UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) release a research report titled “Fintech – the UK’s unique environment for growth”

UKTI released a report titled “Fintech – the UK’s unique environment for growth” on 6th August 2014 to coincide with the launch of the new UK Fintech organisation Innovate Finance.

The report looks at the strengths of the UK’s Fintech sector and how overseas companies can benefit from setting up in the UK.

The full report can be viewed or downloaded here.
Fintech in the UK. The UK is a uniquely well-suited location for technology applied to financial services – Fintech. This fast-growing sector covers both: (1) Traditional Fintech (with larger incumbent technology firms supporting the financial services sector), and (2) Emergent Fintech (with small, innovative firms using new technology to bring financial services directly to consumers, often disrupting existing business models).

The UK and Ireland is now the fastest-growing region for Fintech investment (Accenture). Deal volumes here have been growing at 74 percent a year since 2008, compared with 27 percent globally and 13 percent in Silicon Valley. During the same period, the value of Fintech investment increased nearly eightfold, to US$265 million in 2013 – a rate of 51 percent a year, nearly twice the global average (26 percent), and more than twice that of Silicon Valley (23 percent).   The UK’s growing strengths in Fintech are due to: 

New UK Fintech industry body Innovate Finance launched by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the City of London Corporation and the Canary Wharf Group

Innovate Finance http://innovatefinance.com is the new UK industry body established to promote the interests of the UK’s rapidly growing Fintech sector. The launch was held on 6th August 2014, at Level39 http://level39.co. Online reports indicate that 250 people attended the launch.

What is Innovate Finance?
Innovate Finance is an UK industry organisation that will accelerate the UK's leading position in the global financial services sector, by directly supporting the next era of technology-led financial services innovators, whether they be a young start-up or an established industry player.

The organisation aims to be a single access point to the full financial services and technology ecosystem and – through its own innovation programmes and partnerships with other organisations – connects members to policymakers, regulators, investors, customers, educators, talent and key commercial partners (Including FCA Project Innovate, British Business Bank, TechUK and Open University).

The organisation is led by CEO Claire Cockerton, with a Board of Directors that includes Fintech leaders such as Nick Hungerford of Nutmeg, Justin Fitzpatrick of DueDil, and Alastair Lukies of Monitise Plc, who will serve as the organisation’s Non-Executive Chairman.  An Advisory Council of industry experts includes Eric Van der Kleij, Head of Level39 Technology Accelerator and Nadeem Shaikh of Anthemis Group, among others.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) has published a report that sets out the strengths of the UK’s fintech sector and the market opportunities for Fintech companies

The UKTI publication titled “Fintech: The UK’s Unique Environment for Growth” gives an overview of why the UK is a unique location for companies specialising in Fintech (Financial Technology).

UKTI publication suggests that the Fintech market in payments, platforms, software and data analytics is worth £20 billion to the UK annually. The research was commissioned by UKTI and carried out by EY (Ernst & Young). EY has for the first time mapped out the opportunities and strengths of the UK’s fintech sector by speaking to existing investors.  The UKTI report can be viewed / downloaded here.

The UKTI report was published to coincide with the launch of new UK Fintech industry trade body. 

Innovate Finance is a new UK industry organisation that aims to accelerate the UK’s leading position in the global financial services sector. It will support young or established technology-led financial services innovators.  

Fintech backdrop

Since 2008, the value of Fintech investment in the UK and Ireland region has increased almost 8 times to US$265 million in 2013. This makes the UK and Ireland the fastest growing regions for fintech investment globally. The UK’s strengths in fintech are due to:

• London’s position as a world leading centre for financial services 
• Edinburgh, Belfast, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff all have strong financial services sectors 
• good availability of business capital 
• a supportive regulatory structure