Moving forward together

Leading lights from Scotland’s fintech industry congregated in Glasgow on Wednesday, 5 June, to hear about the vital nature of wider collaboration and innovation to secure the continuing success story for the sector, writes David Lee

The world is envious of the s u p p o r t g i ve n t o y o u n g f i n t e c h b u s i n e s s e s i n S c o t l a n d – b u t m o r e o f them should be ambitious and look to take their products into global markets.

P a n e l l i s t s a t T h e S c o t s m a n Conferences event What Has Fintech Ever Done For Us? at the Strathclyde B u s i n e s s S c h o o l i n G l a s g o w l a s t We d n e s d a y we r e v e r y o p t i m i s t i c about the future, with collaboration, innovation and a hugely suppor tive ecosystem, marshalled by industr y b o dy Fintech S cotland, helping the sector grow quickly.

Delegates were reminded that just one year ago, there were only about 35 established fintech companies in

S cotland – that figure is now more than 100.

M a n y o f t h o s e b u s i n e s s e s a r e underpinned by a real sense of social purp ose and a desire to transform lives by making people’s experience of financial services cheaper, faster and better, attendees heard.

D a n i e l B r o b y , D i r e c t o r o f t h e C e n t r e o f F i n a n c i a l R e g u l a t i o n and Innovation at the Universit y of Strathclyde, observed that delivering greater financial inclusion was the big deal for Scottish fintech.

He told the conference: “If we can drive down the cost of technology and cut out the middle man, that is the real oppor tunit y to make a difference to people’s lives.”

Chris Brown, senior consultant at Deloitte, said: “That ‘fintech for good’ agenda is at the heart of what we are doing across Scotland.

“W h e n f i n t e c h b u s i n e s s e s f r o m Singapore and Hong Kong came to Scotland recently, financial inclusion was the very first thing they wanted to talk about.”

Nicola Anderson, senior manager in retail banking super vision at the Financial Conduct Authority, related how she recognised the importance of financial inclusion soon after she was seconded to Fintech Scotland last year.

She went on to name Castlight and SOAR – which recently received a £450 million research and development grant from S cottish Enterprise for its credit union proposition – as two b u s i n e s s e s d e l ive r i n g o n f i n a n c i a l inclusion.

Similarly, Brown praised Sustainably, which has recently announced deals with 17 banks to allow people to r o u n d u p p u r c h a s e s e a s i l y i n order to give money to their chosen charities.

An d e r s o n s a i d : “T h e r e a r e many other businesses tackling particular p r o b l e m s – h o w t o h e l p p e o p l e understand more about money, how to improve financial literacy.

“It’s definitely something Fintech S c o t l a n d wa n t s t o d o mor e o f – t o understand the problems and tr y to tackle them.”

Craig Buchan, founder of software company Qpal, said that he had seen f i n a n c i a l i n c l u s i o n t a k i n g h o l d i n