Digital Festival Week: Fintech North – supported by aql

Supporting the Leeds Digital Festival 2016, aql hosted the Fintech North conference, focused on digital innovation within the financial services sector, on Wednesday 27th of April 2016. The event was organised by the UK peer-to-business lending platform “Rebuilding Society” in partnership with p2p (peer-to-peer) software firm White Label Crowdfunding.

The full-day programme included impressive keynote speakers, great content, workshops and networking opportunities for the delegates. Amongst the speakers at the conference were industry experts Dr Adam Beaumont, aql CEO and Founder, Chris Sier, Director at FiNexus, Tom Cheesewright, Applied Futurist at the Book of the Future, Richard Carter, Chief Executive at Nostrum Group, Julian Wells, Director, Whitecap Consultin, James Sherwin-Smith, CEO at Growth Street, James Dingwall, Founder & CEO, Thistle Initiatives and many others.

The rich programme covered hot topics such as: fintech market and economic context, compliance and regulatory issues, the challenges of equity crowdfunding, SME finance and lending, p2p networks, digital identity, block chain, as well as examples of tech innovation from Estonia, one of the most digital advanced countries in the world, presented by Heiki Kubbar, Chairman, Icefire, Margus Simson, CEO, Ziraff, Tiit Pekk, Chief Business Development Officer at Codeborne.

The turnout of Fintech expertise highlights Leeds’ position as the second financial technology centre in England and also a growing ecosystem for innovative financial services using – for example block chain technology.

Why Leeds? The city’s internet stakeholders have been cooperating and building a strong Internet ecosystem and infrastructure over the past half-decade. Thanks to IXLeeds, the Northern not-for-profit Internet Exchange Point, we can now connect reliably to all of the worldwide markets via data connections which aren’t dependent on London. The future of Fintech in Leeds is promising and we need to keep the momentum going.

Dr Adam Beaumont, aql CEO and founder