HM Treasury
Kicking off a renewed push to boost investment in Britains world leading FinTech sector, the Economic Secretary has unveiled plans to hold a new international FinTech conference in London next year.
The annual conference, set to take place in April (2017), will offer another strong opportunity to consolidate Londons position as the worlds leading FinTech capital and will showcase the UKs FinTech sector to international investors.
Speaking at the Tech & Fintech Expo today, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, said:
Backing Britains world leading financial services industry is a key part of our plan to ensure the UK remains a great place to do business.
The government is determined that London stays at the cutting edge of financial innovation and thats why we will host a new, annual FinTech conference to boost capital investment in one of our fastest growing sectors.
This will bring together hundreds of British FinTech firms and investors from around the world and cement our position as the global FinTech capital.
The decision to launch an annual conference follows an EY report, published in March 2016, which confirmed London is at the cutting edge of FinTech.
The report recognised the UK as ahead of every other FinTech centre, thanks to its high ranking across all key ecosystem attributes: talent, capital, demand and, in particular, its policy and regulatory environment.
This supportive environment means that Britains FinTech sector has boomed in recent years. It now employs over 61,000 people and in 2015 it generated 6.6 billion revenue.
EY also identified areas where the UK FinTech sector could improve to ensure it continues to be one of the UKs great success stories. At the moment, the UK FinTech sector is falling behind other countries sectors in capital investment. In 2015 the UK attracted 524 million of investment in FinTech in 2015, compared to 3.6 billion by California and 1.4 billion by New York.
The conference will look to fill this gap by creating the opportunity for international investors to benefit from the wealth of FinTech firms seeking to scale-up.