The FinTech Scotland Cluster recorded 8% year-on-year employment growth in 2024 — bringing the total number of people working in fintech to over 11,300.
The continued economic contribution by the cluster comes as Fintech Scotland reaches its seventh anniversary since formation.
The fintech cluster growth has been underpinned by increasing technology adoption and fintech partnerships with established financial firms, highlighted by the tenfold increase in the number of fintech SMEs since 2018 in Scotland.
A significant cluster development in 2024 was Fintech Scotland’s successful implementation of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL).
This has been achieved by bringing together 25 financial and technology institutions from across the UK to address over 20 industry challenges.
FinTech Scotland CEO Nicola Anderson said: “Our cluster initiatives are delivering a positive economic outcome through more jobs, investment and innovative SME businesses.
“The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab highlights our leadership in using collaboration and technology adoption to deliver this growth and shape the future of financial services.”
Catherine Martin, Vice-Principal Corporate Services at the University of Edinburgh, said: “As a founding partner of Fintech Scotland, we are proud to be an active participant in the cluster and to support its impact by leveraging our world-renowned expertise in data-driven innovation, and interdisciplinary research to address real-world challenges in finance.”
Jane Martin, Managing Director of Innovation and Investment at Scottish Enterprise, said: “The remarkable growth of Scotland’s fintech sector reflects the strategic efforts by the whole cluster to develop a thriving innovative environment. Scottish Enterprise has been supporting this journey by providing early-stage investment and facilitating international market access”.
Jackie Leiper, Chief Customer Officer, Lloyds Banking Group, said: “There’s a real buzz around the fintech sector in Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group is thrilled to be a part of that. We’re working hard to drive more digital investment here which will help us to build new skills and capabilities and make the country a global destination for financial services tech talent.”