FinTech (Financial Technology)

BC&A Innovation

R&D Spotlight

FinTech is one of the most exciting and fast-paced industries in the UK’s digital economy. From mobile banking apps to investment platforms, payment technologies, and blockchain solutions, businesses in the financial technology space are constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

However, building reliable, secure, and user-friendly financial technology isn’t easy. The combination of strict regulatory requirements, high customer expectations, and the need for robust security means FinTech companies often face unique technical challenges. These challenges, when approached through genuine problem-solving and technological advancement, can qualify for R&D tax relief.

To qualify, your work must go beyond routine development or commercial application of existing technologies. It must seek to achieve an advance in science or technology, such as improving system performance, enhancing data security, or developing new algorithms. The work must involve technical uncertainty – meaning you had to experiment, test, and solve problems where the outcome wasn’t certain.

If your FinTech projects involve tackling these kinds of challenges, you could be eligible for valuable R&D tax relief. Below are some examples of activities that might qualify.

Developing New Financial Platforms or Tools

Creating bespoke platforms for mobile banking, online investment, peer-to-peer lending, or digital wallets often involves developing new systems that securely process transactions, manage user data, and meet regulatory standards. These projects can require significant technical innovation.

Overcoming Real-Time Transaction Processing Challenges

Building systems that process thousands of transactions per second, verify user identities instantly, or update customer balances in real-time involves solving complex technical problems, especially when balancing speed with security and reliability.

Developing Complex Financial Algorithms

Creating new algorithms for risk assessment, fraud detection, credit scoring, or automated investment decisions often requires original research, testing, and tuning. These activities are typically beyond standard software development.

Integrating with Legacy Banking or Payment Systems

Overcoming technical challenges to connect modern platforms with older banking systems, payment gateways, or financial data sources can involve significant R&D, especially when dealing with poor documentation, outdated protocols, or performance issues.

Ensuring Robust Security and Regulatory Compliance

Developing new methods of encryption, secure data storage, and transaction verification to meet regulatory requirements such as PCI DSS or PSD2 often involves pushing the boundaries of what existing solutions offer.

Building Scalable Cloud-Based Financial Services

Designing and optimising cloud-based platforms that scale reliably as user numbers grow, while maintaining high security and performance standards, can require advanced architectural and engineering work.

Innovating with Blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology

Developing blockchain-based solutions for payments, smart contracts, or digital identity management often involves solving technical challenges around performance, security, and scalability.

Enhancing User Experience with Advanced Interfaces

Building intuitive user experiences that simplify complex financial services – such as real-time dashboards, budgeting tools, or personal finance insights – often requires overcoming technical hurdles in data processing and visualisation.

If your FinTech business is tackling any of these challenges, you could be entitled to R&D tax relief. This can help you recover a percentage of the costs associated with your development work, freeing up cash to reinvest in future innovation.

Our Process

What to expect when working with
BC&A Innovation

1. Discovery Call

Book your FREE 15 minute discovery call today to discuss your R&D activity and we'll guide you on best next steps and estimated claim value.

2. Information gathering

Our technical experts and industry specialists will work with you to uncover all areas of work activity eligible under the R&D scheme, ensuring we have everything we need to support a robust, defensible and maximised claim.

3. Create R&D Tax Claim

Our technical experts will write your claim and supporting documents with a clear assessment of your eligible activity and costs, ensuring compliance with the scheme's governance throughout.

4. Approval & Submission

We'll share, for your approval, the claim draft and supporting documentation. We'll explain in detail how we have arrived at our assessment of your claimable activity, costs and claim value. When you're happy, your claim can be submitted as part of your standard end-of-year processes.

5. Liaising with HMRC

Should HMRC require any further information or have queries regarding your claim, we'll liaise with them to ensure speedy payment without any reduction in claim value.

6. Payment

Once your payment is received, we'll send it across the same working day and advise you on processes that can be put in place to make future claims even more hassle-free. Don't worry about claims going forward, we'll be in regular contact to remind you what is needed and when.

About BC&A Innovation

We've helped hundreds of businesses like yours secure millions in Research & Development tax relief

Our team recognises the importance of R&D in advancing UK businesses, big and small, and we understand the time burden, resources and complexities of claiming tax relief for that R&D. These constraints often leave companies failing to get the tax relief they’re entitled to or underclaiming significantly due to unclear, often confusing guidelines about what constitutes R&D. As experts in R&D tax relief, we’re here to unblur the lines and create robust, defensible and maximised claims on your behalf.

We’re experienced tax professionals, accountants and technical experts with a deep understanding of the R&D tax relief regulations. We’ve worked in many of the industries we now serve and are ideally placed to understand your business’ R&D Activities. As part of HMRC’s panel on R&D, we stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the guidance, to provide our clients with the most accurate and up-to-date advice.

At BC&A Innovation we take the burden of claim generation away from the business so you can do what you do best, while we do what we do best. We pride ourselves on our integrity, professionalism and commitment to our clients.

Not sure if you qualify for R&D tax relief? Book a FREE discovery call today.

Many of the businesses we work with were unsure if they qualified for R&D tax relief at first. A few had even been told by other agencies that they could not claim. Yet, with our help they were able to correctly identify eligible R&D projects and claim back vital funds.

As experts in HMRC’s definitions of Research & Development, we’ll be able to tell you if you should make a claim or not. We’re success fee based, which means it isn’t in our interest or yours to take forward claims that won’t pass HMRC’s stringent checks. If we say it’s worth doing, you can take that to the bank.

Ready for a discovery call? Think of it as a no-obligation chat where we can discuss the work you’ve undertaken and identify tax-saving opportunities. Our expert consultants are keen to speak with you.