FCA news – Tips to keep up to date with the regulator
I always pause for thought as I write an update on what’s happening at the FCA, thinking about how to summarise the essence of what I’ll cover and knowing I’m only focusing on a small sample of what’s going on there.
For those of you able to make it to last week’s FCA event you’ll have heard the team talk about the size of the FCA’s role and remit. Since coming back to work after the Christmas break I’ve found myself thinking about what to cover in my regular blogs, when there could be so much to highlight. So its with that thought in mind that I’m focusing the majority of my update on a couple of ways to keep up to date with what’s going on at the FCA and ending with a specific point relating to a consultation paper on cryptoassests.
Getting updates from the FCA
There are two communications that I’ve always found helpful and even more so since staring my role at FinTech Scotland.
The first is simply a weekly email that contains a summary of that weeks FCA news. Its a great way of seeing what the Regulator has published that week. It’s no more than one page (usually) and will include links to any consultation papers, policy papers, final notices, speeches etc. Its worth signing up for – try this link.
The second is the Regulation Round Up. Its published on a monthly basis, includes information that is relevant for all firms regardless of sector, size or business model. The January Edition can be accessed here and for those interested you can also sign up to receive the Regulation Round each month – regardless of whether or not you’re involved in an authorised or regulated business. Again – my view is – its worth signing up for!
As well as covering hot topics, the Regulation Round Up provides updates on ongoing FCA work, will often contain articles outlining the FCA’s view on an topic and will include relevant links to current consultations and other FCA papers that may be relevant to your business or future plans. It will also outline any FCA events that maybe relevant or useful for your business.
The January edition highlights that the FCA intends to carry out a survey of smaller firms on how FCA regulation specifically impacts them. This work will be completed by an independent consultancy – Kantar Public. If you’re contacted please support this initiative. Your feedback will be highly valuable.
It also mentions that the FCA will be holding two events in Edinburgh in March aimed at regulated firms working in general insurance or the retail investment market. You’ll find more detail through the January Edition link above as well as information on how to register for the events.
There is much more information in the round up and the final point I’ll reflect on here is that in this months edition it also covers the important topic of Preparing for Brexit!
Getting insight from the FCA
To help focus its work, the FCA has divided the financial system into seven sectors that it monitors on a continual basis. It develops a set of sector views that provide a way to bring its collective intelligence together and considers a wide range of factors that drive change across the financial system.
The sector views are published and made available on the FCA website and will also be used as the FCA shapes and develops its business plan – due later this year.
The latest set of sector views were published in January and can be accessed here
Consultation paper – Guidance on Cryptoassets
The FCA is consulting on Guidance on crypto assets. This work is to help businesses understand whether their crypto asset activities fall under regulation.
This consultation has the potential to apply to a wide range of businesses. If crypto assets is currently or may potentially to be part of your business in the future, or if you’re engaging or talking to consumers on this topic or marketing this type of product, please review this consultation and offer your feedback. Comments are required by Friday 5th of April and can be emailed to fcacrypto@fca.org.uk
As I sign out for now, a final reminder that the FCA’s project Innovate team is hosting an event in Edinburgh on the 31st of January. I look forward to seeing you there. Please come and say hello especially if we’ve not met yet.
All the best
Nicola
Challenges of Doing Business with Large Corporations: A Masterclass with GlobalScot John Fox
The prospect of working with a large organisation can be a somewhat daunting prospect. It brings a whole new set of questions, paperwork, considerations and regulations. It’s also an exciting opportunity for your company to grow and develop in both existing and potentially new markets.
This masterclass on the Challenges of Doing Business with Large Corporations’ draws on John’s insight of the culture of large US headquartered corporations from the perspective of the insider. If you are interested in ideas of how to differentiate your offering to US based business or how to navigate large corporate culture please join us on Wednesday 6th February at 10am at the Scottish Enterprise offices in Edinburgh. For more details or to register for the event please using this link.
John recently retired after a long successful career of 39 years with Johnson & Johnson; a multi-national corporation that in 2017 had a revenue of $74.65bn, ranked No. 37 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and has over 130,000 employees worldwide. As Vice President of the Global Payroll for the entire group and in his previous role as Group CIO for Pharmaceuticals, John was responsible for administrative functions such as IT, finance and back office, including the payroll operations across 80 countries.
GlobalScots are members of a worldwide network of professionals who have built their reputations in the highest echelons of the international marketplace. Since 2001, they have been giving back to Scotland by donating their time and expertise for the benefit of Scotland’s future prosperity.
LendingCrowd in top 30 fast-growing tech startups – Interview with CEO Stuart Lunn
Stuart, well done on being named among the top 30 fast-growing tech startups to watch by Tech Nation. What do you think is the main thing that led to this recognition?
“Thank you! I think the Upscale team have recognised the progress we’ve made since we launched in late 2014, and potential we have to really take this business to the next level. It’s also great to see that 20% of the Upscale 4.0 cohort are fintech businesses.”
What does joining the 2019 cohort of Tech Nation’s Upscale 4.0 programme mean for LendingCrowd?
“This is further validation of our work in building a sustainable business capable of being scaled in a high-growth sector. We founded LendingCrowd to help bridge the funding gap facing so many small businesses, and the experience gained through Upscale and working with Tech Nation will be invaluable. We are proud to be based in Scotland, so it was pleasing to be selected as the only Scottish company to join this year’s Upscale programme. We hope this paves the way for more great Scottish businesses to be recognised.”
How is your firm transforming from being a start-up to being a scale-up business?
“Since our launch, we’ve always been focused on creating robust in-house infrastructure that can scale and underpin growth. This business is built on solid foundations of technology, financial services and regulatory experience, and we’ve proven the benefits of our business model in terms of enabling hundreds of SMEs to access the finance they need to grow. As we continue to bring in larger funds, we’re able to deliver higher levels of funding ”“ helping our borrowers create more jobs and generating real knock-on benefits for the economy.”
