KPMG UK has joined FinTech Scotland, the cluster management organization for fintech in Scotland.
The organizations will work together to help foster innovation, accelerate growth and drive tech adoption “within the Scottish financial technology sector.”
KPMG UK’s commitment adds expertise to Fintech Scotland’s cluster continuing to develop Scotland’s leadership as “a fintech cluster as well as supporting the firm’s plans for further growth in Scotland.”
As a professional services network, KPMG UK will bring some of the “latest thinking” in financial services innovation to a sector that is “being disrupted like never before by new technologies such as AI, Distributed Ledger Technologies or Open Finance.”
KPMG UK’s leadership will play a key role in ensuring that Scotland’s fintech cluster continues to lead by example through “purposeful innovation driven by collaboration to foster financial inclusion.”
Fintech Scotland’s cluster includes fintech SMEs, financial and professional services institutions, tech enterprises, universities, regulators and a supportive public sector.
Ann Devine, Partner at KPMG UK, said that they are pleased to be working with Fintech Scotland and deepen their relationships “with firms in this growing sector. Scotland is one of the key clusters for UK fintech activity and this collaboration demonstrates our ongoing commitment to local fintech businesses in the region.”
Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland, said that this partnership with KPMG UK strengthens their shared commitment to “fostering innovation, collaboration, and growth in Scotland’s fintech cluster.” Anderson added that thanks to KPMG’s global expertise and the thriving Scottish fintech community, they are now confident they “can accelerate innovation and support the scaling of innovative businesses that contribute to Scotland’s economic and societal progress.”
FinTech Scotland is an independent not for profit cluster body jointly established with the financial services sector, universities and Scottish Enterprise to “ensure that Scotland seizes the FinTech opportunities and achieves positive economic and social outcomes by encouraging financial innovation, collaboration and inclusion as part of the broader digital economy objectives.”
The organization acts as an enabler and cluster management body focused on leveraging the potential “economic (i.e. productivity, innovation, business creation, employment) and social (i.e. financial inclusion, well-being and accessibility) benefits arising from becoming a leading global centre focused on Fintech innovation.”
FinTech Scotland’s objectives are to develop an innovative community of FinTech firms, generate “impactful collaborations between firms of all sizes and foster an inclusive cluster which is UK and globally recognised and connected.”
FinTech Scotland was founded in January 2018 as a joint initiative “by University of Edinburgh, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Scottish Enterprise.”
The organization is now reportedly supported by a range of financial services, technology and professional services firms as well as universities, the Financial Conduct Authority and Scottish Enterprise.
In August 2022, FinTech Scotland was formally recognized for the development of the Fintech cluster and accredited with the “silver label for Cluster Management Excellence by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA).”
In 2019, FinTech Scotland was one the founding bodies along with FinTech North and Innovate Finance of the UK FinTech National Network which drives collaborative fintech innovation and “development across all UK regions.”