Fintech Archives - Wharf Life

March 13, 2026March 13, 2026

University Of Sunderland In London offers fintech and trading MSc

The business course has been developed by Dr Yahaya Alhassan with the aim of equipping students with skills for employment and entrepreneurship

University Of Sunderland head of academic operations, Dr Yahaya Alhassan - image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life — University Of Sunderland head of academic operations, Dr Yahaya Alhassan – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life

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“Our first students are in their last few months of the course,” said Dr Yahaya Alhassan, head of academic operations at the University Of Sunderland In London.

“For me, it will be very emotional when they graduate from our first MSc Fintech And Trading course.”

In line with the university’s consistently practical approach, the programme was developed after Yahaya spotted a gap in the market.

“It was while I was working as an external examiner for another institution that I realised people were offering trading courses,” he said.

“Some were delivering fintech elements, but these were usually add-ons to finance courses dealing with things like online banking.

“My understanding of fintech is that it relates to specific technologies – things like artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and machine learning – and how you apply those to finance.

“I couldn’t find a programme like that, which also included trading so, following some market research, I decided to develop a course that would bring the two together.

“I defy anyone to find a similar offering – as of today we are unique.”

Based at the University Of Sunderland In London’s Isle Of Dogs campus at Harbour Exchange, the one-year course features a dedicated Fintech Lab created in partnership with the London Stock Exchange.

The London Stock Exchange Group Fintech Lab at the University Of Sunderland In London - image supplied by UOSiL — The London Stock Exchange Group Fintech Lab at the University Of Sunderland In London – image supplied by UOSiL

putting practice at the heart of the course

“The approach we adopt with the delivery of this programme is hands-on, practice-based, with a small number of students to ensure we give them a very good level of experience,” said Yahaya.

“We work with a number of prestigious partners, with those on the course also receiving certificates from them as part of the programme.

“Students learn how to trade and invest in stocks – which are doing well and which are not?

“But the reason we combine this with fintech is so they can use technology to make predictions based on the data flowing into the lab.

“In the past, traders have made decisions based on their own experience while looking at such information.

“But with technologies such as AI, once you have a lot of data, you can use it to start forecasting whether the price of a stock will rise or fall.

“With blockchain and machine learning, our students are taught how to model and to build apps, enabling them to potentially create their own fintech businesses.

“We also work with companies to ensure our courses are delivering what employers, such as those at Level39 in Canary Wharf, expect from someone with an MSc from this university.

“We also constantly look at the needs of the students and changes in the market.

“Our programmes come up for review every five years, which is when they get revalidated.

“But with technology developing so fast, we can’t wait that long so we’ve adopted an enhancement plan where we look at our programmes every two months to make sure we’re flexible and giving the market what it needs.”

The University Of Sunderland In London is based at Harbour Exchange on the Isle Of Dogs - image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life — The University Of Sunderland In London is based at Harbour Exchange on the Isle Of Dogs – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life

from Ghana to London via Sunderland

Yahaya himself is a good case study for the way in which education and exposure to new ideas can have a profound impact on the direction of a person’s life.

Originally from Ghana, he began his career in the higher education sector at the University Of Development Studies in Tamale not as an academic but as a member of its support staff as an assistant accountant.

“One day I was in the vice chancellor’s office and I saw an advert in a magazine for an MBA course at the University Of Sunderland,” he said.

“The VC had been in the UK himself, studying and working in Nottingham before he was recruited back to Ghana.

“I’d never thought about travelling abroad in my life, but I decided I might give it a go – I applied and then, honestly, I forgot about it.

“About two months later, a letter arrived containing a provisional offer to go on the course.

“I was supposed to pay £13,500 but it was a lot of money and I had no idea where I would get that from.”

In the end, Yahaya’s employer awarded him a scholarship to go on the course and he wound up bound for the North East and arrived improperly dressed for the weather.

“Arriving in Sunderland was the first time I’d seen snow in my life and I didn’t have a proper jacket,” he said.

“I didn’t know how to get to the university campus and I couldn’t understand the accent of the first man I met.

“Fortunately, I found someone who showed me where to go. I completed my MBA and returned to Ghana in 2003.

“That was part of the agreement for my scholarship but, after about nine months I was feeling discontented.

“Everything was so slow.

“When I came to the UK people were working from 8am, but I realised in Ghana it was going to be difficult for me because of the difference in pace.

“I told my boss I had to go back to England, and he said he understood, so I moved to London in 2004.

“My first job was at a college in Greenwich, teaching English in 2005 and I remained there until 2011.

