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INSIDE Leo McAdams explains the goals and progress of the FPAI P5

INFOGRAPHIC From the Payments

Innovation Jury Report 2015

FinTech Simon Harris outlines Ireland’s International Financial Services Strategy, IFS2020 P2

PHOTO: MINISTRY OF FINANCE

Bank of Ireland WorkBench Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

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IN THIS ISSUE

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Colm Lyon sets out the goals and strategy of the FinTech and Payments Association of Ireland (FPAI) P5

Mark Mitchell Director of Gradireland, on the FinTech job market, and how to get ahead in your FinTech career P10

Shane Kelly Of the London Irish Business Society on the importance of building a collaborative environment in FinTech

Ireland’s Fintech Advantage Delivering on actions to advance the our Fintech ecosystem is a priority for the Ireland’s International Financial Services’ Strategy, IFS2020

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ur economic recovery is strengthening and we must keep it going. Thus the Government’s focus has sharpened to identify sustainable avenues to a prosperous future.

Fintech is one such avenue.

The context for this optimism is twofold, one rooted in a major cause of the financial crisis, the other in a driver of our rapid recovery, namely credit supply and the resilience of our successful Foreign Direct Investment sector.

As to the former, an over-reliance on traditional forms of credit was a root cause of the asset price inflation that led to the property crash.

On the other hand, the strength of our FDI sector, with 175,000 Follow us

people directly employed in IDAsupported companies, enabled us to weather the worst of the crisis and, as reflected in growth and employment figures, has accelerated the speed of recovery.

More so the make-up of this sector – with the 10 largest online companies, 9 of the top 10 global software and 15 of the top 25 financial services companies operating out of Ireland - provides ideal conditions to foster a standout StartUp and SMEs culture at the crossroads of ICT and IFS. This critical mass of corporate expertise coupled with our Eurozone membership and the advance of the EU Capital Markets’ Union, with the aim of diversifying credit supply to the real economy beyond

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Simon Harris Minister for State at the Department of Finance

“Our financial services sector has seen phenomenal growth since the 1980s” @MediaplanetUK

the traditional banking sector, provides real impetus for the entry of new credit providers, new forms of capital raising, and greater consumer choice in response to changing customer demands.

Ireland’s mix of large and small, of foreign and indigenous companies underpin the general approach of the Government’s recently launched long-term job creation Strategy, Enterprise 2025, which will see Ireland evolve into an enterprise and export-focussed economy capable of sustaining a revived domestic sector.

This is already the case in our financial services sector which has seen phenomenal growth since the late 1980s where a handful of companies located in the Dublin

docklands now number more than 400 spanning the length and breadth of the country.

It is in this vein that IFS2020 was developed and is being implemented. Given our recognised global lead in Innovation and ‘availability of skilled labour’ indices it was inevitable that Fintech would be a strategic priority.

Under this rubric progress is being made to identify and align the components of a responsive Fintech ecosystem, be they harnessing and attracting talent, kick-starting Start-Ups and scaling SMEs, and continuing to raise awareness as to why Ireland is the best place to locate and carry out cutting edge R&D. IFS2020 will continue to build on Ireland’s Fintech Advantage.

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Bank of Ireland provides support to startups of all shapes and sizes ©PHOTOS : BANK OF IRELAND

Bank of Ireland’s approach to innovation As the largest lender to the Irish economy, Bank of Ireland is supporting companies in all corners of Ireland, and in all sectors. But we’re also focused on the companies of the future, and how we can support entrepreneurs and startups to succeed, and grow

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e do this in a range of ways – from providing free work spaces, to running intensive programmes for tech entrepreneurs, and to ensuring that our teams completely understand the needs of this sector.

Many of the entrepreneurs and startups that we work with are focused on the way in which new technology has the power to change how we live, work and consume products. Digital is changing business on a daily basis, and at a faster pace than ever before. At Bank of Ireland we see this at first hand, with customers increasingly choosing to bank 24/7 online and via our apps – for example, in 2014 only 4 per cent of transactions took place over the counter. All businesses and consumers are seeing this change, and it is therefore vital to innovate new ways to meet customer needs, and to explore creative ways to deliver exciting and relevant products to our customers, in this rapidly changing environment.

