Write-up: Newcastle Conference 2024
On Wednesday, the 17th of July, the Northern FinTech community came together in the North East for FinTech North’s annual Newcastle Conference, hosted in partnership with Mastercard, Invest North East England, Innovation SuperNetwork and Atom bank.
The conference took place at the iconic Tyneside Cinema, a historic venue with rich cultural links to the city. With over 150 delegates checking in at the box office, and an 80% attendance rate, the conference saw fantastic engagement and enthusiasm from FinTech North’s North Eastern community, as ever.
After an energised breakfast networking session in the cinema’s bar café, delegates flooded into the ‘Classic’, the venue’s largest screen, boasting traditional theatre décor, curtains, seating and stage, accompanied by FinTech North’s classic blue and green banners.
For those who were unable to join, we have produced this write-up, capturing the key themes of the conference. We have also provided a recording of the event, which is broken up into 4 separate parts.
FinTech North
Joe Roche, Fintech North’s General Manager kicked off the session by thanking sponsors, delegates, the venue and his team for their support, before providing an overview of FinTech North’s activity, previous work in the region, and an exciting update about the team’s expansion, with Silas Ozoya coming on board as their Talent Upskill Associate to support their skills initiative.
Atom bank
Next to the stage was North East FinTech royalty and one of the conference’s returning sponsor organisations, Atom bank. Edward Twiddy, Atom bank’s Co-founder delivered the opening keynote and spoke about the bank’s mission to be quicker, easier and better value for money. Ed explained how process innovation is a critical enabler for the bank to succeed in the mortgage and savings markets, and also discussed their commitment to be a carbon positive bank by 2035.
Invest North East England
Rachel Burdis, Inward Investment Manager at Invest North East England (INEE) spoke next, delivering a short welcome message and regional overview. Rachel advised that INEE is the inward investment agency for the newly formed North East Combined Authority, which Mayor Kim McGuiness was recently elected to represent. Thanks to local public, private and education partners, the cluster has gone from strength to strength. INEE continue to promote and champion the regional Fintech ecosystem and have seen strong interest from inward investors.
FinTech Scotland
Following the welcome messages, Stephen Ingledew OBE, Chairman of FinTech Scotland delivered an inspiring keynote titled ‘Developing the World-Class North-East FinTech Cluster, learnings from across the UK.’
Stephen drew on several points of focus in advising how to achieve regional sector growth, including the importance of maintaining a team ‘cluster’ based mindset, reinforced by evidence of cluster success globally. He imparted some strong words of wisdom, including ‘think big, act small,’ encouraging a combination ambitious ideas accompanied with real actions to achieve goals. He also stressed the importance diversity in driving the creativity of innovation, as well as the essentiality of collaboration between industry, academia and public bodies in what he coined ‘the triple helix.’
Innovate Finance
Next up was FinTech North regular Peter Cunnane, Director of National and International Initiatives at Innovate Finance. He delivered a cautiously optimistic outlook for UK FinTech following the recent change in government, and shared information about Innovate Finance’s upcoming ‘Pride in FinTech’ LGBTQIA+ inclusivity focussed initiative.
Innovation SuperNetwork
Charlotte Scott, Senior Investor Relations Manager at Innovation SuperNetwork then delivered a keynote titled ‘The Funding Landscape and Angel Investment into FinTech.’ She provided some background about Innovation SuperNetwork’s Pathways to Funding Programme funded by the North East Combined Authority, explaining their aims to provide businesses with what they need to grow through helping them make connections, finding the product market fit, understanding different market options and more.
Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology
Ksenia Grant, Director of Ecosystem and Partnerships at Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology (CFIT) was next to the stage, providing an overview of CFIT’s origin following the Kalifa review, and expanding on their work and results following their first coalition on open finance. She then gave an overview on CFIT’s upcoming plans for their next coalition, which is set to focus on fighting economic crime via enhanced verification and taking robust protective measures against fraud.
Financial Conduct Authority
Helene Oger-Zaher, Senior Manager – Innovation Department – DTI Division from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was the last speaker before the mid-morning networking break, sharing a regulatory perspective on striking the right balance between precautions around risk and innovation. She noted that ‘ innovation and tech can empower us all to move forward,’ highlighting that the FCA consider both risks and benefits around changing technology. She also noted that ‘it’s important how the technology is deployed, rather than what the tech is.’
