Cryptoassets businesses and Money Laundering Regulations

From January 2020 the FCA will be the UK supervisor for cryptoasset businesses in respect of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing, under amended Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs).

Cryptoassets are developing change connected to the financial services sector.

Both the concept, and the underpinning distributed ledger technology are attracting significant attention and the UK Government established a Cryptoassets Taskforce in 2018 as part of its FinTech Sector Strategy.

The Taskforce published its final report in October 2018, providing an overview of its perspective on the subject, including the underlying technology, the associated risks, potential benefits and a way forward with respect to regulation in the UK.

In reaching conclusions the Taskforce outlined the need for action to mitigate the risks for consumer harm, prevent the use of cryptoasset for illicit activity and guard against threats to financial stability that could emerge in the future.

It’s report sets out three broad types of cryptoassets and typical uses, which together help establish a framework for considering the impact, potential risks and need for regulation.

In setting out its role the FCA has specified a range of Cryptoasset activities that are captured under the new regime and businesses conducting these activities will be required to comply with the MLRs.

The businesses include existing financial institutions that offer the option to convert cryptoassets to fiat (government issued currency), or accept cryptoassets as collateral against a loan or purchase.

The regime will also apply to new businesses and developing business models such as peer to peer providers, digital wallet providers offering a crypto service such as exchange or custodian services, Cryptoasset ATM’s, and issuers of cryptoassets.

Fintech innovators are taking advantage of the growing cryptoasset trend. Some are aiming to make crypto work seamlessly with traditional currencies by developing technology capability that will enable cryptoassets such as Bitcoin to convert to fiat money. It presents new opportunities and challenges for many and is another developing example of the potential directional change digital will bring to financial services.

All impacted businesses will be expected to comply with the MLRs in relation to cryptoasset activities by 10 January 2020. The expectations include the ability to demonstrate that each business has thought about the respective nature, scale and complexity of its activities and the associated risks. Businesses also need to have the appropriate controls in place to mitigate risks and will be expected to keep these under review and regularly assessed to ensure they remain fit for purpose and relevant.

In setting out its responsibilities and the approach it will take to this work the FCA has signposted firms to a number of existing resources to help build an understanding of its expectations when it comes to managing financial crime risks.

These include the FCA’s Financial Crime Guide: to countering financial crime risks, the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) website, and recommendations from The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) an inter-governmental and global body. Further detail on the FCA’s approach can be found here.

Liberation: Banking

So, if you’ve been following the news lately you probably have heard PSD2’ and Open Banking’ mentioned at least a couple of times.

There’s a lot of fuss going on about them and we wanted to prepare all that we could find into a short article to get you up to date.

What is PSD2?

PSD2, formally referred to as the Second Payment Services Directive, is a regulation that covers the entire European Economic Zone.

PSD2 has been on the radar of European economies since 2015. It’s a major step towards keeping up with the rapid digitalization of the commerce industry.

PSD2 aims at making online payments more secure through various regulations that make online fraud much more difficult and third parties more accountable.

If you are remotely interested in finance and fintech you probably know all of these already. In case you have no idea what PSD2 is, you can check this comprehensive guide about the PSD2 regulation.

Other than regulating and securing the way online payments are done, PSD2 actually has paved the way for one of the biggest finance experiments ever.

What is Open Banking and Why Should I Care?

Open Banking is a gigantic experiment that is set to liberating the banking sector by returning the control of financial data to consumers.

This is possible thanks to a small detail that was introduced with PSD2. PSD2 allows third-party financial services to access banking data easier and more secure.

A bit of a history lesson here. Personal finance solutions aren’t something new and there are many successful companies that have provided such services. However, what they lacked was a consistent and secure way of getting access to the financial data of consumers.

The widespread method that these solutions relied on was named as screenscraping. When using third-party financial assistants, users would provide their username and passwords to the third-party software and the software would periodically login into the bank accounts and save the screen of the account information.

Based on the data they gathered, they would give suggestions to the user on how to better spend their money.

As you can guess, screen scraping wasn’t the most consistent or safe method of gathering user data. After all, who would feel safe sharing their banking credentials to someone else? On top of that, if you were using multiple banks you wouldn’t have a complete picture of your finances.

This is where PSD2 promises a safer and better ecosystem for third-party financial services to thrive.

