A recent visit by senior leaders from the Financial Conduct Authority to the University of Nottingham highlighted the growing role of financial services and fintech in the East Midlands economy. The meeting brought together major financial firms, emerging ventures, and regional business groups to assess how university-led innovation could support future sector growth.
John Gathergood, Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Inclusive Financial Technology Hub, said: “Nottingham has a unique heritage in cultivating a financial services community including some of the UK’s largest and best-known brands in consumer finance. This is a great environment for start-up and scale-up firms to grow, including new ventures launched out of our universities. It is an exciting time and place to be, with enormous potential for the future.”
The university’s hub has been developing a model linking academic research to commercial outcomes. Its latest analysis suggests an expanded university-based fintech ecosystem could add more than £9bn to the UK economy. Attendees were shown new ventures created through the programme, including a machine-learning platform designed to detect difficult-to-predict events and an automated readability assistant integrated into word-processing software.
Representatives from Experian, Capital One, KPMG, Nottingham Building Society, and local fintech firms joined the FCA for a roundtable on the region’s financial services outlook. Contributions from the British Business Bank and East Midlands Chamber focused on opportunities to strengthen the sector and increase the region’s overall productivity.