At the heart of our innovation strategy is engagement with the startup community in Ireland. From this vibrant and creative community great products and services are being built and we know our customers want to use them in their daily lives. Ireland has provided some of the most innovative and successful FinTech companies and it is within this community that

David Tighe Head of Innovation, Bank of Ireland

Mainguard Street (Galway), the Bank of Ireland Workbenches offer state of the art facilities including; a 60-seater auditorium (Dublin), hot desks, interactive screens, complementary wifi, coffee and unlimited access for Irish and international startups looking to create their businesses. Since becoming operational they are fast becoming a base-of-choice for numerous startups, benefitting from access to branch facilities for meetings, events, presentations and as an antidote to the office. And the figures speak volumes, in just over ten months the Workbenches have welcomed over 10,000 startups and ecosystem citizens and hosted 200 plus events.

StartLab

partnerships and alliances are formed that will ensure the growth of financial services across the island of Ireland.

The Bank of Ireland innovation team, consisting of seven people, is led by Dave Tighe, Head of Innovation. This team leads Bank of Ireland’s engagement with the startup community throughout Ireland, and farther afield. Bank of Ireland aims to provide support to startups of all shapes and sizes, enabling them to experiment, prosper and succeed. This support includes the following: Workbenches

Launched at 1 Grand Canal Square (Dublin) earlier this year, followed by

Complementing the Workbenches is their latest initiative, StartLab. Powered

by Bank of Ireland, StartLab is a unique program designed to incubate high potential tech startups to scale rapidly.

From its base at 19 Eyre Square, Galway, StartLab will offer entrepreneurs a six month intensive programme including access to seed fund venture capital investors, mentors, with hands-on support from the Bank of Ireland Innovation team including David Tighe (Head of Innovation), Gene Murphy (Entrepreneur in Residence), Tracy Keogh (Startup Community Manager, Galway) along with access to product teams and tech sector specialists. The participants in each six-month

programme will be selected from early stage tech startups through a competitive process in a range of sectors including FinTech, Agritech, ICT and other fast paced industry segments.

Events and Supports

Continuing its support of the startup sector and the nurturing of tech talent, the Bank co-creates, hosts and sponsors a multiplicity of events including the global phenomenon that is the Startup Weekends (recently held in Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Galway), Startup Grind, Accenture FinTech Lab, Startup Gathering, Female High Fliers and Datakind data dives, along with youth focused supports such as the Walton Club (based in Trinity College), Student Startup Weekend, Student Slingshot and social enterprise 100minds.

The future for FinTech in Ireland is bright and Bank of Ireland encourage any business owner, startup or entrepreneur seeking support, to call into one of their branches or Workbenches, where staff members are on hand to support ideas and help their businesses thrive.

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INSPIRATION

Gary Leyden VP of Venture Acceleration, NDRC

How to build an Irish FinTech startup ecosystem

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DRC is an early stage investor in technology companies, having invested in over 170 companies in the last six years. As part of our own strategic review of opportunities in Ireland, we saw one particular clear gap. We saw two strong enterprise ecosystems operating in parallel, with little connection between them. It was time for our financial services industry to connect with our technology startup ecosystem.

Ireland has built a hugely successful international financial services industry, most notably visible through the Irish Financial Service Centre in Dublin. The IFSC was established in 1987 and has over 500 companies trading out of it, employing over 35,000 people and contributes approximately €2.1bn to the Irish Exchequer. Within these few square miles, we believed that those companies represented a clear opportunity for technology startups – as either customers or investors. And the prospective customer was initially the most interesting prospect to us. If the financial services companies could articulate problems that they faced, our indigenous technology companies could build solutions for them.

Out of this assumption, NDRC FinTech was born – a preaccelerator that sought scalable ideas from the financial services industry, and matched them with talented teams of engineers, designers and commercial experts. A collaborative industry approach in partnership with EY, Bank of Ireland, Mediolanum and State Street, resulted in an open call which produced over 50 ideas. This was whittled down to ten who went through a part time programme to assess their commerciality and assist in building teams. Of those ten teams, NDRC went on to invest in five. These

companies tackled problems ranging from pensions, to trading, fund management, blockchain, and identity authentication.

