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FinTech Scotland Announces Board Members

FinTech Scotland has today announced the board members who will work with CEO Stephen Ingledew and team to oversee the strategic plans for making Scotland a top five global fintech centre.

The details of the board members follow on from the announcement last month confirming the new chair of FinTech Scotland, David Fergusson, the Chief Executive of Nucleus Financial.

The board members represent a cross section of the fintech economy, including representatives from the six recently announced strategic partners.

The board members are:

David Fergusson (Chair) – Chief Executive, Nucleus Financial

Jude Cook – Co-Founder and CEO, ShareIn

Hugh Edmiston – Corporate Services Director, University of Edinburgh

Louise Smith ”“ Head of Design, RBS

Linda Hanna ”“ Managing Director, Scottish Enterprise

Kent Mackenzie ”“ Partner and Global Head of fintech in Scotland, Deloitte

Anneli Ritari-Stewart – Managing Director, iProspect, Dentsu Aegis Network

Melba Foggo ”“ Managing Director, UK Consulting, Sopra Steria

Yvonne Dunn ”“ Partner, Pinsent Masons

Neil Cunningham – Partnerships Director, Equifax UK

Paul Ryan – Director of Watson Artificial Intelligence & Data, IBM

In addition, the following will attend board meetings in an observer role:
Maggie Craig ”“ Head of Scotland, Financial Conduct Authority

Karen Rodger ”“ Head of Financial Services and fintech Policy, Scottish Government

Commenting on the board appointments, Stephen Ingledew said: “I’m delighted with the diverse range of experience and expertise we will have around the Board table to guide us in taking forward the FinTech Scotland plans. Each individual is passionate about making fintech a major success in Scotland and, at a personal and collective level, they will provide wise counsel and guidance in driving our core values of collaboration, innovation and inclusion.”

The first board meeting took place on Tuesday 26thJune, reflecting on the last six months and focussing on strategic priorities for the rest of the year.

FinTech Scotland announces additional strategic partners

FinTech Scotland announced the appointment of IBM and Equifax as additional strategic partners.

IBM: The company has been leading the way in terms of AI for many years now with Watson, the AI platform for business, powered by data. As an AI system, Watson can turn unstructured business data into actionable insights that enhance decision making. AI is playing a major role in the development of innovative and disruptive fintech solutions, allowing for seamless processes for customers and companies dealing with finances.

Equifax: Data is the fuel that will drive innovation and it was therefore important to partner with a global data insights provider. Equifax, have a rich heritage of helping companies develop innovative solutions underpinned by market leading consumer and business data.

The addition of IBM and Equifax means that FinTech Scotland has now appointed six strategic partners following last month’s announcement confirming the selection of Pinsent Masons, Deloitte, Dentsu Aegis Network and Sopra Steria.

“Today marks the start of a promising collaboration with Fintech Scotland to grow innovative solutions and practices” said Paul Ryan, Director for Watson at IBM. “This is particularly significant as financial organisations look to further incorporate data and AI insights to provide a better service for their customers and stakeholders, from boosting customer engagement, creating conversational agents or even supporting client representatives as they interact with customers.”

Neil Cunningham, Partnerships Director at Equifax, said: “The Fintech Scotland vision aligns perfectly with our own
aspirations to be the de facto bureau partner for data driven innovation. Increasingly our customers are looking to
us to help solve their problems by creating unique solutions in collaboration with fintech partners. I think we’ve all
been impressed by the blend of complementary strategic partners Stephen has been able to assemble, and excited
at the potential to drive innovation through collaboration. ”

Stephen Ingledew, CEO at FinTech Scotland, said: “Strategic partners of this quality supporting the fintech ecosystem in Scotland will help us achieve our ambition to be in the top 5 fintech hubs in the world. I’m pleased to have a diverse set of strategic partners and with their expertise and global reach, they will play a crucial role in ensuring Scotland’s position on the world stage.”

Fintech Scotland Announces Inaugural Chairman and Strategic Partners

We are pleased to announce the appointment of our first Chairman and strategic partners.

