The highly anticipated Kalifa review, commissioned by the HM Treasury outlines a strategic plan for the UK to remain a global leader in #Fintech #innovation. Our CEO Joshua Bower-Saul shared his thoughts with the EPA Project Financial Crime team who discussed the Kalifa Review in their first EPA Insights Series this week.
Recommendations were given in these five main areas:
During a period of #covid recovery, investment is crucial to accelerate Fintech growth over the next few years. Kalifa proposes a 1BN Fintech growth fund to facilitate firms’ scaling. The Fintech sector is worth globally an estimated 110BN (Financial News). And, while the UK currently has a 10% market share of this, the new investment is crucial to stimulate innovation.
Kalifa also suggests a ‘Fintech Scaleup Stream’ to incentivise top tech talent overseas to the UK by offering them an automatic visa qualification. This is in a similar vein to schemes existing in France, Canada and Australia. It is also important to upskill and train workers to understand new technologies.
Another key area for development highlighted in the review is creating educational accredited courses to fill skills gaps in the UK. This would ensure that companies can be early adopters of new technologies and that they would have an understanding of how to do so.
How can we help fintech’s scale? Kalifa also creates the concept of a scalebox to help fintech companies accelerate their growth and expand operations. Often, a core inhibitor to growth for fintechs is a lack of industry support and fear violating regulatory rules. Therefore, this scheme would seek to work with fintechs and offer guidance across their scaling journey from start to end. Regulatory advice would enable businesses to be more confident and comfortable in being early adopters of new technology (for example in open banking).
You can listen to the podcast back here, and let us know your thoughts!
You can find the report in full here.