In addition to making online payments safer, PSD2 also has provisions that aim at liberating banking data. Traditionally, your financial data (how much you spend, where you spend, what you but, etc.) was kept safe by banks. Now, to be honest, banks have historically done a great job of protecting their clients’ financial data.

The only problem here is that the data does not belong to the banks. It belongs to the consumers who normally have almost zero control over how the data is utilized.

With PSD2, banks will still be the keepers of the data. But, they are forced to share the data with verified third-party services only when requested by the user. This will be done through an Application Programming Interface (API). So, you won’t share your password with anyone and your data will be provided from a safer and more reliable channel.

Even better, you get to decide which data points will be shared. An option that was previously impossible through screen scraping.

By default, you shouldn’t care too much about Open Banking unless you’re relying on 3rd party financial service providers.

Is Open Banking Good?

On paper? Yes.

However, we still don’t know how things will play out.

The main idea of Open Banking is that it will transform the banking sector in such a way that it will become more competitive and innovative.

By giving control of the data back to the consumers and lowering the barriers to entry drastically, open banking is expected to force banks to innovate and adapt to the digital realities of our time.

The lower barriers of entry might make banking more competitive which should force banks to improve the quality of their services and also constantly innovate. At least that’s the assumption.

More actors, more transparent banking, better services, constant innovation. This is what awaits us if Open Banking will succeed.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves for a second here.

All of these sound great but Open Banking is an enabler and not a proposition in itself. It is what companies do with Open Banking that will make it a success or not.

It’s true that competition fosters innovation but we need to ensure that innovation only happens to benefit customers and/or clients.

If customers don’t understand the value they’re getting back they won’t share their data and Open Banking will fail.

Author Name: Su Kaygun Sayran

Author Bio: Grown up in various corners of the world, Su loves writing about all things tech. His experience with various SaaS businesses has enabled him to carry his passion for writing into the tech industry.

Ethical finance extending the reach

The Scottish Government become signatory (21/22^nd September) to UN Principles of Responsible Banking joining a third of the global banking system ($47 trillion worth of assets)

It is impressive that the United Nations has secured so many signatories to the Principles of Ethical Banking.

My plea is that Scotland provides a special “Scottish” addendum and extends the principle of ethical finance to include positive action for the unbanked, near prime financial and credit excluded population in Scotland

In October Global Ethical Finance Initiative acted as pacesetter bringing together UN Multi-faith global power roundtable and a conference dedicated to ethical finance with a global reach.

It is encouraging to see leadership from the Church of England and Islamic Bank collaborating to spread and scale faith centred ethical standards in banking Scotland has a long been recognised as a champion of ethical finance. Gremlin Bank (bank for the poor) founded by Mohamed Yunis, more recently Castle Bank Co-operative in Edinburgh support for low-income families and MoneyMatiX community approach to teaching children and families to manage money (and debt) are just a few examples

It is against a backdrop of a long historical tradition in democratic banking serving the poor and rich alike that the vision emerged of a Scottish Investment bank. The vision is nearing reality as the Scottish Investment Bank bill proceeds through parliamentary processes. Central to the bill is a remit to include equality impact assessment ”“ focusing on ethical investment for inclusive growth. Linking the establishment of the Bank to the Equalities Act (2010) is inspired. Ensuring the needs of people who share one or more of the protected characteristics are met is exactly what is needed to provide inclusive growth.

I would ask that we open the debate under the auspices of Fintech Scotland to extend the provision of the Scottish Investment Bank to include fintech mobile innovation as a means of extending the reach to those who are unbanked or “near prime” (not able to access credit due to minor infringement of credit ratings)

I travel with hope in my heart that Scotland will be the first country to aim for zero unbanked. Adopting SDG’s as key drivers of Scottish policy and acknowledging that wellness sits at the heart of an economically vibrant country is pretty good stuff.

As Founder/CEO of Women’s Coin (digital currency of social value) I believe that adoption of ethical financing at Corporate and SME level extending the remit to include digital innovation, tokenisation, and local currencies will accelerate the spread and scale of adoption of SDG’s (UN Strategic Development Goals).

