Manchester Conference 2025 Write-up
On Tuesday 25 November, the Northern FinTech community came together for FinTech North’s final conference of the year – the annual Manchester Conference. The celebration of the North West’s FinTech ecosystem took place in the University of Manchester’s iconic Whitworth Hall, delivered in partnership with headline sponsors OakNorth, brand sponsors Pulsant, Mastercard, Cyber Alchemy, Attenda, Intercash, Barclays and RSM, venue sponsors the University of Manchester, ecosystem partners Bruntwood SciTech and exhibition sponsors MERJE.
Centred around four core themes -payments, banking, risk and women in FinTech – the conference brought together leaders from across the region to reflect on progress, opportunities and the future of the sector.
Opening Remarks & Remembering Chris Sier
The morning began with several heartfelt acknowledgements honouring Chris Sier, FinTech North’s Chairman, who sadly passed away earlier this month following his battle with cancer. Throughout the day, speakers reflected on Chris’s values, influence and unwavering positivity. The winter sunlight pouring through Whitworth Hall served as a fitting reflection of his optimism and resilience.
Joe Roche, General Manager at FinTech North, opened the event by providing an overview of recent activity and future strategy, and he extended thanks to sponsors, partners and the wider community. Joe then invited the room to join in a minute’s applause in memory of Chris.
A welcome from Professor Markos Zachariadis, Chair in Financial Technology & Information Systems at the University of Manchester, followed. Speaking on behalf of the university, Markos highlighted the institution’s role in enabling innovation, academic excellence and industry collaboration.
Julian Wells, Director at Whitecap Consulting, then delivered the first Chris Sier Welcome Address. Designed to capture Chris’s spirit of challenge and ambition, Julian’s keynote set out a bold vision for how government policy could better champion FinTech entrepreneurs. His ideas, including a proposal for a fully funded 12-month salary for founders, encouraged the audience to think differently about how innovation can be supported across the UK.
Staying Ahead: The North’s FinTech Outlook
Julian returned to moderate the morning’s first panel, Staying Ahead: The North’s FinTech Outlook and the Road to Leadership, joined by Stewart Haworth, Senior Director, Debt Finance at OakNorth; Rachel Kenyon, Business Engagement Manager at the University of Manchester; Gemma Daros, Head of Acquiring, FinTech and Public Sector Services – UK&I at Mastercard; and Ashish Sandhu, Co-founder at Scholar Saver.
The conversation explored the distinct strengths of the Northern ecosystem. Rachel discussed the university’s expanding innovation districts, the Cambridge-Manchester partnership and the region’s high concentration of AI-focused companies. She emphasised the strength of the local student population, the importance of skills development and the role of the university’s Scale Up Forum in supporting high-potential businesses.
Stewart reflected on OakNorth’s ten-year journey in the region and its focus on supporting scaling businesses with tailored debt finance. He noted that OakNorth has lent more than £15 billion to date, helping thousands of growing companies across the UK access the capital they need. He highlighted how technology, talent and flexible funding come together to create the right conditions for sustained growth.
Gemma explained how Mastercard works closely with FinTechs at various stages of their journeys, helping with product-market fit, market positioning, fraud-prevention requirements and customer engagement strategies. She also highlighted Mastercard’s ability to share regional and national data insights, giving FinTechs a richer understanding of consumer behaviour and enabling smarter scaling decisions.
Ashish brought a founder’s perspective, outlining Scholar Saver’s mission to build an AI-driven financial platform that supports students at risk of leaving education due to financial strain. He discussed both the challenges and opportunities of launching a start-up in the North, the importance of ecosystem collaboration and the need for accessible funding streams outside London.
Together, the panellists painted a picture of Manchester as one of the UK’s fastest-growing city regions – with growth in AI, finance and digital sectors reaching more than double the national average – and a place where innovation, talent and opportunity converge.
FCA Overview: Regulation for Innovation
Laura Dawes, Director of Authorisations at the FCA, provided a regulatory update, reflecting on the organisation’s commitment to supporting innovative firms across the UK. She noted that the FCA’s five-year strategy references innovation throughout and centres on deepening trust, rebalancing risk, supporting growth and improving lives.
Laura highlighted the launch of the FCA’s new advanced AI sandbox, developed with NVIDIA, which will enable firms to build, test and scale early-stage AI tools in a controller environment. She also stressed the importance of engaging with firms across the North and ensuring regional voices continue to shape future regulatory direction.
The Invisible Supply Chain Risk
Ali Malik, Co-founder and Partner at Cyber Alchemy, delivered a striking session on the realities of modern cyber threats. Ali detailed a case study in which his team successfully compromised POS terminals, defeated encryption protections and captured sensitive cardholder data. His message emphasised that while compliance frameworks are necessary, they are not sufficient on their own. True security requires continuous vigilance, technical depth and a proactive understanding of emerging risks.
