Bearer and Trace announce industry partnership
Bearer, the Data security risk platform, has partnered with Trace, a privacy, data security and data governance expert solutions company, to help companies leverage the best of services and software and build a connected compliance programme.
The Trace team brings decades of experience in working with companies to build their data security and data governance capability and apply a proactive Privacy by Design approach. And at Bearer, the team are innovating data risk assessments to build intelligence and stack visibility – meaning customers can scale inventories and surface critical data risks.
Together the teams bring the best blend of human and tech capabilities to help progressive organisations connect the dots for joined up data security, privacy and risk programmes.
“We have been working with Sorcha, and Trace for a number of months now and from the outset, what struck us was her deep expertise in the field while at the same time a fresh perspective that immediately connected with what we do at Bearer. By working together we believe we can offer the industry a very different outlook and bring together a new direction for data security in general.”
Guillaume Montard, CEO Bearer
“Holistic is a word much used – and abused – in this area, but we really are taking that as our North Star in creating this partnership. Together with Bearer, we’re on a mission to break privacy, governance and security out of the silo and help build connected compliance across the ecosystem. We’re going to help organisations properly embed data protection compliance properly so that it informs and enriches everything they do.”
Sorcha Lorimer, Founder Trace
Trace and Bearer’s partnership will kick-off with a complimentary clinic where attendees can pose real life dilemmas to our lead experts. This is ideal for FinTech leaders looking for a fresh perspective on data risk and compliance.
A white paper proposing solutions to some of the most pressing data compliance issues facing organisations will follow, sponsored by the Bearer Data-Sec Lab and community.
AutoRek listed in RegTech100 List
Scottish RegTech company, AutoRek, just announced it has been selected as one of the world’s most innovative RegTech companies as part of the annual RegTech100 list.
Autorek was selected amongst a long list of nearly 1,200 companies produced by RegTech Analyst, a specialist research firm, for its innovative use of technology to solve a significant industry problem and generating efficiency improvements across the compliance function.
The Scottish company is a financial controls, regulatory reporting and data management platform which provides complete and seamless control of data. Despite the pandemic.
Kemal Sangrar, Head of Product, AutoRek, said
“We are delighted to be listed in the RegTech100 for the fourth consecutive year. This award is recognition of our commitment in delivering regulatory reporting solutions to the financial services industry and testimony to innovative strategy underpinning our product. We have had a great year with the launch of AutoRek 6, with many clients looking to upgrade in the coming months.”
Mariyan Dimitrov, Director of Research, RegTech Analyst, added,
“Banks and other financial institutions are investing heavily into AI capabilities to automate highly manual regulatory tasks, support digital onboarding processes and monitor for fraudulent activity. The RegTech100 list helps them filter through all the vendors in the market by highlighting the leading companies in sectors such as identity verification, risk management, communications monitoring, information security and financial crime prevention.”
A full list of the RegTech 100 is available at www.RegTech100.com.
Clearwater Analytics’ IPO Fuels Global Expansion
Clearwater Analytics is on a mission to revolutionise the world of investing.
For more than 15 years, Clearwater Analytics has provided a true SaaS solution for investment accounting and reporting that’s now trusted by more than 1,000 clients worldwide, including institutional investors in insurance, asset management, corporate treasury, the public sector, and more.
In September, Clearwater took an important step in furthering that mission through an IPO. The company is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CWAN.
Although this is an exciting achievement for the company, in many ways it’s business as usual at Clearwater. Clearwater has always prioritisedinvesting a large share of profits ”“ 25%+ back into research and development to ensure the continual improvement of the Clearwater solution and to meet evolving market needs. That commitment continues.
In recent years, Clearwater has also committed to a global expansion that enables the company to grow and support clients around the world. Going public helps support that expansion in Europe, a major part of Clearwater’s global team, where the company recently opened offices in Paris and Frankfurt, in addition to existing offices in London and Edinburgh. Clearwater also operates in the U.S., India, and Singapore.
“Clearwater has rapidly expanded our European client base, including adding some of the largest European financial institutions as clients”, said Colin Clunie, Head of EMEA Operations at Clearwater. “This shows the exciting opportunity we have to continue to grow in the region and deliver to our clients at a local level. It also enables us to attract the highest calibre of diverse talent to support our growth, foster innovation, and create solutions for tomorrow’s challenges.”
