FinTech West Seminar 27/9
FinTech West’s third event of 2019 took place at Pwc’s offices in Bristol, with over 100 people registered to attend.
Julian Wells of Whitecap Consulting & FinTech West opened the event with an update on recent developments and also ran through the agenda for the day, which included talks from no fewer than three Bristol-based founders.
Since the last event in June, FinTech West has launched a new website (designed by saintnicks) and has joined the FinTech National Network, which was founded earlier this year. The members of the FinTech National Network are now Innovate Finance, FinTech North, FinTech Scotland, FinTech Wales, FinTech Northern Ireland, and FinTech West:
Bristol Region FinTech Ecosystem Research
Whitecap Consulting is currently conducting research into the Bristol Region FinTech Ecosystem and is seeking input from across the region. Delegates were encouraged to complete the short multiple-choice online survey to input into the research findings - find out more here. The research is so far being supported and co-funded by Hargreaves Lansdown, Invest Bristol & Bath, DAC Beachcroft, TLT, and Clarke Willmott.
In terms of the broader tech scene in the region, Bristol Technology Festival takes place in November and so far features 20 events, including two FinTech events (one of which is a FinTech West seminar).
We then heard from five different speakers:
Invest Bristol & Bath
Invest Bristol & Bath is the inward investment agency for the region. Matt Tudge, Investment Executive, explained that FinTech has been identified as an emerging sector in a region with a workforce of 430,000 which includes a 59,000 working in over 250 financial and professional services firms.
Bristol has also 36,000 people working in tech, which when combined with its strong heritage in financial services makes it a serious consideration for FinTech investment.
Lumio
Adrian Sheddon, co-founder of Lumio, explained how the Lumio app helps consumer switch to the best savings and investment accounts in the market. 60% of people have savings in current accounts, which means they are effectively losing money due to inflation. Only 6% of people have taken advice on their money.
Lumio makes it easy for people with some level of savings to aggregate all their accounts in one place, set goals, and to add their values to ensure they manage their finances effectively and in line with their personal ethics. Lumio is partnered with Moneyhub, another Bristol based FinTech who are the market leading aggregator of financial accounts. Lumio also publishes its Spotlight emails to help share financial news.
True Digital
Tim Jones, Founder & MD, presented True’s recent research into trust in financial services. The ‘Staying Alive’ research looked at the issue of longevity in financial services brands and the opportunities and challenges of the ageing population.
Tim explained that there is often an obsession with youth, but the older segments of the population represent the biggest opportunity for financial services brands. Age is not a significant factor in the adoption of financial technology, although households with teenage children generally show higher levels of digital adoption.
Clarion Bond
Stuart Harrison is Co-Founder of Clarion Bond, which is a soon to be launched forex broker using a FinTech proposition that involved utilising a top tier API and operating as a PSP (Payment Services Provider).
Stuart’s presentation explained the journey of setting up a FinTech, and he walked the audience through the process of getting FCA authorisation, something which took Clarion Bond 18 months to achieve. This caused a considerable delay to the original targeted launch of mid 2018. Stuart explained the complexities that were involved in competing the application, getting FCA approval, and then setting up banking facilities. Based on what Stuart and his co founder learned along the way, he estimates they could do this is half the time if they had to go through the process again.
Innovate Finance
Peter Cunnane, UK & International Strategy Lead, explained that Innovate Finance represents the UK FinTech ecosystem nationally and internationally, and has over 250 member organisations from across the sector.
Peter explained that the sector is fortunate to enjoy strong support from government and the regulator, and that FinTech is seen to be a good news story for the national economy at the moment. There has been a huge rise in investment into FinTech, with 2019 set to be the biggest year yet. Innovate Finance is keen to ensure FinTech-driven growth is spread across the UK not just in London. Innovate Finance is involved in many national initiatives including FinTech For Schools and of course the FinTech National Network.
Panel
A panel discussion followed the presentations, which included a lively debate covering data security, AI, Open Banking and the challenges of developing the region’s FinTech ecosystem.
There are positive indicators for Bristol. At the recent NatWest FinTech Accelerator Demo day, two of the 13 FinTechs who presented were Bristol-based, making it the only city outside of London to have more than one representative. We hope to have both Tumelo and Payaca (who are currently raising funding) presenting at the next FinTech West event. Lumio is also part of the NatWest programme, and NatWest has one of its four UK FinTech Accelerators in Bristol.
During the panel session, Debbie Sturge from University of West of England spoke about their FinTech Masters programme which is launching next year. UWE is looking to engage with organisations across the region to help support, deliver and promote the programme.
The next FinTech West event is at TLT on 6th November - sign up here.
TAKE THE BRISTOL FINTECH SURVEY HERE (link is at bottom of page)