The appointments were confirmed this week at the joint Scottish Government and industry Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) meeting chaired by the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon and Chair of Scottish Financial Enterprise and CYBG, Jim Pettigrew.

At the FiSAB meeting our CEO, Stephen Ingledew, set out FinTech Scotland’s ambitious vision and strategy to make Scotland a top five global fintech centre by 2020 that is recognised for data driven fintech innovation delivering positive social outcomes.

FinTech Scotland aims to encourage data driven innovation and collaboration activity across Scotland to deliver inclusive growth and achieve critical mass in the sector by:

  • Facilitating an integrated and innovative fintech ecosystem

  • Supporting innovative and entrepreneurial purpose driven fintech enterprises

  • Encouraging development of fintech skills, diversity and inclusion

  • Developing fintech community engagement, inclusion and collaboration

  • Building international fintech engagement and collaboration

To deliver a range of initiatives, FinTech Scotland has partnered with global enterprises who have a strong presence in Scotland as well as being significant international leaders in their fields:

  • Deloitte: the market leading professional services firm providing global expertise to help drive fintech growth in Scotland and international hubs across the world

  • Pinsent Masons: the lawyers recognised as a global legal leader in fintech and Open Banking

  • Dentsu Aegis Network: one of the largest and most respected international digital media and marketing agencies

  • Sopra Steria: a major global digital transformation organisation with a proven reputation for software, solutions and delivery.

On confirming the strategic partners, Stephen Ingledew said, “It is a privilege to be working with such world-renowned organisations who are committed to supporting Scotland’s fintech economy. Following many conversations with a range of large firms over recent months, these strategic partners demonstrated their commitment and market leadership which will support our aspirations and plans. We are currently in discussions with a view to confirming additional strategic partners in the coming weeks”

David Ferguson, the founder and Chief Executive of the very successful, Edinburgh based fintech business, Nucleus Financial, has been appointed to chair the board. Ferguson was appointed by The Treasury in December 2016 as one of two regional fintech envoys for Scotland with a remit forbuilding regional and national networks which seek to ensure a greater level of co-ordination and collaboration between fintech companies, government, investors and regional fintech hubs.

Stephen Ingledew commented: “It was essential for us to have a highly respected fintech leader chairing our board and David, who has built one of the most successful businesses in the country managing over £14 billion on their wrap platform, ticked all the boxes and more.”

Speaking about his appointment, David Ferguson added: “It is a great privilege to have been appointed as chair of the FinTech Scotland board. Fintech is a fantastic opportunity for Scotland and I am excited to build on the great strides we have recently made to position ourselves as a global leader. The country should have a bright and prosperous fintech future ahead of it and I am greatly looking forward to helping Stephen and the team drive the sector forward and deliver meaningful action to help both start-ups to flourish and the more substantial financial services establishments to modernise.”

The strategic partners are joining David Ferguson, Scottish Enterprise and Edinburgh University on FinTech Scotland’s board. Additional board members will be announced soon which will include representatives from Scotland’s fintech community.

FinTech Scotland does the talking in the Big Apple and beyond.

Fortnightly FinTech Fuse ”“ Talking Fintech

Fintech is very much the talk of the town’ at the moment across all quarters of the financial services sector and beyond.

One of the great things about this fintech talk is that it is so ubiquitous with such a broad range of topics and themes being discussed within the conversation.

The variety and diversity certainly make the conversation fascinating as does the way in which people from many different backgrounds have an active interest in talking about fintech.

This is presenting me with enormous opportunity as I shape the strategic plans for FinTech Scotland in the coming weeks.

New York Talk

The opportunity to hear thoughts and feedback from members of the New York financial services community last week about Scotland’s fintech progress was a great example of this.

Hosting the roundtable session with Cabinet Secretary Keith Brown to talk through our fintech aspirations and how this could be developed on a global stage was hugely valuable.

The discussions certainly reinforced the importance of existing and new relationships for Scotland in the USA which will be very critical as we develop our global fintech footprint.