“That’s when I saw that the University Of Sunderland was opening a London campus and I decided to apply.

“At first I was working 10 hours a week, then 20 and, after a couple of months, full-time – teaching on its MBA programme.

“After a year, the programme manager was leaving and so I applied and got that job in 2014 before going on to become assistant head of academic operations.

“Now, as head of academic operations, I make sure all the teaching and learning at the London campus goes well, dealing with quality assurance and making sure everything is done in line with our academic regulations.

“I am part of the senior managers team as well and I am responsible for the day-to-day running of the London-based academic programmes.

“The courses are led from Sunderland and run down here, which is why our campus has programme managers rather than leaders.

“I never thought I’d be working where I am now. I even told my friends in Ghana I would be coming back in a year.

“I still have that vision, to return one day, perhaps to follow my father in a political career.

“When I’m teaching, I say: ‘Who knows, maybe I’ll be president one day’.”

In the meantime, Yahaya’s passion is continuing to help develop the university’s offering with a BSc in Fintech And Digital Finance now available.

The intention of this three-year course is to act as a pipeline for those seeking to study the MSc, providing them with the relevant skills and knowledge to prepare them for the postgraduate course.

key details:

The University Of Sunderland In London offers a BSc Fintech And Digital Finance course as well as an MSc in Finance And Trading based at its Isle Of Dogs campus at Harbour Exchange.

The university welcomes new students several times during the year, so there are plenty of opportunities to apply.

Find out more about the Fintech And Trading MSc here

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November 2, 2025November 2, 2025

Gemba offers an invisible banking solution for fintechs from Level39

Created by entrepreneur Alexander Legoshin, the Canary Wharf based company offers regulated payments services to speed up firm’s journeys

Founder and CEO at Gemba, Alexander Legoshin - image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life — Founder and CEO at Gemba, Alexander Legoshin – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life

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Alexander Legoshin’s entrepreneurial journey officially began at the age of nine, selling newspapers and then groceries.

By 10 he’d already decided he’d like to build his own bank – “something significant, something that would help people”.

He said: “Business was something I was always interested in.

“It was easy to do after school and my parents didn’t earn a lot, so it was helpful for me and the family.

“I’ve always been an entrepreneur – I’ve never worked for a company except my own.

“Maybe it’s good to be employed by an organisation, but it just didn’t happen – I don’t have that track record.”

What Alexander does have, however, is a consistent history of creating companies.

Born in Russia, he finished school before going on to study at the Moscow State Institute Of Radio Engineer, Electronics And Automation.

always an entrepreneur

“The first company I started was in my first year of university and it just went on from there,” he said.

“I’m an IT person by education and my project for graduation was to develop a content management system.

“That ended up being too big for one person and became my first business.

“I managed to grow that company over six years before moving into marketing.

“That business dealt with media strategy and media buying and had a lot of high profile clients such as HSBC when they started operating in Russia.”

Further change came in 2014, when Alexander decided to leave the country of his birth, moving to Latvia.

In 2015 he sold his Russian business and launched a consultancy firm, working in corporate information and investment, with spells spent living in the Netherlands and the USA before embarking on his latest venture.

“In 2017 I had an idea to build a financial services company which I’m managing right now,” said Alexander.

“It was a long journey because we decided to get our own licence and build a product, which took about four and a half years.

“The first version wasn’t as successful as we wanted, but last year it turned into a successful business.

“We grew significantly in terms of customer turnover and revenue.”

Based at Canary Wharf’s tech community, Level39 in One Canada Square, Gemba takes its name from a Japanese term for a place where value is created in a business – the factory, a construction site or the sales floor, for example.

It’s where the real work happens.

“A good definition of what we do is that we act as an invisible bank,” said Alexander.

“We’re regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an authorised payment institution and we offer companies banking and payments services so that they can serve their customers.

“If you have an idea for a fintech business, for example, there are delays. To operate, you need to be regulated, to build the product and so on – there’s a wait to get a licence.

“What we offer is a way for companies to implement their ideas quickly without having to wait.

“They can use our white label solution – our infrastructure – to operate their business under their brand and retain their customers.

“We take care of delivering the services and all of the compliance and regulation in the background.

“Clients pay either a fixed fee to Gemba for those services or a percentage of payments.

“It literally takes seven minutes for a firm to start – everything is automatic.

“We offer secure payments, seamless accounting integration and fully integrated management solutions that fit an organisation’s workflow.

