If you run a fintech or financial services firm in the UK and you need senior technology leadership without a full-time hire, the shortlist is shorter than the market makes it look. Plenty of firms will sell you a fractional CTO or CIO. Far fewer put forward people who have actually led technology inside a regulated financial business, where the FCA, your customers’ data and your uptime are all somebody’s named responsibility.
This is a guide to what “best” actually means for a fintech or financial services firm, the difference between a fractional CTO and a CIO, what to look for before you sign, and where we fit.
Fractional CTO or CIO: which does a financial services firm need?
The two titles get used as if they are interchangeable. They are different jobs, and hiring the wrong one wastes months.
A fractional CTO owns the product and the engineering that builds it. This is the role you want when you sell software, run a platform, or your product is technology. They hold the roadmap, the architecture, the engineering team and the build-versus-buy calls.
A fractional CIO owns the technology the business runs on. This is the role you want when technology is central to how you operate but is not the thing you sell. They hold the internal systems, the data, the suppliers, the security posture and the operating model.
Many fintechs need CTO leadership because the product is the business. Many established financial services firms, brokers, advisers, wealth managers, need CIO leadership because the platform they run on decides whether they can serve clients well. Some need both, at different intensities. A good partner tells you which, honestly, rather than selling you the role they happen to have spare.
What fintech and financial services actually demand
Regulation is what sets this apart from technology leadership anywhere else, and a leader who has not worked inside it will build things that later have to be unbuilt.
Regulatory fluency. FCA expectations, Consumer Duty outcomes and the accountability that comes with the Senior Managers and Certification Regime shape technology decisions in financial services in ways they simply do not elsewhere. Someone who has carried that weight builds with it in mind from the start.
Operational resilience. The FCA’s rules on important business services and impact tolerances put uptime and recovery squarely on the board’s agenda. Your architecture has to earn that, not hope for it.
Security and data. Client money and personal financial data set a high bar. Cyber Essentials, often ISO 27001, tight and logged access, and evidence ready for the procurement or audit questionnaire before it lands.
Supplier and outsourcing discipline. A financial services firm stays accountable for the providers it relies on. Vendor choice and oversight are, in effect, regulated activities, and they need running as such.
Change without breaking trust. Moving quickly is fine until a release touches a customer’s money. Someone senior has to hold that line and answer for it.
What separates a strong fintech fractional from a generalist
Real financial services experience, not adjacent experience. Ask whether they have led technology inside a regulated firm, not just worked at a company that happened to have a compliance team.
Board-readiness. Financial services boards expect risk, resilience and spend framed in their language, with the regulatory implications spelled out. A leader who has sat in those rooms does this without prompting.
Strategy and delivery in one person. Advice that never ships is expensive. You want someone who sets direction and then makes it happen.
A named senior, not a bench. Ask exactly who will do the work and what they have run before. If the senior name at the pitch hands you to someone junior after signing, walk away.
Independence. If they resell tools or take referral fees, the advice is not neutral. You want someone whose only interest is your outcome.
How to choose
The answers to a few direct questions tell you more than any proposal. Have you led technology inside an FCA-regulated firm, and in what capacity? Do we need a CTO, a CIO, or both, and why? How would you handle operational resilience and our regulatory obligations? Who, by name, will do the work, and what have they run before? How do you leave our team stronger than you found it?
Specific, evidenced answers are the signal. Hedging and jargon are not.
Where ScaleAround fits
We are a Cardiff-based technology consultancy and a member of FinTech Wales, and we provide both fractional CTO and CIO leadership. Financial services is core ground for us.
Our founder, Oliver Smith, ran the AI and machine learning function at a UK consumer lender, where he built automated underwriting and a first-time arrears prediction capability from scratch. Leading technology and quality at the same lender, he delivered the UK’s first virtual credit card and replatformed the core lending application behind 300,000 accounts, taking around £5m a year out of the cost base. He facilitates sessions at the CDO Financial Services Exchange on the data challenges specific to machine learning, and he is a Fellow of the British Computer Society.
A word on how we work. Oliver leads the company and stays hands-on, and our engagements are led by senior practitioners with at least 15 years of relevant experience, drawn from a vetted network. No junior analysts, no rotating associates. Whether you need a CTO, a CIO, or both, you get someone who has held the role in a regulated business before.
How a fintech engagement usually runs
It starts with an honest read of where you are, the platform, the delivery, the risk and the resilience posture, in language your board understands. A technology review is often the cleanest way to get that baseline.
From there it is steady leadership. Sitting in your leadership meetings, holding the roadmap, making the supplier and hiring calls, and reporting to the board in plain English. The time flexes with need, from one day a month for oversight up to several during a raise or a resilience push, then steps back down. Pricing is a fixed fee or a day rate, agreed up front, so there are no surprises.
Frequently asked questions
Do you provide both fractional CTO and CIO services?
Yes. We cover both, and we will tell you honestly which one your situation actually calls for rather than selling you the role we have spare.
Do you work with FCA-regulated firms?
Yes. Regulated financial services is core ground, and our founder built and ran technology inside a UK consumer lender before founding ScaleAround.
What is the difference between a fractional CTO and a CIO for a fintech?
A CTO owns the product and the engineering behind it. A CIO owns the technology the business runs on. Product-led fintechs usually need a CTO; established financial services firms usually need a CIO; some need both.
How quickly can someone be in post?
Quickly, because we put forward a named senior who already fits your sector rather than running a recruitment process. The first weeks are spent understanding the business before changing anything.
How many days a month would we need?
Usually one to a few to start, more during a raise or a resilience programme, then less once things are steady. We would rather scale the days down when the intensive phase is over than quietly bill them on.
If you are weighing up fractional technology leadership for a fintech or financial services firm, our fractional CTO and CIO service explains how we work, and a technology review is a sensible first step. Book a 30-minute scoping call for an honest read on where you stand.