There has never been a more critical time for ethical financing and ethical leadership across all sectors Public, Voluntary, Charitable, Corporates and SME’s

Scotland can really set the pace, the vision and has the know how to create an inclusive society that fosters wellness as the key to economic vitality

Blog written by (Prof) Christine Bamford, Founder/CEO of Women’s Coin

#MorePowertoher #fintechscotland @finance4change @modulr

womenscoin.com

voluntier.co.uk

globalethicalfinance.org

Will the growth in fintech innovation be the solution to tackling one of society’s big issues? Financial exclusion

Homeless, no address, unemployed and no bank account ”“ the future is bleak

2 Million without a bank account. Between 10-14 million “near prime” adults have no access to credit, despite minor blemishes on credit history or can only access credit at high APR 29.9-39.9%

There is an urgent need to open access to financial services for those without an identity and are homeless. or on low-pay income. It isn’t just the homeless but families managing on low incomes where one bill too many pushes them into debt crisis ”¦. into the hands of loan sharks or high APR pay day loans and a continuing spiral of debt. If wellness sits at the heart of Scottish Government policies and values ”“ then we need to recognise the impact of debt, low income, lack of access to credit and insurance as key impact measures on mental wellbeing

Fintech Scotland range of innovative solutions, mobile payment systems, education, blockchain, crypto-currencies, wallets, tokenisation of voluntary work open the opportunity to create an equal and more inclusive society. Mobile friendly approach to Identity secured through biometrics, face recognition, top up payment cards/mobile payments are now able to provide evidence of credit worthiness. This is a modern pathway to a bank account, credit worthiness, access to insurance, credit and a verifiable credit rating.

March 2018 The Mexican Congress approved Fintech Law that aimed to regulate electronic payments, crypto currencies, crowdfunding and open banking. The fintech Law promotes innovation in the financial services industry, stimulates the growth of new business models and reduces entry barriers for Fintech firms. Fintech Law can significantly improve Financial inclusion. Fintech Scotland has taken a non-regulatory approach to supporting financial technology innovation. But the impact possibilities are with us now to work with traditional financial service to provide a integrated solution to financial exclusion. Scotland is on the brink of providing a “world-class” solution to inclusive growth through financial digital solutions creating the link between wellness and economic vitality

Blog written by (Prof) Christine Bamford, Founder/CEO Women’s Coin

Acknowledgement to PWC blog and report

www.womenscoin.com #MorePowertoHer @ChrisBamford12

Crypto currency ATM’s appearing in more Scottish cities

Photo by David McBee from Pexels

Crypto currency ATM’s now in Dundee and Aberdeen

2 Scottish cities, Dundee and Aberdeen, have installed their first ever Bitcoin ATMs.

Alphavend UK, Scotland’s leading Digital Currency ATM operator, has just announced that it had installed Bitcoin ATM machines in Dundee (Nethergate) and Aberdeen (Bridge Street).

Citizens can now buy Bitcoin, without having to make long journeys to cities such as Glasgow or Edinburgh and in a way that’s easier than easier than before by simply exchanging cash for the famous cryptocoins.

Alphavend has planned to instal more machines in the UK and is growing rapidly to keep pace with the growing interest and demand which has never been higher.

The high demand can be explained by Bitcoin being chosen more and more as a cost-effective way of sending money around the world.

The challenges of scaling up and winning bigger business ”“ and how Proactis can help

Winning new business is difficult. Often it’s most difficult for new and emerging companies to challenge the established order, especially if they’re doing things in a different way. As businesses expand and develop, they begin to examine different avenues, moving away from ad-hoc smaller pieces of work to looking at more formal access routes to substantial contracts.

Here we arrive at the wonderful world of bidding, proposals and tendering (you’ll see these terms being used interchangeably, but don’t worry they all mean the same). As potential contract sizes get larger, the demands placed on prospective bidders become ever more arduous and detailed, formal submissions are required for public and private sector buyers alike.

As you might expect, larger companies have more resources to dedicate to business development and specifically to bidding for work. A recent survey of bid professionals showed just 20% worked in organisations of less than 100 employees and only 12% were the sole responsible resource in the organisation*.

Unfortunately for smaller organisations, research has repeatedly shown a direct correlation between the level of resource employed in preparing proposals and success rates. The good news for developing organisations is that there are some relatively easy steps to take to improve proposals. A recent industry study shows that nearly half of all procurement professionals believe suppliers are letting themselves down with their proposals and that they are of poor quality. With the general standard being low, smart thinking and some effort can make a big difference.

If you are at the stage where you are or soon will be submitting proposals as part of your business development strategy then we would like to support you. As a commitment to helping exciting fellow Scottish businesses within the Fintech community, we are offering a day of expert bid support to a limited number of organisations completely free of charge.

