CEO Update – April 2023

I hope this finds you well and enjoying the beginning of spring. This is one of my favourite times of year - not only because of the better weather, but also because it means our flagship event, the Innovate Finance Global Summit, is just around the corner!  Our amazing team is busy with final preparations, and I am very much looking forward to seeing you in person at the Guildhall on 17 and 18 April for IFGS 2023 and the official kick off of UK FinTech Week. 

This year marks the 9th annual edition of our popular conference, and the theme of IFGS this year is ‘impact’. Across the course of two jam-packed days we will focus on the tangible and positive impact FinTech has had on the economy, on society, and on our financial services industry, and we will take a deep dive into the trends, challenges, opportunities, and technologies that will change the future of the sector as we know it. You can find a full agenda here.

Spaces are limited, so if you haven’t already, please make sure you register or secure your member ticket now.

Welcome to New Members

I am delighted to welcome our newest Innovate Finance members Cogo, Nova Credit, Thunes, Manigo, SendSpend, Chicago Booth Business School, Birmingham Business School, Acre Software, Flexys, Penny, RibbonGlobal, Orrick, Amdaris, Leeds Building Society, Stripe, Zilch, Fido Spa, CoinCover, Paymentology, Edenbase and FrankfurtRheinMain Gmbh to our community.  

Industry Update

In our annual FinTech Investment Landscape published earlier this year, we outlined how the UK received more than 12.5bn USD in investment in 2022, second only in the world to the United States and ahead of the next 13 European countries combined. While this reflected an 8% drop in investment from 2021, more investment still poured into the UK in 2022 than any other year bar 2021. And while investment into FinTech globally saw close to a 30% drop, the single digit drop of only 8% here was a testament to the strength, maturity and resilience of our UK financial innovation ecosystem, and the inspiring entrepreneurs and innovators that comprise it.  

In recent weeks, the speedy and effective response by the UK Government to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank UK has also underlined the global leadership of the United Kingdom in tech and innovation. The Government’s rapid response, and its willingness to engage with industry throughout, showed that it is serious about supporting the UK’s tech and startup economy – and unlocking the huge potential these firms hold for our future growth and economic prosperity. A huge thank you to the government representatives, policy makers, and civil servants who worked tirelessly across 48 hours to reach a solution which saved so many of our most promising, innovative and exciting companies. And inspiring as always to see our outstanding Innovate Finance member community leaning in over that weekend to share impact data and support affected firms as we continued to liaise with government and regulators.  

On the Monday immediately following the collapse of SVB UK, and in collaboration with our partners Hogan Lovells, Innovate Finance ran a webinar to discuss the implications of the US and UK events to support our members. You can now watch the webinar on demand. You can also check the list of FinTechs that can support your company if you have been affected and view Hogan Lovells' legal and regulatory FAQshere.

Policy Update 

Our incredible 4-person policy team has responded to twelve regulatory and policy consultations since the start of 2023, and we are now working on another nine consultations due by the beginning of June. Thanks to all our members who have shared perspectives and supporting data across these pieces. Submitted consultations include: 

• BoE / PRA / FCA DP3/22 on Operational resilience: critical third parties to the UK financial sector
• FCA DP22/5 on The potential competition impacts of Big Tech entry and expansion in retail financial services
• PSR Re-Consultation CP22/5 on Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams: Measure 1 Metric C process
• FCA CP22/20 on Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels
• FOS Consultation on its 2023/24 plans and budget
• FCA CP22/27 on Introducing a gateway for firms who approve financial promotions
• FCA / PRA / BoE DP5/22 on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• FCA MS19/1 Credit Information Market Study Interim Report and Discussion Paper
• PSR CP23/1: APP scams data publishing guidance
• HMT Consultation on Reform of the Consumer Credit Act
• FOS Temporary changes to outcome reporting in our business-specific complaints data
• PRA Consultation CP16/22 on the Implementation of the Basel 3.1 standards

Upcoming consultations we will respond to include:

• PSR MR22/1.5 Approach to profitability analysis working paper
• HMT CP Payment Services Regulations Review and Call for Evidence
• HMT Regulation of Buy-Now PayLater Consultation on draft legislation
• HMT / BoE CP Future Financial Services Regulatory Regime for Cryptoassets
• HMT Call for Evidence: Aligning the ring-fencing and resolution regimes
• PRA CP5/23 – Remuneration: Enhancing proportionality for small firms
• PRA CP4/23 - The Strong and Simple Framework: Liquidity and Disclosure requirements for Simpler-regime Firms
• HMT / BoE The digital pound: A new form of money for households and businesses?
• DSIT A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation

I was honoured - personally, and on behalf of our amazing FinTech members and IF team - to be mentioned by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his LinkedIn business highlights and to have our Innovate Finance FinTech investment numbers cited earlier this year.

