Ambar Vitelli-Khosla
Strategic Partnerships
After a two year break, IFGS returned to the City of London Guildhall as the flagship event of UK Fintech Week. With regulators, policymakers , Financial Services Institutions, Investors, Tintechs and more all under one roof, it was the perfect time to reflect on the incredible growth of the Fintech Industry in the UK, a year on from the Kalifa Review.
The Speed of Innovation within the UK has been, in part, credited to the investment in the sector, Ron Kalifas review, the Fintech Pledge by TechNation, FCA’s regulatory sandbox supporting more than 50 firms and the UK Digital Sandbox. The digital sandbox, by the City of London Corporation and the FCA, complete with synthetic data, has allowed over two thousand industry specialists to collaborate to build products suited to the future of finance.
Looking at the UK Fintech industry a year on from the Kalifa review, it is clear that not only have Kalifa’s recommendations been incredibly beneficial but are actively being implemented. As a London based fintech, founded by two Autralians, with global connections, we are a prime example of international collaboration. The Bank of England has continued to advance its work on CBDC, while the Department of Culture, Media, have engaged industry task forces to progress their work on Digital ID. Beyond policy and government, extending R&D tax credits to Data and Cloud Computing has helped encourage and facilitate innovation across the industry.
A significant moment at IFGS, was when the Rt Hon. John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, delivered a keynote praising the UK fintech industry for its growth and highlighting the UK’s position on crypto businesses. The position of the UK as the leading European fintech hub, which is home to over half of Europe’s Fintech Unicorns, second only to the US worldwide. In addition to confirming the government’s efforts to upholding the Kalifa review, Glenn affirmed the UK’s stance as being, ‘open for business — open for Crypto businesses.’ This is a huge step forward announcing that stablecoins are being considered as part of the payment framework. This is exciting as we have a steady growth of Crypto businesses and blockchain technologies integrated on our marketplace.
Continuing the discussion on innovation, our very own Director of Financial Services, Jonathan Middleton sat down with the Fintech Times to discuss key trends over the past year, paying attention to the health of the fintech industry which is evident in the growth of our Fintech Marketplace. Jonathan also explored the importance of the change in business models putting more emphasis on partnerships for encouraging collaboration to drive banks innovation strategy. Easy access to fintechs ensures that banks are able to engage new tech to create innovative solutions at record speed ensuring that the UK remains at the top of its game when it comes to technological innovation within the industry.
As the biggest event of UK Fintech Week, IFGS definitely delivered.
The event reflected the UK’s dominance in the European Fintech Market by illustrating the incredible growth of the industry following $11.6 bn of investment into UK fintech firms, and a further $25.5 bn into the UK tech sector.
The FCA’s exploration of outcome and principle based regulation and support of global collaboration echoes the Deputy Mayor of London for Business, Rajesh Agrawal’s view that London, being that it has the fin of New York & the tech of the West Coast, is the centre for Fintech innovation and technical advancement.