This support could be analysis of current bid strategy, support with a live bid or a review of a past proposal.

To discuss your free expert support, contact Andrew Watson, Bid Consultancy and Training Manager at Proactis Tenders Limited – Andrew.Watson@proactis.com.

Proactis Tenders Limited is one of the UK’s leading procurement companies. Its team of specialists has extensive knowledge and considerable experience in providing a range of eProcurement systems and services to buyers in the public sector. It also offers a range of services to private companies from all sectors throughout Europe who are seeking new business opportunities.

*APMP UK Compensation Report 2019

It’s worse than that”¦ Jim

Anthony Rafferty, Managing Director, Origo says recent research into integration between systems in financial adviser firms’ back-office systems reveals a worrying disconnect eating into time, resource and profits of businesses

Origo recently commissioned in-depth research into the integration between systems in the back-offices of financial advice firms, and how this affected the efficiencies and profitability of those firms.

The research was carried out independently by the lang cat, a specialist financial services consultancy based in Edinburgh, and combined hours spent in financial advice firms around the UK mapping processes and analysing how they use the systems they have in place, as well as conducting online research with another 116 financial advice firms.

The conclusion is best summed up by Mark Polson, the MD of the lang cat, who was heavily involved in the research. He says: “We knew things weren’t great before we set out to conduct this research. But even so, we were struck by the impact of these inefficiencies on adviser back offices. Even where integrations do exist, firms aren’t trusting them or using them ”“ with good reason in some cases.”

From closely studying firms’ processes, the research estimates that in a typical financial advice business, staff could be up to 100% more efficient, dealing with twice the assets under administration they currently manage, if the systems they used were properly integrated with one another. In other words, staff could potentially be dealing with up to twice the number of fee paying clients than they are at the moment.

That is both a shocking state of affairs and also one of opportunity ”“ not least for financial advice firms.

To explain what we found: Firms involved in the study on average used five standalone systems in the process of giving advice, building investment and savings portfolios and managing clients; seven when platforms (transaction and administration services) were added; 10 with the addition of more general systems like accounting and office software.

It showed that due to a lack of integration between systems, and trust in those systems, firms are having to plough time and money into otherwise unnecessary manual input and reconciliation. In a typical new business journey, for example, client details were being keyed into systems at least three times!

Key facts from the research can be found on the accompanying infographic.

Currently ”“ and to be fair, despite sterling work by some of the players in the market ”“ advice firms do not benefit from a level of integration that is of real use to them. Integrations are typically point-to-point, with one provider integrating with another for specific purposes, for example for portfolio valuations.

They are also driven by business case, with platforms, CRMs and other system providers naturally prioritising integrations that will bring in higher levels of returns.

On a practical level and worryingly, even where integrations exist, adviser firms said that the lack of consistent and quality data meant they distrusted the output the systems are delivering, the result of which was that they had reverted to inefficient, costly and potentially risk inducing manual processes, because it was a process over which they have more control.

Typically there are 23 point-to-point integrations required within a firm using two investment and savings platforms, without factoring in any systems for protection and mortgage services and general office systems. On a point-to-point basis, that level of integration is never going to happen.

But there is a solution. We identified that if there was a centralised hub, into which platforms, CRMs and adviser software systems and tools could integrate once and then connect to every other player in the market who was also connected to the hub, and which also dealt with making and maintaining the connections, the benefit to the industry could be huge ”“ in particular to the financial adviser firms.

Using a centralised hub would mean any provider new or established could connect with any other provider on the hub, for services pertinent to their operations, no matter the volume of business.

In this way, a centralised integration capability would significantly improve the market’s connectivity, helping advice firms to improve their efficiencies, their profitability and enabling them to deliver faster and better service to their clients, whilst potentially boosting business across the board.

Hence, for the past couple of years we have been building the Origo Integration Hub to help provide that solution.

From a business perspective, for systems and services providers, this hub-and-spoke approach to integration does away with the need for case-by-case decisions and resource restraints incumbent of the point-to-point integration method. Linking to a hub incurs one set of integration costs instead of many, and significantly reduces resource and IT costs, which platforms and system suppliers can better apply elsewhere in their business.

Importantly, it provides the opportunity for all software and service companies, including smaller companies and new entrants, to easily connect with new trading partners if they wish. Also, it enables adviser firms to use the software or service that best suits their business set-up.

