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Scottish Fintech start-up MyPetCard launches an alternative to pet insurance

3 Scottish entrepreneurs are entering the fast-growing PetTech market with a proposition it says will reshape how owners save and pay for veterinary treatment.

MyPetCard has launched a prepaid Visa Card and online platform designed to help pet owners set aside money specifically for veterinary bills and other eligible pet-care expenses while retaining control of their unused funds.

Instead of paying non-refundable monthly insurance premiums, MyPetCard customers regularly load money onto their card. Those funds can then be used directly at veterinary practices and online pet pharmacies.

Any unused money remains the cardholder’s and can be withdrawn at any time, subject to the applicable account terms. If a pet dies, the remaining balance can be returned to the customer or retained to support the care of a future pet.

By regularly building a dedicated pet-care fund, comparing veterinary and medicine prices and retaining ownership of every unused pound, customers of MyPetCard will have a transparent way to plan for their pets financial planning from day one of joining.

Recent guidance highlighted some of the limitations owners can encounter with pet insurance. Routine and preventative treatments, age of the pet and pre-existing conditions are generally excluded, and, there is also a large increase in complaints to the Competitions Ombudsman* regarding policy limitations found in the small print. 

Consumer disputes regarding pet insurance remain a significant issue within the market. According to recent data released by the Financial Ombudsman Service, there were 2,065 new pet insurance complaints lodged during the 2025/26 period, with a 41% uphold rate for resolved cases. Although this represents a slight decrease from the complaints filed in 2024/25, the volume of successful claims continues to underscore the ongoing challenges and limitations owners face. 

MyPetCard provides a distinct alternative that is not insurance. By removing the need for a claims process or waiting for third-party approvals and eliminates the risk of rejections. Customers establish a dedicated healthcare fund for their animals, ensuring that their available money can be accessed immediately to provide greater transparency and most importantly care for their pet when they need it. 

MyPetCard is not insurance and is not positioned as a direct replacement insurance. Instead, it provides an alternative financial-planning tool for people who want greater transparency and control over how they prepare for pet-care costs.

Customers joining MyPetCard will receive:

  • A prepaid Visa card for setting aside and paying money towards veterinary care and eligible pet expenses
  • Access to the 24/7 MyPetCard Vetline for veterinary advice
  • Optional access to interest-free and low-cost financing through a partner network of more than 2,000 independent veterinary surgeries, subject to status and lending terms
  • Local veterinary price-comparison services
  • A pet-medicine price search designed to help customers find competitive prices online

MyPetCard encourages customers to save regularly, helping them gradually build a dedicated fund for routine and unexpected veterinary expenses.

John Darlington, founder of MyPetCard, said:

“I wanted to create a simpler and more transparent solution that puts control back into the hands of pet owners. Having worked with veterinary practices and animal medicines for 20 years, I became increasingly frustrated by the dilemmas owners face sometimes having to choose between the cost of treatment and the care their pet needs.

“When two in three pet owners say they could not afford unexpected surgery and millions are already delaying veterinary visits because of cost, it is clear that people need another way to prepare.

“Insurance can provide protection, but exclusions,claim rejections, excesses, claim limits and rising premiums mean it does not always meet every owner’s needs. MyPetCard gives customers another option where there are no exclusions. 

“As MyPetCard grows, we will continue developing membership benefits, price-comparison services and a supportive community for animal lovers.

“This could also have a positive impact on animal welfare. No owner wants to postpone treatment because they are worried about the cost. Building a dedicated pet-care fund—and having access to tools that help reduce costs—can provide valuable reassurance when treatment is needed.”

The UK pet-care market has expanded significantly in recent years, driven by increased pet ownership. However, the affordability of veterinary care and the complexity of insurance remain significant concerns for many households.

MyPetCard aims to address this gap by providing a transparent and flexible way for owners to plan for their pets’ future care.

The service has launched nationwide, with ambitions to expand into the United States and other international markets.

MyPetCard is now open for join up and active use across the UK at www.mypetcard.co.uk.

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Read more news from the fintechs in our community.
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Meet the fintechs driving responsible AI innovation in financial services

Fourteen fintechs have been selected for the latest Innovation Challenge run by our Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), this time focused on Responsible AI. The challenge focuses on finding innovative ways to support financial services organisations to adopt and use AI in a responsible manner, while navigating regulatory expectations. 

