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Scotland’s first ”˜Fintech Skills Academy’ launches in Fife

A group of actors including international fintechs, Fife Council, Fife College and Fintech Scotland, have joined efforts to launch Scotland’s first Fintech Skills Academy’.
Various Fife based fintechs got involved including Renovite Technologies, Ingenico Group and Paywizard.
The Academy will provide highly skilled and qualified applicants for an industry which is always in demand of new talents.
Jim Tomaney, chiefoperating officer at Renovite Technologies said:
“The Fintech Skills Academy programme will help candidates successfully prepare for new roles while at the same time, help employers by improving candidate’s understanding of the standards Fintech employers want. It’s a win-win scenario that we hope will be replicated nationwide.”
Piloted from January 2019
The courses will be open to both young people about to start their first job and adults with a background in IT who want to update their skills and knowledge to be future-ready.
Teaching will be a mix of practical industry experience and a learning framework designed in a collaboration between Fife College and Fintech businesses.
Students will be offered various specialisation options including:

  • payment processing

  • systems testing

  • device certification

  • business domain knowledge

The launch was the curtain raising event of the Fintech Scotland’s Fintech Fortnight which runs from September 13th”“ 27th.
Stephen Ingledew, chief executive of FinTech Scotland, said:
“Developing people’s skills in an imperative for the future growth of the fintech sector in Scotland and the launch of the Academy is a further indication that the community is turning its aspirations into tangible actions that will create great opportunities. It is very poignant that the Academy is being launched in Fife which has a deep heritage of innovation in financial services, especially in the category of payments, and I am delighted the initiative is being unveiled at the start of FinTech Fortnight.”

Fintech 2018 Summit: Connecting the Scottish Financial Technology Community

Scotland is home to a burgeoning financial technology scene; driven by an ecosystem of exciting Fintech start-ups, large FS firms, universities and public sector bodies, it has attracted almost £37 million worth of investment in the past decade.

Fintech is a highly competitive global industry and, although there are numerous challenges to be overcome, we have the right mixture of ingredients for this thriving sector to continue to go from strength to strength.

Heritage, innovation and skills

The country has a rich heritage of financial services and, outside of London, Central-Scotland is seen to have the most well-rounded financial and business services cluster in the UK.

Scotland boasts an impressive track record of innovation and invention, with word-class universities and a diverse skills base across critical related disciplines such as data science, cyber security, software development and entrepreneurialism.

And while the Scottish ecosystem may be dwarfed in scale by larger hubs in the US and China, for many the small size, close proximity of stakeholders and the cohesive nature of the ecosystem is perceived as Scotland’s greatest strength.

Networking and collaboration

Networking and collaboration are key to the continued development of Scotland’s tech industry. That’s why events, such as DIGIT’s fifth annual financial technology summit Fintech 2018are so important.

Fintech 2018 will explore the evolution of the financial services sector, from developments in established tier-1 firms to the disruptive innovators within the start-up community that are reshaping the FS market.

The summit is geared for senior technologists, business leaders, academics and investors from across the financial service landscape. The event will bring these key stakeholders together for knowledge exchange, discussion and cross-pollination.

Hopefully, these kind of events will help the industry to create the open, collaborative ecosystem required to ensure Scotland becomes a leading global Fintech hub.

 

Fintech 2018 will be held at Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth on 19th and 20th September. For full conference details, visit https://www.fintech18.com/

FinTech Scotland announces Prudential UK as a strategic partner

FinTech Scotland is delighted to announce Prudential UK as a strategic partner.

Prudential UK, part of the UK and European savings and investments business of Prudential plc,is driving digital transformation and fintech innovation across a wide range of its long-term financial solutions to createa simple, modern savings and investment business focused on customers and financial advisers.

The strategic partnership with FinTech Scotland reflects Prudential UK’s strong ongoing commitment to playing a lead role in the digitalisation of financial services in Scotland and across the UK and is demonstrated by the opening of its new innovative, ground-breaking office hub in Edinburgh, for its Wealth Solutions business.

From its new Edinburgh office, the firm will drive digital and data innovations to create financial solutions for customers and independent financial advisers. It will bolster the broader fintech developments in Scotland by increasing collaboration with innovative entrepreneurs and develop opportunities for talent in order to accelerate the digital transformation of its business.

