UK fintech review lays out a plan to supercharge the industry

A £1bn growth fund, changes to visas and new listing regulations are among the recommendations to grow the UK fintech sector.

The UK has long dominated Europe’s fintech arena but the sector needs to re-strategise for the future after Brexit and coronavirus recovery.

That’s according to an independent review backed by the British government into the burgeoning sector.

Led by former Worldpay chief executive Ron Kalifa, the report found that the UK accounts for 10pc of the global fintech market and the sector is worth more than $11bn to the UK economy every year. But Kalifa made a number of recommendations for how the UK can maintain its fintech lead, especially in a post-Brexit landscape.

‘We must continue to nurture our start-up culture, but crucially we must also give our high-growth firms the support to become global giants’
^{– RON KALIFA}

He said the government should create a £1bn growth fund to invest in British fintech start-ups. A ‘fintech scale up’ visa was also recommended to ease the process of bringing international talent to the UK to work in fintech.

Regulation is a hefty cost of doing business in fintech and the report recommended the introduction of a ‘scale box’ for companies to test new products under regulatory supervision, which is similar to the sandbox programme currently run by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Kalifa said the UK should loosen up rules for stock market listings to encourage more companies to go public.

To read more, please click on the link below…

Source: UK fintech review lays out a plan to supercharge the industry