Throughout the challenge, the selected participants are working alongside leading global financial and professional services firms including Atos, Baillie Gifford, Barclays, BlackRock, CMS, Equifax, EY, Fujitsu, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, M&G, NatWest, PwC, and Sopra Steria.

These firms are engaging directly with the fintechs to explore solutions that address their needs around six use cases:

  • AI bias detection and mitigation  
  • AI assurance and governance
  • AI agent defence and security
  • Ethical AI assessment and actionable risk intelligence
  • Intelligent complaints early-warning systems
  • Supervisory-ready evidence & reporting


Read on to meet the fintechs set to shape the future of financial services.


Amplified Global
Amplified Global turns AI risk assessments into quantified, actionable intelligence – providing assurance through deterministic scoring, structured audit trails and supervisory-ready reporting used and trusted by regulators and enterprise firms, creating good outcomes.

Aveni
Aveni is an AI platform for regulated financial services. Their FinLLM technology powers compliance, wealth, and advice solutions that help firms meet FCA standards, reduce risk, and increase productivity – built specifically for financial services.

Bigspark
bigspark is a UK data, AI and engineering consultancy working across financial services, energy and the public sector. They also own Aizle, a synthetic data platform, and PRISM, an AI governance platform, both built to help firms deploy AI safely and defensibly.

ClearSky
ClearSky is a Scottish software engineering partner and Tech Enabler. They help UK businesses eliminate operational bottlenecks, modernise digital capabilities, and innovate safely in regulated sectors with bespoke, high-impact enterprise software and AI solutions.

Cyber Thistle
GAIA – Gender Adjusted Investment App is a responsible AI wealth engine that eliminates gender bias in financial planning. It accounts for career pauses, pension gap, and healthcare costs to deliver bias-mitigated wealth roadmaps for women.

Finspector
Finspector keeps financial promotions compliant at scale. They convert regulatory requirements into automated checks that monitor websites, social media and advertisements for promotional risks, catch issues in real-time, and generate audit evidence automatically.

HollandTech – AltairaLabs
AltairaLabs is the product brand of HollandTech, an Ayrshire-based company. They make AI agents governable for regulated industries: PromptPack, an open standard describing what an agent is, and Omnia, a platform that controls and evidences what they do.

Kallidin
Kallidin’s Autonomous Data Office attacks every assumption and decision it makes, and stores every one; the code it ran, the variables it used, the logic it applied – so every answer is auditable end to end.

NestEgg
NestEgg, founded 2018, gives credit unions the tools to grow: a Decision Engine, Loan Matching service for their websites, and a Broker Platform that connects them directly with banks and other problem spotters. They are FCA-authorised and ISO 27001 certified.

Nuggets
Nuggets is the trust layer for autonomous AI. They govern AI at the point of execution, making every agent action provable, auditable and compliant. Nuggets extends the IAM, PAM and cloud infrastructure enterprises already run, and is built for regulated environments.

Tikos
TIKOS® is a VC-backed, patent-pending AI assurance company. They access model internals in real time to detect and fix bias and produce regulator-ready audit trails against FCA Consumer Duty, PRA SS1/23 and the EU AI Act.

Tokenive
Tokenive delivers proof of provenance for data in agent-to-agent and agent-to-human networks. They bind cryptographic proof of origin to data including from private web sources with no API. The receiving party verifies in seconds, with no integration at source.

Verifoxx
Verifoxx builds trust in data and AI through privacy enhancing technologies and AI assurance. They enable secure data collaboration through privacy-preserving sharing and linkage, and help organizations ensure AI behaves as intended throughout its life cycle.


The Innovation Challenge gives these fourteen fintechs the opportunity to test their solutions in a safe, de-risked environment and to accelerate adoption by co-creating solutions that are market-ready and compliant.

Previous participants, like Amiqus, have gone on to secure contracts with leading global financial and professional services firms after engaging with them during the Challenge.

In September, the fintechs will pitch for funding and further support, and keep working with industry partners over the following months.

Keep reading

The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL)
Case studies from previous FRIL participants

Modulr becomes the only non-bank payment service provider with direct access to all three major UK payment schemes

Modulr, the payments automation platform built to scale, has become a direct participant in CHAPS, the UK’s same-day high-value payment scheme, settling directly at the Bank of England. Modulr is one of the 260+ fintechs in the FinTech Scotland community.

