North West FinTech Forum 2026 Write-up
On 12 February, the northern FinTech ecosystem came together for the North West FinTech Forum, hosted at Barclays’ historic Radbroke Campus in Knutsford.
Julian Wells, Director, FinTech North and Whitecap Consulting opened the forum with an overview of FinTech North, its origins, and its purpose as an inclusive community. He described FinTech North as a focal point for FinTech across the North of England, bringing together founders, financial institutions, advisers, academics and investors, while linking nationally as part of the wider FinTech National Network.
Julian highlighted the strength of financial services and digital innovation in the region, noting that FinTech is both high growth and high value, and a priority sector for government. He outlined three strategic pillars: events, international, and skills. He also addressed the challenge of London centricity in FinTech, emphasising that FinTech North exists to shine a light on what is happening across the northern regions, to support growth and to convene the ecosystem. Framing the day around Manchester and the North West, he cited the findings of Whitecap’s North of England FinTech Report, highlighting that the majority of northern FinTechs are based in the North West.
Nathan Agius, Principal Engineer, Digital Platforms and North West Pillar Lead, Barclays welcomed delegates to Radbroke Campus and shared insight into the work taking place on site. Nathan explained that the teams here are responsible for keeping the bank safe, ensuring cyber security and fraud controls are robust, and managing infrastructure. Alongside maintaining a highly regulated and controlled environment, they also focus on innovation across corporate and retail banking.
As a Principal Engineer, Nathan oversees the technology that puts mobile banking into customers’ hands. He spoke about the importance of making technology exciting, even within regulatory constraints, and about partnering with FinTechs to bring new solutions to customers. As an ecosystem, he said, the North West must create opportunities and support innovation rather than defaulting to risk aversion. He also highlighted Barclays’ commitment to growing talent in the region.
Lilly Chatwin, Ecosystem Manager, Barclays Eagle Labs provided an overview of the support available through Eagle Labs. Lilly described its mission to help businesses connect, innovate and grow, underpinned by a strong entrepreneurial network. Over the past decade, Eagle Labs has supported more than 18,000 businesses across the UK.
Siobhan Gurrie, Ecosystem Manager, Barclays Eagle Labs introduced the Digital Security Hub, DiSH, and its role within Manchester’s thriving cyber security cluster, the largest outside of London. Siobhan explained that DiSH exists to support start-ups and scale ups in digital security, helping to create jobs, drive upskilling and reskilling, and champion diversity and inclusion. Through targeted programmes and community building, DiSH aims to strengthen the region’s cyber capability and resilience.
Next, Rob Pearson, Principal Engineer, Director, Conversational Banking and AI,Barclays delivered a session on GenAI at Barclays.
Rob outlined four themes, GenAI in action through a tool spotlight, leveraging GenAI to enhance customer experience, the GenAI Centre of Excellence, and the idea that AI is an augmenter, not a replacement.
He shared how Barclays is embedding GenAI across day-to-day activity, with more than 100,000 colleagues using Microsoft Copilot to support meeting summaries, automation and efficiency. Engineers are also using GitLab Duo for intelligent code completion, test automation, documentation generation, refactoring legacy code, and reviewing changes against industry standards.
Rob emphasised that building software is not just about writing code, but about solving problems. GenAI, he said, is not a silver bullet. Responsible adoption, clarity, trust and speed are critical. Barclays is maintaining strong governance and control, promoting AI literacy across the organisation, establishing reusable components and patterns, and encouraging learning through hackathons and shared best practice.
He explained that AI is increasingly embedded into testing, modernising complex legacy systems, and improving review processes. The GenAI Centre of Excellence has been established to ensure AI is used in ways that genuinely augment colleagues and improve customer experience, rather than adding gimmicks. The ambition is to make banking simpler, more intuitive and more valuable for customers.
The theme of trust continued with Alsa Tibbit, Cyber Ecosystem Project Manager,University of Manchester and DiSH, who delivered a presentation titled ‘Trust Is the New Attack Surface, GenAI, Fraud, and the Future of Digital Confidence.’