To build a FinTech ecosystem in Ireland, we need to understand what ‘unfair advantage’ we have in relation to other international FinTech ecosystems. What is unique in Ireland that allows us to validate and scale particular opportunities from here? Proximity to large international companies who are facing specific challenges or a density of companies from a particular industry are factors that can give us an unfair advantage.

Industries like fund management, insurance and aircraft leasing spring to mind where we have a disproportionate number of industry players located in Ireland.

Bringing fresh ideas on technology and business models from our vibrant start up ecosystem to the more traditional financial services establishment is an idea we can’t resist. NDRC Fintech, run on an annual basis, is now a platform for this cross industry engagement, and is an important part of our venture recruiting strategy.

FPAI leading the way The FinTech and Payments Association of Ireland (FPAI) was set up in September 2015 to bring together all the strands of the industry in Ireland. Colm Lyon, FPAI Chairman and founding member, discusses the goals of the organisation and how it can strengthen the thriving Irish FinTech sector The FPAI is a unifying group that represents the FinTech and payments industry in Ireland,” Lyon explains. The main driver behind setting up the association is to ensure the industry has a common voice when speaking to the government, regulators and other members of the industry.”

Developing the ecosystem of Ireland’s FinTech industry is at the top of the FPAI’s list of priorities. Lyon specifies three important reasons why the industry will thrive in the coming years.

“There are three reasons why the scale of opportunity in the industry is absolutely immense.

These are the technologies being designed for the sector, the changes in industry regulations and the availability of a workforce that possesses expertise and experience in developing businesses.”

Changing industry

One regulation which will change how banking is conducted in Ireland is the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). The directive, which is currently making its way through the EU Commissions, aims to alter the payments industry across Europe by standardising card, internet and mobile payments, as well as reducing barriers to entry. “PSD2 will see ban-

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king rules being rewritten in the next five to 10 years. The idea that you use just one institution for all of your banking needs will be made redundant,” says Lyon.

“This significant change in the banking structure means that there will be a raft of new companies set up to deliver integrated services which banks cannot provide. The delivery of banking services will be completely different to what it is today.”

Importance of regulation

While some feel industry regulations are a barrier to entry, Lyon sees regulatory standards as a necessary component of Ireland’s

FinTech industry.“Companies need to know the standards and conform to them. Adhering to regulations makes it clear that there is an inherent knowledge of the sector, its clients and consumers.

“Consumers must be able to trust these new payment solutions and their providers.”

International mindset

Ireland’s experience in financial services, coupled with an ability to operate in other countries, means the country has an impressive FinTech talent pool.

“Ireland has many companies that have great experience in financial services. Irish businesses

Colm Lyon FPAI chairman and founding member, CEO and founder of Fire Financial Services

also move overseas early which brings an excellent understanding of the international market.

“Our workforce is locally based but internationally thinking. This international focus gives the Irish industry a big advantage.”

Lyon considers the informal attitude of the industry’s big players towards emerging businesses as a big plus for the sector.

“Our ecosystem’s excellence is down to its relatively small size.

Getting access to the people you need to talk to is made easier.

The International Financial Services (IFS) 2020 strategy, which sets out a new vision for Ireland’s IFS sector, is something which

Lyon believes will hugely aid the FinTech industry.

“The IFS2020 strategy sends companies in the right strategic direction, and this is important to the economy in terms of opportunities to scale businesses and create employment.

“It’s great that the channels between the industry and the government are open for dialogue. The pivotal thing is that everyone is committed to the same vision of growing the industry in a fashion that benefits both businesses and consumers.”

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INSPIRATION

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Paul Rodgers Chairman, Vendorcom

Putting payments in context

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elcoming the setup of The FinTech and Payments Association of Ireland, Paul Rodgers, Chairman of Vendorcom, the European movement promoting payments innovation, and Mentor at the Level 39 FinTech Accelerator in London, asks the question, “What should be learnt from the collision between the payments industry and the FinTech world?“

The great debate!

I‘ve just come from a roundtable breakfast meeting on the convergence of payments and FinTech which took the form of a debate centred on the question: “Is Payments FinTech? This is an important and timely debate because we are at a crucial junction on the route map of the future payment sector where the choices made and the route(s) taken will determine how citizens and consumers transact for many years to come. The simple reality is the payments is not FinTech and FinTech is not payments - but there are significant and important areas of overlap where is the protagonists from each area have much to learn from each other.