You on-boarded some very high profile collaborators last year on your board and in your marketing team. Are you planning on growing significantly more in 2019?
“We announced the appointment of Sir Sandy Crombie as our Chairman in November, and the following month Darren Cairns joined us as CMO. We hope to announce some more additions to the senior management team as we scale this year. In January alone, we’re advertising for seven roles on our careers page. Our team currently numbers 25 and I expect that figure will be close to 40 by the end of this year.”
What are your plans and objectives for 2019?
“To keep growing our investor and borrower base. We’ve now helped more than 570 businesses access over £50 million in funding, including more than £12 million in Scotland. As we attract more investors looking to make their money work harder, we’ll continue making a positive impact for our vital community of SMEs. We want to be the go-to company for Scottish SMEs that are being failed by traditional lenders.”
What’s your view on the future of P2P lending?
“We’ll see increasing levels of institutional money flowing in as the sector matures. Individual investors remain an important part of the mix, and I believe that financial advisers will increasingly recommend this market to their clients as an alternative to traditional savings and investments.”
Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ Energised by FinTech Intimacy!
The intimacy of the fintech community and participants across Scotland has certainly given me an energised start to the year after the festive holiday.
Over the this first two weeks of 2019, the opportunity to engage and collaborate with the many people driving fintech innovation has enabled me to hit the ground running.
Coffee Shop Fintech Intimacy
And the many welcoming coffee shops across the country have been the venue of choice for the numerous meetings with inspiring fintech entrepreneurs during the last fortnight.
For example, this week it was brilliant to catch up with serial innovator Ross Laurie to hear about his new venture to reinvent part of the way financial services operates.
Scotland is the ideal home for launching Ross’s exciting initiative leveraging the open banking environment before taking to the rest of the financial world.
Open banking and data science are also being capitalized on by the engaging Adrian James (AJ) and his innovative Shoppa enterprise and we had much to talk through when we met last week.
In a short space of time AJ has developed a unique proposition that is going to have a positive impact on customer engagement financial services and beyond.
This will also be the case with Women’s Coin, a truly brilliant innovation which is going to have a world-wide impact in so many ways.
Wonderful to see the dynamic duo, Christine Bamford and Dr Jane Lewis, last week at one of our favourite coffee shops, Nomad.
We are delighted they are looking to develop their enterprise here in Scotland and become part of the diverse fintech community.
Then it was a late afternoon coffee with the magical MoneyMatiX team a few days ago, with the amazing Tynah Matembe and Helene Rodger.
Fantastic to see how their financial engagement prototype is developing and talk through the various take to market strategies.
This is just four examples amongst many others over this last two weeks of meetings at four very different types of coffee shops with Scotland’s diverse fintech enterprises.
Earlier this week the fintech intimacy moved away from the coffee shops to the offices of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for an engagement session with the fintech community.
It was great to having a very diverse group of the fintech community at the meeting and a massive thank you to Nicola Anderson, who is on a year long secondment from the FCA to FinTech Scotland, for putting on such an engaging event.
Many thanks also to Maggie Craig, Alan Drainer and Steven McWhirter for sharing their valuable regulatory insights and experiences.
I know there will be as much interest in the FCA Project Innovate event In Edinburgh on 31stJanuary.
This opportunity to have an intimate constructive engagement with the fintech community is something I am also looking forward to developing with the Scottish Government team leading on digital transformation.
Great to further develop these plans with Clare Mills and Carron Macnab from the Digital team this week along with Paul Gaffney from Hanya.
I’m really looking forward to the next stage of this initiative as it will demonstrate how the fintech community can play a constructive mutually beneficial role with a large organization such as the Government.
Big and Small FinTech Intimacy
This big and small fintech intimacy was the focus of the discussions with the very progressive and forward thinking team at Baillie Gifford.
It was great to meet up with Richard McGrail, Evan Delaney and Anurag Agrawal from Baillie Gifford to further develop how they can play an active role in shaping the fintech innovations being developed in Scotland.
This was also the theme of the discussion with Jackie Leiper of Lloyds Banking Group earlier this week as we explored the numerous ways in which to connect into the fintech community and innovative people developing the ideas for the future.
Derek Smith is leading some amazing initiatives at Lloyds demonstrating that big and small can develop a fintech intimacy.
This was even more apparent whilst in the Port Hamilton HQ as we bumped into the brilliant Manu Peleteiro, founder of the Inbest enterprise, which is helping make financial management accessible and inclusive to all.
Consumer inclusion was a key part of my update to the Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) meeting on the second day back after the holidays last Tuesday
This was an opportunity for me to demonstrate how the growing fintech community can play a significant positive role from both a social perspective as well as economic outcomes.
Thank you to Scottish Government Ministers, Derek Mackay and Kate Forbes along with Jim Pettigrew of CYBG and Graeme Jones of the SFE for allowing me to celebrate FinTech Scotland first anniversary at the Board meeting.
Thanks also Shery for producing such a wonderful birthday cake to celebrate the occasion!
Our first anniversary has been well received in the global media over the last few days noting the various developments in Scotland over the last twelve months
Of course, on the ground, fintech innovation will only flourish if the big scale infrastructure is developed for the longer term
There is no one more inspiring to explain this than Keith O’Donnell of Morgan Stanley and it is hugely impressive to listen to Keith on this last week.
On a broader level, it was great to meet up with James King, the founder of Host in Scotland, and the always insightful Polly Purvis of Scotland IS and David Smith of Scottish Enterprise with John Trower and Graeme Malcolm to discuss the importance of data infrastructure for future innovations.
The role of data skills in driving fintech innovation was the focus of the conversation with Katriona Cunningham, Richard Matthews and Gordon Ritchie of Aviva last week as well.