The Edinburgh operations centre which serves as a key operations hub for Clearwater has grown by 30% so far in 2021, and that’s expected to continue. Clearwater is building out capabilities at all levels ”“ from recent graduates to senior industry professionals. Further, the European team alone speaks 22 languages. This means Clearwater has the depth and expertise to provide world-class service tailored to the individual needs of its growing client list, regardless of location.
Clearwater’s SaaS solution automates and simplifies the complex tasks associated with investment accounting and reporting while providing clients with a complete and validated investment data set across their portfolios daily. For global teams, Clearwater’s multi-basis, multi-currency solution is accessed simply through a web browser, making it easy to work from any location and trust the entire team has access to a secure, single source of truth for investment data.
Scotcoin ”“ download a Scotwallet!
Scotcoin is one of the longest-lived country crypto currencies, having been founded in 2013. Under the present management team since 2015, the number of holders now stands at around 7000 and in over 50 countries.
Scotcoin is on the Ethereum mainnet as an ERC20 token. It has been verified by Etherscan and code audited by Hacken.io. They have given Scotcoin their highest rating.
Scotcoin was early into recognising that governments would require regulation. New holders require to go through KYC (Know your customer) and AML (Anti money laundering) procedures. Scotcoin’s ecosystem is directly connected with the charity sector.
Scotcoin occupies the social good works ecosystem and plans are well advanced to accelerate this, with a Third Sector manager appointed. Scotcoin very much wants everyone in Scotland to be better off. Everyone within Scotcoin is working to achieve this. Charities will be able to apply to receive Scotcoin to work within their own ecosystem in a number of ways. The Scotcoin Project CIC (TSPCIC) – Scotcoin’s educational and informational arm – recently held an event for Social Enterprise Scotland to showcase how crypto and especially Scotcoin can help.
Scotcoin already engages with the likes of Social Bite, The Big issue and the IPPR; it partners with Better Internet Search and BBX. These organisations help people that have problems to get on their feet again. This is both Scotcoin’s goal and desire. TSP CIC Temple Melville says: “Please help with our ongoing development and mission.”
Please follow us on
WEBSITE: https://scotcoinproject.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/scotcoin
TWITTER https://twitter.com/ScotcoinProject
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/scotcoin_official/
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/ZSE4_pfcRqEzNjU0
If you wish to be involved with our vision and work, get in touch. You will need a
wallet ”“ go to https://scotwallet.com/signup and download one. Also available on
Android and Apple.
There will be lots of interesting things to tell you!
For further information please email: TEMPLE@SCOTCOINPROJECT.COM.
Actuary and Quantitative Finance masters students undertake summer projects proposed and co-supervised by financial services companies.
University of Strathclyde students on the MScs Actuarial Sciences and Quantitative Finance undertake a summer project as part of their MSc. Some projects are co-supervised by industry partners and are based on their business interests.
We are currently seeking ideas from industry for projects taking place in summer 2022.
Companies can be based in the UK or overseas. Companies participating in the scheme in previous years benefited not only from the direct project outputs but also from accessing talented students. This can be a route to recruitment and developing a closer relationship with the university.
The Students benefit from the exposure to business. They see the problems that industry are interested in and get experience working with business. This improves their employability upon completing their MSc.
Project subject matter is flexible. It needs to be quantitative in nature and relevant to the financial sector. Projects last 12 weeks from late May to late August. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, projects and associated meetings may need to be undertaken remotely ”“ this worked very well in summer 2021. Industry supervision can be light touch or more intense, to suit the project and supervisor, though some input is required from the industry. No fees to students or to the University are involved.
Companies submit project ideas to the University and students select and apply for them. Industry Supervisors (remotely) interview students and select the best match. Students are also assigned an academic supervisor. The student’s project plan, final report and oral presentation are judged by both the academic and industrial supervisors.
For summer 2022 projects, ideas are invited from industry by mid-January 2022 using a short pro-forma.
For further information, or if you have any questions, please contact Ian Dwyer by email at ian.dwyer@strath.ac.uk
Scottish fintech Legado partners with MoneyHub
Today, Scottish fintech Legado announced a new partnership with open finance company Moneyhub.
Moneyhub customers will benefit from Legado’s encrypted personal Digital Vault services , enabling them to store their pension, life insurance and mortgage statements and policy documents securely and electronically.
