UK Government Targets Fintech And Sustainable Finance For Growth
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According to the latest update, the UK government has announced plans to focus on fintech and sustainable finance as key areas for growth in the country’s financial services sector. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, revealed this in her first Mansion House speech.
She stated that the government would publish the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy in the Spring. This strategy aims to give long-term certainty to the sector and to strengthen its position in the government’s 10-year industrial plan.
UK Government Targets Financial Growth and Tackles Online Fraud
The strategy will focus on five key growth areas: fintech, sustainable finance, asset management, insurance and reinsurance, and capital markets.
Reeves said that a Call for Evidence would be published along with the announcement. This step aims to gather input from the industry to include the views of those in the sector in the strategy’s design.
In addition to this, Reeves discussed other important actions the government is taking. She revealed that the government had written to technology and telecom companies, urging them to do more to tackle fraud on their platforms.
This follows the rise of APP (Authorized Push Payment) fraud, which has caused UK losses of over $500 million in 2023 alone. To address this issue, new banking rules were introduced last month, which will ensure that most of the money lost to APP fraud will be reimbursed to victims.
Despite these new rules, UK banks have been calling on tech firms, social media platforms, and telecom companies to take greater responsibility for the fraud that starts on their platforms.
UK Government Accelerates Financial Innovation And Digital Infrastructure Plans
According to UK Finance, around 76% of APP fraud happens online, and 16% of it comes from the telecom sector. The government has asked the tech and telecom sectors to speed up their actions, with an update on progress expected by March 2025, ahead of a wider fraud strategy.
Reeves also confirmed that the government would release the National Payments Vision soon. This plan includes steps to advance Open Banking and support fintech companies.
It will also establish a new regulated market for private company shares, called the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (Pisces). Additionally, a pilot project for a Digital Gilt Instrument using distributed ledger technology (DLT) will be carried out.
Kelly Mathieson, the Chief Business Development Officer at Digital Asset, welcomed the plans. She said that the UK must modernize its technology, especially the 2.5 trillion GBP gilt market, to avoid falling behind.
She added that connecting these assets to digital infrastructure would help improve collateral mobility, increase liquidity, and make transactions more efficient.