It was great to have Michael Young and Rob Huggins of MBN Solutions with us to talk through their experiences of developing the data talent for the future.
University Fintech Intimacy
The fintech intimacy with the Universities across Scotland is something which has enormous potential in so many ways beyond the pure development of new young talent and skilled people.
This was reinforced to me this week in catching up with the fabulous Ellie Mackay from the Entrepreneurial Network team at the University of Strathclyde.
Very impressed on how Ellie and the team are engaging a diverse range of students on potential innovations as part of the fintech cluster development at the University.
Similarly, the potential development of new fintech enterprises through an accelerator programme at the University of Edinburgh with Gordon Donald and John Lonsdale of the Edinburgh Innovations team along Myron Hrycyk and Colin Carmichael of Sopra Steria.
Such an initiative will form an important part of the Edinburgh Futures Institute and it was good to catch up with Lesley McAra and Damien Mcgarrigle last week to discuss how fintech intimacy can have a very big role to play with new collaborations.
The fintech intimacy with the public sector opportunities and working with the CivTech programme is going to be key over the coming months.
This was also the discussion with the inspiring Glasgow School of Arts team, Irene McAra-Williams and Gordon Hush, this week as we considered how to progress the consumer inclusion initiatives further.
Later in the day we met up with Yvonne MacDermid and David at Money Advice Scotland to share the progress we are making and agree next steps in developing the intimacy with the range of fintech innovations to support their work.
The potential powerful impact that fintech could have on peoples lives was further recognized when catching up with Ewan Aitkin, the inspiring chief executive at the Cyrenians who deliver such amazing work.
Ewan and I first met over 35 years ago at university where we were both trying to positively change the world to be more progressive, a mission which we remain true to today albeit our tactics have changed slightly!
Enabling FinTech Intimacy
One of the exciting aspects about the fintech intimacy across Scotland is the numerous and diverse participants enabling innovation to flourish.
For example, it is great working with Mark Roger and his Vivolution team as the FinTech Scotland Network Integrator on a range of initiatives.
Developing the access and options for funding fintech enterprises is one such important area and this will be a key focus for our activity in 2019.
Furthermore, working alongside Graeme Rennison and the team at Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Investment Bank is valuable to ensure the fintech community can best leverage the range of product and services available.
There are many other active enabling participants, for example, on Monday in Glasgow it was really useful to catch up with Evelyn McDonald and Steven Hamill, who lead the Scottish Edge team, to discuss collaboration opportunities
We also enjoyed catching up with FinTech Scotland board member Yvonne Dunn, from our strategic partner Pinsent Mason, to discuss plans for the year and build on their fantastic fintech engagement last year.
A very full day in Glasgow finished off with a fascinating and constructive conversation with Nick Cousins, Mark Roger and Doug Morwood on enabling great fintech intimacy with large banks . Thanks Nick for progressing the opportunities on this.
I am hoping to leverage this Scotland strength of enabling fintech intimacy on a global scale in 2019
The first opportunity for this will be next week when I join Pat Kunz on SDI in Switzerland for a fintech trade mission along with Gavin Littlejohn and leaders from a number of market leading fintech firms.
Thank you to Manuela Andaloro for the catch up this week and guiding me through the presentations we will be giving next week in Zurich. More on this in the next Fuse blog in a fortnight.
Running Intimacy
I am hoping some of the Scottish fintech leaders joining me in Switzerland next week will join me on a few runs around the beautiful city of Zurich along the Limmat River and a full circuit of Lake Zurich!
Just now I’m up to running 50 miles a week and I need to keep the mileage high with the first marathon in early March fast approaching.
Ive been boosted by my first race of the year, a half marathon at Strathclyde Country Park on the first Sunday of January, which saw me take third place overall and a new trophy for the cabinet.
And yes, there were more than three people running the race!
Whilst I am keeping my feet on the ground, this is my best start to a running year in over four years and I am hoping to defy the physical challenges of getting older with a year of personal bests!
Of course, also planning for the best year yet’ in fintech too! Until next time
Latest news from the FCA
Analysis of a Sector
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The banking landscape of tomorrow
Blog written by Chris Herd, CEO and founder at Nexves
Today, fintech companies are innovating around existing products and services to create a better customer experience, tomorrow they will need to do far more. The first wave of challenger banks has amassed huge user numbers by doing little more than providing a more functional user interface, the next leap forward will come from enabling things which were previously impossible.
The future we imagine is akin to a Netflix of Financial services. Fintechs are on the brink of offering consumers a personalised menu of products instead of one-size-fits-all services.
As innovators and disruptors, we have a window of opportunity afforded to us by a unique confluence of circumstances.
The unlocked door to previously inaccessible data endows customers with the chance to receive insights into their spending habits which could save them a fortune.
The need to focus on the long term
Ultimately if companies like us do our job properly we’ll end up with a win-win situation. The value to the customers will be as a direct result of our ability to deliver simple products which people use and understand. The more money we keep in our users’ pockets, the higher they will value our services, the more they will trust us to deliver services which are of greater financial benefit. That won’t be achieved over night.
At Nexves, there are a number of key innovations that enable us to achieve things that no other company in the world can match. Mostly, this is through our ability to acquire a level of data which is exponentially more granular than our nearest competitors ”” enriching our intelligence and insights to an extent which was previously unimaginable.
How the world is changing
It is always essential to abreast of forthcoming technological developments and trends. They influence people and revolutionise the way we deal with finances.
