SE funding research into financial innovation – Daily Business

Lab solutions: Aleks Tomczyk and Calum Murray

Scottish Enterprise is funding further development of technology aimed at tackling issues such as financial crime and the adoption of artificial intelligence.

It is injecting £3.18 million into the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) to deepen collaboration among academia, industry and regulators.

Led by FinTech Scotland in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, FRIL addresses industry needs and emerging regulations around the use of AI, open data and digital assets.

To date, FRIL has supported 120 fintech SMEs to accelerate solutions, enabled £28m in committed private investment and delivered a projected 6:1 economic return on investment for every £1 of public funding.

Calum Murray, CEO and founder at compliance platform Amiqus, noted: “The potential impact delivered by FRIL over the next three years to the broader Ecosystem is enormous.

“Thanks to a previous FRIL financial crime innovation call, we were able to build, pilot and take to production new capability to directly support Virgin Money with its new business onboarding journeys.

“This three-year commitment effectively sets the stage for collaborative and rapid progress across both financial services developing new capabilities with the support of a wide range of fintechs going forward. It’s a win-win on all accounts.”

Jane Martin, managing director innovation and investment at Scottish Enterprise, said: “FRIL is a shining example of how collaboration between industry, academia and regulators can make a real impact.”

Aleks Tomczyk, chief executive, FinTech Scotland, added: “The opportunity from the current and forecast future growth of fintech is huge.

“FRIL’s success evidences the strategic value of innovation to the economy and the strength of our fintech cluster in simultaneously delivering growth and better outcomes for consumers.”

Derek Shanks, technology platform lead at Lloyds Banking Group, commented: “We’ve supported three FRIL innovation calls as a challenge partner and have seen first-hand the value of this model. It brings together the right mix of expertise, technology and challenge to turn ideas into real solutions.”

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