Every Wednesday, we delve into the latest fintech news from across the UK. This week brings updates from Deloitte, GoCardless, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and Oxford Business College.
UK fintech pips Europe to the investment post
The UK fintech sector is currently the top-ranking investment destination in Europe, accounting for more capital invested than Germany, Sweden, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands combined; according to the annual government review, The State of the Sector: Annual review of the UK financial services sector 2023.
The UK also ranks second globally behind the US and the report offers insights into how to retain this position. The City of London Corporation prepared the review, in partnership with HM Treasury.
Wayne Johnson, CEO and co-founder of KYC automation firm Encompass Corporation, commented: “As the UK targets growth, technology will continue to play a vital role and it is important that all parties – including businesses, the Government and the regulator – work together to meet ongoing aims. This collaboration will be key to unlocking full potential, and the UK being seen as a prime location to do business with and within.”
Virtual Hackathon for financial authorities
The Alliance for Innovative Regulation and the Cambridge SupTech Lab at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), are holding a virtual hackathon from 26 July until 3 August. The event will aim to help financial supervisory agencies make better use of consumer complaints and other supervisory data.
The SupTech Hackathon 2023 online event is aimed at data scientists, innovators and technologists to apply their expertise to make a positive impact on financial consumer protection and market conduct. It is intended to identify ways for financial authorities to leverage advanced analytics of complaint data.
Simone di Castri, co-head and co-founder of the Cambridge SupTech Lab, said: “The SupTech Hackathon 2023 encourages participants to collaborate on impactful solutions designed to close gaps in consumer protection data in order to facilitate a transition to data-driven decision-making, proactive issue resolution, customer-centric service and standardised processes.”
Number of AI patents in the UK set to overtake other world regions
The number of AI patents filed by the UK has risen 427 per cent in the past five years – putting the country on course to overtake Australia in the global AI rankings this year, AI experts at Oxford Business College have revealed.
In 2017, the UK filed 61 patents relating to artificial intelligence, but this rose to 322 in 2022. Australia beat the UK’s total by 70 in 2022, but early signs suggest this will not be the case at the end of 2023.
The UK has already filed 125 AI patents this year – more than twice the 47 submitted by Australian businesses and universities. If these trends continue, the UK will move up the global rankings from 8th to 6th place.
More than a quarter of UK adults are now using AI chatbots
In other AI-related news, 26 per cent of UK adults have used generative artificial intelligence such as chatbots, according to research from accounting group Deloitte.
The Deloitte report revealed around 13 million 16 to 75-year-olds have used a generative AI tool, with one in ten of those respondents using it at least once a day.
“It took five years for voice-assisted speakers to achieve the same adoption levels. It is incredibly rare for any emerging technology to achieve these levels of adoption and frequency of usage so rapidly,” said Paul Lee, a Deloitte partner.
TikTok the go-to place for financial advice
TikTok is becoming the preferred destination for Gen Z when it comes to financial advice with over a quarter turning to the social media platform for insight into finance topics; UK-based insurer Shepherds Friendly has found.
Of those aged 18 to 24, 25.81 per cent preferred to go to TikTok for financial advice while their bank (24.42 per cent), parents (23.5 per cent), Google (21.66 per cent) and YouTube (21.20 per cent)
Derence Lee, chief finance officer at Shepherds Friendly, said: “As the majority of the people surveyed lacked confidence in their stocks and shares ISAs knowledge, this indicates individuals potentially aren’t using the most suitable savings vehicle for their needs.”
Moss joins forces with GoCardless
Corporate card and spend management solution Moss has selected GoCardless, the bank payment company, as its direct debit provider in the UK to support its international expansion.
By integrating GoCardless direct debit into the process, Moss will help customers fully automate the management of their corporate cards, from paying expenses to repaying balances to accounting.
Ante Spittler, CEO at Moss, said: “At Moss, our mission is to automate spend management to make month end as seamless as possible for modern finance teams. That’s why we’re excited to offer GoCardless for repayments. It removes one more point of friction for our customer, and helps fulfil our ethos of using automation to help SMBs save time and money.”
