Written by Laura Walker, Head of Content & Community, FinTech-Tables
Security and trust are no longer secondary concerns. They sit at the centre of whether innovation is adopted, partnerships endure, and systems hold under pressure. This report captures the outcomes of Scotland’s first Building Security & Trust Hackathon, the opening chapter in a new, action-led series designed to turn shared challenges into shared solutions.
Across three facilitated hackathons, regulators, financial institutions, FinTechs, vendors, academics, and advisors moved beyond diagnosis into design. Delivered in partnership with Co-Labs Global, each session began with a clearly defined challenge, informed by prior roundtables and targeted partner briefings, and asked a practical question: what would it look like to build readiness, resilience, and trust by design rather than by aspiration?
Participants worked through three core challenges: embedding cybersecurity and operational resilience by default, establishing shared expectations for supplier readiness, and re-examining leadership, trust, and collaboration in FinTech partnerships. The outputs ranged from proportional risk frameworks and shared baselines, to clearer leadership behaviours, streamlined procurement approaches, and regulator-aligned models that can be tested and refined.
Rather than aiming for tidy conclusions, the hackathon produced something more valuable: designs with weight. Frameworks that can be piloted. Diagnostics that can be measured. Pathways that connect intent to execution.
This first report marks the starting point of a wider programme. One focused on collective action, shared infrastructure, and building trust that survives scale.
Download the full report below.