Currently, the Integration Hub has 19 companies including some of the big names in investment and savings signed to it, with others in the pipeline.

From a top down perspective it seems illogical that in the 21st century systems do not talk to one another in an efficient manner. However, this is a legacy issue which Origo with its remit to help improve the efficiencies and cost effectiveness of the industry and deliver better outcomes for consumers, is in a position to help resolve.

Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ Awesome FinTech Atmosphere!!

An awesome August atmosphere has been pervasive across Scotland and the fintech innovation activity, in its many guises, has contributed to this over recent weeks.

Since returning from a few days in the beautiful Mediterranean sun, there has been no respite in the breadth and depth of fintech initiatives which are creating this can do entrepreneurship.

The fintech community gathering at one of the new innovation hubs, The Green Room in Edinburgh, where a good number of us came together last Thursday is a great example.

Entrepreneur Atmosphere

The gathering was a mix of fintech entrepreneurs from across Scotland along with some seasoned investors, coming together to try a few glasses of summer wine.

Delighted that Alistair Forbes from Mercia and Ron Robson from Tavistock Group could join us and a huge thank you to Dag Lee and Sarah Ronald for being terrific hosts at one of Scotland’s newest fintech epicentres’.

We look forward to repeating the gathering during September’s fintech festival, watch this space.

The week before there was another wonderful atmosphere at the Virgin Start Up event in Glasgow which attracted entrepreneurs from far and wide across the country.

Terrific to share the platform with the inspiring Phil Grady of Castlight Financial and Loral Quinn of Sustainably, who brilliantly shared their experiences with entrepreneurs embarking on the innovation journey.

A massive thank you to Andy Fishburn, Alice Mulrooney and the Virgin Start Up team for their leadership as well as Stephen Pearson from Virgin Money for making all this happen.

We are looking to repeat a similar event with David Duffy, Stephen and the CYBG Virgin Money team on 12^thSeptember in Edinburgh with the Scotland’s fintech community.

There are many other exciting activities being planned to build the entrepreneurial atmosphere, such as by James Varga, the awesome leader of The ID Co, in embracing the open banking opportunities.

Great to meet up with James a couple of weeks ago to discuss how we support the collaboration with fintech entrepreneurs across the ecosystem.

Similarly, terrific to meet up with Stuart Lunn and Darren Cairns from the market leading firm Lending Crowd and put the world to rights over a few glasses back in the Green Room in Edinburgh.

Thank you Stuart and Darren for your ongoing valuable insights and feedback, looking forward to building on this last eighteen months of Fintech Scotland into 2020 with you.

The awesome atmosphere is not confined to the evenings and it was great to meet up with long standing colleague and one of the very original fintech leaders (for over 30 year) Ian Mckenna for an early morning breakfast.

We were joined by new chief executive Billy Burnside of Criterion Tec, who we are delighted to welcome into the FinTech Scotland community as we lay down the tracks’ for a new data driven innovation future.

In between the Edinburgh fringe festival activity, it was terrific to meet up with Raymond O’Hare last week to share some of these developments and discuss collaboration opportunities.

Very excited about welcoming the Raymond and the Exception team to the FinTech Scotland community in the coming months.

The entrepreneurial atmosphere is also being fueled by a global energy and it is really exciting to meet with successful entrepreneurs bringing their firms to Scotland

Really enjoyed catching up with Gopal Hariharan of Black Arrow in Glasgow and very excited about this fintech enterprise being set up in Scotland

Then it was also fabulous to meet up with Paul Kiernan to hear about the fast developing plans for the innovative Decision Point enterprise in Scotland.

Looking forward to connecting Gopal and Paul into the community and ecosystem across Scotland and building the collaboration opportunities

Collaboration Atmosphere

This last few weeks I have been really enthused about the flourishing collaboration atmosphere and the opportunities to bring together the fintech community with innovative large enterprises.

For example, great to progress the development of opportunities with Sam Bedford, Gary McLellan and the CYBG Virgin Money team as they further extend their market leading innovation initiatives

Similarly, excited to be working with Ali Law, Julian Reichert, Ricky McKinney and the rest of the team at Royal London as they revolutionize long term savings sector.

Terrific also to engage with the Barclays team, Danielle Sheerin, Sonal Lakhani, Stuart Brown and Alex Ball to explore collaboration initiatives, including the Tech Stars programme during the FinTech Festival.