Critical Risk: Evolving Data Governance Against Financial Crime
The morning continued with a panel discussion titled Critical Risk: Why FinTech Must Evolve Data Governance to Defend Against Fraud and Financial Crime. This session featured Mike Hoy, CTO at Pulsant, and Erin Sims, Director at RSM, moderated by Clare Black, COO at CFIT.
The conversation explored how rapidly evolving threats, particularly those powered by generative AI, are outpacing traditional data-governance models. Erin spoke about the rise of synthetic identities, highly realistic falsified documentation and automated social-engineering attacks, all of which exploit weaknesses in fragmented governance structures.
Mike spoke to the technical capabilities required to defend against these threats, emphasising the need for secure and resilient digital infrastructure. He noted that without strong foundational infrastructure and sovereignty over how data is stored, processed and moved, defensive capabilities remain constrained.
The panel also explored themes of interoperability, cross-border data exchange and the importance of trust frameworks, with Clare highlighting CFIT’s work on a national blueprint for digital verification. The discussion underscored the need for a cultural shift towards transparency, accountability and readiness for Smart Data initiatives, which will demand far greater automation and information sharing across the ecosystem.
The session concluded with a forward look at how UK data governance must evolve to keep pace with AI-enabled crime – calling for clearer liability frameworks, stronger guarantees of data sovereignty, more cohesive collaboration and investment in secure, scalable digital infrastructure to protect national and organisational resilience.
Central Bank Digital Currency: Testing the Future
Simon Scorer, Deputy Head of Digital Currency Technology at the Bank of England, presented an overview of the Digital Pound Lab. This new technical sandbox will allow industry to test real use cases for a potential digital pound, enabling organisations to explore business models, technical design questions and practical considerations. The aim is to gather meaningful evidence and support informed decision-making on the future of digital currency in the UK.
More information on the Digital Pound Lab can be found here”, Digital Pound Lab | Bank of England.
Banking on Progress: Collaboration and Risk
Before lunch, the final session of the morning focused on the future of banking in a fireside conversation titled Banking on Progress: Collaboration and Risk in the Evolving Financial Landscape. The discussion brought together Luis Hernandez, Associate Director in the Regulatory Consulting team at S&W, and Darren Earnshaw, Technology Director, Next Generation Consumer Banking at Barclays, moderated by Ellie Kirkman, Agency Manager at Started PR.
Darren outlined where he sees the most promising opportunities for next-generation banking, particularly in areas transformed by automation and AI. He spoke about how banks and FinTechs can work together to deliver better customer experiences and reduce friction.
Luis expanded on the compliance considerations that emerge when banks partner with FinTechs, including regulatory expectations around model governance, fairness and explainability. He highlighted the increasing scrutiny applied to automated decisions and the importance of ensuring that declines or outcomes are transparent and clearly justifiable.
Ellie guided the conversation through topics such as collaboration, risk management, oversight, regulatory expectations and where new entrants most commonly underestimate the scale of compliance. She closed the session by asking both speakers what excites them most about the future of banking innovation, prompting reflections on the balance between speed, quality and trust.
Following a vibrant lunch networking session in Christie’s Bistro alongside the exhibitors, delegates returned for the afternoon programme.
An Update from Innovate Finance: Challenges and Opportunities for the year ahead
Peter Cunnane, Director of International and Partnerships at Innovate Finance, opened the session by reflecting on the impact Chris Sier made on the FinTech community and honouring his memory. Peter then provided an update on Innovate Finance’s activity, including key priorities for the year ahead and the latest picture on capital investment trends across the sector. He also outlined the organisation’s 2025 Budget proposals, which aim to level the playing field for challenger banks, provide greater tax stability for entrepreneurs, and introduce targeted fiscal incentives to stimulate activity in the UK IPO market. He closed by highlighting key upcoming initiatives, including IFGS, and encouraged the ecosystem to continue working collaboratively at a pivotal moment for UK innovation policy.
The Northern Hive: Powering Payments Innovation
The conference then moved into a payments focus with a session titled The Northern Hive: Powering Payments Innovation. The panel featured Abi Bryant Spolar, Director of Partnership Management Europe at Circle; Amy Whitell, CEO of Collctiv; Lawrence Byers, Senior Product Manager at Acquired.com; Sher Khanagha, CEO and Founder at Frontier Pay; and Andrew Buckley, Professor at the University of Manchester. The discussion was chaired by Anna Chandler, Fractional Marketing Leader and Growth Advisor.
The conversation explored the continued rise of enterprise adoption in payments, the strategic forces shaping the next generation of money movement, and the shifting expectations of consumers who increasingly assume that funds should move instantly and seamlessly. Panellists discussed how embedded finance has blurred the boundaries between financial processes and day-to-day digital experiences, often saving users time without them consciously thinking of the activity as ‘finance’.