CHAPS is a critical part of the UK’s payments infrastructure, enabling high-value, time-critical payments. In 2025 the system settled £93.9tn across a record 53.3mn payments, an average of £371.3bn every working day, according to the Bank of England.

As demand and transaction volumes grow, settling CHAPS payments directly at the Bank of England gives Modulr greater control over its payment flows and a more efficient service for customers.

This development also means Modulr is the only non-bank payment service provider (NBPSP) with direct access to all three of the UK’s major payment schemes: Faster Payments, Bacs, and CHAPS.

Myles Stephenson, Founder & CEO, Modulr, said: “Becoming a direct participant in CHAPS is a landmark moment for Modulr; we are now the only non-bank payment service provider in the UK connected directly to all three major UK payment schemes, which uniquely positions us in the market to provide a resilient payments automation platform that scales with our customers”.

Modulr has also just been named one of the world’s top fintech companies for 2026 by CNBC and Statista, a prestigious recognition that reflects the company’s growing impact and reputation on a global scale.

Modulr’s achievement is a testament to the ambition and capability within Scotland’s fintech community.


Keep reading

Why payments automation is key to operational resilience for growing businesses
News from the fintechs in our community
Find out more about our fintech ecosystem

Fintechs Legado and Amiqus Partner to Simplify Onboarding in UK Financial Services

Left to right are Josif Grace (Legado), Elaine Burgess (Amiqus), Erin Whyte (Amiqus) and Callum Murray (Amiqus)


A new partnership between two of Scotland’s fastest-growing fintechs, Legado and Amiqus, is set to simplify the regulated client onboarding for financial services firms, as the sector faces increasing pressure to implement digital infrastructure to meet compliance requirements. Both companies were founded in Edinburgh and first connected through the FinTech Scotland community.

“Thanks to FinTech Scotland I think I’ve known Josif since pretty much the start of Legado. I remember us sat in a coffee shop in Edinburgh talking about what we were working on and mutually confirming that we didn’t have any beef, compliance onboarding was a multi £bn problem to solve and that at some point we’d overlap. Collaboration over competition is the way to go when it comes to solving problems and growing.” Callum Murray, Founder and CEO at Amiqus

From a coffee shop conversation to a partnership

The relationship between the two companies began early, with a simple conversation between founders comparing notes on what they were building. That meeting laid the groundwork for what has now become a formal collaboration more than a decade in the making.

At FinTech Scotland, our aim is to create the conditions for founders, innovators and industry to meet, share ideas and collaborate. The connection between Legado’s Josif Grace and Amiqus’s Callum Murray is a clear example of what the ecosystem is designed to enable: an early introduction that has developed into a commercial partnership with the potential to benefit the wider UK financial services sector.

Amiqus has also made the most of the opportunities available through FinTech Scotland, participating in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) innovation call on AI and compliance. Through the programme, Amiqus worked with Virgin Money to explore how AI could strengthen quality control across digital and manual onboarding. After demonstrating the scalability of its platform, Amiqus moved from pilot into live production, and secured a three-year engagement.

Solving a multi-billion-pound problem

Client onboarding and compliance remain among the most complex, time-consuming and expensive processes in regulated financial services. From identity verification and anti-money-laundering checks to the secure exchange of documents and ongoing communication, firms and their clients face friction at every stage. As Callum Murray notes, it’s a multi-billion-pound problem to solve, and one that has only grown in importance as compliance and consumer duty obligations become central to how financial institutions operate.

What the partnership delivers

The technology partnership brings together Amiqus’s reusable digital identity and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) capabilities with Legado’s regulated communications and electronic signature platform. The result is seamless, connected, compliance-driven client workflows — from verifying identity biometrics to collecting, signing and evidencing documents — in one auditable journey. As part of the collaboration, Legado’s LegadoSign product will be fully integrated into the Amiqus platform.

The partnership is designed to support a range of regulated workflows, including:

Between them, the two companies share a client base that includes Virgin Money, FNZ, Quilter, Scottish Building Society, Moneyhub, and Co-op Legal Services, with a growing presence in international markets.