Delighted to be taking forward the collaboration with Aberdeen Standard Investments and working with Mario Cugini, David Scott, Geoff Aberdein and Ruari Grant to explore fintech collaboration in the asset management sector.

The retail banking sector has already demonstrated the value of closer fintech collaboration and my meetings with the inspiring Kristen Bennie of RBS highlight numerous good examples of this.

Sharing the examples of collaboration across the broader financial sector provides enormous opportunity to build the fintech innovation cluster in Scotland.

In this respect, the last few weeks has seen constructive conversation with Asif Abdullah, Cyndi Shettle and Martin Little of Franklin Templeton from the investment sector and David Skinn from the insurance sector.

It was also valuable to catch up with Tara Foley of Bank of Scotland to consider how we work more closely to progress specific initiatives on consumer engagement working with the fintech community.

On this note, thrilled to see the Chemistry’ Fintech Accelerator go live last week working with strategic partner Sopra Steria and the Edinburgh Innovations team of University of Edinburgh.

Terrific leadership by Kerry Nicolaides and Mingaile Vaisnoraite, exciting to be working with banks and fintech firms on this.

Brilliant to also talk through with Mags Moore of Sopra Steria on how we can develop the fintech collaboration across Government with similar initiatives to improve citizen and consumer outcomes

The engagement of consumers in fintech is a growing development and I was delighted to join Dave Shaw and the Tesco Bank team in sharing how they are taking a human design centred approach to customer engagement.

Fantastic to see the work with Chris Speed and team of University of Edinburgh come alive, all very much in line with the collaboration co-design atmosphere, and in a super festival setting at the University.

Another example of collaboration that serves social purpose is the great work lead by Nicola with the launch of the fintech customer panel announced today. This initiative will bring the innovation from the fintech firms together with consumer representative bodies to tackle societal and economical issues. You can read more about it here.

Festival Atmosphere

Talking of festivals, we have been overwhelmed with the support for the FinTech Festival in September, amazing engagement from so many people for the three weeks of activities.

Huge thanks to the wonderful Rory Archibald of Visit Scotland and Karen Craib of Scottish Enterprise who have worked tirelessly with Mickael to bring it all alive.

It was brilliant to meet up with Hazel Gibbens of Tech Nation recently to share plans for the Festival, I’m hoping Hazel will be joining me on the stage for a few events to highlight the support for innovative enterprises across Scotland.

It was super to talk about the growing festival atmosphere across the fintech community at my recent catch up with Huw Martin and Joseph Apted of Head Resourcing recently, very much appreciate their ongoing valuable support for fintech leaders.

Similarly, in meeting up with Graeme Jones of SFE to talk through the plans for the next cross industry and Government meeting, FiSAB, which will take place in the middle of the Festival programme.

It is very apt that the first festival showcase event will take place in Glasgow at the University of Strathclyde with the FinTech Future conference.

University of Strathclyde has led the way in both fintech knowledge and skills development on the global stage and I am hugely excited about the broader development of the fintech cluster as part of the Glasgow Innovation District

Fantastic to be working with Eleanor Shaw, Martin Hughes, Mick McHugh, Emma Stephen and the team at the University as we progress the strategic opportunities

Very much looking forward to taking forward the fintech engagement initiatives being led by Daniel Broby, Devraj Basu, George Wright and John Quigley amongst others.

Fintech and broader tech skills are crucial to the further success and progress of the cluster and economy, in this respect it has been a privilege to be working with the awesome teams at Skills Development Scotland and IBM.

A couple of weeks ago it was an excellent workshop session on developing the skills for young people across Scotland with the motivational Damien Yates, Neville Prentice and SDS team along with the inspiring Gary Kildare, Charlotte Lysohir, Nicky Cooper, Dominic Nolan, Mairi Cairney, Bill Hughes of IBM.

Many thanks to the magnificent Michael Young and Georgia Boyle and the MBN Solutions team for being wonderful hosts for the meet up with the senior IBM team from all sides of the Atlantic the day before.

Once again, the MBN Solutions team are hosting a range of terrific fintech meet ups as part of the festival and their valuable ongoing leadership makes such a positive difference across the community.

Running Atmosphere

The Kirkcaldy half marathon a couple of Sundays ago was probably the best running race atmosphere I’ve experienced from a local community ever, just amazing!