Alsa explored the dual nature of technology in financial services, both minimising risk and potentially creating new forms of it. She highlighted how large language models generate new data and content in response to prompts, sometimes bypassing critical thinking rather than traditional technical controls such as firewalls. The risk, she noted, often sits with vulnerable individuals.
Drawing on her penetration testing background, Alsa discussed reputational damage, the rise of more accessible fraud techniques, and the importance of robust security and safety training. As fraud becomes more sophisticated and accessible, organisations must look for anomalies and embrace explainable AI to maintain confidence and accountability.
The focus of the day then shifted to insights from the ecosystem in a fireside chat featuring North West FinTech leaders.
Moderated by Carmen Dixon, Co founder, Ripple Communications, the panel brought together Manasi Kulkarni, Chief Executive Officer and Co founder, Conveyd, and Steven Amos, Chief Executive Officer, Raisin.
Steven shared his experience of scaling Raisin’s global savings platform across both direct to consumer and business to business channels. With a background in start-up banks, he spoke about his passion for scaling businesses and his belief in the strength of the North West talent pool. Raisin made a conscious decision not to open a London office, citing the high cost of living in London and the depth of talent available in the North West.
Manasi touched on her previous senior experience in software engineering and digital banking at Monzo, which shaped her perspective on building and scaling technology led services in regulated markets. She described founding Conveyd to transform legal consumer services, tackling a system where high quality legal support is often perceived as a black box and disproportionately accessible to the wealthy. Conveyd’s mission is to make conveyancing fast, accurate and accessible to everyone.
Culture emerged as a key theme in the conversation. Manasi highlighted that it starts with being clear about the value you are creating and giving people real ownership. In fast moving FinTech businesses, tools such as Slack help drive speed and impact, but she noted that culture is also built in the intentional moments, taking time to connect and learning by watching how others operate. Steven shared his own perspective, describing culture as like a family you choose. He emphasised the importance of bringing in the right people, creating space for in person connection at least once a week, and building trust through regular, open interaction.
Discussing regulation, Manasi argued that regulation and innovation need not be in conflict. Regulation exists to protect customers, and as long as a company’s mission aligns with that objective, it can work constructively with regulators. Steven added that if a business sets out to do the right thing for consumers, it will rarely be far from regulatory expectations. Both stressed the importance of evidencing decision making and engaging confidently with regulators, particularly in emerging areas such as FinTech and AI where frameworks are still evolving.
On AI as an augmenter, Steven described how Raisin uses AI primarily to enhance efficiency, particularly in engineering, rather than to reduce costs. Manasi explained that AI is core to Conveyd’s model, supporting productivity, quality and decision making at scale.
Partnerships were highlighted as a growth driver. Manasi spoke about launching products for landlords in partnership with complementary FinTech and PropTech firms, combining underwriting capability with scalable legal processing. Steven discussed Raisin’s partnerships with major brands, noting that intense due diligence and white labelling arrangements demand watertight security and compliance. He reflected that, at scale, you realise you are the expert, and confidence in your product is essential.
On fundraising, Manasi candidly shared that her first £100,000 raise involved around 80 rejections, while her subsequent £2.5 million round was a very different experience. Her advice was to find the right partners and be prepared to turn away investment that does not align. Steven observed that investor expectations have shifted from pure growth and scale towards sustainable, profitable business models, shaped in part by geopolitical factors. For him, having a compelling story remains critical.
The event closed with a forward looking perspective from Tim McCoy, Head of Customer Care Architecture, Director,Barclays, who explored the circle of trust and the future of brand.
Tim discussed the growing challenge of maintaining trust in an AI driven and social media saturated environment, where significant proportions of online accounts, followers and images may be fake or AI generated. In financial services, he said, the emotional nature of money means that brands must operate from a position of trust.
He stressed the importance of removing bias from decision making, explaining clearly what data is used and why, prioritising customer education, and maintaining human oversight. As AI driven interfaces and conversational bots become more prevalent, brands must work harder to retain control of their identity and ensure that customer interactions remain secure and authentic.
Thank you to everyone who attended, to all of our brilliant speakers for sharing their insights, and to our event partners, Barclays for hosting the North West FinTech Forum at their iconic Radbroke Campus.
For more information and opportunities for collaboration, please reach out to us at info@fintechnorth.uk.