A decade-long peer relationship

Reflecting on the collaboration, Callum Murray, Founder and CEO of Amiqus, said: “Josif and his team had the foresight to recognise the regulatory shift in how financial institutions meet consumer duty obligations with client communications, now seen as regulated infrastructure by boards and exec teams, central to governance and operational resilience. Our reusable identity wallet is perfectly aligned with their embedded digital signature product and with FNZ as a shared client and platform, there’s a huge amount of value we can jointly deliver to their client base, supporting seamless and embedded investor onboarding experiences.”

Josif Grace, Founder and CEO of Legado, said: “Amiqus has been a peer with us amongst scaleups based in Edinburgh and connected via FinTech Scotland for more than a decade, and they’re ahead of the curve in areas like AML. We can’t wait to begin working with Callum and his team on strategic opportunities that will benefit both companies and provide significant shared value for our clients.”

Collaboration over competition

Rather than viewing overlapping ground as a source of competition, Legado and Amiqus have chosen to combine capabilities to deliver something greater than either could alone. As Callum puts it, “collaboration over competition is the way to go when it comes to solving problems and growing”. That’s a philosophy that sits at the heart of the FinTech Scotland community, and one we’re proud to see put into practice.

For the UK financial services sector, the result is a meaningful step towards simpler, faster and more secure onboarding.

Read more news from the fintechs in our community.

Find out more about our fintech ecosystem.

Commodities Marketplace BLK secures listing on stock market via Euronext Access Dublin

Gabriele Dadò, Chief Executive Officer of BLK

BLK Global PLC secures listing on Euronext Access Dublin, with trading set to begin at 8.00am on 31 July 2026 under the ticker code BLKX. The Glasgow-based company runs www.blkcommodities.com, a technology-driven marketplace where businesses can source, buy and sell physical raw materials and commodities.

What does BLK do?

Founded in Glasgow in 2018 by shipping and technology executives Gabriele Dadò and Aleksandra Dadò, BLK runs an online marketplace where businesses around the world can buy and sell raw materials and commodities, spanning agricultural products, chemicals, energy, construction materials, industrial goods and metals.

The platform cuts out brokers and middlemen, connecting buyers directly with producers. This means businesses pay a fairer price for goods and can manage purchases more efficiently. BLK also handles the physical shipping and delivery of goods bought through the platform, making it an end-to-end solution for commodity buyers and sellers. The company operates from its Glasgow headquarters, with additional offices in Mumbai and Dubai.

Strong growth

BLK has grown quickly in recent years. Revenues rose from £5.5 million in 2024 to £20.7 million in 2025, and the company turned a profit at the operating level in the same year. More than $15 billion worth of commodity stock is currently listed on its platform. Trading in the current financial year is said to be in line with expectations, with full year results due in October 2026.

Why list now?

BLK sees the public listing as a way to build trust and awareness with customers globally, and to position itself to raise further investment as growth opportunities arise. The company is targeting annual revenue growth of over 40% and aims to become a leading name in digital commodities trading by 2030, with around 40% of revenues expected to come from the marketplace platform itself rather than shipping.

Gabriele Dadò, Chief Executive Officer of BLK, said:

“We are excited to become a public company at a pivotal moment for BLK and for the digitalisation of global commodity trade. The Euronext Access market in Dublin provides an ideal stepping stone for BLK to execute the next phase of our growth, leveraging our standing as a public company to build our profile, grow a qualified audience of customers and partners as well as enhancing the Company’s access to public and competitive capital markets, as future growth opportunities arise. This will enable us to deliver on our mission of providing transparency and access to SMEs with direct, peer-to-peer access to producers and sellers of commodities, reducing reliance on brokers and intermediaries, streamlining the procurement process and making the whole supply chain more efficient for the benefit of local economies at both ends of the chain.”

Find out more about BLK’s listing on Euronext Access Dublin.

Read more news from the fintechs in our community.

Scottish Financial Technology Awards 2026 Open for Entries

Organisations and individuals across Scotland’s financial technology sector can now enter 12 categories recognising innovation, leadership and impact.

The Scottish Financial Technology Awards have opened for 2026 entries, inviting organisations and individuals from across Scotland’s financial services and fintech sectors to showcase their achievements.

Entries are free, with applicants able to submit nominations across multiple categories before the deadline on 20 August 2026. Table bookings have also opened for the awards ceremony, which will take place at the EICC in Edinburgh on Wednesday 7 October.

