Regtech's where I'd be, says Zopa founder

That was the view of tech entrepreneur Giles Andrews, co-founder of the world's oldest and Europe's largest peer-to-peer lending service, Zopa, and keynote speaker at the inaugural FinVention event which took place yesterday.

'The fact that regulators and politicians are so accessible here, you can use that access to explore a world of making incumbent financial services providers' lives easier.'

About 100 delegates attended FinVention, a pitching workshop at which 24 entrepreneurs showcased their ideas.

The event revealed the extent of inventive talent in the island. While many of the pitches were aimed at providing solutions to financial services issues through the use of technology, some entrepreneurs revealed how using digital can provide crowd control solutions, make swimming pools safer and solve medical conundrums.

Delegate Clare Parkinson of Anson Registrars said she attended to learn more about how technology could improve financial services processes.

Ms Parkinson said she supported the concept of FinVention and that it was good to showcase the innovations happening locally.

'It is really good that this is happening at long last and I hope it will be built on in future. It's something Guernsey really needs to lift its profile and something that the outside world needs to be aware of, though I am interested to see how our competitors are doing – that is absolutely key.'