The Kingdom of Fife community turned out in huge numbers for a very special race and it was a privilege to savour the magnificent support throughout the 13.1 miles.

Thank you so much Kirkcaldy, I’m still buzzing from the race even now and I think the buzz will carry on to the Fife Fintech Festival event on 17^thSeptember.

The half marathon was part of my training leading up to the Loch Ness Marathon in October and proceeded another half marathon the week before at Bathgate and a rural midweek eight mile race in the Fife countryside around Ceres.

Next up is the Kilmacolm half marathon as part of a 23 mile training run next Sunday followed by the Scottish Half marathon in east Lothian, all before the trip to Inverness for the marathon in early October.The next few weeks will be the real test on whether I can get back to my marathon racing best although the atmosphere from the forthcoming fintech festival in September should propel me one way or another!! Until next time!

Autorek and the Automation Revolution

AutoRek have just announced that they had partnered with Worldwide Business Research (WBR) to generate an industry report. The report will be focusing the state of automation and data management within the financial services sector.

The survey includes feedback from 100 individuals within the operations, IT, business change, finance and data management business functions. They were asked how automation will affect the financial services industry in the next 5-10 years.

Key findings include:

The majority of those interviewed are implementing blockchain, semantic data management, machine learning and automation
Respondents think that AI is likely to impact product development and innovation the most.
46% of respondents are looking for new technologies to assist data governance.

Investing in the Automation Revolution’ will launch at Sibos London between 23^rd”“ 26^thSeptember.

Scotland’s fintechs can unlock the power of open banking

There are over one hundred fintech companies thriving in Scotland’s fintech community with a range of new start-ups, existing firms developing their fintech offers and tech-driven firms re-locating north of the border. The launch of open banking last year has played a key role in fuelling the growth of this sector and the UK as a whole is now recognised as a world leader in open banking innovation.

So far, much progress in open banking has been made in the small business environment where innovative products and services are already in the marketplace such as tools for monitoring cash flow and accessing finance. An important contribution to this innovation was the first Open Up Challenge in 2017 and 2018 ”“ spearheaded by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and run independently by Nesta Challenges. The Challenge was part of the CMA’s package of measures introduced to stimulate competition in the financial sector and help small businesses save time and money, find better services, reduce stress and discover the intelligence in their financial data. Winners included fast-growing fintech brands such as Swoop, Funding Options and Coconut whose products are frequently used by freelancers and small businesses across Scotland. However, as important as it is, the small business space is just the start of the open banking revolution.

When we consider the consumer market, while there are products that are already in use it’s fair to say that take-up has not yet been widespread – especially in light of research showing UK consumers stand to gain £12bn a year from open banking-enabled services^[i]. Awareness of open banking is still low, with new research from Nesta Challenges showing that 55% of people in Scotland have not heard of it.

On the other hand, 46% of Scottish people say that they want to feel more in control of their finances and 33% want personalised information and guidance to help them manage their finances. For people in Scotland the two biggest benefits of using an open banking enabled product are seen to be: saving money and finding better deals. These findings present big opportunities for those fintech companies and start-ups in Scotland developing open banking-enabled innovations for consumers.

That’s why Nesta Challenges, in partnership with Open Banking Ltd, has launched the Open Up Challenge 2020 – a £1.5m prize fund to encourage fintech innovators to create solutions that will help people to make more of their money.

With Open Up 2020 we want to attract breakthrough innovations designed to support hundreds of thousands of people ”“ particularly the most vulnerable. We’re looking for fintech innovators that can unlock open banking’s potential to change the way that the UK manages its money ”“ especially for the 15.2 million who regularly run out of money each month.

Open banking represents a genuinely new way of empowering people with their data ”“ it is a key milestone on the journey to a digital economy, and the Open Up Challenge has an important part to play in encouraging people to make their data work for them. Open Up 2020 will not only help people better manage their money and take control of their data, but it will also support Scotland’s growing and thriving fintech sector by fast-tracking innovative new products and services. Applications for Open Up 2020 are open until October 2^nd2019 and guidance on how to apply can be found at https://openup.challenges.org/apply/. In addition, the Open Up 2020 team will be holding office hours at Codebase, Edinburgh on Thursday 12^thSeptember ”“ book your slot hereto benefit from tailored application support from the Open Up Entrepreneur-in-Residence Sarah Tierney.

^[i]Consumer Priorities for Open Banking 2019