Scotland's bid to be major fintech nation boosted by new collaboration-focused initiative

A new initiative has been launched aiming to catalyse the fintech ecosystem in Scotland, driving growth, innovation, collaboration and connectivity.

The venture, known as Fintech-Tables, has been debuted by BDM Marketing & Communications and supported by FinTech Scotland, and is delivering a series of events, bringing together relevant players to discuss and tackle industry-wide challenges in key areas affecting growth, including policy and regulation, skills and talent, investment and internationalisation.

Those behind Fintech-Tables say it will support industry priorities, aligning to the FinTech Scotland Research & Innovation Roadmap 2022-23 that aims to see the sector boost the economy by £21 billion by 2031, from £500 million today, and create more than 20,000 jobs.

Fintech-tables, which says it is already partnering with key organisations in the sector including Glasgow-based data recruitment specialist MBN Solutions and global payments platform Mambu, says its objectives focus on four priority themes – open finance data; payments and transactions; financial regulation; and climate finance.

Mickael Paris, marketing director at FinTech Scotland, stated that the organisation is pleased to support the launch of Fintech-Tables, which is set to run a string of events over the next 12 months.

He added: “Having recently published the UK Fintech Research and Innovation Roadmap, we believe those events will enable the fintech cluster to meet and discuss many of the findings and actions detailed in the document. We're looking forward to many interesting conversations with those individuals and companies that make Scotland one of the leading fintech nations.

"Data-driven innovation will form a key component when delivering against the key pillars outlined in the [Roadmap] and the report highlights the importance of data in delivering positive economic, societal, and environmental outcomes in Scotland.

From left: Ian Davey and Aastha Ahuja of Fintech-Tables, and Michael Young of MBN Solutions. Picture: contributed.

"It is important that we come together as a community and consider how we can attract a skilled diverse and inclusive talent pool to Scotland from across the entire globe.”

Ian Davey, founder of Fintech-Tables and director of BDM Marketing & Communications, said the new initiative is dedicated to supporting the growth of the sector. “We will do this by creating a community where people can come together to tackle industry issues in an environment that encourages new innovations and partnerships to emerge”.