Payments: The quoin of FinTech I might be biased, but ‘payments’ - the ability to transact - whether as businesses, merchants, governments, or citizen-consumers, gives FinTech its rationale. FinTech, whilst sexy, current and progressive, much to the envy of the historically dull and boring payments sector, in and of itself, lacks intrinsic value.

Until, that is, it is applied to something useful and market relevant when it has the power to transform everything in its path. Payments, perhaps because it has held on to so many if its historic roots, makes it an ideal outlet for FinTech to display its transformative power.

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A priority sector Enterprise Ireland (EI) has a dedicated FinTech team in Dublin, which manages over 220 indigenous Financial Services clients with internationally focused business strategies. Leo McAdams, Divisional Manager of ICT & International Services at EI explains the growing importance of the FinTech sector

By Eric Davidson

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he Enterprise Ireland team co-ordinates a large and increasing number of FinTech international initiatives with representatives from its International Network, with a focus on both established markets such as North America and the UK, and emerging markets such as China and Latin America.“ Our core focus for this sector is to increase the number of start-ups in the FinTech space, to assist these companies to scale through the provision of services such as equity funding, access to international markets and mentors, which will ultimately result in a return to the state in terms of an increase in jobs and exports”.

“The 220 companies in the FinTech Portfolio represent a wide range of sub-sectors including payments, Financial Software, Insurance, Business Process Outsourcing, peer to peer lending and supply chain finance,” explains Leo McAdams, who is in charge of ICT & International Services at EI in Dublin. “The portfolio also represents companies at different stages of growth, with a growing number of early stage start-ups such as Corelytics, AQ Metrics and Invoicefair balanced by a large number of large scaling companies, including Fexco, Taxback, Fineos, CR2 and lately companies such as Fenergo, which has just raised $75m in expansion capital.

“The portfolio employs over 8,000

people, of which 40 per cent are located outside of Dublin.”

In terms of start-ups, McAdams says that there has been a significant increase in the number of FinTech investments approved by EI over the last 12-24 months.

“The focus areas are also wide ranged, a number are focusing on offering technology to the funds industry, some are aiming at the compliance and risk market. Others are offering ”funding” solutions by way of supply chain finance and peer to peer.”

McAdams says that the entrepreneurs have typically originated from traditional Financial Services sectors, with a large number having either a banking background or coming from

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long established FinTech companies.

“Because they know the industry, the service or product is usually focused on solving problems for Financial Services companies and offering a ”have to have” rather than a ”nice to have”. Having Financial Services experience is definitely an advantage, as it gives the startup immediate credibility, industry contacts and knowledge of the “pain points” and buying cycles.”

A key ecosystem

The FinTech ecosystem is hugely important in terms of supporting startups and entrepreneurship.

“Funding is the life blood of all startups,” McAdams continues. “Enterprise Ireland is providing equity funding

at both the early CSF €50k stage and the HPSU stage. The recent Seed and Venture Capital €65m scheme includes a focus on priority sectors including FinTech. Also, EI in parternership with HBAN, held the first FinTech angel event in June of this year and attracted a large number of FinTech investors. Two of the six companies that presented secured equity funding from the event.”

McAdams affirms that the banks have stepped up their engagement with FinTech companies on a number of levels. “Both AIB and BOI have traditionally supported a number of seed funds which have invested in FinTech companies. They are now providing incubation and

co-working space and are also end users as they buy solutions for internal use. Over the last 18 months, three accelerators launched programmes in Dublin, the NDRC preaccelerator, the MasterCard and Accenture Innovation Labs programme, all aimed at assisting start-ups validate their product offering and engage with financial institutions.”

A strategy for the future Leo McAdams Head of ICT & International Services, EI

Leo McAdams admits that the governments IFS2020 strategy is hugely supportive of the industry, both MNCs and start-up and scaling indigenous companies.

“It aims at delivering an increase in jobs by focusing on policies and

actions that will drive growth, including internationalisation, branding, Funding, Skills, R&I and infrastructure.”

