FinTech North Host “FinTech for Good” Showcase as Part of incuto’s Impact and Innovation in the Community Finance Sector Conference
On Wednesday the 1st of November, FinTech North ran the “FinTech for Good” Showcase at incuto’s “Vision 2030: Prepare to Thrive- Impact and Innovation in the Community Finance Sector” conference. Seven fantastic organisations delivered lightning pitches, which were fast-paced and highly engaging. The aim of the showcase was for the speakers to pitch FinTech ideas and raise awareness of the transformative potential of FinTech that aligns with the Credit Union sector.
For those who couldn’t attend the showcase, we’ve created an overview of the entire event, which you can read below. We highly recommend exploring all the participating organisations.
The ‘FinTech for Good’ FinTech North showcase at incuto’s conference was what can only be described as a roaring success! With speakers from a wide range of backgrounds, the showcase was buzzing with bright ideas and brilliant prospects for the future.
Joe Roche, FinTech North’s Engagement Manager opened proceedings and introduced the work we do in the sector, facilitating the segment alongside Chris Sier, FinTech North’s Chairman.
OnePay’s Neil Harris started the ball rolling by introducing OnePay’s service and multi-lingual payments app. OnePay’s vison is to enable everyone, everywhere, to send and receive payments.
Established in 2007 and based in Yorkshire as an independent, sustainable fintech with no VC funding to date; OnePay have served over 750,000 users since inception, who would be otherwise financially excluded.
Neil highlighted OnePay’s parity with the Credit Union movement in supporting individuals in vulnerable situations. He emphasised the importance of excellence in customer service, accessibility and the personalisation of the app in helping users, such as international workers, students and Ukrainian evacuees get secure visibility & control of their finances.
With a Trustpilot rating of 4.8, processing over £4 billion in transactions per year and a partnership with Mastercard, OnePay is a very well established and celebrated Fintech and we look forward to hearing more from them in the near future.
Find out more about OnePay here.
The next speaker was Dan Graf, CEO and Co-Founder of Earthchain. He emphasised the integration of climate awareness into fintech solutions. Addressing the challenges faced by households reluctant to commit to net-zero initiatives due to financial constraints, Earthchain proposed leveraging open banking and carbon footprint insights to incentivise individuals toward carbon neutrality.
Find out more about Earthchain here.
Rachel Curtis, CEO and CO-Founder of Inicio AI was the next to present. She highlighted the link between The Cost of Living Crisis, debt, and suicide rates, noting that a staggering 11 million people in the UK are behind on bills, and 1 in 8 people who are behind on bills attempt suicide. She also noted that working through these issues using traditional over-the-phone forms isn’t just hard for consumers, it is time consuming and emotionally taxing on contact centre advisors too.
To combat this, Inicio AI have created a virtual agent that guides customers through a self-service affordability form, eliminating the pressure of speaking to a stranger about debt and reducing completion time by up to 90%, whilst creating a sense of ease for both customers and advisors. Its friendly AI chatbot, Budgie, recognises complex language and slang, as its development was bottom-up using real life examples of people completing this specific task. On top of this, the model’s efficiency and accessibility means that the engagement rate with financial institutions has massively increased.
By leveraging open banking and other data sources, Inicio AI’s platform delivers a solution that is much easier and less stressful for consumers and more robust and accurate for organisations. The system can also look for vulnerability characteristics and therefore can make a significant step toward addressing the pressing debt social issue.
Find out more about InicioAI here.
Infact Systems, a challenger credit reference agency, was introduced by their Head of Commercial, James Bryce-Lind.
The team at Infact are building a real-time bureau that facilitates more timely and accurate consumer credit information between digital lenders. Their focus is on serving lenders who lend to the UK’s non-prime population to promote financial inclusion while helping lenders improve their risk posture and portfolio performance.
They believe the status quo is as good as its going to get and that increasing competition in the CRA market is critical to deliver better products and outcomes for consumers.
Find more about Infact Systems here.
Achille Traore, CEO of White Label Loyalty, focused on the importance of leveraging data and gamification techniques to drive customer engagement and loyalty. By seamlessly collecting and analyzing data, White Label Loyalty enables businesses to personalize rewards and incentivize desired behaviors effectively. Their success is showing an increase in engagement on the Tala lending platform, serving 8 million customers internationally, as well as a notable 193% increase in transactions for the Slovenian bank SKB within just a few months demonstrate the high impact of their approach.
Find out more about White Label Loyalty here.
Gabriela Isas, Founder and CEO of Good With’s presentation on highlighted the challenges faced by young adults in building credit and managing financial risks. Good With’s innovative approach, utilising open banking data, empowers young adults by providing actionable insights to improve financial confidence and decision-making. By addressing financial wellbeing and psychological barriers, Good With aims to bridge the gap for credit-invisible individuals, fostering a more inclusive financial ecosystem.
Find out more about Good With here.
Jim Fell, CEO and Founder of Credit Canary was our last speaker, highlighting Credit Canary’s personalised engagement and proactive credit monitoring, aiming to identify and support customers at risk of missed payments. Credit Canary’s data-driven approach, including predictive analytics and tailored customer experiences, has significantly improved collection rates and predictability, demonstrating the potential for proactive credit management to mitigate financial risks within the Credit Union sector.
Find out more about Credit Canary here.
We’d like to extend our thanks to everyone who attended, incuto for hosting the event, and a huge thank you to our fantastic speakers whose innovations reflected the industry’s commitment to driving positive change!
