This month, we welcome Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE), the recognised voice of the financial services industry in Scotland, as a vantage member. Learn more about their important work in inclusive and sustainable finance, amongst other things, on their website. On the topic of financial centres, we’re also looking ahead to the launch of the Global Financial Centres Index 37 on Thursday 20 March, providing key insights into the world’s leading financial hubs. Finally, don’t miss our webinar on AI & Talent on Wednesday 12 March, where we’ll explore the top tips of AI talent management and insights on usage of predictive AI for hiring, proudly sponsored by Northeastern University London.
Sasha Davis (Manager, FS Club) & The Team at Z/Yen

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Elevate your reach and connect with a global audience through the FS Club's renowned webinar series. Partner with us to present on topics that matter, gaining visibility among professionals worldwide. With a personalised event page, post-event analytics, and exclusive access to the recording, you’ll have the tools to make a lasting impact. Browse our different Sponsorship options here.Discover how the FS Club webinars can amplify your voice—your platform, your audience, your moment.Find our entire library of lectures and webinars on YouTube Events & Webinars

• Webinars

Fighting To Win: Industrial Strategy For Aggressive Growth In The UK Thursday, 06 March 2025

AI & Talent: Smarter Hiring, Stronger Teams Wednesday, 12 March 2025

• Past Events & Webinars

A Tour Of The Historic Pubs Of The City Of London Thursday, 30 January 2025

The Esop Centre’s newspad, is a monthly publication providing in-depth coverage of the main international news in the field of employee share ownership. Read this month’s newspad in full.

FS Club News

Busan Finance Center: Launching the Industrial Transition Green Fund: Busan is taking a bold step toward high-value industrial transformation with the launch of the Busan Industrial Transition Green Fund. This ambitious initiative aims to establish a parent fund of approximately $38 million annually from 2025 to 2033, with the goal of forming sub-funds exceeding $173 million in total. The fund is designed to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongsangnam Province, helping them transition to high-value-added industries.
The fund will primarily invest in companies committed to developing future-focused industries and reducing carbon emissions. By fostering strong public-private partnerships, the initiative seeks to build a dynamic financial ecosystem that promotes both economic growth and environmental sustainability. This strategic investment is expected to fuel business growth in Busan and enhance its global competitiveness. Ultimately, it will further solidify Busan’s status as a leading financial hub.

Seoul Fintech Lab: Seoul Financial Hub, managed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, is currently inviting esteemed overseas financial institutions to join our global financial epicenter in Yeouido, Seoul. Benefit from exclusive office space, expert consultation on market entry, and unparalleled networking opportunities. Stay ahead with insights into the Korean Financial market. For further details about Seoul Financial Hub, click here.

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Financial Services Commission Mauritius: Mauritius' commitment to enforce AML/CFT standards: Mauritius recognises that financial crime is a global issue that requires international cooperation. The jurisdiction meets all the 40 FATF Recommendations, reflecting its stringent regulatory regime and commitment to adhere to international standards. Through extensive legislative reforms, international cooperation and robust public-private partnerships, Mauritius has positioned itself as a regional leader in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, bolstering its soundness and appeal. To demonstrate its unflinching commitment, the country has ratified and acceded to several international conventions and treaties. It is a founding member of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group, which is an associate member of the FATF. As an innovative IFC, the jurisdiction leverages technological advancements to enhance its capabilities and contributes actively to initiatives focused on combating financial crime.

Astana International Financial Centre: Experts from the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), in collaboration with Dasco Group, have published an analytical report “Creative Industries in Kazakhstan: Trends and Prospects.” The report explores the current state and potential of the creative economy globally, within Central Asia and Kazakhstan, presenting detailed statistics on digital advertising, music, film and gaming markets while offering tools and practical solutions for further growth.

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Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance: Taiwan’s Financial Sector Unites for FinTech Innovation! To drive financial technology innovation through collective collaboration, the Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable (TFSR) has officially launched the FinTech Industry Alliance under the guidance of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). The launch ceremony was held on February 19 at FinTechSpace, bringing together key leaders from Taiwan’s financial sector, including FSC Chairman Dr. Jin-Lung Peng, and executives from CTBC Financial Holding, E.SUN Financial Holding, KGI Financial Holding, and Cathay Financial Holding. The alliance will drive industry development through four key working groups, including: FinTech Application and Development, Digital Finance Regulations and Standards, FinTech Investment and Collaboration and Cross-Industry Ecosystem Co-Creation.
This initiative aligns with the FSC’s Five Key Financial Innovation Strategies to enhance collaboration, accelerate digital transformation, and strengthen Taiwan’s global FinTech positioning. More information here.

Dubai International Financial Centre: DIFC has published its first Future of Finance report on the global finance and investment outlook, in partnership with independent global think tank, Asia House. The flagship series is informed by comprehensive network-based research and first-hand perspectives of global financial services leaders. The report was unveiled at a global webinar with over 600 senior executives registering to attend. It uncovers the top five opportunities for the financial services industry and offers a fresh perspective on the most pressing questions on finance professionals' minds. Download your copy here: https://www.difc.ae/media/publications?report=the-global-finance-and-investment-outlook#partnered-publications-and-reports

Northeastern University London: Northeastern University London is the European hub of Northeastern’s global experiential research university network. On 12th March, NU London are sponsoring the FS Club’s ‘AI & Talent: Smarter Hiring, Stronger Teams’ webinar. This webinar will offer insights into how organisations can implement AI-driven solutions to improve efficiency, decision-making and retain talent within the workplace. It will also explore some of the key challenges that come with this; algorithmic bias, ethical considerations and the human-AI collaboration dynamic, drawing on components that are covered in many of our degree apprenticeship programmes. If you are interested in finding out more about how NU London’s apprenticeships are helping organisations to harness the power of AI to boost workplace productivity, visit the link here and book a complimentary consultation call with us.
Sign-up to the webinar on 12th March here.