On securing the FinTech Scotland strategic partnership, Prudential UK’s Managing Director of Wealth Solutions, David Macmillan said: “In a short-period of time FinTech Scotland has assembled an impressive range of strategic partners which we’re delighted to be joining. Innovation through collaboration is the key to firmly establishing Scotland’s long-term fintech credentials and FinTech Scotland is uniquely positioned to help make this happen. The quality of the fintech community in Edinburgh convinced us to locate our new facility in the city and since doing so in May we’ve not been disappointed.

“We look forward to actively developing the already solid reputation of the community and relish the opportunity to work alongside our universities, government agencies and the other partners to foster entrepreneurial talent across the sector.”

With the pension savings, investments and wealth management sectors being so prevalent in Scotland, the partnership with Prudential UK was an important step for FinTech Scotland.

Chief executive Stephen Ingledew said: “We’re delighted to welcome Prudential UK as a new strategic partner who are very much leading the way to innovate in the pensions, investments and wealth management sectors with new technologies.

“I am hugely impressed with their ambitious plans and leadership in transforming financial services. Their appointment very much complements the other recently announced strategic partnerships and ensures we are reflecting the fintech opportunities across all aspects of financial services in Scotland and globally.”

Prudential UK is joining IBM, Equifax, Pinsent Masons, Deloitte, Dentsu Aegis Network and Sopra Steria as strategic partners to progress the development of the fintech ecosystem in Scotland and its Managing Director of Wealth Solutions, David Macmillan, will also join FinTech Scotland’s board.

AIMday® Fintech: collaboration to tackle real-world problems

Fintech is changing the world of finance through innovation. Discuss your fintech challenges with expert academic researchers from the University of Edinburgh.
AIMday® Fintech brings together businesses and world-leading specialists to tackle real-world problems posed by current and future trends in the broad field of fintech.
AIMday Fintech, on 28 November, hosted by Edinburgh Innovations, the innovation management service of the University of Edinburgh, is a collaborative one-day knowledge exchange event. The event comprises multiple one-hour workshops based on challenges and questions put forward by companies.
Allowing industry leaders to join forces with University of Edinburgh researchers to address fintech business challenges and build new partnerships.
The AIMday (Academic Industry Meeting day) format allows companies to pose questions in advance of the event, which are matched with researchers specialising in the relevant field. On the day itself, businesses and academics address the challenges together to explore potential solutions and build partnerships.
The University of Edinburgh is home to expertise in finance, data science and digital innovation, making us well placed to help your organisation address its fintech challenges by working with academic experts from across the University. Companies are invited to put forward multiple questions and we particularly welcome questions on the following topics:

  • Blockchain

  • Cyber security

  • Product and service design

  • AI and machine learning

  • Policy, ethics and regulation

  • Big data, analytics and modelling

Businesses have until 10 October to register their questions for AIMday Fintech.
Blog provided by Edinburgh Innovations

Castlight – CaaS tool extended across the affordability spectrum

Blog written by Phil Grady, Chief Executive, Castlight

Over the last couple of years Castlight Financial has invested in the development of our CaaS (Categorisation as a Service) tool, to provide a range of affordability solutions.

The CaaS engine, powered by our own API, uses open banking technology to allow a customer to share his or her transactional information in real time. CaaS then categorises the transactions across any number of accounts into 155 categories of expenditure and 29 categories of income. Categories include credit commitments, essential costs and discretionary spending and then drills right down to all sorts of discretionary spending such as Costa coffees on the way to work, lottery tickets and haircuts.

Up until recently, the CaaS technology has primarily driven our popular Affordability Passport, used by lenders to get a full picture of a customer’s finances at the press of a button. Given that the Affordability Passport process also eliminates the need for lenders to trawl through bank statements and pay slips to review discretionary and non-discretionary spending, lenders are able to offer customers a transformative 10-minute mortgage process. When the market typically assumes an average consultation of around 3 hours with a mortgage broker to secure a loan, the Affordability Passport is truly shaking up the lending industry.

Leading UK banks and brokers have been quick to embrace the Affordability Passport and are currently rolling it out to their customer bases.

But we’re a team of disrupters and we like to keep making ripples in markets, so this summer we took the decision to extend the implementation of CaaS right across the affordability spectrum.

Let’s assume that most people using our Affordability Passport are looking for a mortgage or a loan to enhance their lifestyle. They use credit, but they don’t have problems with debt. They are somewhere in the middle of the affordability spectrum.

But what about the people who, at one extreme of the affordability spectrum are struggling with debt and at the other have income surplus to their current lifestyle requirements, which should be effectively invested and managed?