“Clients can create accounts for their companies and customers, design and issue cards with their own logo and either use our ready-made banking app or build their own using Gemba’s technology.

“We’re not technically a bank but we offer a full banking solution.

“Payments are the bloodstream of businesses – you don’t get the service unless you pay for it.

“At present, our licence doesn’t allow us to take deposits or make loans but we can do everything in terms of payments.

“Hopefully, we’ll be introducing deposits quite soon.”

basing Gemba in London

With a target market of fintech firms and accountancy businesses, Alexander decided to base the business in London.

He said: “Initially it was a decision about where to go for a licence – Luxembourg or London. We chose to apply to the British regulator because London is one of the financial capitals of the world and the market is huge.

“Initially, when we started building the product, I didn’t live here but I moved to the city about three years ago.

“My wife and I like London – it’s convenient because it’s located between Europe and the USA, which is great.

“We now have around 40 employees, with about half based at Level39 working in banking from Canary Wharf.

“Other staff work remotely under contract – they’re comfortable living in their own countries, so we don’t bring them to the UK unless they want to come.

“Level39 isn’t just an office space – it’s a community of like-minded people that acts as an accelerator for those who are trying to do something good in this world.

“They run a lot of events and it’s a really lovely place to be.

“Kudos to Amy French, its director and her team.

“The cost of the office space is comparable to other locations and perhaps a bit less than the City, but it’s a nice place to work.”

building a network

Gemba has made much of being part of the community, engaging with the likes of Barclays in the past.

The company was also selected earlier this year to participate in the JPMorgan Chase Fintech Forward Programme, a 12-week accelerator developed in collaboration with EY.

The scheme intends to support early stage fintech businesses, aiming to shape the future of financial services through innovation and technology.

Alexander said: “Being selected for the programme is an exciting opportunity for Gemba to collaborate with global leaders in financial services.

“It will help us accelerate our mission to deliver more efficient, accessible, and innovative financial solutions for businesses worldwide.

“Our full-stack platform and profitable revenue-share model are already built for high-speed, compliant growth—and this partnership will dramatically enhance our ability to empower the next generation of fintechs.”

looking ahead

In the future, the company plans to continue growing its customer base targeting financial startups as well as accountants and communities wanting to offer banking services.

Alexander said accountancy was a natural partner for his firm as Gemba was able to offer a “friction-free” experience for a practice’s clients thanks to information sharing to satisfy compliance request.

He also said that communities wishing to handle money could use Gemba to handle their own customers with a pilot scheme already in operation in London to explore opportunities.

“As a 10-year-old in Russia, I wasn’t thinking of Canary Wharf, of course, when I was imagining building a bank,” he said.

“But I was thinking about having my company’s name on a building.

“Perhaps we’ll get to that point.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a plan to do that – more like a dream – but by working step-by-step we may get to the point where the dream comes true.

“Right now, it’s great to be based at One Canada Square – it’s a landmark building and absolutely tourist material.

“People know Tower Bridge, The Gherkin and this building in Canary Wharf.”

key details: Gemba

You can find out more about Gemba’s services for businesses on the company’s website here.

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May 13, 2022May 24, 2022

Canary Wharf: How Lenderwize spotted telecoms’ companies’ need for finance

Level39-based firm verifies digital assets allowing money to be lent to the businesses handling them

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Lawrence Gilioli’s business, at least at present, is mostly hidden from the minds of the public.

Make a call from the UK to Brazil and the phone rings, someone picks up and the conversation happens.

As far as the user is concerned, they’re paying BT for that call and it’s delivering that connection.

Except, in the world of telecoms, that’s not what goes on.

“BT doesn’t have all the lines in the world, so needs to connect with an intermediary or wholesaler,” said Lawrence.

“They, in turn, don’t have all the lines either, so they need to connect to a terminating operator, which completes that phone call.”

It’s in this middle stage that Lawrence, a seasoned entrepreneur with a background in the telecoms industry, has identified his first market.

“These companies are invoicing each other – the middle man has to pay the terminating operator in Brazil and BT has to pay the middle man.

“However, typically the intermediary has to pay Brazil on seven days, but won’t get paid by BT for 60 days.”

That payment mismatch at worst means the wholesaler can’t do business at all, or limits what they can do, due to cash flow.

To address this problem, Lawrence created Lenderwize.

Based at Canary Wharf’s tech accelerator, Level39 in One Canada Square – but with staff distributed around the world in reflection of the industry it serves – its aim is to provide smart finance solutions for these companies.

“We are essentially talking about digital commodities and services here,” said Lawrence.

