The rise takes the total number of members to 92.

The financial and professional services body is targeting further growth this year, with several new members in the pipeline.

Last week, SFE announced that Royal London had become one of its new members. Scottish Friendly and the Scottish National Investment Bank also joined as members last year.

The new members of SFE are:

• Albany Beck: An audit, consulting and implementation solutions business that delivers their unique model to Scotland’s financial services sector.
• Alvarez & Marsal: A leading global professional services firm that opened its first Scottish office in Glasgow in February 2020 as part of its ongoing regional office expansion.
• Exizent: the industry platform for professionals involved with managing the bereavement process. Founded in 2018 their base is in Glasgow.
• GingrTech: An award-winning business simulation technology company based in Edinburgh. GingrTech’s highly adaptive platform Rocket is successfully continuing to drive transformational change across its clients and delivery partners.
• IQUAD: Training and development technology business that gives businesses access to a secure, flexible pipeline of diverse talent, empowering organisations to transform technology skill development and inclusivity.
• Nile HQ: Strategic design consultancy that helps financial services organisations navigate complexity towards long-lasting change.
• Odgers Berndston: Executive search and recruitment firm which delivers executive search, assessment and development to businesses and organisations varying in size, structure and maturity.
• Royal London: The UK’s largest mutual life, pensions and investment company, which has a substantial presence in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• Scottish Investment Trust: An Edinburgh-based independently managed investment trust company which was formed in 1887 to provide investors with an efficient way to invest in companies around the world.
• Scottish Friendly: A Mutual life organisation based in Glasgow, and is a dynamic financial services group dedicated to the efficient provision of a wide range of financial products and services.
• Scottish National Investment Bank: Scotland’s mission-led development bank, established by Scottish Government to provide long-term investments to build a stronger, fairer, more sustainable Scotland.
• Social Investment Scotland: Social enterprise and charity established in 2001 to provide a new finance model for Scotland’s charities and social enterprises. Since then it has invested almost £100m.

The organisation has been working to add value to its membership. SFE has appointed Jayne Currie, a marketing and product experience specialist, as its new director of membership services with the objective of developing its proposition to attract new members.

As part of this larger objective, in-person events are now being organised and plans are being formalised to hold regular networking events in Edinburgh and Glasgow, The Insider reports. 

Sandy Begbie, SFE chief executive, said: “While the pandemic and pressing climate crisis have been catalysts for change, they are also reminders that even bigger challenges lie ahead, and maintaining a strong and robust financial and professional services industry is critical to our ability to solve them. This is the rationale behind our new strategy which has been at the heart of everything we have done this year.