The chancellor has warned that “there is no room for complacency” to the UK’s FinTech sector, despite recent successes.

Addressing the Innovate Finance Global Summit yesterday, Philip Hammond pointed out that international competition is growing – from Shanghai to San Francisco, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Berlin and Paris.

“So the question for us is: how to maintain our advantage in FinTech, in an increasingly competitive and globalised world?” he asked the audience.

“Of course, I recognise that the immediate key to doing so is to ensure that we ratify the Brexit deal with the European Union - and do it soon - I know that, nearly three years on from the referendum, the ongoing uncertainty is bad for business, and that every one of you in this room would have wanted us to have resolved this issue many months ago.”

Hammond said that the government was making progress, citing the finalisation of the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, although he added that it “is time for parliament to make up its mind”.

Having delayed his conference speech from Monday due to talks with the opposition, Hammond stated: “We are reaching out across the house to try and build the majority we need – which is the right way - indeed the only way - to proceed in a parliamentary democracy.”

He sought to reassure the room about access to skills and talent, as many question what will happen when the UK leaves the European Union.

“Even as free movement ends, Britain will remain open to talent from around the world,” Hammond stated. “From this Autumn we will completely exempt PhD-level roles from visa caps, alongside the new Startup and Innovator Visas we launched earlier this year.

“The government has also set out a framework for a future immigration system in the Immigration Whitepaper, focussed on attracting those with the skills we need in the UK economy – no matter where they come from,” he continued, adding: “Crucially, and very unusually, we have committed to consulting with business over an unheard-of 12-month period, to ensure that the regime we put in place works for business, supporting the recruitment of skilled and talented people, and ensure that it happens without excessive bureaucracy.”

Hammond noted that while migrants have played a crucial role in the development of the FinTech industry, there is also “a fantastic pipeline” of home-grown talent, strengthened by things like the recently launched FinTech for Schools programme and the FinTech Jobs Board.

Moving on from Brexit, he suggested that in just a few years, the innovative approaches of today’s FinTech disruptors will simply be the way the financial services industry operates.

“Either traditional financial services businesses will have adopted them wholesale, or they will have been displaced by the FinTech disruptors.”

Hammond also mentioned the recently-established FinTech Bridges with Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, South Korea and China, along with the first UK-India FinTech dialogue and UK-Africa FinTech partnership.

Moving onto regulation, he pledged commitment to building the most “pro-growth and pro-innovation” regulatory environment in the financial services world.

“After all, there’s no point innovators pushing the cutting edge if regulators can’t keep up – there’s no point us having the digital equivalent of requiring a man with a red flag to walk in front of a new-fangled horseless carriage,” Hammond commented, noting the successes of the Financial Conduct Authority’s sandboxes and Open Banking roll-out.

“We’ve set up a Regulators’ Pioneer Fund to innovate in other areas of regulation, and the FinTech strategy that I launched last year set out actions to make the UK the best place to start and grow a FinTech business, including ensuring access to long-term capital for scale-ups.”

Hammond also lauded the UK as “one of the most cyber-secure jurisdictions in the world”, although he added that resources like the National Cyber Security Centre and the GCHQ need joining up “to make sure that new businesses know where to go to tap into the enormous potential of the UK’s ecosystem”.

He concluded by welcoming the launch of the FinTech Alliance, bringing together the UK’s FinTech network in one easily accessible “digital marketplace”, which will provide access to people, firms and information, including connections to investors, policy and regulatory updates, and the ability to attract and hire candidates.

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