Invest Northern Ireland: Why Northern Ireland RegTech Is Thriving – Belfast’s Engineering Fintech Powerhouse

When I sat down with Invest Northern Ireland’s Karen Bradbury, our chat kicked off with a laugh about AI. Yes, artificial intelligence is the buzzword du jour, but Karen and I agreed on one thing: if everyone lets ChatGPT write their content, everything will start to sound the same. 

In Northern Ireland’s fintech scene…especially in RegTech… it’s the human touch that makes the difference. This region has quietly built a reputation as a fintech hub not by chasing every shiny new algorithm, but by leveraging its people, culture, and even an old-school engineering mindset to solve modern financial problems. And guess what? It’s working. FDI intelligence Belfast has even been ranked among the top three Fintech Locations of the Future globally 

1. London (duh)
2. Singapore
3. Belfast

… not bad Belfast! Especially for a metro area with.population of around a million!

The RegTech Powerhouse:

One area where Northern Ireland truly punches above its weight is regulatory technology (RegTech). It’s a niche, but a crucial one.

Karen highlighted that governance, risk, and compliance tech is a big focus, and it shows. Northern Ireland now boasts a strong cluster of companies delivering GRC solutions worldwide. We’re talking about home-grown innovators like our friends at  FinTrU, fscom (come to their event this Jan!) & Datactics, alongside international players. Major banks have noticed too, Citi, for example, has built a huge presence in Belfast with nearly 4,000 staff, many focused on compliance and tech. In fact, Northern Ireland today has the highest concentration of fintech employment in the UK, with about one in five people working in financial or tech sectors employed in fintech. The RegTech ecosystem here is vibrant, well-connected, and growing fast.

Engineering DNA

I have a song stuck in my head since Christmas (2024) It’s a kids song by hopscotch: The Engineer Song. The chorus features:

“If you like to create, like to explore, like to make things better then before, build develop and design… solve problems and apply”

Which is the line that kept going round my head again and again when talking about Northern Ireland’s engineering heritage -and for good reason! 

So why RegTech? Why Northern Ireland? One secret sauce – this place made ships and aircraft before it made software. The famous Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast (builder of the Titanic) represents over 150 years of engineering prowess. 

That legacy isn’t just about hulking cranes on the skyline, it’s a mindset.

“People here look for problems to solve,” Karen said, describing a can-do attitude rooted in generations of engineers and inventors. Northern Ireland “holds an international reputation for engineering excellence” and innovative problem-solving, and those traits have proven priceless in the world of RegTech. Ensuring a bank complies with MiFID or GDPR might not be as tangible as building a ship, but it requires the same analytical rigour and attention to detail. In short, the region’s knack for systematic problem-solving,honed over decades in manufacturing – is now being unleashed on compliance challenges. RegTech is essentially an engineering problem, and Northern Irish talent loves a good problem.

Tech with a Human Touch: 

Northern Ireland’s firms have a knack for blending technology with human expertise. Take FinTrU as an example. This Belfast-born firm provides KYC and compliance services to global banks. Early on, it was very much a people-powered business analysts poring over documents for anti-money laundering checks. 

As AI tools matured, FinTrU didn’t see them as a threat but as an aid. They adopted AI to streamline grunt work while keeping humans in the loop. The result? FinTrU today employs around 1,500 people across Belfast, Londonderry, Dublin and beyond, and prides itself on “complementing technology with expert teams”. That philosophy of tech-enabled but human-driven is common here. Rather than replace the analysts, Northern Ireland’s RegTech firms arm them with AI and data analytics to supercharge their work. It’s augmentation, not automation. 

The payoff is clear: companies like FinTrU are delivering efficient compliance solutions at scale without losing the human judgement that regulators (and clients) ultimately trust.

Ready for the Spotlight: 

Put it all together,a skilled workforce, collaborative culture, lower costs, strong academic linkages, and that engineering-born knack for RegTech… and Northern Ireland’s fintech sector is on a tear. It may be under the radar for some, but those in the know are taking notice. T

I DID float a cheeky question to Karen – could Belfast host a huge fintech event like Sibos someday? She laughed, admitting Sibos might be a bit too huge (for now) Excel London-sized venues aren’t exactly in Belfast. “Maybe a Money20/20 or a FinTech Meetup,” she mused. In fact, Belfast has done it before (hosting a MoneyConf spinoff in the Titanic Quarter years back) and with business tourism on the rise, who knows? Don’t be surprised if, in the near future, the world’s fintech crowd touches down by the Lagan. 

By Ali Paterson, Editor in Chief & Founder at FF News