Last weekend, the UKFin+ Network delivered its first UKFinnovator at the University of Birmingham. More than 300 students applied, and 130 were selected from across the UK, some travelling significant distances to take part. They worked in multidisciplinary teams on live challenges set by companies. Instead of hypothetical case studies, students worked on genuine business … Read more
Reflecting on an inspiring day in Bristol, 27 November Last week, I joined financial services leaders, innovators, academics, and partners in Bristol for the Future Finance Finale: Innovation in Action & What’s Next. It was a half-day celebration of what the programme has achieved and a bold look at where innovation adoption in financial services … Read more
Earlier this week, I attended Wales Tech Week and participated in three insightful sessions that explored generative AI in finance, digital currencies, and the future of the insurance industry. It’s remarkable to see how Wales is rapidly transforming the financial services sector, and how uniquely positioned it is to lead this next chapter. It continues … Read more
Beyond Passwords – Why Identity Must Evolve to Keep Up With the World Another notable moment at the FTT Fintech Festival 2025 was a session examining what it truly takes to move beyond passwords. It was a lively, honest, and sometimes slightly alarming discussion about the future of authentication, identity signals, biometrics, and security in … Read more
The Chargeback Trap: How Fraudsters Win and Businesses Lose One of the sessions at the FTT Fintech Festival 2025 that left a lasting impression on me was the discussion on chargebacks. The scale of the issue now is enormous, and it’s something I’ve personally lived through. During my time when I was running a retail … Read more
Another brilliant session at the FTT Fintech Festival 2025 focused on a topic that affects almost everything in financial services: digital identity and interoperability. Digital identity used to be a niche or technical topic, now it’s becoming the backbone of onboarding, payments, travel, supply chains, fraud prevention, and even how citizens interact with the state. … Read more
UKFin+ Workshop | 14 October 2025 The UKFin+ Collaborative Workshop on RegTech and Resilience brought together over 40 academics, regulators, and industry professionals to explore how technology and research can play a vital role in addressing the most pressing challenges in financial services. This workshop is built directly on the UKFin+ Spotlight on RegTech, Resilience, … Read more
Article 1 – Social Engineering: The Oldest Trick, Supercharged by New Technology Earlier this week, I was part of FTT Fintech Festival 2025, on behalf of UKFin+ and I left with pages of notes, a head full of questions, and a renewed appreciation of just how complex and fast-moving our sector really is. There was … Read more
Thank you to everyone who joined our UKFin+ Network Collaborative Online Workshop on RegTech and Resilience this week. The session brought together academics and industry professionals for a lively and insightful discussion on some of the most pressing challenges in regulatory technology and financial resilience. The workshop explored emerging themes around AI governance, sustainability, and … Read more
Last week, we hosted a Wicked Lunch as part of our Spotlight on RegTech, Resilience and Compliance series. Building on the insights from our Glasgow roundtable, the session brought together voices from industry and academia to explore some of the toughest challenges facing financial services today. Hosted by UKFin+ Director William Knottenbelt Our panellists: Iago … Read more
The FinTech West Conference in Bristol brought together innovators, regulators, investors, and entrepreneurs to explore how financial technology continues to evolve across the UK’s regions. Throughout the day, the themes of trust, data, and responsible innovation resonated strongly, reflecting both the opportunities and challenges shaping the next chapter of fintech. The event opened with an … Read more
The FinTech North Summit in York brought together innovators, investors, regulators, and academics from across the UK to explore how financial technology continues to evolve and redefine the future of finance. Throughout the day, discussions moved seamlessly between topics of innovation, investment, and inclusion, showing how the northern fintech community continues to strengthen its position … Read more
As part of the Spotlight on RegTech Resilience and Compliance, UKFin+ hosted a roundtable event in Glasgow on 16 July 2025. This event brought together leading voices from industry, academia, and government to address some of the most persistent and complex challenges facing financial services. Setting the Scene: RegTech, Resilience and Compliance The day started … Read more
