What we need for a secure UK fintech future

Janine Hirt

CEO, Innovate Finance

The fintech sector plays a critical role in driving growth across the UK. So, how can we ensure the UK fintech sector continues to thrive for the benefit of consumers?

With over 76,000 jobs created, 60% of lending to British SMEs, over half of all UK unicorn companies and over $5 billion of inward investment in 2023 alone, UK fintech is an incredible success story.

Fintech tools and contributions

Fintechs offer technological tools designed to improve productivity and efficiency in financial services, at a reduced cost. They help to advance a more democratic and safer financial sector through developing solutions for open banking, payments, fraud and crime prevention and more. Moreover, fintechs are fostering greater financial inclusion and financial wellness across the country by putting the customer first. 

Fintechs are fostering greater
financial inclusion and financial
wellness across the country.

Ambitions for UK fintech

As the industry body for UK fintech, Innovate Finance works with industry leaders, regulators and government to cement the UK as the best place in the world to start, scale and grow a fintech business — bolstering the UK economy in both the short and long term. Our recently released ‘Innovate Finance FinTech Plan for Government’ sets out a pathway for our new government and identifies £328 which can be added to the UK economy over the next five years if the sector is properly supported.

As part of this plan, we identify three big ambitions for the UK, each with a step-by-step roadmap to unlock the full potential of fintech and maintain global leadership:

• Make the UK the world’s first smart data economy
• Make the UK the most secure place in the world for consumers and businesses to use digital finance
• Make the UK the world leader in adopting new technology in financial services by embracing innovation and equipping consumers with essential digital and financial skills

Securing fintech resilience

As global competition for fintech investment and innovation increases, this is a critical moment for the UK. We must all work together — industry, government and regulators — to achieve the goals above and ensure we continue to have an effective policy and regulatory landscape, a strong investment environment and the talent pool to support these growing companies. The future of the UK’s leadership in fintech, and financial services more broadly, depends on it. More importantly, so does our economy and the financial wellness of consumers across the country.