By Ed Hatton, Fintech Lead at Digital Jersey, and Nathalie Andersson, Fintech Lead at Jersey Finance
In the ever-evolving landscape of financial technology (fintech), innovation is the key to success – and in an island with such an acute focus on digital success and such a well-established reputation for financial services, the opportunities for innovation in the fintech space are clear.
The recent launch of a new platform, ProMatch, is the latest development supporting and underlining Jersey’s ambitions in this area that aims to give both the digital and financial services sectors in Jersey an additional boost to make innovation happen.
A bespoke platform designed to innovate how local digital and financial services businesses can connect and work together to boost productivity and deliver new services, ProMatch was launched at an event earlier this month (7 September) to an audience of around 100 financial services and digital professionals.
In essence, ProMatch is a business match-making tool, free to use for all Jersey Finance and Digital Jersey members, that aims to bridge the gap between financial services organisations and technology providers. It has the potential to play a key role in facilitating new cross-sector relationships and bolstering Jersey’s ambitious and vibrant fintech space.
With an objective to encourage collaboration between the financial services industry and local digital providers, ProMatch aims to increase the visibility of small and freelance digital suppliers in the local economy, enabling them to compete better with UK and international firms.
At the same time, the platform will provide a unique channel for Jersey’s broad range of financial services firms to address problem statements in their businesses with local digital solutions, sourcing the help of local providers to meet increasingly complex digital needs, including solutions such as wealthtech, compliance tools, blockchain services and ESG reporting.
It’s a platform that has been created based on feedback from firms in both sectors and that offers real potential to make procurement in the digital space easier, realise greater economic value for Jersey, increase the competitiveness of our fintech sector, and provide Jersey’s financial firms with easy access to the exceptional locally-available digital solutions they need as they progress along their fintech maturity journey.
Collaborative
Importantly, the development and launch of ProMatch has been a truly collaborative project undertaken by both Digital Jersey and Jersey Finance, with the end platform delivered by locally-based technology solutions business SystemLabs.
It has been designed to be user-friendly; it is ambitious; and, at its core, it is local. This is a home-grown platform for two exciting home grown, but international, industries. New ‘match-making’ platform launched to support Jersey’s Fintech ambitions
When using the platform, digital businesses can create detailed profiles outlining their expertise, while financial services firms can then browse those expertise, or submit a request for a specific problem where they feel there could be a digital solution. ProMatch’s bespoke algorithm then employs advanced matching techniques to connect these requests with digital firms with appropriate capabilities – leaving those businesses to then spark up meaningful connections and conversations.
Already, the signs are good – around 80 digital firms are signed up to the platform so far, ready to engage with and support financial services businesses in diverse areas, from banking and funds, to private wealth, capital markets and related professional services.
Opportunity
There really is a significant opportunity for fintech innovation in Jersey and we can’t wait to see what results ProMatch can bring.
Looking forward, both Digital Jersey and Jersey Finance will be supporting and promoting the use of ProMatch through their organisation’s various channels – and it is fully expected that the platform will evolve too, as both organisations engage with their members for feedback.
Ultimately, from a financial services standpoint, it is Jersey’s overarching ambition to establish itself as the easiest international finance centre to do business with remotely in a digital world – and ProMatch can play a part in supporting that ambition.
Hopefully the potential won’t stop there either. Those initial matches and conversations are just the starting point, presenting exciting new opportunities and serving as a catalyst for Jersey’s fintech ecosystem by fostering future innovation too.
Looking forward, fintech innovation remains front and centre of our success as a digital and financial services jurisdiction, enhancing customer experience, driving efficiencies in key areas such as compliance and risk, improving productivity, and enhancing interaction within financial ecosystems – and that could present our island with new opportunities we haven’t even discovered yet.
Embracing fintech through initiatives like ProMatch can help ensure that Jersey remains a dynamic, competitive, and forward-looking jurisdiction in the global fintech arena – so that as the fintech landscape continues to evolve, Jersey is poised to remain a shining example of how collaboration and innovation can shape the future of finance.
The platform can be accessed at www.promatch.je