Our 2018 reading list: https://hackernoon.com/a-cryptopunk-startup-founders-2018-reading-list-a52c7fb6bc0a]
- The internet as it currently exists will capitulate. The revenue model of advertising only will give way to a distributed model of digital taxation. This will take the form of metered-micropayments for all products, services or content you consume online ”” compensating creators equal to your engagement. Where industries have died, digital tokens will enable those things which acquire most attention to thrive. Cryptocurrency has been fascinating but we are currently in the replication phase ”” where people are trying to reinvent what currently exists ”” instead of doing things with blockchain and cryptocurrency which were previously impossible. We hope to imagine then deliver the latter.
- Peer to peer has been awesome for platform creators but terrible for gig economy workers. As Ubers Valuation has skyrocketed into the hundreds of Billions, rewards for drivers have plummeted. In short, the compensation for providing the service and maintaining the platforms are misaligned. This will change. Service providers will be rewarded with equity in the underlying business through new fractional ownership models. Every trip will equate to a higher stake of ownership. Drive more? Own more.
- Last mile delivery is about to explode. It’s relatively cheap to get a large volume of goods from one geographic location to another but It’s ridiculously expensive to get it from one place in that city to a large number of addresses. Look for there to be a number of VC backed players emerge in this space in the next 18 months. They will initially tie together D2C companies and their community, enabling those businesses to leverage the engagement of the crowd to let their customers benefit and lower delivery costs significantly. I guarantee a unicorn emerges in this domain by 2020.
- Crowdfunding is dead, long live crowdfunding. Investing in equity is prehistoric, consumer purchasing behaviour will become a new form of investing. Voting with your wallet will mean owning through your decisions. Buy something, own it, buy more, own more. Instead of purchasing stocks and shares, everyday consumers will accrue ownership of the futures most exciting companies through their existing purchasing behaviour. This means that the can of coke you are drinking would be a tiny fraction of equity in the business, equally the chocolate bar in your pocket or the soap in your bathroom. Wealth will be redistributed. Where in the past the only beneficiaries of our actions were the shareholders in the business which produced the things we consume ”” there will be a mass reaction against this. Technology will enable a swarm of individuals to cohesively act as one for mutual economic benefit. This will give rise to co-operatively owned brands which produce a vast number of the things we consume. People will be incentivised to act as selfishly as possible, benefitting everyone who does so as well.
New solutions needed
That is the world in which we see Nexves playing a central part. In order to participate in this cyclical economy, we need a digital passport which collects our data, protects it, lets you monetise it while enabling the payments alluded to above. We need a mechanism which enables us to hold the equity we earn through our behaviour and access markets to cash out when we desire. We layer on top of any existing bank account and will be the thing which facilitates participation
Strong opinions weakly held is the worst advice we’ve ever heard. Things that are weakly held are cheaply discarded and doing this leads to uncertainty. Instead, continuously challenging the things we believe ”” either destroying or improving them ”” is the framework we operate within. Candour is the most efficient vehicles which enable us to discover things as a startup and challenge conventionally held belief or the dogma which holds others back.
Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ A Festive FinTech for All
With the holiday period fast approaching this last two weeks has certainly been a festive fintech fortnight and there has been much to bring us Christmas cheer.
Such as some terrific announcements of innovative collaborations being led from Scotland’s fintech community with a broad spectrum of large organisations.
For example, Castlight Financials exciting development with Big Issue Invest with their world leading affordability tool, then there is Money Dashboard’s ground breaking collaboration with Go Compare.
Other examples include CU Soar new major partnership for a digital platform with Glasgow Credit Union to engage with their 46,000 customers and Wallet Services strategic blockchain innovation with Baillie Gifford.
Festive Awards
Therefore, it was no surprise that fintech firms from Scotland are being recognized through numerous awards.
For example, well done to the Previse team for recognition at the Finastra Universe awards event for their best in class innovative technology addressing slow payments.
Then at the Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA) Summit last Thursday, the Scottish fintech community scooped up the majority of the highly acclaimed awards.
Big congratulations to the Castlight Financial, Money Dashboard and The ID Co teams for this fantastic recognition which very much highlights their amazing work in improving consumer engagement with financial services.
The recognition from these and other awards for the fintech community is raising awareness amongst the international investment players on the innovative developments across Scotland.
It was good to share these examples of Scottish firms with Vishal Patel of the fintech investor Anthemis this week and looking forward to developing this further in the new year.
The FDATA Global Open Finance Summit over the two days either side of their big award evening was an awesome event in so many ways.
Held at the iconic the University of Edinburgh McEwan Hall, over two hundred people gathered to share latest innovative developments in the world of open banking.
This was a truly international event with entrepreneurs, investors, regulators and major institutions from every corner of the world meeting in Edinburgh to shape the future.
Congratulations must go to the brilliant host Andy McIver, the fabulous FDATA and Message Matters teams, the event crew as well as to the many insightful and thought provoking speakers.
The Summit was great opportunity to catch up with long standing friends such as Brian Costello and make new acquaintances from around the world.
The upmost respect and accolade to Gavin Littlejohn who expertly led the event and inspired the diverse group of people on how open finance can positively change the world, especially as Gavin had only two hours sleep over the 48 hours!
Festive Energy
There was plenty of festive energy at the wonderful fintechmas’ get together at Tontine, Glasgow on Tuesday evening as the fintech community came together to toast 2018 and enter the Christmas spirit.
Organised by John McHugh, one of the most motivating and inspiring fintech entrepreneurs on the planet, and hosted by the super team of Alison, Alex and Harry from the Gigly and Adlantic as well as Pauline and Ewan from Tontine.
Many thanks to fintech friends Hamish, Will and Katrina from the terrific media group FutureScot for their generous support with beer and pizza.
To my surprise I ended up doing a fintech state of the nation’ presentation with a Father Christmas hat on just to add to the fintechmas’ feelgood factor!
Prior to the event it was great to talk through opportunities with Dino and Zoe from Bifrost for their exciting wealth management platform.