By holding all those documents from different providers in one place, Moneyhub users can get a clearer picture of their financial histories and plan for the future. They will also be able to securely share those documents with selected third parties, such as advisers, friends and family. Each user will receive their own personal, portable and access-controlled vault, with features including after-death sharing and data integrations.
Legado is backed by UK insurer M&G and Edinburgh-based global platform-as-a-service provider FNZ, both part of the FinTech Scotland cluster.
Sam Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub said:
“As an Open Finance and Open Banking leader, Moneyhub truly is a hub for money, offering connections to pension and wealth management accounts, banking, insurance and investment, and more. And one thing all the various account types have in common is paperwork, which is why we have partnered with Legado to offer our clients a market-leading digital vault solution.”
Josif Grace, CEO & Founder of Legado said:
“As two technology leaders focused on helping businesses create exceptional digital experiences and consumers better prepare for the future, this partnership made a lot of sense. We are delighted to be working with the team at MoneyHub to create a world-class proposition.”
Scotland’s digital roles grow by over 25% year on year
Scotland’s tech sector is going through a rapid growth according to the UK’s Secretary of State for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
New figures released today show tech jobs in Glasgow and Edinburgh have increased by more than 25% in the past two years, way above the UK’s average.
According to Adzuna IT-related vacancies account for 13% of all UK job vacancies whilst this number is 30% in Edinburgh and 28% in Glasgow.
Today 135,000 people are employed by Scottish tech startups and scaleups. This is the 3rd highest number in the UK after the South East and London.
Software developers and data scientists are in high demand fo r the tech sector. Developers in Edinburgh and Glasgow can command an average salary of £45,000 or £55,000 for more senior positions.
There is an increasing demand for senior-level employees across all areas of Scottish tech. For instance, 89% of available roles for IT System Architects are all for senior positions.
Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said:
“Scottish tech is booming and this thriving sector is creating exciting opportunities up and down the country.
“The UK government is determined to see this success continue and is investing heavily to help people in Scotland get the skills they need to seize the opportunities on offer and build back better from the pandemic.”
2021 is also a great year for investment with UK Tech companies having raised £13.5 billion in the first half of this yearend Scotland raising £446 million, the highest number so far.
Fintech is one of the biggest sectors for fundraising in the UK generally and in Scotland more specifically. The biggest fundraising round in 2021 so far was for the Kirkcaldy-based fintech Paysend, which raised £90.5m in Series B funding.
Dr George Windsor, Head of Insights at Tech Nation said:
“Edinburgh is proving to be one of the fastest-growing tech cities in the UK, with a higher number of opportunities and salaries compared to other cities. Glasgow is also making a name for itself as a destination for tech workers, with some of the best cost of living standards compared to the median tech salary of the whole UK. With scaling companies in sectors such as fintech and health tech, Scotland’s tech sector is only expected to grow in the next few years.”
Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels
Festival of Fintech Innovation Shaping the Emerging Digital Economy
A rich diversity of innovative participants and initiatives will be showcased at this year’s fintech festivals in Scotland which gets underway from today
For the next 4 weeks, Scotland will be the stage of more than 50 events bringing alive the burgeoning impact of fintech leaders and capabilities which are shaping many elements of the emerging digital economy.
The festival, organised under the umbrella of Fintech Scotland, is in its fourth year and will build on the impactful platform of previous years in demonstrating how financial innovation is supporting citizens, business, regulators and government build towards economic and social recovery after the pandemic.
This year’s festival is even more diverse with a broad range of innovation themes and participants form fintech entrepreneurs, large global enterprises, universities, the public sector and the regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is hosting half a dozen events on topics such as cryptocurrency, sustainability and the regulatory sandbox.
The festival has a significant global reach with participation organised with fintech innovators in the USA, Europe, Australia working in conjunction with Scottish Development International and UK Govt Department of International Trade.
The formal kick off is the Fintech Summit, a hybrid online and in person event at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh organised by online publisher Digit
The festival will conclude on the 14th of October with an all-day in person UK wide FinTech Conference at the University of Strathclyde Technology & Innovation Centre organised by Canongate Publishing and The Times.
This high-profile event hosted by Fintech Scotland, well bring together speakers from across the UK fintech centres in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as presentations from UK Government and Scottish Government Ministers and Ron Kalifa, the author of the Treasury’s recently commissioned Fintech Review.
Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said:
“We’re looking forward to connecting with colleagues as we welcome the return of some face-to-face events as well as a variety of digital and virtual events. The range of topics, contributions and organisations taking part really demonstrates the breadth, expertise and diversity that drives fintech innovation in Scotland.”
Fiona MacKinnon, responsible for business events at VisitScotland said:
“We’re delighted to once again support the FinTech Scotland Festival. It’s an opportunity to come together to learn, connect and collaborate both virtually and face to face. This year we’re extending a warm welcome to delegates from over 30 countries and look forward to learning from a global community and sharing our own knowledge and expertise.”
Growing FinTech Community Driving Digital Economic Transformation through the pandemic
FinTech Scotland announce 50% Plus Growth of Scottish Fintech SMEs and a New Entrepreneur Advisory Board
The number of Scottish Fintech SMEs has increased by over fifty per cent during the eighteen months of the pandemic with the FinTech Scotland entrepreneurial community growing from 119 in March 2020 to 181 today.
The growth in the innovative enterprises reflects the increase in demand for financial technologies as more and more of the economy and society adapts to a digital environment driven by the challenges of the pandemic.
The news of the growth comes as FinTech Scotland announces a SME Advisory Board made up of leaders from the fintech entrepreneurial community focused on ensuring the necessary support is in place to continue the momentum of fintech innovation
Initially, the Advisory Board focus on providing impetus on skills development, experience when it comes to accessing funding and commercialisation opportunities.
The Advisory Board includes a diverse range of founders and leaders; Jude Cook (ShareIn), James Varga (DirectID), Loral Quinn (Sustainably), Anthony Rafferty (Origo), Pardeep Cassells (AccessFintech), Andrew Duncan (Soar), Andrew Veitch (EedenBull), Stuart Lunn (LendingCrowd) and Russell Jaques (Fin-Q).
Stephen Ingledew, Executive Chairman at FinTech Scotland and Chair of the Fintech Advisory Board said,
“There is growing recognition of the valuable role fintech in contributing to the digital economy, therefore, formally bringing together prominent group of entrepreneurs signifies Fintech Scotland ongoing commitment to ensure the best support is available for innovative enterprises in Scotland”
Jude Cook Co-Founder of ShareIn added:
“It’s great to see more entrepreneurs joining the FinTech Scotland community. Scotland is such an interesting place to be in the run up to COP26 climate negotiations here in Glasgow in November. Fintech has a vital role to play as we emerge from the COVID 19 pandemic.”
Nicola Anderson CEO of FinTech Scotland said:
“We are focused on supporting fintech innovation in Scotland and the number of fintech SME’s establishing themselves here is a testament to the talent and experience across the Cluster. This Board helps us build on that talent and expend the practical fintech expertise that continues to build and evolve in Scotland”
AutoRek selected by Superscript for Bordereau Reconciliations & CASS 5 Automation
Scottish fintech AutoRek just announced that Superscript would come on board as a new client.
Established in 2015, Insurtech Superscript is disrupting the business insurance distribution model, placing customers at the core of their business. It uses a flexible monthly subscription model suited to the fast-changing needs of today’s small businesses. With Superscript, customers can obtain quotes, set-up their cover in minutes, pay, modify, or cancel their cover any time, easily.
Autorek will be used by Superscript and become part of their digitally driven architecture to deliver end-to-end automation and to enable the business to scale and meet its exciting growth plans.
Gordon McHarg, CEO at AutoRek, added,
“We are delighted to have a client such as Superscript come on board. It is an exciting time for both Superscript and AutoRek in terms of growth plans and we look forward to collaborating on this project and building on our relationship.”
Piers Williams, Insurance Lead at AutoRek, added,
“We are excited to work with the team at Superscript, particularly as they are strong players in the new wave of digitally driven Insurance firms. We have built our Bordereau solution based on the market need and are looking forward to working with the team at Superscript to implement our market leading solution to deliver end-to-end automation.”
Anil Sharma, Chief Financial Officer at Superscript, said:
“Superscript has ambitious growth plans, and we are scaling quickly. As we are managing an increasing amount of policy transactions, the implementation of AutoRek’s technology will help increase efficiency for the finance team. Importantly, it can be incorporated seamlessly and will be a useful addition to our existing systems.”