Established in 2018, the Scottish Financial Technology Awards recognise the companies, partnerships and individuals using technology to reshape financial services.

The awards form an integral part of Scotland’s Fintech Festival, a week-long celebration of innovation and collaboration across the finance and technology sectors.

Twelve Categories Open for Entries

The 2026 award categories are:

A Special Recognition award will also be selected by the judging panel to acknowledge an individual or organisation that has made an exceptional contribution to Scotland’s financial technology ecosystem.

The categories span areas including business growth, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, regulation, sustainability, collaboration and social impact.

How to Enter

The Scottish Financial Technology Awards are free to enter and open to financial services and fintech organisations headquartered or based in Scotland.

There is no limit on the number of submissions an organisation can make. Applicants may enter multiple categories or submit more than one nomination within the same category.

Entries can be submitted through the Scottish Financial Technology Categories page until 20 August 2026.

The awards use an independently accredited judging process and are supported by stakeholders from across Scotland’s financial technology sector, with 2025’s judges coming by way Kristen Bennie (Barclays), Anna Devine (KPMG), Anna Knight (Lloyds Banking Group), Graeme Rennison (Scottish Enterprise), Yvonne Dunn (Pinsent Masons), Adam Betteridge (TSB), Vicky Gorman (Fintech Scotland), Jude McCorry (Cyber & Fraud Centre Scotland) and Darren Auld (ClearSky Logic).

Awards Ceremony Returns to Edinburgh

The ceremony will take place at the EICC in Edinburgh from 6.45pm until midnight on 7 October 2026.

Keen on joining us for one of the biggest nights in the Scottish fintech calendar? Tickets are available through individual bookings, half-table packages and full-table bookings – find out more here.

Category sponsorship opportunities are also available for organisations looking to support one of the leading celebrations of innovation and achievement within Scotland’s financial technology sector – to find out more, email events@digit.fyi.

Ground-breaking responsible AI solutions to shape the future of financial services 

Fintech companies from around the world with innovative AI solutions can now apply to the award-winning Financial Regulation Innovation Lab’s new innovation call – on responsible AI in financial services. This is a unique opportunity for companies at any stage to fast-track their solutions to real-world problems and help shape the future of financial services. 

The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab is led by FinTech Scotland in partnership with the University of Strathclyde and funded by Scottish Enterprise.  

Successfully selected participants will take part in an innovation challenge, during which they will work with leading strategic partners including Atos, Baillie Gifford, Barclays, BlackRock, CMS, Equifax, EY, Fujitsu, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, M&G, NatWest, and PwC. They will gain invaluable insight into real-world industry challenges and potential routes to market. They will also get the opportunity to pitch for up to £50,000 in grant funding to further develop their solutions. 

AI offers huge potential to improve efficiency, decision-making, and scalability, but it also introduces challenges around fairness, governance, transparency and accountability. To ensure AI benefits both businesses and consumers, its deployment must support operational objectives whilst aligning with Consumer Duty and other regulatory requirements and maintaining trust. 

This innovation challenge builds on the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab’s successful track record of advancing UK financial regulation through research, innovation and industry collaboration. With 120 fintech SMEs supported and £50K grants awarded to 27 firms to date, FRIL has driven tangible results and is set to further accelerate innovation within the financial services sector. 

The Innovation call application window is open until Friday 31 July 2026. Interested fintech companies can apply here. 
 

Clare Reid, Strategic Innovation Director at FinTech Scotland, said:  
“FRIL creates the conditions for large institutions and fintechs to come together to find, test and de-risk new solutions to regulatory challenges. It provides a shared environment where industry, academia and regulators can work collaboratively on problems that no single organisation could solve alone.” 

Nishant Govil, Managing Director at BlackRock, commented:  
“FRIL provides a unique lens into the advancement of responsible AI. As a global business, we recognise the importance of staying at the forefront of innovation and collaborating with fintechs and other industry leaders in this space. By working collaboratively with wider industry stakeholders, we hope to support the development of responsible AI solutions that benefit our clients and our industry.” 