Earlier that day Nicola and I also met up with Rod Ashley who is setting a new innovative bank which we are looking forward to supporting in 2019 as part of the fintech community.
Edinburgh held its own fintechmas’ get together the week before and it was fantastic to welcome a number of new fintech entrepreneurs to the community meet up as well as those who have been coming along from when Fintech Scotland started at the beginning of the year.
I must say a big thank you to Shery for making everything come together to make these fintech meet ups a success, Shery you are a fintech star and we’d be lost without your positive energy.
Earlier on in the day on Tuesday last week there was a lot of positive energy at the CanDo Innovation Forum.
It was really enjoyable to join the inspiring Irene McAra-Williams, director of the Glasgow School of Arts in sharing details of our proposed consumer inclusion initiative with the Forum.
This fintech consumer initiative was also top of our agenda for the meeting with Yvonne MacDermid and David from Money Advice Scotland, who do such valuable work across communities and where fintech innovation could play a growing role.
More to come on this early next year and it was also a key theme for the Fintech Scotland board meeting last Monday along with considering the fintech strategy for Scotland beyond 2020.
This conversation continued in the bar for a few joyful festive drinks afterwards to say thank you to the Board members for their valuable strategic insights throughout 2018.
Strategic considerations were very much on the agenda at the inaugural City Deal Regional Enterprise Council meeting last Friday, expertly chaired by Leeann Dempster.
I’m delighted to be invited to join this Council with its diverse group of people to consider the significant strategic investments in the region for the decade ahead.
Fintech collaboration and inclusion can very much play a big part in this, especially in the field of data driven innovation.
At the end of the meeting what a fabulous surprise to talk with fellow Council member Ewan Aitkin and be reminded that our paths crossed more than thirty five years ago at university!
Looking forward to catching up with Ewan in the new year to reminisce about those tough times in the early 1980’s and using the lessons and spirit from those days in today’s world.
Festive Spirit
On Tuesday this week we popped into to see the fantastic Michael Young and Rob Huggins of MBN Solutions who have given FinTech Scotland terrific support throughout 2018 in connecting talent into the world of fintech in Scotland.
Their office was very much in festive spirit and it was wonderful to see how their Christmas appeal will be reaching many children in Glasgow in the days ahead. Brilliant leadership by the Georgia Boyle and the team.
Later that day it was wonderful to catch up with the engaging Angela Pignatelli and Jim Mcallister of West College Scotland to hear about their plans to develop fintech skills in 2019 which we are very excited to support.
A few days before I had the opportunity to catch up with Iain Shirlaw to hear about the great progress with the Fife FinTech Skills Academy and how the fintech community are driving this forward with Fife College.
The topic of people skills dominated the CBI Financial Services breakfast meeting on Thursday and it was great to hear insights from Alison McGregor of HSBC, David Skinn of Aviva and the Scottish Government Minister Ivan Mckee.
Thank you to Tracy Black, Flora Hamilton and Henrietta Jowitt for an engaging event and the opportunity for me to share the examples fintech skills developments in Fife and West Scotland.
Highlighting the fintech people skills opportunities was also a key focus for my catch up with Michael Dickson of FWB Park Brown as we considered an exciting event for 2019.
Then also looking forward to 2019, it was great to meet up with Olga Kozlova of University of Strathclyde and see the new FinTech Scotland Glasgow base in the amazing Technology & Innovation Centre.
Another fintech collaboration I’m looking forward to further progress in 2019 is with the Scottish Government digital transformation team, especially in the area of payments
Great updates from Trish Quinn, Hugh Wallace, Alex Bunch and Martin Sansome at the Steering Board and catch up with Clare Mills along with the team from Hanya, Angela Porte, Paul Gaffney and Martin Ewart.
On a broader digital perspective, it was really interesting to join Rab Campbell, Colin Cook and other distinguished members of the Audit Scotland Digital Advisory Board last week to share insights.
Looking forward to collaborating with Gemma Diamond and Veronica Cameron on this in 2019.
Festive Collaboration
Festive collaboration was very much in the air at the Marketing Edinburgh Christmas get together on Thursday evening.
Absolutely inspiring speeches by chair Gordon Robertson and chief executive John Donnelly all wonderfully hosted at the beautiful Balmoral (many thanks Frances Maurer).
The Marketing Edinburgh team have once again delivered world class achievements for the region in 2018 under the awesome stewardship of John Donnelly which benefits the whole economy.
The event was a chance to catch up with a number of people who have given Marketing Edinburgh and FinTech Scotland such valuable support in 2019 such as the fabulous Rory Archibald of Visit Scotland who is helping us plan for the next fintech festival in the Autumn.
Earlier in the week we caught up with Ray Bugg and Pete Swift of Digit to also start planning the fintech profile and activities for 2019, always great to be working with these guys as we look to put fintech even more on the global map.
On a more specific note, very excited about the growing fintech collaboration between University of Edinburgh, Sopra Steria and Fintech Scotland following some great conversations last week.
This is another exciting area to be progressing with the engaging Craig Wilson, Myron Hrycyk and Colin Carmichael from Sopra Steria in developing emerging fintech innovations.
Festive collaboration opportunities were also on the table along with homemade mince pies for the session with the IBM team on Wednesday.
A constructive conversation with IBM’s Simon Pink, Michael Mauchline and another good friend from the past Mairi Cairney as well as Mark Roger from Vivolution
The collaboration opportunities continue to develop on the global stage too with a valuable catch ups with leading Scottish Development International leading lights Pat Kunz from Switzerland and Alexandra Mulcahy from Germany.
I am very much looking forward to my visits with various firms from the Scottish fintech community to Europe in the early part of 2019 to develop the opportunities further.
Our very good friend, Triinu Hansen of FDATA will be returning home to Estonia at the weekend and although we will very much miss Triinu we know we also have a new fintech ambassador in this lovely part of Eastern Europe.