She shared that the FCA take an ‘inform, intervene and influence’ approach to innovation, using some examples of their work on their digital and regulatory sandboxes. She shared some information around the FCA’s upcoming plans, including focusses around AI, tokenisation, open finance and inclusion, as well as the development of an AI sandbox.
She closed her keynote with a strong message: ‘as a regulator, it is critical to strengthen innovation.’
FinTech Growth Fund
Following the break, Phil Vidler, Co-founder and Managing Director of FinTech Growth Fund shared a short keynote on ‘Funding to Scale FinTech Across the UK,’ sharing an overview of their work and aims to address the growth gap in the sector.
Kani
Next to the stage was Roger Binks, CCO of Newcastle-based platform, Kani, who shared their experience of transitioning from a start-up organisation to a globally-operating scale-up. He shared an overview of the business and their work on reconciliation, compliance reporting and business analytics, before expanding some insightful advice around scaling successfully. He highlighted the importance of knowing that every business’s journey is different, resource allocation, adaptability, listening to customers , and company culture.
Mastercard and Office for National Statistics
The first fireside chat of the day was between Mark Greenberg, Director of Data Science, at Vocalink, a Mastercard company and Keith Lai, Assistant Deputy Director, Financial Transactions Data Research, Data Science Campus at Office for National Statistics.
The fireside chat focussed on the positive transformative potential of harnessing data as a force for good, and ‘doing well by doing good.’
The expanded on the origin of their partnership, following the need for a quick response to COVID-19 and lockdown in the payments sector in order to support businesses and individuals.
The findings around the true value and potential of data and its long term benefits kickstarted a new era of collaboration and impact in the payments and data space, informing decision making for public good.
FDATA
Continuing the data focus of the session, Ghela Boskovich, Regional Director and Head of Europe from FDATA spoke next, proposing that the future of FinTech is not finance, it’s data. She expanded, noting that the future is intersectional, will be impacted by smart, open data, and that finance is a but a fraction of the picture.
She shared that data sharing economies are at the forefront of the next stage of economic growth, exemplifying the massive potential and achievements of open finance following the introduction of surrounding formal regulatory frameworks.
FinTech North
Chris Sier, FinTech North’s Chairman came to the stage to share a short anecdotal message and some business advice to the audience.
Daniel Rajkumar, Director at FinTech North then provided a short update on the organisation’s skills initative, including skills-focussed events, involvement in the development of FinTech courses, regular meetings with a skills-focussed steering group, and the onboarding of their newest employee, Silas, as previously mentioned.
FinPact
Following a vibrant lunch networking break, Steve Kevan, CEO and Co-Founder of FinPact and Manila McLean, NED at docStribute came to the stage for a fireside chat titled ‘FinPact Impact, One Year On.’
Steve expanded on the origin of FinPact following the Kalifa review, and Whitecap Consulting’s North East Strategy report. He shared that the organisation’s focus over the past year has been around enhancing the supply of skills in FinTech through initiatives like ‘FinTech Futures,’ set to launch this September.
Steve noted that, ‘if you can give kids financial education, it brings FinTech to life,’ exemplifying their collaboration with RedStart Educate, as well as working with underprivileged schools as part of the first strand of their initiative.
He shared their upcoming plans to continue to gorw and expand, and shared that
‘its been heartening to see how the industry has stepped up and gotten involved.’
The chat closed on a powerful note with a resounding message:
‘The North East has a resilience and an identity and we have to leverage that as much as we can.’
Panel
The next session was a panel titled ‘How are we making the North-East a world renowned FinTech cluster?’ expertly facilitated by Stephen Inglewdew OBE, FinTech Scotland’s Chairman.
The panel consisted of representatives from the North East with a wealth of expertise from industry, academia and the public sector.
Aidan Lish, Teacher of Business and Economics, from Gateshead College, spoke on the importance of reconceptualising further education courses and the college’s role in helping individuals reskills into the sector, through initiatives like their bootcamp.
Lucy Mounter, Director of Business Development & Strategy UK from Intercash spoke on her experience working for an international Fintech specialising in payment card issuing having set up a base in Newcastle upon-Tyne. She advocated for stronger communication between the north and south of the UK to provide more awareness of the developments happening within the region, and emphasised the rich cultural elements of the north as being incremental to successful businesses. She also stressed that local intra-regional development would attract stronger interest to the North East from international businesses.
Sarat Pediredla, CEO of Newcastle-based consultancy Hedgehog Lab discussed technology enablement, and how to leverage opportinuties using it. He also mentioned the fast pace of technological advancements making policies, regulations, and academic programs quickly outdated. In a similar vein, he emphasised the importance of feedback and communication from the industry to keep everything agile, current, and relevant.
