In 2020 the UK Chancellor asked Ron Kalifa OBE to conduct an independent review to identify priority areas to support the UK’s growing fintech sector. Kalifa is an entrepreneur who was formally the global CEO and then the Vice-Chairman of Worldpay.
Kalifa’s report provides several key suggestions on how the UK fintech industry can continue to grow (and become more prominent on an international scale), create highly skilled jobs, boost trade and promote competition with other leading fintech hubs.
The UK already has approximately 10% of the market share of the global fintech market, which is worth over £11 billion a year to the UK economy; and Kalifa was keen to emphasise the need to protect (and grow) this market share.
In his review Kalifa made several recommendations for how the fintech market can take advantage of what he believes to be a pivotal moment for the UK. These recommendations include:
- introducing a new ‘fintech scale up’ visa route to attract fintech specialists from around the world;
- implementing a ‘scale box’ to provide support for growing fintech firms;
- improving UK listing rules with free float reduction and dual class shares;
- creating a £1 billion-pound fintech growth fund; and
- establishing a private sector-led Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology to support national coordination and growth in fintech across the UK.
As of now the review still awaits a response from the UK Government, prompting questions on how it will implement these recommendations and on what timeline.