Scotland continues to be very much part of the Europe.
This has been highlighted in our global fintech work with Kent Mackenzie and the team at Deloitte who have provided really valuable expertise and insights on where to focus our efforts in Europe and worldwide.
These global collaboration ambitions are also shared by the Ethical Finance Hub team based at Heriot Watt University and it was brilliant to share plans with Omar Shaikh and Chris Tait this week.
Similarly, it was fantastic to meet up with Jock Encombe this Thursday to talk through the mutually shared objectives of the Well Being Economy Alliance and Fintech Scotland alongside Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Very excited about the joint innovation initiative for the Spring of 2019 to demonstrate global leadership on reinventing financial services and the wider economy.
Before then we will take some time away over the festive period to recharge the batteries and reflect on the next stage of the Fintech Scotland journey.
Finally, I must finish this last blog of 2018 with a very special thank you for Mickael, Shery and Nicola who have made this a very special fintech year in so many ways.
They have very much put their heart and soul into FinTech Scotland’s drive for innovation, collaboration and inclusion and the journey has been amazing.
Festive Running
We will close for the festive break on Wednesday 19th December and return for our FinTech Scotland one year birthday on 8th January 2019.
In the meantime, I will have time to do plenty of festive running around the wonderful roads and trails of Edinburgh.
And I am in buoyant running mood after completing the challenging Pentland Hills Seven Reservoir half marathon and the Magnificent Water of Leith half marathon in the last two weekends.
This holiday I’ll be running everywhere from the Leith Waterfront to Arthurs Seat and across the Forth Bridge to Fife, so many places to enjoy.
My festive running will start with Parkrun this Saturday down at Crammond, a place where our diverse community come together to share a common love of running, always so uplifting.
I’m hoping Scotland’s fintech can emulate the Parkrun pride, passion and community inclusiveness as we continue the journey in 2019.
Until then, wishing you all peace and well being for the holiday period.
Helping build a broader understanding of the FCA across the Fintech community
Starting with a morning event on the 16th of January and working with the FCA team in Edinburgh. The session will explain the FCA’s approach to regulation with the team outlining the way the FCA works and share current priorities.
If you’re a Scottish fintech sign up here to register your interest for that event.
The saying goes time flies when your having fun. Since joining FinTech Scotland I’ve come to fully realise the absolute truth behind that expression. I can’t believe it’s been 9 weeks since I joined the team. It’s been a whirlwind of meet ups, introductions, meetings and discussions. On top of a few pre-Christmas get togethers and events!
I want to say a huge thank you for the support and collaboration you’ve shown me as I stepped into the wonderful world of FinTech Scotland. One thing is for sure – its a vibrant ecosystem that will continue to go from strength to strength because of the collaboration and drive of all involved and its a real privilege to be part of this.
The ambition across the community is immense. I think it ranges from driving efficiency, lowering costs and strengthening existing businesses through to more disruptive innovations seeking to build diversity, design unique products and drive consumer inclusion.
Whatever the ambition it’s likely there is a need to think about regulation – not perhaps the most exciting topic to raise in the run up to Christmas – but useful to note the event planned for January that aims to provide a solid insight into how the FCA operates.
The role of the regulator is broad and its worthwhile understanding its remit, how it works and how best to engage with, and navigate the organisation. The event on the 16th of January will help with this.
The FCA’s view on innovation is well documented. It is committed to supporting innovation in the interests of consumers. And the work the FCA does is focused on delivering better outcomes for the markets it regulates.
I look forward to working with you in 2019 and will welcome input and feedback on other subjects and topics that would be helpful to hear more about from a regulatory perspective. In the meantime I’ll look forward to seeing you on the 16th of January (if not before).
Wishing all a very FintechMas’ and Innovative New Year.
Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ FinTech and All That Jazz!!
Friday nights in Glasgow are always special but there was something extra magical a couple of weeks ago with the University of Glasgow FinTech Society awards event.
Even though I had only stepped off the plane from New York 24 hours earlier my jet lag was soon forgotten with the wonderful atmosphere generated by the Society’s student members.
This was no surprise because this energetic and inspiring Society has already established itself as the largest student led fintech society in Europe and the various team presentations demonstrated that they are a world class group.
The vibrant ambience was complemented by a terrific University jazz band who warmed up the audience prior to my presentation for the evening. And yes, fintech and all that jazz do mix extremely well!
This was an ideal fintech Friday evening with brilliant academics such as John Finch, Head of the Adam Smith Business School, awesome leaders Eve Wallace and Keith O’Donnell of Morgan Stanley and fantastic fintech players Iain Niblock and Jordan Stodart of Orca Money and Margery McConnell of Previse.
Massive congratulations to Elisabetta Trasatti, Kamal Chauhan and the whole organizing team, for an amazing evening, Scotland’s fintech future is very bright in your hands.
FinTech Jazz’ Players
The evening in Glasgow also gave me the opportunity to catch up with Dino, Viktor and Antreas from the exciting fintech enterprise Bifrost Wealth.
Very excited about the journey ahead for the Bifrost team with the focus on bringing through the human qualities in using new financial technology to meet customer financial needs.
I was also inspired by the diverse international backgrounds of the team members working together in Scotland to advance their innovative proposition.
This further reflects the global nature of Scotland’s fintech community, something we are very proud of in demonstrating that Scotland is very much open and welcoming to everyone from Europe and the rest of the world.
I’ve mentioned in previous blogs how I feel very privileged in my role to meet so many brilliant fintech leaders and entrepreneurs from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences.
Meeting Christine Bamford and Jane Lewis of Women’s Coin was another great example of this earlier in the day, thank you Maggie Morrison for the introduction.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming the Women’s Coin team to Scotland’s diverse fintech community in the near future.
