The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
‘Envoys’ to accelerate FinTech ecosystem
Delivering benefits of UK boom north of the Border
The UK Government is appointing two FinTech envoys for Scotland to help deliver the benefits of the financial technology boom to north of the Border.
David Ferguson is founder and chief executive of the Nucleus Financial Group of Edinburgh, Scotland’s most successful FinTech company with assets under administration of more than £10 billion.
Louise Smith, head of design in personal and business banking at the Royal Bank of Scotland, is recognised for her knowledge of how banks undertake the digital transformation.
They will be confirmed in the posts in a visit to Edinburgh today by Simon Kirby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury.
The envoys will look to build regional and national FinTech networks and foster a culture of collaboration to help Scotland take advantage of the UK’s FinTech boom.
FinTech is one of the highest growing parts of the UK economy, contributing £6.6bn to GDP last year and employing more than 61,000 people.
It encompasses innovation in financial services including e-banking, payment technologies, peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding, digital currencies like bitcoin, and automated investment advice using algorithms.
Scotland has a number of large FinTech firms, such as Nucleus, LendingCrowd and The ID Company.
Introducing two FinTech envoys is aimed at building a broader, supportive ecosystem that will support the overall growth of the sector and propel Scotland’s ecosystem in to its next phase. After London, Scotland turns out the most FinTech-related graduates in the UK – 12% of the annual pool of 97,000 graduates.
Edinburgh University is the largest informatics school in Europe and 35% of all technology spin-out companies in the UK come from Scotland’s educational institutions.
Simon Kirby said: “The in-depth knowledge of the industry and excellent reputations of David and Louise make them the right people to drive forward positive change and allow Scottish FinTech to flourish.”
David Ferguson said: “One of the hardest things to get right is balancing the responsibilities of looking after people’s money with the agility of the tech sector while also making money and I’m very excited to see how we can help others strike the right balance over the coming years.”
Louise Smith said: “I’m honoured to take on the role with David and incredibly excited about developing Scotland as a FinTech Centre of Excellence.”