Today’s King’s Speech – What it means for FinTech
In this week’s Policy update, we deep-dive into today’s King’s Speech, and what it means for UK FinTech.
The Speech kicks off the next Parliamentary session, formulating the Government’s policy priorities before the next General Election. As you would expect, it predominantly involves proposed legislation evolved around Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wider political objectives, including football regulation, law and order, a gradual ban on cigarettes and reforms to the housing rental system.
Following the adoption of the Financial Markets and Competition Act (FSMA) 2023 in June, it’s not surprising the Speech’s agenda does not include any specific financial services legislation, however - there are a number of key Bills which remain important for our sector…
Trade (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) Bill
Finalising the UK’s accession into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTP) opens up significant trade and investment opportunities with some of the world’s leading digital economies, which was already worth £182bn in 2021.
The Partnership’s countries include globally-leading digital tech sectors such as Singapore, Japan, Australia, Chile and Mexico, projected to cover half the world’s middle-class consumers by 2050.
This offers the UK’s FinTech sector access to long-term investment and partnerships, whilst growing digital trade opportunities for our leading home-grown FinTech start-ups and scale-ups.
We also welcome the Partnership’s digital trade provisions, which will ensure the common adoption of cross-border free data transfers, ensuring trading firms can exchange data without unnecessary blockages.
Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) (No. 2) Bill
Innovate Finance welcomes the Government re-introducing the DPDI Bill into the next Parliamentary Term, following the Public Bill Committee finalising its proposed amendments in October.
The Bill introduces changes to the UK’s data protection regulatory regime, including the much anticipated Smart Data provisions, which will enable the Government to establish sector-based Smart Data schemes with supporting regulation in consumer and business data protections. This will provide a basis for extending open banking and introducing open finance as well as promoting a range of cross-sectoral data-led initiatives including enhancing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting, and supplying lenders with alternative data-reportings to deepen confidence in SME investment.
The Bill will also legislate for the currently piloted Digital Identification Trust Frameworks, which will facilitate cross-system data sharing between public authorities and FinTechs for quicker and more accurate customer take-on and user verification.
Innovate Finance welcomes these measures to kick-start the UK’s Smart Data Economy and hope to see this become law before the next General Election.
You can also read our analysis of the DPDI Bill, and what it means for FinTech here.
Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill
Innovate Finance welcomes the Bill’s update to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, which permits the UK’s intelligence agencies to access and utilise less sensitive data, in pursuit of improving conviction rates within online crime, including digital payments fraud.
Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill
This gives the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) further powers to tackle anti-competition challenges and activities within digital markets.
This also includes specific measures on consumer protection issues such as misleading digital services subscriptions, known as ‘subscription traps’ - through requiring detailed information on products’ frequency of payments, and minimum amounts payable for each enrolled payment.
… Looking ahead to the Autumn Statement
Following today’s King’s Speech, we’re looking ahead to the Government’s fiscal spending reviews within the 22nd November’s Autumn Statement. We’ll be producing extensive coverage of the Chancellor’s announcements on the day (look out for our Newsletter on the day), and you can read our submission’s proposals here.