Finally, McAdams says a number of international jurisdictions are putting themselves forward as Fintech locations of excellence, in direct competition with Ireland.

“A large number of these jurisdictions are planning to develop policies that will create a FinTech industry in the future - very few of them can match what Ireland can boast of today in terms of the number of tier one Financial Services MNCs, a vibrant start up and scaling scene, and significant government and industry support for the sector.”

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NEWS

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Paul Rodgers Chairman, Vendorcom

Payments is not always about technology

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espite what might be an obvious synergy between payments and FinTech, an important lesson to learn from the all too frequent lack of adoption of new payment technologies is that unless they have practical application and real value to the people that will use them, they are simply not going to find the levels of market penetration to make them viable. Having said that, it may not be down to impractical FinTech that leads to low levels of market adoption but more that the inertia in payments world caused by capital costs, legacy systems, consumer familiarity conspire to slow the progress on novel, generally more technologically based approaches. In such cases, as with the near 20 year adoption timescale for Chip & PIN, there’s no substitute for a little bit of patience. How comfortable the FinTech world is with that concept remains to be seen!

Timescales There is an expectation in the FinTech world, by both investors and innovators, that speed to market will be rapid. While this is often the case when entirely novel technologies are offered to consumers, when technologies are introduced to replace existing legacy processes, particularly where these impact every day consumer behaviour and experience, innovators have a mountain to climb in persuading the market that a new solution is worth adopting. This has never been truer than in the field of payments and payment systems where, for the vast majority of both merchants and consumers, the existing mechanisms are so embedded and largely deliver against expectations that purely throwing a ‘tech’ solution at existing problems is not sufficiently persuasive.

A positive future There’s much more to be seen as to how FinTech transforms payments and overcomes the legacy mentality of both solutions providers and users of payment systems. One thing is certain: in the next few years it will be essential to have organisations like The FinTech and Payments Association of Ireland and its international counterparts showing the way and promoting a healthy, well informed debate.

SOURCE: GRCTC

Researchers have developed a standards-based methodology for understanding and complying with regulation

Why data regulation can be like a Greek tragedy Financial institutions can feel there is no end to new governance, risk and compliance (GRC) rules, but things run smoother if they manage their data effectively, says business information evangelist Tom Butler

By Steve Hemsley

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n Greek mythology Sisyphus, the King of Ephyra, was punished for his deceitfulness by the God Zeus and condemned to roll an enchanted boulder up a hill.

Zeus ensured it rolled back down again, condemning Sisyphus to an eternity of futile, repetitive activity.

The financial industry feels just as condemned, given the volume and complexity of regulations drafted since 2008.

Having reached the top of the hill and performed regulatory change management with rules such as MiFID, for example; MiFID2 comes along and the process begins again.

In dealing with regulations, organisations generally apply fixed models for decision-making and problem solving and rarely go beyond this behaviour.

They fail to question the assumptions underpinning their strategies or decision-making routines. Hence they fail to build or evolve their technical knowledge and skills.

Financial institutions are mtravelling down informatics cul-de-sacs because their traditional data management tools and techniques are limited.

They must learn to navigate the labyrinths surrounding their structured and unstructured data.

Organisations must transcend the restrictions of their siloed SQL data

stores and repositories of unstructured data by using No-SQL approaches. This way they can process and unlock data in reports, text fields and documents for in-depth analysis.

One answer is to build an organisational knowledge base to an industry standard. Semantic technologies are emerging as part of a paradigm shift in the IT industry with the emergence of NoSQL (Not only SQL) solutions. These have made it easier to manage, mine and process structured and unstructured data.

Semantic models and related technologies enable data to be analysed and integrated so information can be extracted and knowledge gained.

Researchers at the GRC Technology Centre have developed a standards-based methodology for understanding and complying with regulation. The model, called Ganesha, is a Regulatory Compliance Information System and Knowledge Base.

Currently there are no solutions available for legal and financial experts to capture, store and transfer orshare knowledge of regulatory compliance rules.

Ganesha provides these capabilities in an easy-to-understand regulatory natural language. Navigation is via hypertext links and users will soon be able to draft governance policies.

