Following yesterday’s 2020 Budget Statement, the UK Treasury has committed to funding the development of the ‘Tech Nation Fintech Delivery Panel’ and its sister organisation the ‘Insuretech Board’.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s first budget announcement was branded as a ‘wartime statement’ as the Treasury committed to spend ‘whatever it takes’ to help UK health and emergency networks overcome the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the prominent focus on COVID-19 actions, a breakdown of the Budget statement saw the UK Treasury commit ‘£768,000 from April to April 2022 to fund the Fintech Delivery Panel until 2022’.
The Treasury regards Fintech and its related sector as a key growth component for the UK economy, as it prepares to navigate Brexit complexities in 2020 and beyond.
The Fintech Delivery Panel was formed in 2017, on the mandate of bringing UK Fintech stakeholders closer to regulatory bodies, with a view to remove ‘barriers impeding sector growth’.
Furthermore, the Fintech Panel has been earmarked as a key business agency for UK bodies and commercial actors, helping the government to both research technology disciplines and further develop global guidelines in relation to technology advancements.
Panel members include the UK’s fastest-growing tech incumbents, Funding Circle, Onfido, Monzo, Transferwise, LendInvest, Revolut, BoughtByMany and Flock.
Last year, the Panel launched its sister organisation The InsurTech Board, which seeks to represent enterprises and stakeholders operating within the rapidly changing Tech insurance fields.
In 2020, the Fintech Delivery Panel will continue to be led by Gerard Grech, CEO of Tech Nation, supported by UK enterprise funding figurehead Eileen Burbidge, Partner at Passion Capital as Panel Chair.
Burbidge concluded: “FinTech has changed dramatically since the FinTech Delivery Panel was first established in 2017, with UK FinTech firms raising a record £4.1 billion in 2019. This announcement of extending the FinTech Delivery Panel to 2022 couldn’t be more timely, confirming the commitment of the government to support the continued growth of the FinTech and InsurTech sectors in the UK.”