There was extensive reflection on how perceptions of payments and banking are changing on the high street, and how real-time access to domestic and cross-border payment rails is becoming a fundamental competitive differentiator. Speakers noted that the industry is entering a pivotal moment in the evolution of payments, with innovation naturally accelerating fastest in B2B use cases where the commercial incentives are strongest. There was also debate over the role of open banking in consumer payments, with different views offered on its readiness, adoption curve and user experience.
From an academic perspective, it was noted that consumer behaviour in payments historically takes time to shift, and that the diffusion process for major change can stretch over a decade. The panel agreed, however, that once a superior method becomes meaningfully easier for customers, adoption can accelerate at remarkable speed.
The discussion also explored the role of the Northern ecosystem. The panellists reflected on the continued expansion of FinTech in the region, its ability to attract high-quality talent, the strength of its founder network and the deep sense of community that helps early-stage firms move faster. While senior talent can be concentrated in London, the North’s collaborative environment and strong support networks were highlighted as major advantages for scaling companies. The conversation closed with forward-looking reflections on mainstream adoption, the shifting definition of what constitutes a ‘payment’, and the competitive urgency for organisations to innovate before others move ahead.
The State of Mobility Payments
The next session, led by Attenda, was titled The State of Mobility Payments – Through the Consumer Lens. Steve Hoban, CEO at Attenda, presented new consumer research illustrating the challenges many travellers face with mobility payments. He highlighted how the best-served regions tend to be London and the South East, while the North East and Wales face the greatest barriers, particularly around fragmented systems and inconsistent user experiences. Steve shared examples of common pain points, including difficulties encountered by many consumers attempting multi-modal journeys, and he reflected on his own travel disruption earlier that day.
He also showcased a video from Matt Oldham, Chief Strategy Officer at Attenda, which illustrated the mobility payments challenge through a real journey from Preston to Salford’s MediaCity, emphasising the importance of frictionless access to mobility systems. Steve offered a forward look at what the future may hold, imagining more integrated journeys, including tap-in/tap-out rail travel and in-car payment systems.
The Next Phase of Open Banking Innovation
The afternoon continued with a session from tell.money. Josh Cowen, Partnerships and Key Account Manager at tell.money, spoke about commercial VRPs and the next phase of open banking innovation. He explored how VRPs are evolving, where the most immediate opportunities lie for commercial use cases, and how the wider landscape is shifting as firms prepare for the next stage of open banking regulation and capability.
Building Inclusive Ecosystems
The final panel discussion of the day served as a Women in FinTech showcase, designed to highlight the importance of diversity and inclusion in shaping the future of the sector. The session, titled Building Inclusive FinTech Ecosystems: Collaboration and Collective Action, featured Chloe Fox-Robertson, Researcher at the University of Manchester; Kasia Dutch, Software Engineer at Starling; and Suz Ferreira, Founder at Proper Financial Coaching, moderated by Katherine Megson, Head of Innovation and Growth at Bruntwood SciTech.
The discussion examined why diversity and inclusion remain critical to the long-term health of the FinTech sector, reflecting on the historical barriers that have shaped today’s products, teams and customer experiences. Panellists discussed themes such as mentorship, advocacy, inclusive culture, allyship, psychological safety, and the importance of both structural and everyday actions within organisations. They highlighted the need for meaningful investment into women, greater access to funding, the importance of women’s health in the workplace, and the ongoing need to focus on retention and progression rather than solely on hiring. The session also explored upskilling, participation in AI and emerging technologies, and the risk of systemic exclusion if training and development opportunities are not equitably accessible. Speakers discussed the role of collaboration across the ecosystem and the actions leaders can take to build more inclusive environments, from early-stage education through to senior-level sponsorship.
The afternoon then transitioned into the Women in FinTech showcase, celebrating the work of female innovators in the region. The session was chaired by Oliver Chesher, Managing Director at Galibier, who was delighted to spotlight the three leaders:
- Vipashyana Srivastava, Co-founder at Scholar Saver, who spoke about the gender investing gap and the reality that less than two per cent of global VC funding goes to female-led teams.• Ernestina Zhu, PhD Researcher at the University of Manchester, who presented insights from her research on how China built the world’s first regulated NFT economy.• Divya Jyoti, Sales Manager at Gemba, who provided an overview of Gemba’s regulated financial platform for embedded finance providers and FinTech innovators.
As the event drew to a close, delegates came together for a final time to celebrate the insights and connections formed throughout the day at the evening social at Gorilla in central Manchester.
We’d like to share a massive thank you again to everyone who made the conference possible, including our headline sponsors OakNorth, brand sponsors Pulsant, Mastercard, Cyber Alchemy, Attenda, Intercash, Barclays and RSM, venue sponsors the University of Manchester, ecosystem partners Bruntwood SciTech and exhibition sponsors MERJE. We’d like to also thank our fantastic speakers and brilliant community for their time, ideas and involvement.
We are now shaping our 2026 event calendar. For any questions and for opportunities for collaboration, please reach out to us at info@fintechnorth.uk.
