The continuation of a series of four fintech events looking to support FinTech Scotland‘s ‘Research and Innovation Roadmap’ takes place in Edinburgh.
The fintech research and innovation events look to support an industry-led approach to research, innovation and impact. Topics span the four key pillars of Fintech Scotland’s roadmap:
- Financial regulation
- Payments and transactions
- Climate finance
- Open finance data
The second event specifically focuses on payments and transactions. Industry leaders from banking, fintech, security and resilience backgrounds consider ‘building security and trust in digital payments’.
In 2018, up to 39 billion payments were made in the UK; totalling more than £83trillion. The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital payments across the world. An increase in the volume of digital and card payments by over 50 per cent has also been seen.
Because of the increasing number of digital payments, online fraud, digital crime and cyber attacks
on financial institutions are becoming more prevalent. A UK Finance report titled ‘Our Fraud – the Facts’ highlighted the £1.2billion stolen through fraud and scams in 2019 alone.
The events were developed by FinTech-Tables, a fintech engagement platform, in collaboration with Fintech Scotland and law firm Pinsent Masons. Since its conception, the events have also received further
input from the likes of Occamsec, Autorek, Haelo, University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow.
FinTech Scotland’s roadmap
Ian Davey, director of FinTech-Tables, explained how the event could support the industry. He commented: “Now more than ever, digital security is a top priority for financial services and FinTech companies.
“As the use of digital payments increases, it is essential that organisations consider all of the components required to ensure security and build customer trust in their services.
“This event will bring together leaders to have their say and consider collaborative approaches that can be taken to support the safe and secure growth of exciting payment innovations.”
Luke Scanlon, head of fintech propositions and legal director at Pinsent Masons, also commented. He said: “We continue to see opportunities for our clients across many different aspects of payments. The future of open banking, open finance and the relationships that are being formed to enable embedded finance all mean that in the future consumers and businesses will have a range of payment options and value-added services that previously were not available.
“Digital currencies, new and growing e-money distribution arrangements and in-car, wearable and other mobile options are all areas that will continue to develop rapidly. The legal and regulatory challenges remain however if a careful approach is taken they can successfully be navigated in order to make progress with innovative solutions.”
The group are to consider the opportunities brought about by digital payments. It will also think of strategies that financial services organisations need to deploy in order to build and maintain security and trust in these innovative solutions