Kevin Telford, Co-founder of FinPact emphasised the importance of setting a clear vision, purpose, and mission to unite the team and measure success. He highlighted the need to grow talent and mentioned the Smart Data Innovation Lab as a platform for research, innovation, and creating impact for free. He also stressed the need to maintain momentum with initiatives like open data and AI.
Jenny Halford, Sector Development (FinTech & Digital) at Business Durham highlighted the public sector’s role in supporting entrepreneurial businesses. She mentioned that teams help generate economic activity and cited Net Park’s proactive approach as a key to success. Celebrating its 20-year anniversary, Jenny emphasised that significant effort, money, and time were invested to create a self-sustaining momentum. She also stressed the importance of ensuring that the triple helix strands of public sector, academia, and industry move upwards together.
Scott Logic
Giles Buist, Delivery Principal at Newcastle-based software consultancy Scott Logic was up next, and discussed the intricacies of building FinTech services for critical national infrastructure, particularly focusing on government and public sector applications. He highlighted Scott Logic’s extensive presence across the UK and its commitment as a certified B Corporation to uphold high standards of social and environmental responsibility.
Giles introduced two of their key projects; the first, ScotPayments, a secure, centralised payments platform that supports the digital transformation of public services in Scotland, and the second, ScotAccount, a digital identity programme that establishes a new way for users to access online public services in Scotland. Both of these projects exemplified Scott Logic’s expertise in managing secure and efficient services for public sector needs.
Scott Logic x Google
Following Giles’ keynote, Joe Roche introduced the next segment – a Fireside Chat with Karen Zhang, FinTech Lead & VC Partnerships, Google Cloud and Oliver Cronk, Technology Director, Scott Logic. During the chat, Karen and Oliver discussed the challenges and strategies for scaling up FinTech companies.
Oliver, with his background rooted in Scott Logic based in Newcastle, shared insights on how his company collaborates with FinTech organisations to support their growth.
Karen highlighted Google Cloud’s role in assisting FinTech organisations, focusing on talent acquisition, innovative thinking, risk management, and scaling operations. Despite the availability of funds and liquidity, raising capital has become more challenging, with shifts in how FinTechs secure funding.
The discussion also touched on regulatory requirements, such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) for FinTechs operating in the EU, emphasising the need for fault-tolerant architectures. They cited Monzo’s success using Google Cloud, which provided robust security, scalability, and resilience to accommodate growth. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations, along with climate impacts, were also discussed as critical factors.
Karen mentioned Google’s startup program offering $350K in credits, particularly beneficial for AI-focused FinTechs. The chat concluded with a focus on the importance of a clear roadmap and architecture for successful scaling.
Innovation SuperNetwork
Following an afternoon networking break, Karl Murray, Innovation and Investor Relations Manager at Innovation SuperNetwork shared an energetic and conversational presentation dfocussing on ‘Closing The Deal: How FinTech can find their first funders,’ where he drew on finding a first funder, understanding investors, best practise and red flags to look out for.
Showcase
The final segment of the day, facilitated by Oliver Chesher, Managing Director at Galibier, was the popular lightning pitch showcase segment. A variety of organisations from the North East and beyond shared their work and insights:
1. Karl Hewitson, Co-founder, Keepl
2. Adedamola Victor Adesina, Founder TransactTrail
3. Katherine Keddie, Co-Founder, Adopter
4. Christopher Ansara, CEO & Founder, docStribute
5. Somin Tong, Head of Marketing and Communications, Spark EPoS
6. Michelle Jones, Founder, Kind Currency
7. Nick Hawkins, Corporate Barrister, GunnerCookeLLP
8. Olivia Minnock, Senior Partnerships Manager, mmob
9. Dai Davis, Partner, Percy Crow Davis & Co
As the conference drew to a close, delegates and speakers came together once more for an evening drinks reception in the cinema’s bar café to celebrate the great work and connections in forged in the region.
We’d like to once again thank our our brand sponsors, Mastercard, Invest North East England, Innovation SuperNetwork and Atom bank, our pre-conference sponsors, Google Cloud, the whole team at the Tyneside Cinema, and all of our amazing speakers for their great work and participation.
Our next event in the calendar is our Northern Summit in York – click here to find out more, or reach out to us at info@fintechnorth.uk.
