A FinTech alliance between the UK and China was launched this week by BGTA during the Innovate Finance Global Summit.

It is aimed at fostering the development of the global tech and investment ecosystem with a fund that benefits the UK via inward investment and acts as a catalyst for exports to China.

BGTA identified a lack of communication on an individual corporate level as a core problem, especially between trusted players in both countries. This slows down potential partnerships and commercial deals, as companies try to navigate through various decision makers.

Among the founding members are techUK - a membership of 950 technology business - and Innovate Finance - an independent not-for-profit membership association representing the UK's global FinTech community. Founding Chinese organisations include Chengdu Financial Holding Group - a state-owned enterprise to improve the competitiveness of its local financial industry - and the FinTech and Internet Security Research Center - a FinTech think tank.

Simon Spier, head of international trade at techUK, said that when UK companies decide to expand into China, one of the main challenges they encounter is the difference in culture. “We’re working alongside BGTA and joining the UK-China FinTech Alliance to help organisations understand how to go about doing business in China, what opportunities there are, and the cultural differences that need to be addressed to make sure they can work in the best possible way.”

Helen Wang, chief executive of BGTA, commented: “The ambition is that we can see a significant improvement for companies on both sides accessing each market, and provide a feedback loop to policy providers and decision makers, to better improve communications between these two nations.”

The founding members will set the direction of key themes and topics to be discussed at meetings once every two months.

Further members can join the alliance by putting their name and company forward. Following a quality check by the administration team, trusted parties will be able to join the not-for-profit organisation and access regular meetings, roundtables and events.

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