About UKFin+ UKFin+ is an EPSRC-funded network connecting academic research to technological innovation within the UK financial services industry. Our primary goals are to foster connections, fund collaborations, communicate our findings, and coordinate a national research agenda. Our vision is a financial services market that offers a wide range of competitive, trusted, and socially relevant … Read more
We’d like to extend our thanks to everyone who joined us for Game-Changing Technology in FinTech. It was a fantastic day filled with insightful discussions, innovative ideas, and great company. A special thank you to our speakers and panellists for sharing their expertise, as well as to all who contributed to the engaging conversations. Events like … Read more
Thank you to all our panellists for sharing their insightful opinions during our wicked lunch on Quantum Computing in financial services! The discussion was chaired by UKFin+ Director Jing Chen, a Professor of Financial Mathematics at Cardiff. Thank you to our fantastic panel of experts for sharing their knowledge with us: Ross Grassie (Quantum Software … Read more
Thank you to everyone who attended our first “wicked lunch” on one of the wicked problems facing Financial Services: Stablecoins. We had a brilliant discussion chaired by Professor Daniel Broby, a member of the UKFin+ advisory board and Professor of Financial Technology at Ulster University. Thank you to our fantastic panel of industry and academic … Read more
UKFin+, a Network Plus grant funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is proud to announce the launch of its research agenda designed to tackle complex and long-term challenges in the UK financial services sector. The agenda highlights six key areas of real-life financial services challenges as well as the underpinning enablers … Read more
November 20th was the very first UKFin+ Research Showcase, it was a real treat to hear from so many of our funded projects as well as two inspiring keynote speakers. We hope our participants enjoyed the event as much as we did! Here’s a recap of the day’s events: Morning Highlights: Technology-Enabled Inclusion The day … Read more
Last week UKFin+ hosted a Financial Inclusion and Digital Technologies collaboration workshop at The Studio based in Birmingham. The workshop was part of the UKFin+ spotlight on financial inclusion, running between April and November 2024, where we are promoting the development of collaborative research projects between academics and industry. In partnership with industry, policymakers, charities … Read more
UKFin+ is an EPSRC-funded network connecting academic research to technological innovation within the UK financial services industry. Our primary goals are to foster connections, fund collaborations, communicate our findings, and coordinate a national research agenda. Our vision is a financial services market that offers a wide range of competitive, trusted, and socially relevant financial services, … Read more
Reflecting on a Day of Collaboration: Highlights from the UKFin+ Workshop in Bristol The first of our UKFin+ Collaboration workshops took place on March 6th at the MShed in Bristol. UKFin+ Director Professor Jing (Maggie) Chen was the mastermind behind the new format for the workshop and we were all thrilled with the turnout. The … Read more
UKFin+ are always looking to improve the way we do things. Based on feedback received after our first funding call, we have decided to implement changes to the funding application process. Key changes include: Our new forms are available from here. We have new funding clinic dates available, please book here. If you have any … Read more
Professor Aad van Moorsel, the Director and Principal Investigator of UKFin+, attended the EPSRC Regional Showcase event held at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester on Monday, 6th November. Aad delivered a presentation on the UKFin+ network titled “UKFin+ Funding Research Collaborations for Wicked Problems in Financial Services.” During the presentation, attendees gained valuable … Read more
UKFin+ Directors Maggie Chen and Karen Elliott and UKFin+ Project Manager Sheena Robertson visited the Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT) for their Fall 2023 CRAFT Industry Advisory Board Meeting 2nd and 3rd November 2023 at the Bank of America, New York. The meeting was a tremendous success, delivering inspirational key notes on ESG and decentralized … Read more
The first of a series of workshops designed to give applicants the opportunity to discuss our funding opportunities, develop project ideas, and ask any questions they might have. The launch of the UKFin+ funding workshop series took place Monday the 9th of October at InSpace, an events and exhibitions space which is part of the … Read more
15th November 2023, 15:15 – 17:15 Room: BD-02-036Ulster University , Belfast Campus, York Street Speaker: Professor Jing ( Maggie) ChenChair in Financial Mathematics at Cardiff University Despite the growing literature on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, we know relatively little about who are involved in trading, transacting and using these assets and how they behave. Examining … Read more
