In the wake of the 2023 Fintech Awards Wales, Matt Hyde, Director of Recruit121 and the Fintech Awards Wales, engages in exclusive interviews with the sponsors and prominent figures at the forefront of the FinTech sector in Wales.

The Fintech Awards Wales serve as a platform to acknowledge and honour the remarkable accomplishments of individuals, companies, and academic institutions within the Welsh FinTech landscape.

In this special series, Matt introduces you to the key figures driving innovation and progress in this dynamic industry.

This week Matt speaks to Chandan Chowdhury, Head of Diversification Technology UK, Admiral Group

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Fintech is a rapidly evolving industry, and Wales has shown remarkable progress in this domain. From your perspective, what unique opportunities or challenges does the Welsh fintech ecosystem present, and how does your organization contribute to its development?

The Fintech industry presents both unique opportunities and challenges for financial services companies like Admiral. These opportunities and challenges arise from the convergence of next-gen technology and financial services, which is reshaping the insurance sector. Fintech presents significant opportunities for business growth. It can provide an improved digital experience for customers and partners, generate advanced data analytics, offer personalised policies and pricing models and so on. However, there are major challenges like data security, fraud, and cyber risks that need to be addressed.

To contribute to its development, we do several things, such as offer guidance and mentorship to fintech startups, share industry insights, regulatory knowledge, and best practices, which can be invaluable to young companies entering the market. We actively participate in the broader fintech ecosystem by attending fintech events such as those organised by Fintech Wales, technology conferences, and industry forums, fostering connections with fintech startups, and staying informed about emerging trends and technologies.

What motivated your organization to become a sponsor of the Fintech Awards Wales, and what do you see as the significance of supporting events like these within the fintech industry?

Fintech Awards Wales demonstrates the importance of celebrating the talented people that are currently contributing to Wales’ growing Fintech position, and that’s so exciting, particularly for a business like ours, which relies on talented people to drive success. We wanted to sponsor the Leader of the Year award as we know how big the influence of a good leader is on the direction of a business, and recognition is so important, especially if we want to continue to inspire people in the industry to make an impact.

As a sponsor, what specific role does your organization play in promoting innovation and growth within the fintech sector in Wales? Can you share any initiatives or programs that align with your sponsorship?

We’re very proud to partner with Code First Girls by supporting their goals to get more women and non binary people into Tech careers. Many of our colleagues and I use Impact Hours, which is what we call time spent volunteering during working hours, to mentor Code First Girls participants to help with directly relevant career advice and insight. We also work with Prince’s Trust, supporting their Digital Skills Festival this year in Cardiff empowering young people to explore digital careers.

We’re also highly committed to providing development opportunities to our own colleagues, and offer paid degree apprenticeships in Software Engineering, Data Science, and Cyber Security with Welsh universities, and providing our colleagues with access to hundreds of courses to support their ongoing development in Technology and Management.

Looking ahead, how do you envision the future of fintech in Wales, and how will your organization continue to support and collaborate with the local fintech community beyond the awards ceremony?

We definitely see fintech in Wales continue to grow, especially with the next generation becoming so much more competent and knowledgeable on Tech and what it can do for our society. As a business, we’re continuing to work with local charities and organisations to support the education around fintech careers for younger people, and we’re excited to be expanding our partnerships to support fintech growth regionally, nationally, and globally, watch this space!

We've explored some interesting developments and insights in the fintech space today. On a lighter note, with all the innovative trends in fintech, if you had a magic wand and could bring one futuristic fintech concept to life right now, what would it be and why?

(Smiles) I was considering proposing weather-based insurance for our company events, given the unpredictable nature of British weather. However, on a serious note, the one idea that comes to mind is the implementation of AI-based enhanced underwriting and risk assessment in our industry.

By leveraging AI technology, we could analyse large and disparate datasets from a variety of sources and generate more accurate risk profiles, for our current and potential policyholders. This streamlined underwriting process would enable us to offer even more personalised policies, ultimately helping us achieve our objective to provide more people with the opportunity to access good financial services products.