Member Article

Global FinTech body calls on government to protect EU passporting in wake of Brexit

Innovate Finance, the FinTech membership body, has released its Autumn Statement submission which it hopes will pressure the government into protecting the UK’s booming FinTech sector in light of Brexit.

Compiled from interviews with its startup members and interviews with its institutional backers, the Innovate Finance Autumn Statement Submission outlines ‘key areas of focus’ and challenges for the industry in the coming months.

In the report, the industry body credits the UK’s favourable regulatory regime and the government’s support for innovation as two of the main reason why the country, and London in particular, is currently a world leader in FinTech.

However, it warned that the sector is particularly at risk in the fall out of Brexit negotiations and pinpointed EU passporting and access to the single market as ‘arguably the most significant issue’ facing the UK’s financial services.

It comes after the Prime Minister, Theresa May, intimated that her government would look to follow a ‘Hard Brexit’ path which may not include continued unfettered access to the European single market, at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this week.

Other recommendations from the body, which was founded in 2014 with support from the City of London and the Canary Wharf Group, outline the need for an ‘industrial strategy for the digital age’ underpinned by sustained investment in the sector and an upskilling of the UK’s workforce to meet the demands of the growing FinTech industry.

The report concludes: “The first Autumn Statement following the Referendum on the membership of the European Union will be a fundamentally important indicator as to the future direction of the UK FinTech market.

“The UK Government must ensure we continue to drive investment and innovation, attract talent and capital, and maintain an open trading relationship with the EU, and indeed, the rest of the world.”

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond is to unveil his first Autumn Statement on Thursday 23 November, and has already hinted that it will mark a significant departure from his predecessor, George Osborne’s economic strategy.

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