Emma Lindley

Founder at Innovate Identity

London, England

@EmLindley | LinkedIn Profile

What makes Innovate Identity unique in the FinTech ecosystem?

After almost 20 years working in technology I founded Innovate Identity back in 2012 to address the requirements of online companies around compliance requirements like Anti Money Laundering and Know Your Customer, fraud prevention and organisations increasing need to balance this with a good customer on-boarding experience.

We’re a team of online identity and regulatory experts providing advisory services and consultancy. We have helped numerous companies in the fintech and more general financial services space comply with ever changing KYC and AML regulations and fraud threats, and also more strategic work into how identity underpins the FS space, and the direction FS companies should take.

Fintech companies just want to get their product to market and focus on developing that, we accelerate this process for them by taking the compliance headache out of the equation, with the best customer experience using the latest technologies available.

We work with clients from start-ups in fintech such as Lending Works through to the largest players in Financial Services such as MasterCard. We’re also right at the forefront of the changes in the way identity is being dealt with here in the UK and the US, working with federated schemes such as GOV.UK Verify and the NSTIC (National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace) and most recently we have been working on projects around identity and blockchain.

How did you get started in the digital identity space?

Back in 2003 I started working for a company who had ambitions to move into the identity space after recognizing its potential impact. A small team of us brought a product to market in 2004 called URU (You Are You), which was an online identity proofing service, this verified individuals’ identity in real-time for compliance regulations. I knew then that online identity was going to be one of the biggest challenges we needed to solve in order for online growth to continue in a safe, secure and stable way.

I also believe that digital identity is an enabler. Traditional methods of proving identity online have been underpinned by credit data or documents such as passports, which means that if the person doesn’t have a credit file or a passport they often cannot transact, we need change this for the percentage of the population who don’t have the usual identity proofing methods, both here in the UK and internationally.

I still believe that identity underpins our growth online and we need to embrace new emerging models of identity, from non-government owned federated identities (where individuals have control over their own identity and can use it across multiple services rather than a government identity card), to personal data stores (where entitlement attributes can be encrypted and stored) and understand how new technologies such as blockchain can assist.

What do you believe will be the chief methodology for digital identification in the near term (bio-metrics, blockchain solutions, multi-factor, etc.)?

I don’t think there is one single point solution, which is going to be the chief methodology. Identity is a wide and complex issue and isn’t just about replacing user names and passwords, we still have issues verifying identities in the first place, before we can provide credentials.

The problem with the digital identification market at the moment is the levels of fragmentation; there are so many “solutions” each trying to be the only solution without much in the way of interoperability. Which isn’t great for the consumer experience.

The other thing we see is more company’s trying to own the consumer’s identity. Owning identity is a powerful thing and I believe the consumer should be the owner of their identity, and in control of it.

The more companies hold data in centralized databases, biometrics or otherwise the biggest risk they have of being hacked. We need to address this by decentralizing identity, and putting secure easy to use tools in the hand of the customer.

Blockchain is certainly the buzzword of the moment, but it is still in its infancy, it certainly follows the decentralised model and I believe it will be highly disruptive in some markets.

I think however we have to be cautious about thinking everything has a place on a blockchain. We also need to challenge ourselves and ask what problem would a blockchain actually solve? Does it solve the entire problem or just some of it? Identity is a complex problem.

Do you believe the massive surge in data breaches has resulted in consumer apathy from a financial and digital identity standpoint? How do we address this?

I think there is a requirement for a layered approach through education of the consumer, through to developing scheme rules for how we deal with identities.

It’s really hard for consumers to understand the impact of data breaches unless it directly affects them, and often the affects can take weeks or months to play out. So it’s not like a breach happens, and then immediately the customer is missing money from their bank account.

Often fraudsters get hold of the data, but it’s not enough to gain access to user bank accounts, but it is enough to call the user and “socially engineer” the user into giving them vital banking user names and passwords, or worse transferring money into the fraudster’s account.

We do need to do more around consumer education, not by scare mongering but by giving them practical methods and tools they can use to keep their personal data safe. Organisations that hold consumer data need to really address the security issues. Some companies have been breached repeatedly, and this is just not acceptable. It’s important that companies get their house in order in terms of security.

As technologists I believe we have a responsibility to make the software and service we develop to be designed to protect the user and be easy for the user to understand and adopt. At a strategic level within the identity community we are in need of an identity framework or scheme (similar to the one that exists in payments) to allow identity and authentication technologies to develop in an interoperable way, also providing rules around privacy, the consumers consent and control over their identity.

You are extremely involved in various mentorship programs. Why is this?

I believe mentoring is a virtuous circle. I have a mentor who is an amazing woman; she helps for those times where you need someone to ask the difficult questions. She helps give me clarity. In turn I mentor others, as a woman in technology I feel it’s critical to support those around me.

Do you believe the FI and tech space has made progress over the past twenty years with respect to gender diversity?

There’s been some progress, and whilst we had females in tech 20 years ago, the emphasis has changed for the better in the promotion of female leaders, which means we know more about them generally. Hopefully seeing this will encourage more women to join the space.

Chris Sacca made a statement recently that “as a culture we don’t treat our women as leaders” and maybe that’s true, but women are still paid less than men in the UK so this is where the equality gap falls short too.

I do think there is still a long way to go with diversity across the board; I think it’s important to focus on this because I truly believe diversity makes us better in business, on every level.

Your husband works for a Scandinavian company. What has been his own experience with respect to gender diversity at his company?

My husband works for a Swedish company and from what I can tell the Swede’s have managed to make significant improvements in relation to gender diversity in comparison with other countries. I also think Swedish companies tend to cater better for families, with mothers and fathers being able to share parental leave when a child is born. This makes it more equal, and there are fewer stigmas around men taking paternity leave.

The CEO of my husband’s company is known for having his kids in the office when juggling child care with his equally successful wife, and having meetings with colleagues, pen in hand writing on the white board while holding his daughter on his hip with the other. Companies demonstrating this kind of leadership show that it’s possible to be successful and balance family life. My husband’s company has been incredibly successful and their share price has grown 484% in the last 5 years. If this isn’t an advertisement for embracing gender diversity and creating family balance, I’m not sure what is.

Who(m) do you believe has had the most influence with respect to your own career?

I think my career has been influenced by a multitude of people and experiences. I guess my home life formed some of my thinking; I came from a single parent family where my mother had to work and raise two children. I can remember distinctly thinking it would be really important to have a good job and enough money because you never know what is going to happen in life.

I also think I was influenced by my sister; she’s a successful doctor of medicine and a university lecturer, she was also one of the founders of Medsin back in 1995 whilst still at Sheffield University. I have immense respect for her. There’s nothing like a bit of sibling rivalry when you’re growing up.

Who do you consider to be strong women leaders in the FinTech space?

Although not strictly in the Fintech space Martha Lane Fox is a great advocate for women, I also follow Sheryl Sandburg and Eileen Burbidge amongst others.

What do you see as the 3 leading future trends for FinTech?

• Blockchain
• Open API’s (like the Open Bank Project)
• Identity