Then on Thursday it was fabulous to catch up with entrepreneur Alan Moody to learn about the terrific fintech enterprise Avrium, another great firm with a diverse international team spread across all parts of the globe. Brilliant.
Earlier on in the day on Thursday there was an important workshop session with a range of firms from the fintech community to discuss the opportunities to improve the accessibility to investment funding for young and emerging firms.
Big thank you to Mark Roger and Kevin Lonnergan of Vivolution for pulling together the session as well as the insightful Gary Torbett and Paul Funnell of Scottish Investment Bank for leading the engaging discussion.
Really valuable engagement with the fintech community and thank you to everyone who came along.
We look forward to progressing the actions in the coming months in this critical area to support the growth of fintech firms to achieve success at scale.
One fintech firm which is certainly a role model on how to successfully grow to significant scale is FNZ which has transformed how the financial services sector serves people in achieving their financial goals.
Therefore, it was fantastic to catch up with Lorraine Straiton, Richard Bolger and Alasdair Munro on Tuesday to hear the latest on their journey in becoming a fintech unicorn.
The world class FNZ leadership team is using technology to bring market leading engagement in financial services and has been doing so now for over a decade from their Edinburgh base.
I’m really looking forward to FinTech Scotland supporting the FNZ team as it embarks on the next stage of expansion on a global scale. It is wonderful to have FNZ part of Scotland’s fintech community.
Innovative FinTech Jazz’
The FNZ team joined us at the fintech academic and industry workshop this week along with fellow fintech Avaloq and large financial institutions such as Lloyds Bank and RBS as well as the FCA.
This was a fabulous opportunity to bring the professors from the University of Edinburgh together with senior leaders to discuss the latest opportunities with innovative financial technology.
A special thanks to Lorraine from FNZ and Nikita Filippov of Avaloq for putting up with my fintech and running ramblings over dinner!
Thank you also to Alice Dreano and the University team for putting on an engaging fintech event with a great deal to take away and consider.
The event once again highlighted the value of leveraging the innovation strengths of universities to help Scotland achieve the global fintech ambitions.
This is something I discussed with Mike Emmerich of Metro Dynamics and John Reid when we met up last week on how to maximise the opportunities across the fintech ecosystem and beyond.
In this respect, talking with Jarmo Eskelinen on Tuesday about his new role in leading the University of Edinburgh Data Driven Innovation programme gave me a great deal of encouragement.
As did the discussions last week with Gordon Donald of the University and Mark Sanders and Greg Whiting of Accelerate Places on the potential development of an exciting new innovation hub in Edinburgh.
Emerging new places for fintech collaboration working with the universities across Scotland is a terrific opportunity to enable more innovation, for example following the model of Strathclyde University
I was excited to hear from Adrian Gillespie and Olga Kozlova this week on the FinTech Scotland space in the University of Strathclyde’s exciting Technology and Innovation Centre from next year.
FinTech Collaboration Jazz’
The growing collaboration opportunities with universities to support fintech development was very much on the agenda for the SFE Fintech Development Group last Friday afternoon.
It was a wonderful way to finish of fintech Friday’ and Graeme Jones, Lou Smith and myself very much valued the engagement from the broad spectrum of financial services leaders.
It was really encourgaging to hear the interest to get involved in the various priority areas of collaboration next year which will be crucial if we are to achieve our ambitions. Many thanks to Murdo of KPMG and Clare of EY for making it a very useful session.
My apologies for my disco’ and marriage’ analogies throughout the Friday afternoon in seeking to articulate the value of fintech collaboration!
Creating a collaborative environment was a key part of the conversation with Andrea Young from the Govt. Department for Digital and Culture and Mike Jackson of Tech Nation as we considered the opportunities of working more closely together.
Mickael and I very much welcomed the opportunity to share our progress and considering how this could have a wider application to facilitate innovative collaboration across the ecosystem in Scotland and beyond.
The introduction of the new Fintech Scotland digital platform in the next week or so will be a key part of this and Mickael has been working flat out night and day as always to ensure the next stage of the implementation is ready to go.
The digital platform will help us highlight how collaboration also stretches into cross sector themes such as cyber and I was delighted to hear from Nicola about the wonderful Scottish Cyber Awards evening on Wednesday.
Martin Beaton and the team should be very proud of their Trailblazer recognition, very much deserved.
Mickael is working closely with the Dentsu Aegis steam on the digital platform and so it was good to catch up with Anneli Ritari-Stewart and Chris Marsh last week on how we utilise their expertise even more with the fintech community in 2019.
Similarly with IBM and it was good to meet up with Simon Pink this week to discuss building closer links between the innovations across the fintech community and the new technologies such as AI.
In recent weeks I’ve been very much encouraged by the collaborative discussions with larger technology organisations seeking to help the development of innovative enterprises in the fintech ecosystem.
For example, on Monday the meeting with Douglas Adam, Mike Foster and Anthony Burgess of DXC Technology, a major employer in Scotland with whom there a number of mutual areas for development as we go into 2019
Then on Wednesday, catching up with Murray Farquharson of Salesforce, it was very clear that there was much we could potentially do together to in working together to benefit fintech enterprises.
For example, with their Ventures and Fintech Accelertor programmes, both of which align with our strategic collaboration plans and it will be great to progress with Murray and colleague Vicki Lintern.
Of course, it’s not just about technology and we had a great catch up to plan areas of 2019 strategic collaboration focus with Yvonne Dunn from the leading fintech lawyers Pinsent Masons last week.
Strategic FinTech Jazz’
Talking strategic fintech was very much on the agenda at the KPMG 30 Voices in Edinburgh last Wednesday evening with a wide ranging conversation.
I was delighted to join a very distinguished panel of Melissa Kidd-Davies from Redburn, David Duffy from CYBG, Andrew Freeley from Computershare, Blair Turnball of Aviva, all expertly charied by KPMG’s Anton Ruddenklau.
