Innovation within fintech was a strong theme for Manchester Digital’s 2024 Fintech Conference, at No.1 Circle Square. Manchester has an incredibly strong fintech sector, and this year’s conference brought together the fintech sector to hear from leading businesses and innovative startups, as well as a fireside chat from thinkmoney and AND Digital, closing with an illuminating panel talk about how AI can supercharge the fintech sector in Manchester.
Here’s a summary of our afternoon of talks:
Track 1 talks
Starling Bank - Transforming the banking industry - the Starling story
There was standing room only for Jason Maude, chief technology advocate at Starling Bank, who talked about how Starling Bank transformed the banking industry. He outlined the two key events that made that transformation possible, which were the credit crunch and banking crisis of 2008 and the launch of the iphone in 2007.
He told us that the two key reasons why Starling Bank was so successful was that they capitalised on the loss of trust in banking in 2007 and they also had a very modern approach to software which included making tiny changes and updates very often, all of which could be reversed or fixed easily.
Cyberlab - Fintech under siege. How a hacker can break into your company in five minutes
Chris Workman, cyber sales account director, from Cyberlab told the room that fintech companies were hugely at risk of cyber fraud and cyber breaches. He stated that 65% of fintech businesses had been hit by ransomware attacks. His talk showed us the alarming tactics cybercriminals are using to infiltrate the fintech sector. He talked us through how phishing attacks work, and showed how hackers can also bypass multi-factor authentication.
Klarna - misconceptions of buy now pay later
Danielle Reed, head of new commercial partnerships at Klarna, talked about the common myths surrounding buy-now pay later vendors. Klarna has 85 million consumers in 45 different markets, and 99% of their consumers have their balance paid off. The overall consumer is a young demographic and they use Klarna as an alternative to a traditional credit card.
Track 2 talks
Capgemini - open banking, AI and voice. Empowering the next generation of financial services
Aparna Biswas, Incentive Banking at Capgemini, talked about how open banking, AI and voice will empower the next generation of financial services. She stated that 52% of consumers are extremely concerned about their personal finances. The next generation of financial services will bring together a seamless personalised service that is convenient, invisible and predictive. As open banking, AI and voice matures,their intersection will be very powerful, making financial services completely service-led.
DAC Beachcroft - DORA - essential takeaways specifically for UK fintech businesses
Chris Air, partner at DAC Beachcroft gave a UK perspective on the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act, which is a new EU cyber security law for the financial services sector. Chris outlined his takeaways for any fintech business that falls foul of this law and how to work towards compliance.
Powdr - How we used technology to make investor-ready models affordable
Joe Van Gelder, founder and CEO and Nicola Jones, COO of Powdr, gave a great talk on how their business model can use technology to make investor-ready models affordable for small businesses. Between 40% and 50% of SMEs get rejected for bank funding every year in the UK - and 90% of startups fail. Small businesses try to build their own models, but this causes problems with investors
They talked about how their financial forecasting software really opened up markets and new services for small businesses that were previously only accessible to larger businesses. Their startup has been live for a year now, so we’re really excited to see them continue on their journey.
Fireside chat
The fireside chat saw thinkmoney and AND Digital talk us through how they created a new platform and new app, which was successfully launched overnight to 100k customers. The chat was hosted by Rob Jones, MD of Manchester AND Digital office. The panel consisted of Andy Leitch, CTO at thinkmoney, Pete Willerton, senior product manager at thinkmoney and Maz Hussain, client services manager at AND Digital.
Thinkmoney works with a lot of vulnerable clients who need help managing their finances, so this was a huge project that had to be done quickly and efficiently. Thinkmoney had a legacy outdated tech stack and brought in tech consultancy AND Digital to work closely with them on updating their tech stack, to launch a new platform and a new mobile app as well.
The key takeaways from the project that they shared included: open and transparent communication, buy-in and support from the exec team, making the time for partner teams to bond and get to know client teams. Andy expanded on this and said: “We had over-communication and transparency. The trust was there from day one. The exec team never had to ask me for information or updates as they already had it. It’s so important to have that buy-in and it has to be all the way from the top.”
Manchester Digital would like to give a huge thanks to all of our speakers and our wonderful sponsors: AND Digital, Cyberlab, Bruntwood SciTech and Just After Midnight.
You can also read our panel discussion 'Is Manchester the secret weapon of AI-powered fintech?' here.
