Scottish Fintech cluster wins European recognition

Scotland’s growing financial technology sector has become the first in the UK, and only the third in Europe, to receive formal accreditation as a cluster of excellence.

Scottish Fintech cluster wins European recognition

Stephen Ingledew, chief executive of FinTech Scotland

The European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA) looked at 36 economic indicators before making the award.

The Scottish cluster was founded as an independent industry organisation by the financial services sector, universities, the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise, and is overseen by FinTech Scotland.



The ESCA undertook a benchmarking analysis, based on 36 economic indicators, of the work led by FinTech Scotland resulting in the award of the cluster excellence accreditation.

The cluster award has been achieved as the two-year-old FinTech Scotland confirms an increase in the number of strategic partners supporting the next stage of its strategy.

The strategic partners include: financial institutions, global technology and professional services firms, two of leading international universities developing fintech skills; the University of Edinburgh and the University of Strathclyde, as well as Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Government.

In addition, the Financial Conduct Authority continues its support with the full-time secondment of a senior regulator to the FinTech Scotland team.

Kate Forbes, digital economy minister, said: “The global financial services sector is being transformed by technology which is providing a range of benefits such as speeding up transactions, making payments more secure and helping avoid problem debt.

“Scotland is already at the forefront of these developments, which has helped attract major investments from large financial companies including Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, J.P. Morgan Chase as well as a number of fast-growing international fintech enterprises in the past 18 months.

“This accreditation will further increase our international profile and is another step towards the goal of being ranked among the world’s top five fintech cluster nations.”

Stephen Ingledew, chief executive of FinTech Scotland, added: “We are very proud of this cluster excellence recognition. It is a symbolic flag we can fly which will increase our reputation amongst firms and investors across Europe, USA and the Far East.

“Scotland is increasingly being recognised as offering the innovation, skills, culture and expertise that global fintech enterprises and investors seek.

“As well as awarding the accreditation, ESCA’s benchmarking report details actions FinTech Scotland can lead to further develop the nation’s fintech cluster and global engagement which in turn will help shape our priorities for 2020 and beyond.”

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