FinTech North 2023: Huge conference with major brands to be hosted in Leeds as city named as hub

The annual conference will be taking place on June 29 at University of Leeds’ Cloth Hall Court and will cover themes of financial inclusion, green finance, banking, lending and the regulatory landscape.

The event will feature a number of speakers including head of strategy and responsible business at Leeds Building Society Vanessa Roberts, chief officer for culture and economy at Leeds City Council Eve Roodhouse, vice president of social impact at Mastercard Natasha Jamal, and chief executive of the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology Ezechi Britton MBE.

Vanessa Roberts said: “We are proud to announce our sponsorship of the FinTech North Leeds conference and to be championing the FinTech sector in one of the UK’s top regions for financial services.

“Making dreams of home ownership a reality is at the heart of everything we do at Leeds Building Society. Now is the most difficult time to get onto the housing ladder since our founding year of 1875 and we’re determined to find and support the best solutions within the FinTech ecosystem which help make homeownership more accessible and affordable.”

“We recently announced a partnership with Experian Boost which uses new technology to factor in regular debit payments such as rent, council tax and subscriptions to digital entertainment services, to boost credit files and unlock potential lending. We’re innovating at pace to deliver solutions to meet the needs of our current and future members and we’re excited to talk about how we’re partnering with FinTech businesses to help us achieve this.”

Leeds has experienced a boom in FinTech in recent years and the city is now home to more than 100 FinTechs. The sector contributes approximately £700m per year to the regional economy, according to research from Whitecap Consulting.

The conference aims to shine a spotlight on homegrown innovation, provide a platform to share ideas and map out the route for further growth in the sector. It will hold a panel discussion to focus on the initial findings and outcomes from the FinTech Challenge Leeds, a new initiative spearheaded by FinTech North and funded by the UK Government.

The conference will also feature the renowned FinTech showcase session, which will see start-ups from the city region participate in a quick-fire pitching exercise. This includes green neobank Tred, bereavement management platform Exizent and customer loyalty platform White Label Loyalty.

Chris Sier, FinTech North chairman and HM treasury FinTech Envoy for England, said: “We’ve just returned from Money20/20 in Amsterdam where we flew the flag for northern FinTech as part of the UK Pavilion, and the collective power of our regions was on full display. We’re excited to bring that energy back to home turf once again.

“While we firmly believe that the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts when it comes to regional FinTech in the UK, the conference in Leeds provides a brilliant opportunity for a closer look at what is going on in the city region and how we can push for further growth.”

The conference is held in partnership with Leeds Building Society, Mastercard, Axiologik, Leeds City Council and TransUnion and will be livestreamed. Find out more information via the FinTech North website.