, government and the innovation ecosystem to explore how Scotland can lead the next wave of progress at the intersection of health and financial wellbeing.
Hosted at the University of Edinburgh’s Futures Institute, the conference will showcase practical insights, emerging innovation, and opportunities for collaboration focused on challenges that matter in later life and beyond — including inclusive service design, strengthening financial resilience, and building trusted approaches to data.
The Finance and Health Lab is designed to accelerate collaboration across sectors, connecting partners to test ideas, generate evidence, and support innovations to move from insight to impact. The conference will share what’s been learned so far and set out the next steps for continued ecosystem action.
What to expect on the day
The one-day programme (10:00–16:00, arrival from 09:30) includes:
- A keynote and guided discussion on the future of financial health in an ageing society
- A research insight showcase on health–wealth dynamics in later life
- An industry panel on designing future-ready, inclusive financial services
- A startup showcase and demonstrator session featuring ventures from the innovation call
- A data proposition session exploring trusted, ethical pathways for financial-health data use
- A closing conversation on scaling innovation through collaboration and national impact
Registration is invite-only, with a register interest option available via the event page.
Aleks Tomczyk, Chief Executive, FinTech Scotland, said: “Scotland has a unique opportunity to lead in innovation that connects financial resilience with healthier outcomes. The Finance and Health Lab National Conference brings partners together to share evidence, spotlight innovation, and build practical routes to collaboration and scale.”
Dr Andrea Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of Edinburgh Innovations, said: “This is an opportunity to align research, practice and policy and focus collective effort on innovations that can make a measurable difference for people as they age.”
Register interest
This event is by invitation only. Register your interest on the Finance and Health Lab National Conference page to receive further details.
Finance and Health Lab launches Innovation Open Call for later life financial wellbeing solutions
FinTech Scotland today announced the launch of the Finance and Health Lab Innovation Open Call, inviting fintechs, startups, and innovators to develop and test ideas that address defined challenges affecting financial resilience, financial confidence, and quality of life as people age.
The Finance and Health Lab is a national programme led by FinTech Scotland, bringing together financial services organisations, fintech innovators, academics and public sector partners to explore how financial wellbeing and health interact and intersect in later life. The open call is designed to move beyond general discussion, creating space for evidence-led innovation, collaboration and practical experimentation that can inform future services, models and policy.
As the population grows older, changes in health, income, care needs and financial complexity increasingly shape people’s wellbeing. Through this open call, applicants are invited to propose solutions aligned to priority challenge areas focused on improving outcomes in later life.
Industry partners
Innovators selected through the open call will have the opportunity to engage with participating industry partners:
Priority challenge areas
The Innovation Stimulation programme is structured around a set of priority use cases reflecting pressing later life financial health challenges. Applicants should align their ideas to one or more of the following:
1. Predictive Financial Vulnerability Insights for Later Life
Using health, behavioural and financial data to generate early warning insights that help identify when individuals may be entering periods of financial vulnerability due to health changes.
2. Healthy Ageing Scenario Simulation for Financial Planning
Creating dynamic, personalised scenario planning tools that model the financial impact of later life health events — including longevity, income change and care transitions.
3. Data Quality and Ethical Data Sharing for Health and Wealth Insights
Strengthening permissioned, ethically governed data flows between health, financial and public sector systems to support better later life services — improving trust, transparency and data quality.
4. Cross-System Care and Financial Navigation for Ageing Populations
Helping people navigate fragmented ecosystems spanning health services, social care, pensions, insurance and benefits as needs evolve — reducing complexity and stress.
5. Empowering Later Life Financial Decision Confidence
Strengthening confidence and decision-making, reducing anxiety and supporting long-term wellbeing through complex or high-stakes decisions.
6. Age-Friendly FinTech and Inclusive Digital Service Design
Making digital financial services more accessible, trustworthy and supportive for older adults and those with health-related barriers.
Aleks Tomczyk, Chief Executive, FinTech Scotland, said:
“The Finance and Health Lab open call is about practical progress — bringing innovators and partners together to explore solutions that can strengthen financial resilience and support better outcomes as people age. We’re looking for bold ideas grounded in real needs, with the potential to be tested and learned from quickly.”
How to Apply
Applications open 4 February and close 12 February.
Learn more and apply on the Finance & Health Lab Open Call page.
Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) launches Skills Academy to Develop Future FinTech and Financial Regulation Talent
Financial services is undergoing one of the most significant periods of change in decades. Technology is advancing at pace, new regulations are emerging, and organisations of every size are wrestling with how to build the skills needed to keep up.
In response to this, the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) – created as a catalyst to help the sector respond to these challenges – has launched the FRIL Skills Academy, a pioneering skills and education platform designed to address skills gaps and support career development across the financial and professional services sector and fintech ecosystem.
Supported and delivered by FRIL’s academic partners, the University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow, the Skills Academy will go live on 30 January 2026, offering a transformative learning environment for professionals and industry partners.
The FRIL Skills Academy responds directly to the rapidly accelerating pace of technological change, especially in areas such as AI, data quality, and regulatory compliance, where talent shortages continue to hinder innovation and increase recruitment costs. Research conducted by FRIL identified skills gaps across the sector which supports the need for strategic investment in workforce development to maintain the UK’s global competitiveness.
Professor Stephen McArthur, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde, said:
“The FRIL Skills Academy strengthens Strathclyde’s role in delivering executive education and its launch is extremely encouraging and a significant step forward.
“Informed by Scotland’s expertise in financial services and shaped by industry demands, the Academy will provide challenge-led skills and leadership development aligned to productivity, innovation and growth. This is an ambitious project that is unique in the higher education sector in the UK, and I have no doubt that it will support the wider economic ambitions of the city, Scotland and beyond.”
Professor Graeme Roy, Head of University of Glasgow Adam Smith Business School said:
“The FRIL Skills Academy demonstrates our commitment to working closely with industry, co-creating engaging and practical learning, and fulfilling our ambition as a civic institution to contribute positively to economic resilience, innovation and societal good.
“Universities have a vital role to play in supporting lifelong learning – providing opportunities for upskilling and reskilling that enable people and organisations to thrive in a rapidly changing world. I would like to thank colleagues at our University and our partner institutions, as well as our industry collaborators, whose commitment, expertise and shared vision have made this possible.
“It is enormously gratifying to see this initiative evolve from an ambitious idea into a fully realised Skills Academy with the potential to make a lasting impact across the financial and professional services sector.”
Professor Eleanor Shaw, Associate Principal (External Engagement & Partnerships) of the University of Strathclyde, said:
“I am delighted that the FRIL Academy is now launching. This is an important milestone for FRIL, marking one important outcome of the project which is to launch a Skills Academy informed by the needs of Scotland’s vibrant FinTech community and Glasgow’s internationally recognised financial services district. Strathclyde is committed to providing useful learning and the Skills Academy promises to deliver just that. This is an important development in our commitment to executive education focused on what matters to our entrepreneurial and industrial partners: fresh skills, leadership development, and a commitment to making Scotland and the UK a more productive, innovative and flourishing environment in which founders want to start, grow and scale their businesses and towards which talent is attracted. This is an exciting development, and the Skills Academy is likely to grow to become an important learning asset for not only Glasgow but across Scotland.”
Aleks Tomczyk, Chief Executive of FinTech Scotland, said:
“As Scotland continues to lead in fintech and digital innovation, the FRIL Skills Academy sets a new benchmark for how academia and industry partner at pace. As the first initiative of its kind in UK higher education, it will provide professionals with practical, employer driven skills across AI, data and regulation, strengthening our talent pipeline and competitiveness.”
A Demand‑Led Approach
The FRIL Skills Academy is the first of its kind in UK Higher Education, will be delivered through a virtual platform that provides 24/7 global access and supports both blended and traditional learning formats.
The FRIL Skills Academy offers an extensive portfolio of microcredentials, short courses, and executive education opportunities, tailored to different stages of a learner’s career journey.
Industry partners will gain access to courses which develop a pipeline of skilled professionals trained on real regulatory and technological challenges as well as opportunities to co‑create content, deliver guest lectures, and engage in knowledge‑exchange events.
Learners will benefit from employer‑driven microcredentials and practical learning experiences; career pathways spanning early career to senior executive; and a supportive environment that fosters lifelong learning and professional advancement.
Click the following link to access the FRIL Skills Academy: FRIL Skills Academy
Contact
Christine Sinclair
Programme Director
christine.sinclair@strath.ac.uk
Xiang Li
FRIL Skills Development Lead, Senior Lecturer in Management and Professional Development