Gerry McArdle, Head of Data and AI Architecture at M&G, noted:  
“We’re pleased to be supporting the launch of the Responsible AI innovation call. At M&G we believe AI can help improve outcomes for our customers and for the businesses and institutions we support – enhancing customer service, strengthening risk management, and making decision-making more consistent and transparent. Across the industry the key is to combine innovation with robust governance, clear accountability and a strong focus on fairness. Through the Lab, we look forward to working with regulators, innovators, industry peers and academia to turn responsible AI into  
practical improvements that build trust and deliver better outcomes for our business  
and the sector” 

Colin Payne, Head of Innovation at the FCA, added:  
“By bringing together diverse perspectives, FRIL supports the ecosystem’s understanding of how innovation is developing in practice and helps support constructive dialogue between regulators and innovators. This challenge creates a space to learn from one another, helping to support responsible innovation while maintaining confidence in the financial system”  
 
Phil Clements, Chief Executive Officer at Finspector, previous FRIL winner, said:  
“There’s a particular kind of acceleration that money alone can’t buy. The £50,000 from FRIL mattered, of course, but the more valuable currency was access. The programme’s industry network put us in front of senior compliance, risk and innovation leaders at major UK institutions, introductions that would typically have taken months of cold outreach to engineer. We entered those conversations with a solid technical foundation and we’re leaving with pilots and clients who are paying, and a path to scale that feels earned rather than theoretical.” 

Scotland invests £3.18m to fast‑track fintech growth, jobs and collaborative innovation

Funding backs a Scottish programme turning strengths into real‑world impact

The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), the UK’s centre of excellence for innovation in technology to efficiently meet financial regulation requirements, has secured £3.18 million from Scottish Enterprise to deliver three years of the award-winning programme. The funding will deepen collaboration amongst academia, industry and regulators, and further accelerate the adoption of responsible technology-driven innovation in financial services, supporting the sector’s competitiveness and that of the economy.

Led by FinTech Scotland in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, FRIL will accelerate the adoption of new solutions enabling fairer financial futures and supporting technology innovators to scale their businesses.

The types of industry regulatory challenges that FRIL will address include:

Agile prioritisation during the programme will address industry needs and emerging regulations around the use of AI, open data and digital assets. By uniting industry, academia, technology innovators, government and regulators, FRIL will turn shared insight into products, partnerships, investment and real‑world adoption.

To date, FRIL has successfully supported 120 fintech SMEs to accelerate solutions, enabled £28 million in committed private investment and delivered a projected 6:1 economic return on investment for every £1 of public funding.

Jane Martin, Managing Director Innovation and Investment, Scottish Enterprise, said: “FRIL is a shining example of how collaboration between industry, academia and regulators can make a real impact, utilising the development of advanced technologies to create high‑value jobs and attract private investment.

This funding underscores our commitment to fintech innovation and our support for innovative businesses, helping them to scale with confidence and build the global competitiveness of Scotland’s financial services sector.”

Aleks Tomczyk, Chief Executive, FinTech Scotland, added: “The opportunity from the current and forecast future growth of fintech is huge. We are proud of FRIL’s impact to date. FRIL’s success evidences the strategic value of innovation to the economy and the strength of our fintech cluster in simultaneously delivering growth and better outcomes for consumers. Scottish Enterprise’s investment will use FinTech Scotland’s proven Innovation Labs model to accelerate innovation in large companies and speed growth in fintechs.”

Professor Eleanor Shaw, University of Strathclyde, stated:“We are delighted to be a partner again in delivery of FRIL phase 3. Continuing our triple helix partnership approach ensures we can deliver on our mission to drive positive impact through useful research, learning, and innovation. This approach has so far demonstrated its success in delivering for Glasgow City Region, and we are excited about supporting this to become a national programme.”

Derek Shanks, Technology Platform Lead, Lloyds Banking Group, commented: “We’ve supported three FRIL innovation calls as a challenge partner and have seen first-hand the value of this model. It brings together the right mix of expertise, technology and challenge to turn ideas into real solutions. We welcome Scottish Enterprise’s investment and look forward to building on this partnership over the next three years.”

Calum Murray, CEO and Founder, Amiqus, noted:“The potential impact delivered by FRIL over the next three years to the broader Ecosystem is enormous. Thanks to a previous FRIL financial crime innovation call, we were able to build, pilot and take to production new capability to directly support Virgin Money with their new business onboarding journeys.

This three-year commitment effectively sets the stage for collaborative and rapid progress across both financial services developing new capabilities with the support of a wide range of fintechs going forward. It’s a win win on all accounts.”

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.