Growth in FinTech and What This Means for the Labour Market
9th Apr 2026
FinTech’s expansion within the Scottish market has been drastic in the last few years. There’s plenty to discuss about the technological changes and innovation this has brought, but we’re particularly interested about what this growth means for the labour market.
Over a relatively short period, the number of fintech organisations has more than doubled, from just over 120 firms in 2020 to 260+ by early 2026. At the same time, employment has climbed past 11,000 people, with steady year-on-year growth.
That combination – more firms and more hiring – has direct consequences for how talent is distributed across financial services. The talent market in Scotland can already be quite competitive, and FinTech organisations are frequently targeting the same skills as the traditional Financial Services space.
Pressure Points in the Market
The growth of FinTech has caused some particular teams across certain roles to become strained constrained:
- Software and engineering talent supporting platform and infrastructure buildout – including Financial Experts to support with the development of these tools
- Data and analytics roles tied to decisioning, automation, and reporting
- Compliance and regulatory specialists, particularly as requirements increase
- Product and delivery functions bridging technical and commercial teams
Because these capabilities are essential across both fintech and traditional firms, competition isn’t isolated, it’s shared across the entire sector.
This is further compounded by the number of smaller organisations growing locally. Individually, while many of these firms are relatively small, they each need these functions and strong individuals within them.
Geographic Concentration Amplifies the Effect
FinTech growth isn’t evenly distributed.
Employment remains heavily concentrated in key financial centres, particularly major cities where financial services are already established.
In Scotland’s case, Edinburgh is the hub for Financial Services organisations, and has been the main space for growth within the FinTech space too.
While Edinburgh is well connected and a desirable city many candidates are happy to commute to, it does compound the talent competition further.
This clustering has two effects:
- It intensifies competition for talent locally
- It accelerates movement between firms within the same ecosystem
Hiring pressure is felt most acutely Edinburgh, where fintech and traditional firms are drawing from the same pool.
From Linear Hiring to Competitive Ecosystem
This is a change that has been felt across all sectors, but historically, talent flows in financial services have been relatively linear:
- Graduates entered large institutions
- Careers progressed internally
This has been developing in all sectors – economic uncertainty means roles aren’t as secure as they used to be, and so candidates feel a pressure to ensure they’re in the best situation for them. More competition within the market always generates more options for these candidates – with such active hiring taking place, Fintech growth has been significant in exasperating that change in the FS space.
With hundreds of additional employers in the market, talent flows are now:
- More fluid
- More competitive
- Less predictable
There are, of course, still a few large key players that control a huge portion of the talent market – but as this market grows and develops, these key players may find some of their talent being poached by newer, exciting opportunities.
What This Means Going Forward
The continued growth of fintech organisations suggests that pressure on the talent market isn’t temporary, but in fact stands to continue this trajectory.
As more firms enter and existing ones scale:
- Demand will remain elevated
- Competition for key skills will persist
- Hiring cycles are likely to shorten
At the same time, the distribution of talent across a wider set of organisations means that expertise is no longer concentrated in a few institutions, but is spread across the ecosystem.
Conclusion
Fintech’s growth has seen incredible innovation within the financial sector. This growth has affected Scotland’s market tremendously, as more organisations seek to build out strong teams with top candidates. Being primarily based in Edinburgh, this adds pressure to an already competitive market.
As that continues, the defining feature of financial services employment won’t be where talent sits, but will be how quickly it moves and how widely it’s distributed.