A Progressive Vision for Fintech
Today Startup Coalition and the Tony Blair Institute for Policy Change have released a report outlining a vision for how a future government could harness the UK’s world-leading fintech sector as an engine for economic growth, opportunity and inclusion across the country.
Our policy recommendations include the key opportunity of the introduction of an Open Finance framework within 100 days of taking office, building on Open Banking to unlock more data sharing and innovation. Open Finance could drive growth by reducing barriers for fintech startups, while also enabling greater financial inclusion, literacy and investor empowerment.
Other key recommendations include regulating Buy Now Pay Later lending within 100 days, mandating financial education in primary schools by 2025, reforms to boost pension fund investment in startups, and a future government providing more substance to the Consumer Duty.
While fintech and financial services can play a key role in delivering a progressive agenda for a mission-driven government, the Fintech sector faces serious challenges that a Government could help to support. This includes ensuring that firms face certainty with key timelines published bi-annually, and certainty on specific issues such as APP fraud with an APP fraud strategy within the first hundred days of a potential Government.