Scotland has long been recognised as a country that punches above its weight when it comes to the number of innovators and pioneers that have blessed our shores. The development of new products, solutions and services forms an integral part of our national identity and is actively encouraged and supported. 

This spirit is alive and kicking across the Financial Services sector, where we are currently experiencing a 'golden-age' as we witness the development of a new generation of Financial Technology (FinTech) companies and specialists. These companies are being spurred on by a renewed optimism post-2008, rapid technological advancement and a growing number of FS gurus who are keen to 'disrupt' an arguably outdated and non-user friendly financial services industry. 

At Deloitte, we are proud to be at the forefront of this evolution, supporting new initiatives and working with the local community to nurture and support new talent and innovation.  Last weekend we sponsored Edinburgh's latest FinTech 'Hackathon' hosted by The Infinite Kind. This event brought together a brilliant mix of individuals with a common interest and purpose - to 'hack' large datasets (anonymised of course) and create new apps and products that might one day evolve to become the next Uber or Airbnb of the Banking world.

Deloitte co-sponsored the 'Best Insights App' category alongside miiCard, the online identification verification service. The category challenged teams to create an app that would disrupt traditional banking, drive new views on existing data, or create new applications and solutions. Over the weekend 4 teams were formed and worked into the early hours of Saturday and Sunday morning to devise some truly inspirational ideas. These included an integrated app that allows a user to 'save as you spend' across Amazon and Ebay transactions (think an e-comm version of saving stamps) and an app that allows users to tap their phone on a POS terminal to receive an electronic itemised receipt.

Come Sunday night when James Varga, CEO of miiCard, and I judged the teams, it was very hard to choose a winner.  After a lot of deliberation, Team Willow Vixen were announced the overall winner. Their app combined insights from a user's transaction history and melded it with Facebook network intelligence to revolutionise how we track and manage our finances. This proposal even challenges the traditional concept of credit scoring – an area that has huge potential.

Overall, the weekend was hugely inspiring, and the first of many hackathons we hope to lead and support over the coming months.  So, in addition to working with the teams on some great innovative ideas, let me tell you what else I learned.

  1. The power of an alternative perspective – We spend so much time thinking about solutions to address client challenges. The hackathon focussed on creating solutions for customers, something that has to be at the heart of banking disruption.
  2. Age is nothing but a number – Some of the participants, including two from the winning team, were only 16 years old and still at school! Their ideas were among some of the brightest in the room. It never fails to amaze me how switched on the youth of today are and the creativity they can bring to the table.
  3. What can be achieved with passion and collaboration – To go from an idea, to forming a team, and ultimately creating a working prototype in 48hrs reminded of what small groups of passionate people can achieve when encouraged and supported to work in an 'agile' mode.
  4. Collaboration creates momentum – As a result of the weekend, the group has connected and are fully engaged in talking about how we develop the prototypes. We've all committed to working on how we bring the concepts to life...it's a powerful alumni!
  5. It can be a family affair...and it's a whole bunch of fun! – We had a fantastic weekend. The teams worked hard and shared ideas openly over beer and pizza. There were so many opportunities to have fun together, even my 4 year old son, Elliot, was on hand on Saturday afternoon to keep us entertained – although perhaps a little too young yet to start coding!

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