Scottish Building Society and Edinburgh-based fintech Malted AI have won the Best Fintech Collaboration award at the 2026 Scottish Financial Technology Awards for their work using artificial intelligence to analyse customer interactions.
The partnership brings together the world’s oldest remaining building society, established in 1848, and a technology business founded in 2023.
The award, presented at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), recognises the use of Malted AI’s Pulse platform to analyse customer conversations across digital channels and provide the Society with information to improve its services.
Scottish Building Society handles thousands of customer interactions each month. The technology enables it to analyse 100% of those conversations, rather than relying on the manual review of a relatively small proportion.
By converting conversation data into structured information, the platform helps staff identify recurring problems, respond to emerging issues and develop a better understanding of members’ needs.
The system also provides a shared source of information for operational, risk and compliance teams, reducing the need for separate manual reviews.
COMBINING TECHNOLOGY WITH PERSONAL SERVICE
The collaboration forms part of Scottish Building Society’s wider investment in technology, with the mutual seeking to improve operational efficiency while maintaining personal relationships with its members.
Paul Denton, chief executive of Scottish Building Society, said: “We are incredibly proud to partner with Malted AI, and to see that partnership recognised at the Scottish Financial Technology Awards is a fantastic moment for both teams.
“Our two organisations were founded 175 years apart, but only around a mile from each other, and this award shows what can be achieved when an established mutual and an ambitious young fintech work together towards the same goal.
“By understanding every customer interaction, we can identify issues earlier, respond more effectively, and crucially, continue to deliver the high level of personal service our members know and expect.”
The Society believes the additional information will help its teams identify potential service problems sooner and improve the consistency of customer support.
The approach is also intended to address a wider challenge in financial services, where the volume of customer communications can make comprehensive manual monitoring impractical.
Ewen Fleming, chief commercial officer at Malted AI, said: “We are thrilled to see our work with Scottish Building Society receive this recognition.
“At the heart of this collaboration is the ambition to support the Society’s members. Scottish Building Society now has a fuller picture of what matters most to its customers and can respond in a more personal and proactive way.”
