Last week BIMA hosted a round table breakfast for digital leaders from Financial Services organisations and agencies in Edinburgh. Co-chaired by Fintech Scotland and Scottish Financial Enterprise we had a range of B2B and B2C organisations around the table.
The topic under discussion for this session was challenging and disrupting – more precisely ‘Do you need to be a challenger to be disruptive?’
If there is one word that’s heard a lot in the Financial Services market it’s ‘Fintech’. Monzo, Revolut, Starling bank, etc are all set to disrupt the sector, focusing on great customer experience and removing pain points.
For a few years now established institutions have had to change and transform.So, under Chatham House Rules, we shared the good, the bad and the ugly and explored new transformation routes with digital and tech experts from various perspectives.
There were many points debated around the table but the one thing that came up time and again was the human, relationships and cultural aspects – you can do anything in an organisation but you can’t do it without getting people on board with it at all levels.
Challenges for larger, more traditional financial organisations engaging more with Fintechs included risk and prohibitive processes. We saw a genuine desire to collaborate, however, adopting a more entrepreneurial approach can be easier said than done and often involves baby steps.
Conflict of interest shouldn’t be perceived as an issue between Fintechs and larger organisations working together – we heard that often Fintechs don’t want to be big or in direct competition.
Unsurprisingly procurement raised its head, being frustrating to everyone, on all sides, and a barrier to a lot of potentially interesting and progressional working relationships – if anyone ever works out how to solve that one – do let us know!
Encouragingly all these organisations seem to be really engaged with the issues of the changing marketplace and the challenges that this throws up. They’re tapping into organisations such as Fintech Scotland and Scottish Financial Enterprise, as well as working with universities and charities. New job roles and skill sets also mean that not only are people needing to work differently but also think differently about their employee sourcing, training and engagement. If you need data scientists – please check out Auticon – a social enterprise that pairs people with autism and jobs – they come highly recommended.
Due to the popularity of this event, we will now be making this a regular event to bring together leaders from Fintechs, Financial Organisations and Agencies and share ideas and working practices.
Please contact nadinepierce@bima.co.uk if you are interested in attending.