That’s why a team of four leading universities (Bristol, West of England, Glasgow, and Glasgow Caledonian) has collaborated with SETsquared, FinTech West, and prominent industry partners to deliver a timely new business and innovation support programme for the sector, ‘Future Finance’.

The programme aims to enable the financial services sector to adopt new technologies, strategies, and processes in order to unlock more effective product and service design, increase productivity and profitability, attract and retain new talent and clients, and become more sustainable and inclusive.

Initially rolling out as a pilot in Bristol, Bath, and Glasgow, Future Finance will extend the scheme to other financial services clusters across the UK in late 2024. This will address the productivity gap between London, which is already at the epicentre of global fintech disruption, and level up regional areas in the UK with emerging or established financial services ecosystems.

Amongst many others, industry backing comes from NatWest, Deloitte, Burges Salmon, Hargreaves Lansdown, and FinTech West. Key to delivery, Future Finance has also partnered with organisations focused on increasing access to finance within their communities.

James Berry, CEO at Great Western Credit Union, echoes this, stating, “We have partnered with Future Finance as we believe collaboration across the financial services sector to improve financial outcomes for people is vitally important. With so many families across our region struggling financially and many in financially vulnerable circumstances, it’s more important than ever that businesses of all types that have an interest in this area come together to benefit from the opportunities the partnership will bring and ultimately make sure finance truly works for good, to improve people’s lives.”

Alongside working directly with financial services organisations, Future Finance looks to explore the barriers faced by individuals for whom challenges such as poor credit records, lack of digital capabilities, skills, and awareness of available services present barriers to the effective day-to-day management of their own finances. Working collaboratively with communities, financial services, and technology providers.