This summer we prioritised the development of The Big View, a fintech tool powered by CaaS, which empowers people with debt issues, by providing them with access to their own data. The pilot scheme was launched with the Big Issue Invest and Advice Direct Scotland (ADS) in June. Since then any client who requests a Big View analysis has had the opportunity to get an in-depth, 360-degree view of their finances and to work with ADS advisers to interpret the findings and develop highly individualised solutions.

And in the last few weeks, we have had a team working on CaaS for Wealth, a tool designed to help Asset Managers provide the best possible service for their customers. Using the functionality of the CaaS transactional categorisation powerhouse to conduct a wealth assessment, CaaS for Wealth will not only report on exactly what and when a customer spends but will also use its trained engine to identify risk, patterns, behaviours and appetites.

We’re talking to forward thinking asset management companies just now and working hard to bring this product to market. Another revolution is on the way.

We believe that no-one is average, so an affordability product can never be one size fits all. People are somewhere on an affordability spectrum so that’s where our financial affordability solutions haveto be too.

AccelerateHER by Investing Women: Bootcamps and Angel Investment opportunities

Investing Women, Scotland’s only all-female business angel group, is organising a series of free bootcamps for female entrepreneurs focused taking their venture to the next stage.
AccelerateHER are full day events organised in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. They are supported by Scottish Government funding for entrepreneurs. Alison Gray (Skillfluence) will be the host and will be accompanied by angel investors from Investing Women and advisers from law firm Burness Paull.
The dates are:
The bootcamp will focus amongst other things on optimising the value proposition, improving pitching skills and connecting with women angels.

FinTech has arrived in Scotland: Investing in skills will make sure it stays

Article written by Jim Tomaney, chief operating officer, Renovite Technologies Inc.

Historically, among the many things Scotland is applauded for, financial services and innovation sit as two of its longest-standingand best-known accomplishments. This week’s visit from Ivan McKee MSP, the Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation, to several growing FinTech’s in Fife, including our own, demonstrates the extent to which this assertion continues to bear weight; confidence in the sector is high ”“ and for good reason.

For us, Mr McKee’s visit signifies a flagship moment. It recognises Renovite Technologies as an important part of a growing FinTecheco-system that taken together is creating new opportunities for businesses and people up and down the country – whilst positioning Scotland as a central player in the global FinTech market.

New and emerging sectors like financial technology are essential when it comes to planning our economic future. As the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s latest economic forecast showed, we are potentially facing subdued’ economic growth for at least the next five years.Yet, at the same time, it acknowledges that: “The past is an imperfect guide to the future in a rapidly changing global economic, social, political and technological environment.”

To buck this trend and make sure the past does not representthe future, it is imperative that we continue to invest growing sectors andparticularly, in skills and people. As Stephen Ingledew said last year: “In these fast-changingtimes,Scotland punches well above its weight in Fintech. Driven largely by world-renownedexpertisein the use of Data, Scotland is rapidly establishing itself as a significant Fintech hub.”

It is reasons like this ”“ expertise – that we as a company that specialises in payments technology has chosen to invest in Scotland as a base for our operations. Giving people, whether it be through retraining initiatives like CodeClan or through specialist FinTechcourses, the right skills should be an absolute priority in the days ahead.

Today’s consumers continually push for new and innovative products in financial services. Scottish FinTechs have been able to satisfy that demand thanks to a highly skilled and experienced workforce – combined with a supportive business environment.
Remaining agile and responsive to these demands will ensure Scotland continues to enjoy such a strong reputation in the area and its businesses continueto grow.

Thanks to rising demand for better payments software from banks and money management companies, we have grown our team in Scotland by more than three times this year and anticipate tripling this figure again over the next 12-months.

We are only able to do this because we have access to some of the most skilled staff in the global labour market. For this to continue, we must look to grow and develop a workforce that is able to satisfy the market in the future, ensuring Scotland remains a magnet for technology-drivenfinancial services in the future.

Applied Fintech Project at the University of Glasgow

After the many important achievements during its first year of existence, the University of Glasgow Fintech Society is delighted to share its ambitious plans for the upcoming academic year.

Only founded in summer 2017, the society was able to reach more than 100 members, organise six workshops and a panel events supporting the idea of “learning by doing”, invite guest speakers from famous Fintech companies and get shortlisted for the Best New Society of the Year Award by the Glasgow University Students’ Representative Council.

Now that the new academic year is approaching, the society aims to develop even more by offering innovative learning opportunities.

