News

New forum launched to promote financial services innovation

Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE), in association with Scottish Enterprise, has launched a new forum to promote innovative thought leadership within Scotland’s financial services industry.  Fast Forward: The Financial Services Futures Forum aims to encourage innovative, industry-wide, collaborative solutions to some of the current challenges and opportunities facing financial services companies based in Scotland.  The Forum will stage a series of roundtable discussion events focusing on areas of innovation through which the industry can boost its competitive advantage.

The first event, being held today (Tuesday 17 April 2007), is focusing on issues affecting the talent pool available to the industry and will be attended by senior representatives from banking, life assurance and pensions, fund management and asset servicing companies.  Leaders from education and the public sector will also take part. 

The initiative is one of the outputs from The Strategy for the Financial Services Industry in Scotland being delivered by the partnership of government, the industry and trade unions working together to ensure the continuing success of Scotland as a leading international financial services centre.

Amanda Harvie, SFE chief executive, said: “Scotland is an international centre of excellence for financial services, built on a unique combination of talent, expertise, history, innovation and a concentration of many of the world’s leading financial services companies across all of the main sectors of the industry.  However in order to maintain this pre-eminence, our industry cannot stand still.  In a world of increasing global competition, we must seek new solutions to the current challenges and opportunities we face.  Fast Forward is an exciting new initiative that we hope will provide a forum through which innovative solutions can be developed.”

“Our first event is about how we can more effectively boost the talent pool available to the financial services industry.  Financial services companies that invest in Scotland do so in the knowledge that there is a highly qualified skills base available to them, but this resource is becoming constrained as the industry continues to grow and competition for the best people increases.  Fast Forward will look at how we can develop our talent pool and ensure it remains a source of competitive advantage to the industry and Scotland.”

Back to News