FinTech focus group meets to discuss security and trust in digital payments

The FinTech Research & Innovation Event Series provides a platform for discussion that will continue to support an industry-led approach to research, innovation and impact across the four main pillars of the roadmap; financial regulation, payments and transactions, climate finance and open financial data.

By embracing the growth potential of the financial services industry, the R&I Roadmap lays the foundation for doing more across the sector. The overall objectives are to create over 20,000 new FinTech-related jobs and an increase in economic value (GVA) from £598 million to more than £2 billion over the next 10 years.

The event series, developed by FinTech-Tables with support from Fintech Scotland and global law firm Pinsent Masons, is attracting attention and has received further input from a range of organisations, including Occamsec, Autorek, Haelo, University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow.

This week’s session will see a focus on payments and transactions as a group of industry leaders from banking, FinTech, security and resilience meet to consider “building security and trust in digital payments”.

Payments is the leading area of ​​innovation for FinTech businesses in Scotland with 37 per cent of businesses represented in this area. Technological advances have led to progressive changes in payment processes, using innovations such as open banking and embedded payments that make it faster and more convenient to pay and transfer money both locally and globally.

In 2018, up to 39 billion payments were made in the UK totaling more than £83 trillion. Since then, the pandemic has accelerated the use of digital payments and we have seen an increase in the volume of digital and card payments by over 50 percent.

As digital payments increase, so will the threat of online fraud, digital crime and cyber-attacks on financial institutions. UK Finance’s 2020 report ‘Our Fraud – the Facts’ highlighted that criminals successfully stole over £1.2 billion through fraud and scams in 2019.

This week’s event, a roundtable discussion hosted by Pinsent Masons, will see a wide range of guests come together to give their views on the topic, including representatives from Lloyds Banking Group, Eeden Bull, BR-DGE, Transfer Mate, Occamsec, Police Scotland, Scottish Business Resilience Center and Payment Systems Regulator.

The group will consider the exciting opportunities digital payments bring along with the strategies that financial services organizations need to implement to build and maintain security and trust in these innovative solutions.

Ian Davey, Director of FinTech-Tables, said: “Now more than ever, digital security is a top priority for financial services and FinTech companies. As the use of digital payments increases, it is important that organizations consider all the components required to to ensure security and build customer trust in their services. This event will bring together leaders to voice their opinions and consider collaborative approaches that can be used to support the safe and secure growth of exciting payment innovations.”

Mark Stamford, CEO of Occamsec, added: “As threats to the financial sector continue to evolve, and as the proliferation of fintech products continues, understanding how best to secure these systems is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, resources are limited, so “best” must be in relation to the organization and best help it achieve its goals.”