The seventh annual FinTech Scotland Festival offers an exciting array of bespoke conferences and events aiming to highlight, invigorate, and further the vibrant Scottish fintech ecosystem. 

This year FinTech Scotland is offering a line-up of engaging events in partnership with Scotland’s leading tech news and events company DIGIT, who will headline the festival with two of our top yearly events. 

The Festival will primarily centre around the four pillars identified in FinTech Scotland’s Research and Innovation Roadmap, focusing on financial regulation, payment innovation, open finance and data, and climate goals. 

With the rise of emerging technologies, regulation woes, increased emphasis on sustainability, and the constant push for innovation, there’s much to consider, discuss, and collaborate on.

“There is certainly a lot of fintech activity in Scotland; we’ve got a very collaborative cluster, in terms of large fintechs, academia, and startups working together,” said Mickael Paris, marketing director at FinTech Scotland, who’s helped spearhead the overseeing of this year’s festival. 

Although Scotland is considered a leader in fintech, programmes like the Fintech Scotland Festival help to ensure the nation’s leading edge by keeping its fintech ecosystem active, lively, and engaged. 

To hear about what, exactly, is happening over the course of the much-anticipated festival, read on.

25 September: DIGIT’s Full Day of FinTech 

Opening the festival is DIGIT’s FinTech Summit 2024, offering a day full of insightful sessions and networking opportunities, with the talks centred around the major trends and concerns affecting the fintech landscape. 

Key topics from the day include the use of generative AI, regulation and compliance concerns, as well as data utilisation and customer experience—presented by speakers from the likes of Barclays, the CMA, FreeAgent, and many other leading organisations.

The Summit, which will take place at Edinburgh’s iconic Dynamic Earth, will also feature a range of exhibitors offering their services and solutions to intrigued customers. 

Following the Summit, special guests will join DIGIT at The Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh for our annual celebratory FinTech Awards night, where some of the individuals and companies trailblazing in Scotland’s dynamic fintech ecosystem are highlighted and honoured. 

Award categories include best use of data and AI, best startup or newcomer, and best environmental impact. 

Find out more information for the FinTech Summit here, and the Financial Technology Awards here. 

26 September: Financial Regulation Innovation

The following day, participants have the opportunity to attend the Barclays Eagle Labs campus in Glasgow, where regulation in the fintech sector will be delved into.

Interested attendees can hear talks from keynote speakers and experts in the ever-changing regulatory environment, but also learn how technology developed by fintechs can provide solutions to streamline regulatory compliance issues across the sector.

An array of companies are set to participate in the event, including Barclays and Morgan Stanley, as well as Scottish startups docStribute, Malted AI, Aveni, Amiqus, and Exizent. 

“This day would be suited for large financial institutions interested in understanding how new technologies can help them solve regulatory requirements,” Paris explained. 

Regulatory compliance is an ongoing and prominent concern across the tech world, with fintech companies having the added complexity with financial responsibilities. 

“Fintechs are normal tech businesses with the added difficulty that most of them will be regulated when it comes to investment, when it comes to exporting, which can create added difficulties,” Paris added. 

Find out more about the event, and book tickets, here. 

27 September: Payment Innovation 

Taking place at the Edinburgh Napier University campus is Payment Innovation Day.

“The day will have a very big focus on distributed ledger technology, digital currencies, and online trust,” Mickael said of the anticipated presentations. 

Following talks from experts around innovation in the payments sphere, including post-quantum security, the blockchain, and financial inclusion, attendees will have the chance to take part in an Innovation Sprint. 

A large UK-wide retail bank will provide a real-world payment innovation problem statement that participating entrepreneurs can develop a solution for—and which they will pitch later in the day. 

The collaborative, fast-paced problem-solving approach is sure to highlight Scottish ingenuity, as well as Scotland’s strength as a collaboration- and community-focused ecosystem. 

Recommended reading

• FinTech Scotland Launches Financial Regulation Innovation Lab
• FinTech Scotland Launches New AI Innovation Challenge
• FinTech Scotland Partners with Cisco and Sword Ping

The Innovation Sprint will be an ideal opportunity for students, entrepreneurs, and fintech leaders to collaborate and problem solve in real-time. 

For more information on the Payment Innovation Day, click here. 

1 October: Scaling Your FinTech

Hosted by CodeBase in Edinburgh, the Scaling Your FinTech event invites entrepreneurs and prospective fintech aficionados alike to learn about how to uplift and scale businesses. 

While the event will discuss particular issues facing fintech scaleups, such as the world of finance, compliance, and security resilience, the day will be informative to the wider tech startup community. 

“The day will be tailored to a point to fintechs, but will not be exclusive to fintech,” Paris assured. 

Talks will offer insights into topics such as hiring best practices and how to scale digital platforms, as well as data infrastructure and hybrid environments, offering vital learnings for tech startups looking to scale. 

Find more information on the Scaling Your FinTech event here. 

3 October: Data Innovation 

Hosted in partnership with the University of Edinburgh’s Edinburgh Futures Institute, the Data Innovation day promises to discuss critical topics in fintech, not least open finance, data analytics, AI, and the use of data to better meet ESG targets. 

“There will definitely be a bit of horizon scanning,” Paris said about the event, “but it will also look at some of the current work being done, whether it’s companies working on open finance or open banking, ESG data, or using data to help customers access new financial products.”

The speaker line-up is expected to feature knowledgeable researchers from the Edinburgh Futures Institute to highlight how data, and AI, can be used to continually advance fintech in Scotland. 

To book your spot for the Data Innovation day, click here. 

Fringe Events

The festival will also include numerous evening networking events, as well as organised fringe events, such as one from Addleshaw Goddard on navigating the cloud ecosystem, with more to be announced.

All the events combined, the main message of the seventh annual FinTech Scotland Festival is to highlight Scotland’s important and integral place within the wider fintech sphere, as well as fintech’s critical role in the wider world. As Paris said, “Scotland is driving innovation. Scotland is leading when it comes to collaboration. 

“Those technologies and those innovations it is developing are driving better financial inclusion, and creating a better financial services sector for everyone.”