by Gabriela Filipkowska, Beining Han and Fan Wu – PhD students in Financial Mathematics at Cardiff University, Dr Ning Wang Mathematical Institute University of Oxford and, Dr Jia Shao an Assistant Professor at the School of Mathematics of the University of Birmingham. On September 5th, 2023, our team, visited Harrogate for the Royal Statistical Society … Read more
We are pleased to announce that funding details are now available on our website! This includes important information such as submission deadlines and a comprehensive overview of the various funding types we offer. Make sure to look through the funding sections on our website and explore these details to maximize your chances of securing funding … Read more
UKFin+ online funding clinics are now open for booking in September and October! Our Project Manager Sheena Robertson will be offering funding clinics for all potential applicants to our funding schemes. The clinics will give potential applicants the opportunity to seek clarification on eligibility, criteria and remit of our funding streams before submitting a funding application. … Read more
We are pleased to announce the success of our second launch event for UKFin+, held at the Berkeley in London. The event was a resounding success from start to finish, with attendees both engaged and excited about the project and our goal to tackle wicked problems in the financial services and Fintech industry. We kicked … Read more
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On the 4th of July UKFin+ launched in Birmingham with a terrific event at The Exchange. Our photographer Amy from Creative Media at the University of Birmingham did a brilliant job of capturing some of the highlights. The event commenced with an overview of UKFin+ EPSRC funded Network Plus on FinTech in the UK by … Read more
UKFin+ is funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Financial Services NetworkPlus Fund as part of the Building Research Communities with the UK financial services programme. Grant reference: EP/W034042/1. We were pleased to have representatives from our funders join us at our launch events. We asked for a quote from Stephen Webb, our Project … Read more
UKFin+ is a £2.5M programme of funding, tackling wicked problems in financial services. But what is a wicked problem? ‘Wicked problem‘ is a term first coined in the 1960s/70s to describe problems that are resistant to solutions. These wicked problems cannot be solved, only managed through working together. UKFin+ will distribute funding to researchers and … Read more
The University of Birmingham is offering 120 awards of £10,000 to upskill UK students from non-STEM and far-STEM degrees to progress into the AI and Data Science workforce. Scholarship funding will be prioritised for women, Black students, disabled students and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, to ensure that AI reflects the makeup of our society. … Read more
This beautiful example of monumental municipal masonry was originally a bank, built in 1933 as the headquarters of the City Council’s Savings bank. The bank was established in 1916 by Neville Chamberlain, an active member of the University’s Court and the son of its first Chancellor, Joseph. The Birmingham Municipal Bank was the first of … Read more
“Buy now pay later: Klarna is courting young shoppers with Paris Hilton and TikTok-style algorithms – here’s why it’s a problem” The rise of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) credit sees around 30% of the UK population now using BNPL services. However, new marketing strategies adopted by Klarna have caused concerns around underplaying overconsuming and borrowing … Read more
Exciting news! Registration is now open for both UKFin+ launch events! Join us for one of two incredible events: a workshop in Birmingham and a drinks reception in London the following day. Connect with industry leaders, academics, and researchers in the financial services and fintech space, and be part of the solution to wicked problems in the … Read more
The platform launched last summer, allowing the Fintech North community to collaborate, build products and find customers. The platform is free of charge for members of the Fintech North community and is a fantastic resource for regional collaboration. Northern FinTechs and financial services corporates will benefit in two main ways: 1. Access publicly available real … Read more
Professor Karen Elliot, one of the Co-Is for UKFin+ attended the launch of the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) on the 27th of February. “CFIT was set up following the Kalifa Review of Fintech (2021) to position the United Kingdom as a global leader in financial innovation. CFIT’s purpose is to unblock barriers … Read more