Meet five of the most important players in Scottish fintech

David Ferguson was at the heart of the financial technology scene in Scotland long before it was known as “fintech”.

In 2006, he led the creation by seven financial advisory firms of Nucleus Financial, the Edinburgh-based wrap platform provider.

Before Nucleus was launched, the wrap market had been dominated by product providers and fund managers, but Ferguson’s vision was to build a company around its customers – the independent financial advisers (IFAs) that would use the platform.

It’s a recipe that has been successful, with the value of the assets managed on the platform rising from £100 million in 2007 to around £14 billion this year.

That success was recognised by the Treasury in December 2016 when Ferguson was asked to become fintech envoy for Scotland, one of the individuals charged with helping to ensure that the entire UK – and not just London – reaps the rewards of the growing industry.

It marked the start of a busy summer for Ferguson, who was also unveiled as the first chairman of Fintech Scotland, the trade body formed to help grow the industry north of the Border.

Then, just weeks later, shares in Nucleus began trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (Aim), with the business valued at about £140m in its debut as a publicly listed company.

Ferguson studied actuarial mathematics and statistics at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh before training as an actuary with the Life Association of Scotland.

His career took him to Ivory & Sime and what was then Scottish Life International.

Christine Bamford

Christine Bamford launched Women’s Coin in 2017 as the first global women’s blockchain crypto currency based on social value.