How Scotland’s fintech boom is leading innovation and creating thousands of jobs

Scotland’s fintech revolution has gathered pace and now employs well over 11,000 people after a further surge last year, new figures have revealed.

There was an 8 per cent rise in the overall headcount within the FinTech Scotland “cluster” during 2024, according to the trade body for the financial technology - or fintech - sector. That year on year increase brings the total number of people working in fintech north of the Border to about 11,300.

The continued economic contribution from the cluster comes as Fintech Scotland reaches its seventh anniversary since formation. The organisation was founded in January 2018 as a joint initiative by the University of Edinburgh, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Scottish Enterprise. It is now supported by a broad range of global financial services, technology and professional services firms as well as major universities and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Fintech - financial technology - development has accelerated as more of us embrace digital banking and use apps to manage a range of services such as savings, investments and pensions.

Non-for-profit FinTech Scotland said the cluster growth had been underpinned by increasing technology adoption and fintech partnerships with established financial firms, highlighted by a tenfold increase in the number of Scottish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the arena since 2018.

It highlighted a significant cluster development in 2024, with Fintech Scotland’s successful implementation of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), which is said to have delivered new jobs and investment to the local economy, achieving £18 million investment in its first year. This has been achieved by bringing together 25 financial and technology institutions from across the UK to address more than 20 industry challenges, attracting local and global fintech SMEs to create new products.

Fintech development has accelerated as more of us embrace digital banking and use apps to manage a range of services such as savings, investments and pensions.

Nicola Anderson, chief executive of FinTech Scotland, said the various cluster initiatives were delivering a “positive economic outcome” through the creation of jobs, investment and “innovative” small businesses.

“The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab highlights our leadership in using collaboration and technology adoption to deliver this growth and shape the future of financial services,” she added.

Jane Martin, managing director, Scottish Enterprise, said: “The remarkable growth of Scotland’s fintech sector reflects the strategic efforts by the whole cluster to develop a thriving innovative environment. Scottish Enterprise has been supporting this journey by providing early-stage investment and facilitating international market access.”

Catherine Martin, vice-principal corporate services at the University of Edinburgh, said: “As a founding partner of Fintech Scotland, we are proud to be an active participant in the cluster and to support its impact by leveraging our world-renowned expertise in data-driven innovation, and interdisciplinary research to address real-world challenges in finance.”

Jackie Leiper, chief customer officer at Lloyds Banking Group, added: “There’s a real buzz around the fintech sector in Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group is thrilled to be a part of that. We’re working hard to drive more digital investment here which will help us to build new skills and capabilities and make the country a global destination for financial services tech talent.”

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