The New York trip also provided the opportunity to catch up with a number of people to talk through the plans for Fintech Scotland and see what we could learn from one of the most vibrant fintech centres in the world.

I particularly valued the opportunity to catch up with Greg Schoenberg, the founder of Financial Revolutionist, the leading global thought leadership voice of fintech. The talk with Greg was both terrifically insightful as well as illuminating and will undoubtedly help me shape the plans for Fintech Scotland. Thanks Greg.

International Talk

The visit to New York coincided with preparation for the Visit Scotland Scotland is Now global campaign led by the brilliant Charlie Smith.

It was a privilege to be at the preview for the launch in downtown Manhattan and meet up with so many people enthused about Scotland’s story and potential.

Bringing fintech into this story about Scotland being a wonderful place to live, play, invest and work will be a key piece part of our work in the coming months.
I learned a great deal while in New York in talking with colleagues from Scottish Development International and I am looking forward to progressing the fintech opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic with Michelle, Raymond and Shannon in the coming year.

It is great to see that James Varga from The ID Co will be part of the delegation visiting the USA as part of New York fintech week to continue the dialogue and many thanks to Maria Deam and the team at the British Consul for helping spread the talk on Scotland’s fintech opportunities.

The international talk does not always have to be several thousand miles away of course, and I am delighted I will have the opportunity to join David Clarke for a Scottish-Irish Finance Initiative event in June to talk through the fintech collaboration opportunities on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Scotland Talk

One of the many great aspects about fintech in Scotland is the talk is very much countrywide.

For example, I’m really pleased we have the Where is Fife Leading Fintech Next? event in May at the Glenrothes Enterprise Hub where I will be joined by Ian Cunningham of Lending Crowd.

Thank you to Iain Shirlaw in arranging this talk to consider Fife’s longstanding record of developing world leading technology for financial services, especially in payments and security and how this can support the next stage of our fintech ambitions.

Before then, I have the opportunity to share Scotland’s fintech credentials with the entrepreneurial community in London along with the brilliant team from Previse and Kristen Bennie from RBS when the talk will be mixed with some sampling of Scotland’s finest gin!

There’s also going to be plenty of talk back home in Scotland in the coming weeks and I am very much looking forward to seeing the team at the University of Strathclyde next Wednesday to discuss how we share their great work with more audiences.

A great example of this is the Auditing a Digital Future event on 30th April at the Strathclyde Business School led by the inspiring Daniel Broby where the talk will be covering the range of topics from blockchain to cryptocurrencies.

This all demonstrates that Scotland does have a number of fintech topics that we can talk and, in fact, shout about.

So, I’m very excited about the inaugural meeting of the Open Banking Centre of Excellence next week being set up by the forward-thinking Ross Laurie along with the driving force behind global open banking Gavin Littlejohn

Theme Talks

With Spring arriving, it must be the season for these specific themed fintech events to take place as they seem to be hitting my diary thick and fast!

For example, very much looking forward to joining the talk at the University of Edinburgh Business School event entitled downBitcoin and Blockchain – what goes up must come down event in a couple of weeks.

Then soon after is the event on artificial intelligence organized expertly by Heather Corcoran where my talk with Kirsty Mackenzie of iMultiply, Melinda Matthews of CodeClan and Colin Hewitt of Float is all about the future of human and technology interaction!

And on this human theme, there is another great talk I’ll be joining in May also at the University of Edinburgh Business School on Social Finance and FinTech and joining a great line up of expert speakers such as Arman Eshragi who will share his thoughts of behaviourial finance and fintech.

In amongst all these talks, I will be continuing to fill my diary with the many people interested in engaging with the fintech ecosystem in Scotland.

I really value the timely meetings with people such as Mark Rodger and Andrew McGhee of Vivolution in considering how we help fintech enterprises to scale up after their initial success

My apologies if we have not had chance to meet yet, Shery is working hard to coordinate and plan my diary so I can get to meet and talk with everyone over the coming months.

Running Talk

The few days in New York gave me the opportunity to meet up with an inspiring friend Paul Skinner and our talk went beyond fintech on to our other mutual passion, that of running.

