Emma RadmoreRachel Reeves, speaking at the Innovate Finance Global Summit, at which the FCA also launched its latest plans to support firms’ use of AI, announced the forthcoming first UK Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy. The Government will publish the strategy to coincide with the next Mansion House speech, on 15 July.
The Chancellor also reflected on the growth of the UK FinTech sector in the past 20 years, saying that almost half of Europe’s FinTech unicorns are based in Britain and around one third of all UK unicorns are FinTechs. She noted the UK’s world first Open Banking standards and how it was at the forefront of near-instant digital payments when FPS was set up back in 2008.
She then spoke of immediate future ambitions, not least the Government’s planned work in pensions regulation consolidation which will, among other things, allow pension funds sufficient scale to invest in growing industries such as FinTech.
She said she wants the UK to be a place where firms can take risks and innovate and experiment. She said the Government has listened to the industry’s plea to get the balance of regulation right.
The new Strategy will look at how the Government wants to build on the UK’s strengths and support firms to innovate.