GFT Financial Ltd: Watch our GFT webinar on ‘Bank IT outages’: GFT recently hosted a webinar in partnership with FinTech North on ‘Bank IT Outages: The Impact on Customer Sentiment, Loyalty and Behaviour’! During the webinar, Richard Kalas and Alex Selwood were joined by Martin Reynolds from our partners Harness to discuss the results of the latest GFT Banking Disruption Index, which provides detailed insights into consumer attitudes towards digital banking. Watch in full here. Take our ‘Ready for AI?’ survey: Is your organisation's data ready for AI? Take our short GFT survey to find out. All qualified participants will receive a free feedback session from our specialist data team. Take our survey here. Begin your journey to T+1 settlement with GFT and Genesis Global: It proved to be a fantastic evening at our recent GFT and Genesis Global event exploring the required transition to T+1 settlement in the UK and across Europe! Thank you to all of those who came to hear from our brilliant speakers provide practical insights and strategies to learn from the US implementation in 2024, challenges, opportunities, and the technological solutions needed to navigate this accelerated environment successfully. Discover how you can begin your journey to T+1 settlement with GFT and Genesis Global by downloading our ‘Get started guide’ here. Watch our Retail Banking at GFT video: Watch our new GFT video as Shilpa Doreswamy (Sector Director, Retail Banking) speaks about the current challenges and trends within the Retail Banking sector and how GFT is helping our clients with their digital transformation. Watch in full here. Our latest blogs: How effectively is AI being adopted? by Priya Lakshmi - LINK. Best practice when implementing LLMs by Lu Mao - LINK.

Bridgeworks: Make 2025 Be The WAN You Want: Fast Like Lightning. Latency, packet loss and poor bandwidth utilisation often disrupt network performance. With network infrastructure refreshes occurring on average every 5 years, the answer is usually to buy more bandwidth and to kick out the old to bring in the new by investing in the latest technology. However, this doesn’t always quite mitigate these issues, and as a result fails to deliver on its promise. Much can be done with WAN acceleration in 2025, and it only keeps getting better in speed and capacity - which is surely the WAN you want. That’s because it deploys artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data parallelisation to enable even SD-WANs, which have been a hot topic over the last few years, to perform much better than they would otherwise be able to do, unaccelerated without a WAN Acceleration overlay. Yes, AI is being used more often these days to improve network performance, but neither of them can so far achieve the results of WAN Acceleration [...] Read the full article here.

C2Zero: Looking for a unique gift? With Carbon Cancellation Certificates from C2Zero, you can give the gift of preventing carbon (CO2e) emissions—for yourself, your loved ones, and the planet. It’s simple: visit carbon.uk.c2zero.net. Starting at under £18 (including VAT) for 200kg of carbon, this gift makes a real difference! Learn more at www.c2zero.net/campaign/c4s-by-c2zero.

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Zoë Buckingham Ltd: We offer consultancy-led, practical solutions for business to business marketing, providing support with both one off projects and ongoing requirements. Do contact us to discuss your needs.
Visit: zoebuckingham.com.

Sponsorship Opportunities

We currently have opportunities available to partner with Z/Yen as a sponsor for our ongoing research into the development of financial centres. If you may be interested in sponsorship of the Global Green Finance Index or Smart Centres Index, please get in touch with Mike Wardle.

The Z/Yen App is now available on iOS and Android

Our new Z/Yen App is the place for FS Club Members to stay informed and engaged with the latest insights from the world of finance, technology, and beyond. With our intuitive app, you can register for upcoming events, dive into our reports, watch recordings of past sessions, and even listen to podcasts on the go. The app is free for Sponsors and Paid Members of the FS Club - $60 per year. If you have any questions please contact Sasha Davis. Join a community of forward-thinking professionals who are shaping the future of finance and technology. Stay informed, stay connected, and stay inspired with Z/Yen. Scan the code below with your smartphone to download the app:

Z/Yen Launches Ethical AI Course with CISI Register Here

The Chartered Institute For Securities & Investment, in collaboration with Z/Yen Group and Professor Michael Mainelli, have launched a Certificate in Ethical Artificial Intelligence. The short online course deals with the core definitions and global developments in the field of AI, associated ethical dilemmas, and the implications for financial services. Find Out More

The Chartered Institute For ITBCS Foundation Certificate in the Ethical Build of AI This course introduces the key issues in ethical AI and equips you to design and build AI ethically, navigating risks from security to human rights.

Pamphleteers Blog

The Pamphleteers Blog features considered thoughts – somewhere between a knee-jerk editorial and a full-blown piece of research. "Write for today and not for tomorrow."

Made Me Think
Patricia Lustig:

A Gift Of Hope From 2024 T0 2025 - A Year Of Challenges And Progress

Of Great Interest
Chris Yapp:

Charles Handy, Symphony Orchestras & AI

FS Club Bulletins - Keep Track Of Your Commercial InterestsFS Club provides up to 1,000 weekly bulletins on a variety of topics from Inflation, to Inter-Bank Lending, to the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Register here.

• Emerging Markets
• Employment & Wages

Best Of The Finanser

Stirred My Thoughts:

• European regulation strangulation, part 2

Grabbed My Attention:

• Has fintech fallen off a cliff?

Membership & Sponsorship FS Club is the premier global executive knowledge network for technology and finance professionals. Great events, research, and social functions build a buzz for Members and a valuable partnership for Sponsors. Membership of the FS Club is a great way to enhance your professional development, grow your network and profile, and get backing for your ideas, contact: sasha_davis@zyen.com