Award-winning service design company Nile recently brought together UK thought leaders to begin devising a strategy for Scotland to become a world leader in financial technology.

The dinner event was held at the Library of Mistakes in Edinburgh and posed the question: “What does Scotland need to do to succeed as a global fintech leader?”

Following the dinner, Nile founder Sarah Ronald published a blog post titled "Why ambitious fintech startups should be looking to Scotland" which was featured on LinkedIn Pulse and has so far received more than 500 likes on the platform.

Senior figures from Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Scottish Enterprise were in attendance, as well as leading fintech innovators from Norvus-Ordo Capital, Code Investing and UP Accelerator amongst others. Nile runs a regular programme of events that enable organisations in the financial services sector to navigate the challenges and opportunities of seismic changes going on in the industry.

Sarah Ronald, founder of Nile and a member of the Scottish government’s fintech strategy committee, says: "Our ethos is to facilitate the right people to take the right action. As well as being a lot of fun, this dinner has launched activities which will form part of helping Scotland leverage the fintech opportunity ahead of us. That’s something I’m very excited about.”

Keely Flint, director of strategy for Nile, says: "Nile is fantastically well connected in the global financial services community and it's our aim to help bring together experts and challengers from our network to progress the Scottish Fintech agenda."

Dag Lee, executive chairman of Nile, says: "The lively debate around the dinner table made for a really enjoyable and informative evening but the real value was the connections made and the commitment to take collective action to get things done."

Nile has been working with leading financial service brands for more than a decade, and has a strong track record of success in innovation. Their pioneering work has won numerous prizes at the British Interactive Media Awards (BIMA) over the past few years, as well as the prestigious Cannes Lions Gold Award in the Mobile Applications category.

Notable past projects include running a nation-wide public consultation to design and produce the new Scottish banknote, pioneering the UK’s first emergency cash service for RBS, and creating two award-winning mobile apps for Tesco Bank in the space of 24 months.

Notes to editors:

The following finance professionals were in attendance at Nile’s fintech dinner and are available for interview on Scottish fintech:
- Derek Wyatt (Non-Executive Director, Code Investing)
- Graeme Jones (Chief Executive, Scottish Financial Enterprise)
- Shailesh Grover (Managing Director of R&D, Barclays)
- Liliana Reasor (CEO, Norvus-Ordo Capital)
- Jonathan Segal (Partner, Fox Williams)
- Danny Meaney (Founder, UP Accelerator)
- Russell Napier (Founder, Electronic Research Interchange)
- Louise Smith (Head of Design and Transformation, RBS)
- Sharon Hamilton (Sector Director for Financial and Business Services, Scottish Enterprise)
- Dag Lee (Working Chairman, Nile)

Nile’s fintech dinner took place on Thursday 29th September at the Library of Mistakes in Edinburgh. Professionally-shot images from the night are available upon request.

Press Contact:
Johanna Hart - johannascribe@gmail.com - 07450684282