The prospect of a Brexit-driven election and Labour coming into power could impede the progress made by the UK FinTech sector under the current Conservative government.

This is according to Ian Anderson, executive chairman at the Cicero Group, chairman of the FinTech Strategy Group and non-executive director at Innovate Finance, who was speaking at the China/UK FinTech Bridge conference today.

He noted that former chancellor George Osborne had great enthusiasm for financial technology innovation, something that was not initially matched by Philip Hammond when he took over, although that has changed recently and “FinTech is almost every second word” in his speeches.

But while the chancellor is “leaning in” to FinTech, Anderson stated: “The general election prospect could create a change in government, and generally it’s been much harder to get the Labour Party to engage with FinTech at the highest level.

“Corbyn and McDonnell view it differently from the Conservatives, who are much more happy to hang around things like private equity and venture capital; they seem to see FinTech as a faster way to rip off the consumer than some of the old ways,” Anderson commented.

Addressing Brexit directly, he lamented the “huge amounts of uncertainty” so close to the deadline and noted that many FinTech firms have told him of nervousness around future capital flows into the UK, with investment opportunities outside of the UK being considered.

“We opened a business in Dublin earlier this year – you’ve got to follow the clients,” Anderson added.

To help support the sector, he said the FinTech Strategy Group is planning to launch a skills portal to attract new blood into the industry, along with work on capital portal to help give easier access to funds for startups.

“Passporting and liquidity worries are taking money off the table, so we must make sure the momentum is maintained in terms of regulatory and governmental support,” he added.

Anderson was joined on stage by FinTech Circle chief executive Susanne Chishti, who commented that her approach - shared by others in the industry - was to just “get on with things and ignore Brexit”, trying to build business and be more effective abroad by engaging with things like FinTech bridges with other countries.

The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.

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