Liverpool Conference 2025 Write-up
Building on the last year’s momentum
On the 18th of March, FinTech North returned to the Liverpool City region for its third-annual Liverpool Conference , hosted in partnership with Adoptech, Bruntwood SciTech, Mastercard , Vilja and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, evening social sponsors Sedulo, name badge sponsors DTM Legal, and international sponsors, Madrid Investment Attraction.
The conference was hosted at the iconic Royal Liver Building on the Liverpool Waterfront. Situated at the heart of the city’s Pier Head, the Royal Liver Building anchors Liverpool’s history as a centre for global trade and finance. It originally housed the Royal Liver Assurance Company, one of the city’s key financial institutions, underscoring its ties to business and the local economy.
This year’s conference hosted over 150 delegates across the day, building on kast years numbers, a testament to the region’s ongoing sector development. The event covered four key themes including customer-centricity, InsurTech, risk and WealthTech, and brought a strong international focus with delegates, exhibitors, speakers and sponsors travelling from across the globe.
Click here to view the photos from the conference.
We will be providing the full recording of the Liverpool Conference 2025 soon.
Joe Roche, FinTech North’s General Manager kicked off the morning by welcoming delegates providing a quick overview and update on FinTech North activity and a reflection of the Liverpool City Region’s growth.
Next to the stage was Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotheram, who opened the event with an insightful speech on the city’s blossoming FinTech sector. He highlighted that the region is home to over 42 FinTech firms, contributing £219m annually to the local economy, with nearly 80% of them being startups and scaleups.
He emphasised the city’s entrepreneurial spirit, describing it as “a beacon for others who aspire to drive change within the financial services industry.” He also pointed to the strength of Liverpool’s FinTech talent pool, which now exceeds 4,363 professionals, supported by world-class academic programs like the University of Liverpool’s Fintech MA.
He spoke about the Liverpool City Region Fintech Growth Group, a collaboration between private firms, the public sector, and academia, designed to enhance the region’s FinTech capabilities. He also highlighted recent success stories such as Zempler Bank and Swoop, underscoring FinTech’s role in helping the city achieve its goal of increasing foreign direct investment by 25% by the end of the decade.
Regional, national and international sector insights
Next, some key players in the national FinTech scene came to the stage to discuss the question ‘the state of the nation: what does the UK need to do to maintain its leadership in the sector?’
The panel featured:
Moderator, Stefan Haase, Director, Whitecap Consulting
Peter Cunnane, Director of National and International Initiatives, Innovate Finance
Diane Davies, International Trade Advisor, Department for Business and Trade
Andy Sacre, Director – Head of Payments, Monzo
Claire Lewis, CEO, Baltic Ventures
The discussion provided a macroeconomic view of the sector, reflecting its evolution over the past year. The panellists examined the current opportunities and challenges for growth, the headroom for UK FinTechs to capitalise on, and the UK’s role in the international market. A key focus was the balance between London’s dominance and the rise of regional FinTech hubs, with insights into how clusters outside the capital—such as those in the North West—are driving innovation and growth.
Peter highlighted the opportunities for FinTech businesses beyond London and how Innovate Finance is shaping policy and regulatory engagement to support the sector. Claire provided insights into the early-stage investment landscape, discussing trends and shifts in funding availability, while Andy explored the realities of raising capital in the UK, particularly for pre-IPO scale-ups. The panel also addressed the challenges of launching a FinTech in 2025, with consensus that while opportunities remain, the landscape is increasingly complex.
Diane brought an international perspective, outlining how overseas markets are evolving, where unexpected opportunities for growth may lie, and how UK FinTechs can expand internationally. The impact of the Kalifa Review was also assessed, with reflections on what has changed and how shifting dynamics continue to shape investment and innovation across the country.
The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) were next, providing a pre-recorded update on their activity. Nicole Sandler, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at CFIT, highlighted the organisation’s role in driving financial innovation through collaboration between government, regulators, financial institutions, FinTechs, and academia. She emphasised the need for the UK to accelerate adoption of technologies like AI, tokenisation, digital verification, and open finance to maintain its global leadership in financial services. CFIT’s recent coalitions have focused on expanding SME finance through open data and tackling economic crime via digital identity, with significant projected economic benefits.
Looking ahead, CFIT aims to develop new coalitions and policy recommendations in areas such as AI in financial services, smart data, and digital identity, ensuring the UK remains competitive against global financial hubs. Sandler also highlighted the need for regulatory adaptation to support innovation, advocating for a review of financial services regulation to align with emerging technologies. She concluded by stressing the importance of positioning the UK as a leader in digitalised capital markets to attract investment and enhance export opportunities.
Next, as a continuation of their fascinating ‘data for good’ insights at last year’s Liverpool Conference, Nabeel Irshad, Vice President Business Development from Mastercard returned to share a keynote on how they use payments data to support economic growth, using the famous Eurovision Song Competition, histed in Liverpool as a case study.