Of course, being in New York we could run the talk’ during the few days with a couple of great sunrise running sessions around Central Park, saluting the Fred Lebow statue each time as we passed.

The highlight though was the Saturday morning and an eight-mile run out to Flushing Meadows for a 10km race where I came in third in the over 50 age group, earning a bronze medal for Scotland!

Let’s hope the snow now stays away and I can get back to some races closer to home as the running season starts to hot up along with the exciting fintech talk in Scotland.

Until next time.

FinTech Scotland and FinTechNZ establish a partnership

Another first

Things are moving at pace at FinTech Scotland in 2018.
Only 4 weeks ago we were welcoming our first CEO, last week we launched our first newsletter and this week we are delighted to let you know about our first partnership with another fintech hub, FinTechNZ.

So who are FinTechNZ?

FinTechNZ is The New Zealand Financial Innovation & Technology Association. They are a working group focussed on delivering economic growth in New Zealand through financial innovation. Slightly older than FinTech Scotland they have a member base of just over 100.
They work closely with the New Zealand government to offer guidance on policies and regulations.

Why this partnership?

At FinTech Scotland we are keen to develop a network with other international hubs. Several reasons are motivating us in doing so and they are all aligned with our core values:

  • Inclusion. We are very much open to the world. Other hubs aren’t competition but partners we are keen to include in our network. For our innovative companies to succeed they will need to enter new markets and form partnerships along the way. We want to help them do just that by offering them facilities to expand globally.
  • Collaboration. As we develop FinTech Scotland we want to be up to date with what’s happening around the world, identify collaboration opportunities and develop a unique offering.
  • Financial innovation. One of our goal is to establish Scotland as one of the leading hubs in the world. With so much innovation happening in Scotland we need to outreach to other countries and ensure our success stories are relayed around the world. We also believe this is the best way for us to attract fintechs and incumbents looking for a new base as well as attract investors’ interest to fuel even more innovation.

What’s next?

We’ll keep you updated on this blog about opportunities that will arise from this partnership. We’ll also keep you up to date with future partnerships with other hubs.
As we grow our community we wish to offer you a digital community for you to interact with people around the world so stay tuned.

Appointment of FinTech Scotland’s CEO

At FinTech Scotland we’re proud about the fact that we’ve been created and managed by members of the eco-system through the Scottish Financial Enterprise Fintech Steering Committee. Being built from the ground up means that we’ve gained a great understanding about the needs of fintechs, established brands, academia and the public sector. We’ve now reached a stage to use that insight to take FinTech Scotland to the next stage and develop a strategy for the fintech sector in Scotland.

We’re delighted to announce the appointment of Stephen Ingledew as CEO of FinTech Scotland.
Stephen bring with him years of experience in the financial sector where he focussed amongst other things on implementing customer focused and technology enabled initiatives.

Stephen previously worked as senior executive for companies such as Standard Life and Barclays as well as small innovative financial enterprises He’s always been an influential advocate of making financial services more open, creative and inclusive to all through new innovative technologies, encouraging diversity and progressive ways of working as well as improved collaboration across stakeholders and participants.

Throughout his career Stephen has also occupied a number of non-executive director roles including with Scottish Financial Enterprise; The Institute of Financial Services; The Chartered Insurance Institute and The Financial Services Authority.

He is a frequent author of articles and regular contributor at major global conferences on subjects ranging from customer strategy and execution, fintech and insurtech innovation as well as business change leadership. He is currently a non-executive director of Marketing Edinburgh, the body responsible for promoting the region.

Our new `CEO will work closely with a broad range of stakeholders including members the fintech community through the FinTech Practitioners Forum, SFE’s Fintech Steering Committee, and our 2 HM Treasury envoys. Stephen has already indicated that he would focus his efforts on creating an integrated and thriving ecosystem through the provision of funding, support, infrastructure and talent that recognises and responds to the needs of all stakeholders and connect Scotland to other global Fintech centres.

You will be hearing a lot more from Stephen in the coming weeks so stay tuned and subscribed to our newsletter.