Industry progress underpinned as stars of Scottish finance shine at annual awards
The 2022 Scottish Financial Services Awards celebrated the outstanding contributions of firms and individuals against the wider backdrop of huge economic challenges.
Scotland’s financial and related professional services industry came together in Glasgow last night to celebrate the 2022 Scottish Financial Services Awards, sponsored by EY.
It was the first full-scale ceremony for the annual awards since 2019, with celebrations reflecting the huge contribution of both people and organisations to the economy and to wider society during the pandemic and the ongoing cost-of-living and climate crises.
The awards broke down into six categories reflecting the sectors key strategic ambitions to grow, drive a sustainable, inclusive economic recovery and continue to have a positive impact on society.
2022 Winners
Rising Star
This years’ rising star was Georgia Waterson, Customer Journey Developer at NatWest Group. Georgia completed the NatWest Graduate programme in 2020 and has since taken on roles as the Men’s Health lead at the bank’s allied men network, a volunteer for the bank’s response to the Ukraine crisis, and supporting the development of others. Georgia stood out for her for contribution that goes beyond her day job, and as someone who thinks beyond their own benefit, and to that of their organisation, their colleagues and their community.
Supporting the Economic Recovery
The award for Supporting the Economic Recovery went to Social Investment Scotland, an organisation that supports social enterprises, charities and community groups looking to make a positive impact on people’s lives, society or the environment. Their accomplishments included a £5m fund for the third sector to rebuild reserves, and three COVID-19 response funds deploying £4.6m to 50 social enterprises.
Leading the Journey to Net Zero
NatWest Group took home the award for Leading the Journey to Net Zero. The Bank submitted a number of awards in the category, highlighting the breadth of their response to the climate crisis. The huge progress highlighted by their nomination included their range of propositions, products, capability and engagement, thought leadership pieces and market-leading support, which has been particularly well progressed during and since COP26 in Glasgow last year.
Responding to Changing Customer Needs
Tesco Bank were worthy winners of the award Responding to Changing Customer Needs. Their outstanding use of data and technology, highlighted by their Tesco Clubcard Pay+, has been helping customers make better use of their products and services throughout covid-19 and the ongoing cost of living crisis, improving accessibility, particularly for financially vulnerable customers.
Developing Skills and Inclusion
This award was won by Embark Group, a fast-growing fintech and one of the UK’s largest retirement solutions provide that were bought by Lloyds Banking Group in 2021. As the firm grows at its base in Dundee, it has delivered increased skills and diversity into the workforce by partnering with local government agencies and academic institutions to remove employment barriers and by using innovative recruitment methods targeted at underrepresented sections of the working population.
Chair’s Award for outstanding personal achievement
The first Chair’s Award was won by Allan Traynor, Assistant Vice President of UK Project Management at State Street. The judges were particularly impress by Allan’s charity work, which included volunteering in Poland to support Ukrainian refugees, supporting Muslim refugees in Edinburgh to help break unconscious bias, expanding the employability projects that State Street funds in the UK, and partnering with State Street’s Professional Women Network.
Chair’s Award for outstanding business achievement
Capco took home the final award of the evening for their design and build of a secure cloud platform due to launch in 2022 to support the University of Edinburgh’s Smart Data Foundry in accelerating the distribution of cutting-edge, simulated synthetic data to financial services firms to help enhance product innovation and promote greater fairness and financial inclusion.