A proof of this is the Applied Fintech Project (AFTP), a 7-week-long activity based on experiential learning, which will take place between September and November 2018.

There will be 4 teams of 4-5 members from different subject areas and degrees within the University, selected by the society’s board through an application process. The teams will work on a “live” business case provided by Orca, an Edinburgh-based Fintech startup which operates in the peer to peer lending industry.

During the working period, the teams will be supported and guided by mentors (University of Glasgow alumni and/or professionals) and they will be asked to prepare a report and a presentation to show their work.

The AFTP will end with a final event on Friday 16th November 2018, during which the teams will have the chance to present in front of an audience of academics, professionals and students. A board of judges will then deliberate which team has presented the best solution to the case.

The event, taking place at Glasgow University Union (GUU), will also represent a great networking opportunity for everyone involved.

The Applied Fintech Project is not only an exciting opportunity for the students and the businesses involved, but also the first project of its kind organised by a student-led society in Scotland.

Fintech Society members will work in teams to map out the challenges and opportunities faced by the businesses with regards to Fintech, drawing on cross-disciplinary research to devise tailored insights and potential solutions for the firm. At the same time, the startup providing the case will benefit from having the opportunity to gain another perspective on the specific Fintech-related issue from university students. Furthermore, the business will havethe chance to promote themselves among university students interested in technology,finance and innovation.

Apart from the kind support received by Orca in the provision of the case, the AFTP is supported by the UofG Fintech Society’s main sponsor, Previse, a successful Fintech startup that uses an artificial intelligence solution to support instant payments between corporates and SMEs.

For further information about the project, the UofG Fintech Society can be contacted at info@uogfintech.com.

Blockchain Live 2018

On September 26 in London, Europe’s premier blockchain event will bring the latest and greatest in Blockchain, DLT and Smart Contracts. Blockchain Live 2018 will welcome big names such as Bitfury, ConsenSys and EOS.

For the first time, a meeting of some of the greatest experts in blockchain and DLT will be hosted in London. Amongst others, Nick Szabo, the father of smart contracts; Alex Tapscott, Author of the Blockchain Revolution; Blockchain Guru, Oliver Bussmann and the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s Perianne Boring will share their thoughts.

Blockchain Live 2018 will deliver industry inspired content. The conference will help businesses wishing to harness the potential of blockchain. It will look at the full spectrum from pioneering developers to the new generation of investors and entrepreneurs.

The event will contain a mix of free-to-attend and paid-for content. The paid-for events: the Blockchain Leaders’ Summit and C-Suite Stage, are directed at business leaders who want to learn from real life case studies on strategic implications of blockchain.
The C-Suite events will help attendees make the most of a blockchain enabled future.

There are 7 free-to-attend Industry Stages’ around some verticals such Fintech, Govtech, TechDev, Product Journey, Cryptocurrency, Energy Forum and Creatives including gaming, gambling and entertainment.
You’ll be able to listen from BNP Paribas, SWIFT, London Stock Exchange Group, EDF, Coca-Cola, Bupa and HSBC.

On top of all of this the organisers are bringing 2 new events to Blockchain Live 2018:
Blockchain Bust Up: Live debate on the governance and regulation around Blockchain and DLT

Investor Zone featuring The Start-Up Village and Pitch: a hive of blockchain innovators with new and exciting technologies

To read more and register click here

The Herald Intrapreneurial Conference in association with CivTech®

What is Intrapreneurship?

It is an essential part of a nations landscape to encourage, discuss and focus on Intrapreneurship to ensure that a nation’s economy grows.

Internal Entrepreneurship – intrapreneurship – is crucial to companies who wish to keep their competitive edge. It is becoming increasingly important, in such fast-paced times, to encourage and grow those from the inside of a company, where their talent and knowledge lies.

The conference

To help achieve businesses’ ambitions for empowering those with an entrepreneurial spirit, The Herald are holding their first Intrapreneurial Conference to engage, inspire and showcase organisations, companies, workplaces and individuals who are leading the way on their Intrapreneurial journeys.

Intrapreneurship has never been more important to our businesses, our economy and our society in such changing times. This is an event you do not want to miss.

The Intrapreneurial Conference takes place on August 28 at 200 St Vincent Street, Glasgow.

Register on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-herald-intrapreneurial-conference-in-association-with-civtech-tickets-47350832615

For further information please contact Kirsty Loughlin on 0141 302 6016 or email kirsty.loughlin@newsquest.co.uk