Search: financial focus

Scottish Financial News speaks to Tom Faichnie, co-founder of Quantify Advisors, about eschewing the traditional path of big financial services to build an agile, relationship-driven corporate finance firm. In an era when multinational advisory practices can often feel process-driven and detached fr

Stephen McGee, the chief executive of Scottish Friendly, is steering one of the UK’s oldest mutuals into its most transformative chapter in decades. To say that recent and planned developments are seismic would be to state – or rather understate – the obvious. Under his stewardship

Scottish Financial News speaks to Karen Scholes, the new president of ICAS, about bringing her experience from a family firm in Orkney to the role and her ambitions to modernise the accountancy profession for a new generation. It would be easy for many not involved directly with ICAS (the Institute

If there’s a phrase that neatly encapsulates the Scottish Building Society’s modus operandi it could well be “ambition underpinned by tradition”. The world’s oldest remaining building society, founded in Edinburgh in 1848 as the Edinburgh Friendly Property Investment Co

When accountancy and business advisory firm Johnston Carmichael further augmented its team of partners and directors team last summer, it was evident that nurturing new talent from the outset continues to prove valuable. Gillian McColgan was promoted to tax partner based in Aberdeen and Ryan Milne t

The statistics in Scotland’s fintech sector are impressive. The industry has only realised its significant potential since the 2010s with the advent of mobile technology, cloud computing and the big data revolution – but is now a part of our lives through daily engagement with open banki

One of Albert Einstein’s many quotable axioms is that "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change". With the imperative to accelerate progress accentuated both by recent social and economic events and new customer demands, accountants and advisers CT (formerly Chiene + Tait) this sum

Today marks my final day as editor of Scottish Financial News, exactly four years after I joined the publication in what was my first journalistic role. It has been a privilege to spend those years immersed in the stories of Scotland's business and financial community. The role brought together my b

Edinburgh-headquartered AI fintech company Aveni has unveiled FinLLM, a large language model (LLM) specifically designed for the UK financial services industry. FinLLM is designed to meet the industry’s stringent requirements for compliance, safety, and performance, setting a new benchmark for

Neil Shelton and Maddie Stephen of Focus Financial and John Hannah of SBP. A North-east accountancy firm has joined forces with a local financial services company to enhance its service offering.

Edinburgh-headquartered Aveni.ai, a specialist in AI for financial services, has agreed a new partnership with Octopus Money. Following a successful trial, Octopus Money has adopted Aveni Detect and Aveni Assist across its adviser and coaching teams. Octopus Money’s model offers highly persona

Edinburgh-based Ethical Finance Hub has become the first Scottish-focused financial body to endorse the United Nations Environment Finance Initiative’s (UNEP FI) Principles for Responsible Banking. A coalition of 49 banks, including Barclays and Santander, have committed to aligning their stra

Glasgow-based financial planning firm Murphy Wealth has secured a significant investment from European wealth management giant Söderberg & Partners, marking the latter's first partnership in Scotland. The deal, which sees Söderberg & Partners take a minority 30% stake in Murphy Wea

FinTech Scotland, the cluster management body, has announced a new strategic partnership with NCR Corporation, a leading enterprise technology provider to further advance innovation for financial institutions. The partnership builds on NCR’s strong innovation track record as a software and ser

International audit, tax, and advisory firm Mazars has reported double-digit revenue growth across its Scottish offices for the financial year ending August 2023, as the firm's teams in Edinburgh and Glasgow achieved a combined 13% revenue increase, up 4% from the previous year. Across the UK, Mazar