“Dublin can become a RegTech centre of excellence”

Tom Butler Professor in Business Information Systems at University College Cork and GRC Technology Centre Principal Investigator

Data Processes The other solution to managing regulatory change and overcoming the digital labyrinth is to ensure structured and unstructured data processes perform as they should. Data must be clean and accurate so trends and problems can be identified and answers extracted.

One approach is Data Virtualisation which provides access to data directly from one or more disparate data sources, without physically moving the data.

There is broad agreement across industry sectors that semantic metadata is required to make data virtualisation and other No SQL approaches work effectively.

All this provides an opportunity for Irish FinTech companies, particularly in light of the BCBS 239 Principles for effective Risk Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting instituted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

Dublin can become a RegTech centre of excellence especially if a Regulatory Clearing House is established as part of the IFS 2020 Strategy outlined by the Irish government. This would act as a standards-based, industry-wide platform enabling semantically-enriched regulations (unstructured data) to be presented as structured data.

Those in the financial industry ecosystem just need the will to make this a reality.

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FinTech challenges and opportunities Furio Pietribiasi, Managing Director of Mediolanum Asset Management, sees the FinTech Ecosystem being populated by financial services and technology companies and being divided in four quadrants. He talks about the opportunities available for the different type of companies, while also discussing the biggest challenges facing the ecosystem in Ireland

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According to Pietribiasi, the growth of the European FinTech industry has been accelerated by the financial crisis.

“Companies figured out that their survival was dependent on becoming smart businesses, reducing cost and increasing their engagement with customers. By being more efficient and effective by leveraging on new technologies, they realised that they had to do it quickly because of the increasing competition,” he says.

He also states that while many people see FinTech as being associated with start-ups and mainly in the payment industry, this is not necessarily the case.

“FinTech is how to apply technology to financial services across the value chain of a business, on the B2B and B2C sides.

There are four quadrants in the Ecosystem of the Fintech vertical, characterised on one side, by type of players involved such as medium large established organisations versus the start-ups, and on the other, depending if such companies are regulated or unregulated.

“The resources, skills and finances held by bigger organisations make it easier for them to explore innovation and bring mainstream certain solutions, an example is R3 Blockchain consortium, which as at today comprises of more than 22 of the largest banks in the world. This will enable incredible advancements in the implementation of technology that otherwise would not have been possible if it remained in the hands of start-ups. However, it is still difficult to innovate in the regulated space.

Regulators deal in worst-case scenarios, and may not want to be the first to give authorisation to a revolutionary idea.”

Furio Pietribiasi Managing Director, Mediolanum Asset Management

In the short term, Pietribiasi sees more strength for projects which do not require regulatory approvals and are well backed up in terms of resources by established organisation operating in financial services or technology in Ireland.

“Large businesses working together to develop FinTech tend to be more successful. This area has the most opportunities, as well as the strongest track record. Ireland is one of the leaders in this quadrant even when compared with a direct competitor location such as Luxembourg.

“In terms of the regulated space, companies face more challenges. However, there are companies like Mastercard and Fidelity operating in this sector in Ireland.”

In Ireland as much as in many other countries in Europe, entrepreneurs and start-up companies encounter many more difficulties in the FinTech industry, particularly when looking to obtain regulatory approval.

“Start-ups are generally not heavily capitalised businesses and often run by young teams. Therefore, succeeding in obtaining regulatory approvals is extremely difficult.

They can flourish, however, if they can get support from larger organisations and find an ecosystem that helps them.”

“The big players are often uninterested in engaging with entrepreneurs, but the more this happens the higher growth the industry will see.”

Mediolanum have ongoing engagement with projects and companies fitting in the different quadrants to varying degrees.

“Mediolanum is directly operating in the first quadrant. For example, we are currently working on predictive analytics leveraging on artificial intelligence utilising cognitive computing technology in partnership with IBM. We have also been working with Salesforce to develop our knowledge management and crowdsourced co-creation platform through re-engineering their CRM technology.

“We collaborate with start-ups too. Not necessarily investing, but looking to see how we can leverage on the service they provide. We can become clients if relevant to our business, or we can help with their growth plans through leveraging our network if we think they could add value to the Irish Ecosystem.”

In Pietribiasi’s opinion, cyber security is one of the biggest challenges facing all companies.