We were also delighted to welcome the Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith MP and the CEO of the British Business Bank Louis Taylor to our March meeting of the Innovate Finance FinTech Strategy Group to discuss key challenges and opportunities around the continued growth of UK FinTech.

Thought Leadership Update 

In the month of March, we released three key reports with our partners to help drive further progress around the FinTech and financial innovation agenda.

In our report FinTech: Helping with the cost-of-living, delivered in collaboration with our partner EY, we explore the critical role FinTechs have played in supporting individuals and SMEs through the cost of living crisis. This report includes specific case studies of FinTech solutions, and also assesses how regulators and policymakers can support the further unlocking of innovative solutions to help consumers.

In our White Paper: Unlocking the Potential of Open Finance in the UK, written with our partner Boston Consulting Group, we highlighted key areas where the UK needs to act to continue leading on Open Banking, including fostering a supportive regulatory environment and highlighting more use cases that show the benefits to consumers. 

And in ‘Fast forward asset management. Enabling the next wave’, in partnership with KPMG, we explore the current state of innovation in the asset management industry and deep dive into obstacles and challenges facing the continued transformation of the sector by interviewing some of the most senior leaders in the space.

Priority Programmes

It has been an exciting and busy past few weeks!

On Diversity & Inclusion, we were so pleased to release the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist 2022 in March. I would like to congratulate the 250 outstanding and inspiring females featured on the Powerlist, the 45 Standouts for their amazing contribution to the FinTech ecosystem, and all of the more than 900+ applicants who are truly changing financial services for the better. A special thank you to our partner EY for hosting our celebratory Powerlist launch event. 

On Capital & Investment, we are working closely with the Lord Mayor and the City of London Corporation on a growth capital programme to facilitate greater institutional investment - including pension funds - into the UK FinTech ecosystem. We were also pleased to co-host our Capital Investment in UK FinTech in 2022: Insights and Trends panel discussionearly this year, and we are looking forward to our next startup-investor speed-dating session in late spring.

On Partnerships & Growth, it was great to see so many of our members, large and small, at our biggest Partnership Day ever in February at Level39!  And we were delighted to continue at full steam with our FinTech Academy sessions in the first quarter, including a PR Workshop with UKTN, a COO Roundtable with Simply and a Brand Workshop with Google, to support our members in their scaling journey.

On the International front, we held our quarterly meeting of the International FinTech Group (IFG) co-chaired with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) last month, and we are now working with DBT to better assess appetite for international expansion and scaling across the UK FinTech ecosystem - more information on this to come at IFGS 2023.  In addition, the most recent session of our US / UK FinTech Forum took place in February in Silicon Valley at Google’s global headquarters. We will be back in NYC in May, with a number of programmes including a CVC session and high growth CEO roundtable aimed at driving further investment into UK FinTech and promoting our outstanding ecosystem on the global stage.

Forward Calendar & Events Update

We have a packed calendar of events over the coming weeks so please do look out for key programmes including our Innovate Finance summer member reception; the next edition of our diversity power hour; the first meetings of our CTO Roundtable Series and our CRO Roundtable Series; our FinTech Academy ‘Startups meet Investor’ session; and our spring High Growth CEO dinner. 

And please do save the date for 5 October, when we will hold our 3rd annual edition of our FinTech as a Force for Good Forum!

Team Update

We are delighted to welcome our new Partnerships Director, Adam Sokratous, and our new HR Director, Magdalena Kosicka, to our Innovate Finance team. Please do say hello at one of our upcoming events. 

Final Thoughts

As a final note, I am incredibly proud to share that Innovate Finance has been ranked as the number one FinTech association globally by FinTech Magazine - a true testament to our absolutely inspiring membership community and outstanding team.

I can’t wait to see you all at IFGS 2023 in less than two weeks’ time, to celebrate this phenomenal industry and the entrepreneurs and innovators transforming FS for the better!

Janine Hirt,
CEO, Innovate Finance