Customer-centricity
Kickstarting the ‘customer-centricity’ theme was a fireside chat between Peter Back, Director at Vilja and Henry Varney, Founder and Director at Varney Croft Ltd, who highlighted the importance of maintaining the ‘human touch’ amidst digitalisation, placing end-users at the centre of innovation.
Claire Lewis then returned to the stage to moderate the first series of showcase pitches of the day, all with customer-centricity as a key theme. We were delighted to be joined by a mixture of regional and international businesses:
Tom Woodroof, Co-founder, Local Loop Merseyside
Stasys Brilis, CEO, 111 Minutes
Diana Xhumari, CEO, Tegeria
InsurTech
After the pitches, the conference progressed to the second theme of the day, pertaining to one of the city region’s key subsector specialisms: InsurTech.
First came a fireside chat between Max Jagger, Senior Corporate Account Executive at Towergate Insurance Brokers and Steve Bowers, FinTech Development Manager, CFC on decision making in InsurTech and the need for a tailored insurance policy.
The InsurTech showcase, moderated by Ellie Kirkman, FinTech PR Consultant at Started PR, consisted of some returning InsurTech voices from the region, as well as a debut speaker from Baltic Ventures’ most recent cohort:
Andrew Porter, Commercial Director, Icede
Robyn Roberts, Founder, Safe by Choice
Swati Sachan, AI in Insurance and Law The University of Liverpool
International Expansion
There was a strong theme of internationalisation on the day, supported by international visitors pitching their organisations’ propositions, as well as the presence of international inward investment agencies.
Berta de la Fuente Molina, Head of Investment Attraction and Internationalisation at Madrid Investment Attraction, the conference’s international sponsors and Nicholas Greenwood, Trade, Investment & Office Coordinator at Government of Alberta, representing Calgary Economic Development, presented either side of lunch, expanding on the economic and FinTech sector developments in their respective regions, synergies with the north of England and opportunities for expansion.
Risk
The conference then pivoted into the next theme of the day, risk.
Alastair Goodwin, CEO and Co-founder of Adoptech came to the stage first, providing an overview of the FinTech regulatory landscape and its contributing factors to date. He expanded on the recent Digital Operational Resilience act in particular, and its role as a global driver for the improvement of technology risk and operational resilience in financial services.
Next, a panel comprising experts across SaaS, payments, legal, entrepreneurial and compliance came together on an insightful panel titled ‘Charting the Course: risk, innovation and regulation amid uncertainty.’
The panel, expertly navigated by Kate Roberts, Partner and Head of Liverpool at DTM Legal comprised the following speakers:
Anna Chandler, Fractional Marketing Director, Acquired.com
Simon Groom, Co-founder and CEO, MagnifyB
Olaolu Olaleye, Senior Innovation & Growth Specialist, Innovate UK
Vijay Ray, Associate Director, RSM
The discussion covered the current regulatory landscape, building on the previous overview. The panellists explored challenges and opportunities for businesses amid market shifts, the benefits of partnering with other FinTechs to resolve supply chain issues and failures, and the importance of embedding risk management early on in businesses. The conversation concluded with a future gaze looking down the line at AI, open banking and funding.
WealthTech
Following a networking break, WealthTech, another key regional specialism was explored.
We were delighted to be joined by one of the region’s most long standing and prestigious financial services institutions, Rathbones, and its dedicated ethical and sustainable investment arm, Greenbank to explore the importance of delivering social purpose in wealth management.
Lillia Bistacchi, Senior Account Manager at Started PR facilitated the discussion between Iain Craig, Investment Director, at Rathbones Group Plc and Will Findlay-Wilson, Investment Analyst at Greenbank, exploring balancing ESG impacts with financial returns, the role of FinTech in the evolving wealth management landscape and their insights into the international market.
Concluding the WealthTech session was the final showcase of the day, hosted by Oliver Chesher, Managing Director at Galibier. The following speakers shared their WealthTech propositions:
Suz Ferreira, Founder, Proper Financial Coaching
Ashish Sandhu, Co-founder and Vipashyana Srivastava, Co-founder, Scholar Saver
Elliot Riley-Walsh, Founder & CEO, Valart
As the conference drew to a close, delegates came together for a final networking session at the evening social in Sedulo’s fantastic Liverpool office, overlooking the historic Liver Building on the balcony and celebrating the city region’s evolving FinTech Ecosystem.
We’d like to thank our brand sponsors Adoptech, Bruntwood SciTech, Mastercard , Vilja and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, evening social sponsors Sedulo, name badge sponsors DTM Legal, and international sponsors, Madrid Investment Attraction. We’d also like to thank all of our fantastic speakers, the team at the Royal Liver Building, and our delegates for making this conference another success.
For more information, reach out to us at info@fintechnorth.uk.