“One of the Gartner predictions presented recently at their Barcelona Symposium is that everyone will be hacked – we don’t know how or when, just that it will happen. Cyber security is not simply an element of technology; it’s an element of

culture. It’s about people developing their own awareness and ensuring that every organisation has the right culture in order to protect from these risks.”

“Mediolanum has a strong focus on cyber security. We are working with some of our partners to ensure that we are fully prepared. For example, we are developing our stand-alone cloud platform with Option IT which has tier 3 class security, just below military level. We are also talking with start-ups such as HackerOne, who provides a place where companies and the hacker community can work together to address shortfalls within a company’s security best practice before they can be exploited”.

As part of Mediolanum’s effort around maximising the value that can be derived from Data, it has been critical to identify new sources of information in order to fuel their R&D around predictive analytics.

“We began looking at other sources of data and how we could leverage on the web. We realised the need to identify additional and complementary information to the existing traditional data sets that most asset managers use. In this journey we came across Eagle Alpha, another Irish based innovative start-up pioneering such space.”

Mediolanum, is an example of a traditional Financial Services company that has naturally moved into the Fintech space, where Technology has become ingrained in the day to day business and the culture of the organisation.

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INSPIRATION

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John Rice Head of Payments Strategy, Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI)

FinTech: as much about collaboration as disruption

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aken in the broadest sense, FinTech - using software to provide financial services - has been with us a long time as banks and other financial services businesses have been early adopters of new technologies for many years. However in more recent times FinTech has evolved into a rapidly growing industry of start-ups founded with the purpose of disrupting incumbent financial systems and corporations that rely less on software.

Some commentators truly believe that FinTech companies can be major disruptors in financial services; with technology companies attempting to provide financial services directly to consumers and some financial services company CEO’s viewing their businesses primarily as technology companies which hold banking licenses.

So what are the major issues and opportunities? There is no doubt that we will see increased collaboration between traditional financial services companies and innovative technology companies; also as between financial services companies themselves in the non-competitive space as they seek to address their legacy system challenges and the associated costs of delivery. Current and emerging FinTech companies will have a major role to play in understanding the problems faced by incumbents and delivering industry solutions in this regard. So we may see a collaborative rather than a disruptive agenda between FinTech companies and financial services organisations in at least some aspect of the value chain.

In the competitive space the future model is a lot less clear but one thing for certain is that we are seeing an explosion in innovation in all aspects of financial services from payments, asset management, credit supply and beyond. This innovation is coming in the main from new startups as they attempt to disrupt the incumbent providers and attract new customers. The main question is how successful will they be and can they compete with the incumbents who currently have the customer base and the regulatory infrastructure to deliver products and services. It is probable that we will see a number of models emerging. In certain cases the proposition will be so compelling that FinTech start-ups will gain traction and potentially thrive as standalone companies - technology companies becoming financial services companies as it were with all the necessary infrastructure that this entails. In other cases incumbent financial services will leverage their strengths and collaborate with FinTech companies and remain relevant for their customer base.

We look forward with anticipation to the FinTech journey and all that it offers.

Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) is the voice of banking and payments in Ireland. BPFI represents over 70 member institutions and associates, including licensed domestic and foreign banks and institutions operating in the financial marketplace here.

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Tech skills and an aptitude for using tech to solve problems are attractive qualities for FinTech employers

Careers in FinTech With the rapid expansion of the FinTech sector, career opportunities for graduates looking to work in the sector continue to diversify as career openings develop in areas such as online payments, fraud detection, global financial services support, biometrics and evolving online payments systems.

Just some of the positions which FinTech employers are currently recruiting for include software developers and engineers, data analysts, security specialists and quality analysts.

What you need to know

You don’t need to be a financial expert to work in the Fintech sector; technology skills and an aptitude for using technology to solve problems are essentially what many financial organisations are seeking people for. Software developers, technical architects, designers and programmers are required to construct environments to host large volumes of data. Data quality analysts, information security specialists and investment data analysts are then required to manage, interpret, advise and act on the intelligence gained from this data. Knowledge of common industry operating languages like Java or Python is increasingly expected by employers.

