Love Finance: fintech jobs, the FCA and good initiatives

What makes us love finance so much this week? Well, we love that Ireland is boosting the number of jobs in fintech, that we can dig into the FCA's business plan, that business protection is being presented to advisers, and that the FCA are being called on to cut down on pension scams.

FCA prepares to spend £480m this year

The Financial Conduct Authority have described their business plan for the coming year, and has detailed how their considerable expenditure will cover reviews, market studies and other work.

Areas the FCA want to cover include cultural concerns such as inducements and conflict of interest, and the "dark corners" of investment. Additionally, topics like mortgage barriers, big data from insurers and a strategic approach to risk are also on the cards.

We love that the FCA are preparing for a busy year full of research that will ideally benefit everyone involved. We're interested to see the results.

Advisers must consider business protection

A guest piece on Cover Magazine has raised the issue of advisers failing to consider business protection - not for clients, but for their own businesses. Their research led to the conckusion that SMEs must protect their businesses, and this isn't a consistent approach across the board.

The stats showed that less than half of SMEs have a financial adviser, and that 90% said that they'd want to seek professional advice.

We love that this creates such a huge opportunity for companies who deal in business protection, and advisers, as it's clear that there are SMEs out there who want to engage with it.

Ireland could add 5000 fintech jobs by 2020

Ireland could become a major fintech hub in the next five years, says Deloitte.

David Dalton, Head of Financial Services at Deloitte Ireland that it would be "predominantly be driven by the projected spend on IT services by financial services firms in Ireland."

“Our view is that the fintech and financial services industries are inter-related and mutually dependent. The connectivity between the two sectors needs to be significantly enhanced.”

We love that more fintech jobs are being created, and that the field continues to expand - it can only lead to more technology and faster advances.

Midata launches British bank account provider initiative

In what looks like a real win for British consumers, the UK government's midata initiative will enable British bank account holders to download transactional data for their current account and put it into online tools that will help them find the most suitable providers.

Chief Executive of the British Banker's Association Anthony Browne welcomed the change. "This is an exciting innovation that will give customers more help when searching for the best current account for them from more than 200 on the UK market.

"Harnessing this data should allow some of us to pay less for our banking and others to earn more interest on their money, as well as highlighting the range of offers, such as cash-back, that are available just now."

We love that people are being given the chance to make the most of their banking experience by finding the ideal account provider for them.