“Today’s world is ever more digital – that means traditional banks don’t understand it and they don’t know how to fund it, to validate activity or how to mitigate risk.

“So we’ve invented a fintech platform that uses patent pending technology to capture the digital assets behind phone calls, text messages and data use, for example.

“These things are intangible, but our technology makes them tangible because we are able to capture, validate and certify that these are real assets.

“That means you can lend against something Lenderwize certifies has been delivered.

“We understand this market because me and my partners come from this industry, which is huge – $64billion a year and growing. It includes voice calls, text messages, data use and, now, other e-goods and commodities.

“It is hidden to the general public and it’s even hidden to the financial world, because, being digital, once again, they will shy away from it.

“Typically banks or other investment institutions want to invest in real estate, the motor industry or tangible things like that.

“Consequently, there is this whole digital world that is under-served by banks and under-capitalised, but with a tremendous need because this area is only growing in size and companies need access to funding.”

Digital assets are increasingly important in a connected world

Having launched the platform two years ago with the intention of building a business ultimately to sell to a large financial institution once the concept is proven, Lenderwize now has 12 staff split across London, Italy, Australia, Holland and Switzerland.

“We have just passed processing 350million calls in the last year and we expect that to double this year and to triple within two,” said Lawrence. “We expect to surpass a billion calls.

“The way it works is that our clients buy into our system and the data is uploaded automatically onto our platform.

“That gives us access to their switches anonymously, so we can validate and verify that the information they are giving us on a daily basis is verifiable.

“Right now we’re doing that on a sample basis – looking at calls going to the same destinations from the same number and capturing durations and frequencies.

“We’re checking to see if the numbers are real and, ideally, will ultimately do that on every single asset.

“That’s part of our know-how, but it’s the case that the operators in this market require these services, so clients reach out to us because the need is so great.

“We have a very precise credit vetting procedure and our ability to verify the assets means we’ve only had one default so far, which is exceptional.

“I think the ability to analyse beforehand and then to validate on a daily basis is the key to success. It means that if there is something wrong, we discover it immediately, not at the end of the month.”

In addition to providing credit to these wholesale companies, Lenderwize is also in a position to embed a range of financial services in its operation.

Lawrence said: “We’re looking to exit in three years and we think we’ll be sexy to a bank, a telecoms operator, an insurance company or a big bank.

“That’s because ultimately we are an entire ecosystem that can be used for supply chain financing or supply chain payments, but the direction our fintech platform is going in, which mitigates risk, will be adding on embedded finance, insurance and payment solutions, all in real time.

“As this whole world gets more and more digital, the need to speed things up in real time becomes greater, from risk analysis to the transfer of value.

“Our direction is to continue to develop new technology but we don’t want to re-invent the wheel ourselves, we want to develop partnerships with high quality businesses.

“That’s why we’re so happy to be at Level39, because there’s so much interesting stuff going on here.

“We want to partner with organisations doing specific things to add to our mosaic, creating services for our investors and our clients.”

Lawrence hopes to also offer consumers financial services

As if revolutionising the finances of the telecoms industry on the business end wasn’t enough to be getting on with, Lawrence also has ideas about how Lenderwize might branch out into the consumer market.

“Today we’re B-to-B and tomorrow we want to be B-to-C,” he said.

“At the moment you’re probably paying a flat fee for your phone contract, but statistically you’re throwing away about 25% of that money.

“We want to give people the ability to convert what they’re paying for and not using.

“Three years ago, 25% of people surveyed globally said they would be likely or highly likely to change their operator on the spot if they got a phone call offering them a new deal.

“Three years later and that figure is 66% – there is no loyalty in the mobile world.

“This means that Vodaphone or BT, for example, could lose their entire customer base overnight, potentially.

“Mobile operators need to create loyalty programs, to create stickiness.

“So we will be proposing our finance-meets-telecom solution on people’s phones, where customers can place unused airtime that they have already paid for in an interest-generating wallet.

“We want to tackle two great inefficiencies – airtime and bank savings accounts that offer low or no rates of interest.

“We want to convert these from cost centres into profit-generating centres – a tool for everyone to use in a proactive way. We’ll be talking more about this later in the year.”

Lawrence, who holds dual Italian and American citizenship said he’d based the business in London because of the efficient infrastructure, easy access to clients and investors and tax breaks for startups.

“Level39 is at the heart of fintech in Europe, it’s also the coolest place to be aesthetically and it’s connected to all the banks,” he said.

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- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com