Communicating with others

Mark Mitchell Director, Gradireland

Most financial employers will expect some knowledge of the environments in which they work, for example, knowing the difference between financial trading and portfolio management. However, if you have the aptitude and tech technology skills, most employers run robust training programmes to fill in the knowledge gaps. To give yourself an edge in an interview situation though, you must have a good understanding of the area in which you wish to work, an awareness of the technology used by your potential employer and why it is relevant to the sector. FinTech is fast paced and varied, but you’ll need to be able to work effectively and often under pressure, often managing large amounts of data on the technology end and making sound decisions on the financial side to reduce risk.

You will need to be able to communicate your knowledge and information to others in the business, whether they are technologists, traders, brokers, support specialists or managers. On the other side of the FinTech interface is a client, who is the most important element to any employer. It’s vital, particularly if you’re working in an advisory or a support role, that you can communicate often complex information clearly and concisely to both colleagues and customer.

Getting the skills you need

If you’re studying finance, you’ll need to add to your technology skills, join a society or organisation which can help build these skills. There are great online tutorials for learning the basics of industry-specific operating languages like Java. If you’re studying IT, join a business society or group in a role which can boost your commercial skills. It’s all about displaying adaptability and employability to any employer. Also, try and secure an internship to give yourself some on the ground experience. Work experience in the sector is greatly valued by employers.

Visit gradireland.com for more careers advice and job descriptions for roles in FinTech.

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MEDIAPLANET 11

COMMERCIAL FEATURE

Crowd lending to great Irish butchers, bakers and candlestick makers Market leader Linked Finance has already helped hundreds of great Irish SMEs to access more than €13m in loans

I

reland is really embracing crowd lending. This exciting sector continues to grow at an impressive pace. Linked Finance is a fine example of this type of lending and offers established small businesses a new viable alternative to borrowing from the banks.

Using technology to cut out the middle man

Currently, the company has more than 10,000 members of the Irish public registered on its website, ready to lend small amounts to great Irish businesses at very attractive interest rates.

The banks get bypassed, the wheels keep turning and everyone wins! Crowd lending, or P2P lending as it is sometimes known, is simple. With Linked Finance, members of the public can lend directly to SMEs looking for funding. Irish businesses can borrow anything from €5,000 to €100,000.

Peter O’Mahony CEO, Linked Finance

The borrower then gets the best average rate based on the most competitive offers from lenders. They also get the opportunity to promote their businesses to the thousands of lenders who actively use linkedfinance.com to get a better return on their savings.

Linked Finance has notched up an impressive catalogue of borrowers with hundreds of businesses successfully borrowing since its launch in 2013. The company has a very diverse range of business borrowers across all industries, including a number of well established companies such as Dublin’s favourite chipper Leo Burdock, Killowen Farm from Wexford and 8 Degrees Brewing from Cork, to name but a few.

A better way to borrow for your business

Finance at the ready

This form of finance brings lending back to basics – a lender simply deposits funds and then chooses creditworthy businesses to back. The lender decides how much to lend and at what interest rate.

The popularity of Linked Finance has grown out of a frustration with traditional sources of finance. A growing business can’t wait eight weeks for a decision from their bank. When you spot an opportunity to

grow your business, you need to move fast.

Linked Finance uses to technology to help hard-working Irish business owners access the funds they need quickly and with minimum hassle. At the same time, giving them a great platform to promote their businesses and win new customers as part of the process.

For more information: w: linkedfinance.com e: info@linkedfinance.com t: +353 1 906 0300

BUILD YOUR NETWORK IN LONDON

With over 4,500 members the London Irish Business Society is the largest network for the Irish professional community in London.

Established in 2009, the society is a not-for-profit resource aimed at providing a forum for business professionals with a UK and Irish interest to network and share ideas.

We host a regular series of events and discussions throughout the year, and work with Irish State and industry partners to promote international collaboration.

To learn more or discuss partnership opportunities, register for free at www.li-bs.co.uk or email info@li-bs.co.uk

STEM fair

16

February 2016

Graduate career opportunities in

science

technology

engineering

maths

+– x =

Grad programmes • Networking • Seminars 12–4pm • Industries Hall • RDS, Dublin Free entry at stemfair.gradchances.com

A gradua te career ev ent from