Thank you to Catherine Burnet, Penny McLoughlin and the team for an enjoyable where the focus consistently came back to the need for financial services to better serve consumers.
The customer focus was also central to the meeting with David Macmillan, Managing Director of Prudential, last week as we talked though the various strategic initiatives of working together next year.
Then on a more global scale, it has been extremely beneficial and insightful meeting up with Kent Mackenzie and Chris Brown of Deloitte this last few weeks to consider the strategic priorities for global strategic fintech collaboration.
Massive thanks to Kent and Chris as always and looking forward to progress with Sharon, Graham and Fraser at Scottish Development International as they continue their valuable broader work on global financial services opportunities.
This was also the topic of my train journey meeting with my international mentor Promilla Caughey from the First Ministers Policy Unit.
We spent the 50 minute journey to Glasgow putting the world to right and being excited about how the Scotland is Now’ international message can be leveraged to build global trade on a bigger scale.
Thank you as always Promilla for your ongoing counsel and guidance.
On a more specific part of the world, it was really useful to meet up with Lan-Ling of PA Consulting to hear about fintech lessons from the Nordics as well as seeing the ever youthful old colleague Gavin Neilson.
The developing role of Scotland in the global fintech ecosystem was the focus of conversations with the Morgan Stanley senior leaders on Monday evening and their opportunity to work closely with the innovative fintech enterprises in Scotland.
Very much enjoyed the discussion with Megan Brewer, who was over from New York, along with Roland Fejfar and Keith O’Donnell and looking forward to taking forward to mutual areas for development.
The end of the week gave me the opportunity to meet up with David Fergusson, the Chair of FinTech Scotland and, of course, chief executive of Nucleus Financial, another of the bright shining stars of the fintech ecosystem.
As always, valuable insight and counsel from David as we reflected on a fast moving first year for Fintech Scotland and a magnificent and successful year of delivery by the Nucleus Financial team. Wow, just amazing.
Running And All That Jazz
Delighted with my recovery from the USA marathon a couple of weeks ago and now ready to take on one of the toughest and most exhilarating half marathon races there is!.
This Sunday it is the Pentland Seven Resevoirs Half Marathon and yes it is as brutal as it sounds for those of you who know the Pentland Hills!!
Despite this, it will be my third time for this special race which only allows just over 100 runners!
This will be a good warm up for the Water of Leith Half marathon the following Saturday which Shery managed to get me admitted to, which I am even more excited by as a new race for me. Looking forward to seeing running buddy Angus McLean on the start line for this one.
Such a fabulous couple of races in the run up to the festive season alongside some very exciting meetings as we sprint to the end of the fintech year with jazz very much still in my ears from that Friday night in Glasgow!!. Until next time
Finchat”¦ Can fintech alone fix financial wellbeing?
From savings and investments, to utilities and insurance, fintechs can help consumers in many ways, such as switching their energy provider and signing up for an insurance policy within their banking provider’s app, as well as having access to personal spending analytics to gain a better understanding of your financial health and circumstances.
This is very true for many people, but what the wall of sound often fails to mention when it discusses how fintechs can help people manage their money is that there are many people for whom these new tools offer very little in their circumstances.
An American study reported by The Financial Brand mentioned a lot of interesting findings about how so-called “finhealth” (new sub-brand dubbing of fintech, specifically products and services to help people manage their financial health) could help Americans save cold, hard, after-tax cash – specifically, $2,000-$3,000 on a median income of $45,000.
Is fintech for the few or the many?
Fintech alone however, cannot be the sole saviour of people’s financial health – there’s just too much disparity of wealth and poverty in our society to think that a personal finance management app can solve it all.
Money management tools, or personal finance management apps, are fantastic and give that little bit of extra insight into your finances, but they’re not much help when you’re budgeting on the pound coins in your pocket rather than any cash in your account.
The challenge with these offerings is that they’re for people who can afford to save – when you’re on the bread line, we need more intervention and greater societal change to help those most in need.
There’s no doubt in my mind about the potential positive effects fintech, or finhealth, could have on those who are privileged enough to benefit from their services, but fintech isn’t the end-game – it’s a targeted enabler, not a ubiquitous elixir.
The awesome Jim Marous quotes another great, Ron Shevlin, in discussing the article in The Financial Brand:
“If we’re willing to pay $5 for a flavored latte, it’s not inconceivable that we would pay $5 for a finhealth product or service.”
And the study mentioned above also makes note that 30% of Americans have too much debt to handle.
The thing is, those who are spending $5 for a flavoured latte are not those who need the help the most, and they’re also not those who have too much debt to handle.
Fintech can only enable. Bigger changes are needed
Fintech cannot do it alone when there are huge socioeconomic issues surrounding poverty, homelessness and financial inclusion.
It’s not just about complex and cyclical issues like fees being leveraged on the poor to enable financial institutions’ revenue models. There is a tax on the poor and that tax is simply the negative balance on the things they cannot afford after income.
But maybe there’s a place for government initiatives and corporate social responsibility? Maybe we could provide free products and services to those below an earnings threshold to help those most in need?
Maybe we could look at credit scoring and determine good character on low incomes to allow favourable rates rather than penalising the poor for being poor? A great example of a company trying to change the way we see credit is Castlight Financial whose CaaS (Credit as a Service) offering and Affordability Passport have the potential to significantly change how people are assessed for credit.
Castlight analyse real-time spending patterns and connect directly to your accounts ”“ rather than a monthly report on irrelevant data like how many accounts you have open!
It behoves us to check our privilege when discussing fintech – it has huge opportunity but we have to make sure societal change maintains pace against technological advancements and we design in inclusion and accessibility at every step, or we risk increasing the divide instead of closing it.