Global: Fintech Central to UK’s Financial Services Growth Strategy – Chancellor Reeves

In her inaugural Mansion House speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced plans to position fintech at the core of the UK’s financial services growth strategy. She revealed that the government will launch its first-ever Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy in Spring 2025. This strategy aims to provide long-term stability and reinforce the financial sector’s pivotal role in the government’s 10-year industrial roadmap.

The strategy will focus on five key growth areas: fintech, sustainable finance, asset management and wholesale services, insurance and reinsurance, and capital markets. To ensure industry perspectives shape the strategy, the government will release a Call for Evidence alongside the announcement.

Reeves also highlighted efforts to combat rising fraud, urging technology and telecom companies to intensify their efforts. Losses from authorised push payment (APP) fraud exceeded $500 million in 2023, with 76% originating online and another 16% stemming from the telecom sector, according to UK Finance. The government has written to tech and telecom firms, demanding faster action and requesting progress updates by March 2025. This aligns with recent banking regulations that mandate victim reimbursements for APP fraud losses.

Further initiatives include the publication of the long-awaited National Payments Vision, which will focus on accelerating Open Banking adoption and supporting fintech innovation. Reeves also announced the establishment of the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (Pisces), a bespoke regulated market for trading private company shares.

In a move to modernize the financial sector, the government will pilot a Digital Gilt Instrument leveraging distributed ledger technology (DLT). This innovation aims to improve the efficiency and liquidity of the UK’s £2.5 trillion gilt market.

Kelly Mathieson, Chief Business Development Officer at Digital Asset, praised the initiative, stating: “Rachel Reeves is right to recognise that the UK must modernise the technology underpinning the gilt market to avoid falling behind. Tokenising gilts can enhance collateral mobility, improve liquidity, and increase transactional efficiency.”

With these measures, the UK is signaling its commitment to remaining a global leader in financial services and fintech innovation, while addressing critical challenges like fraud and infrastructure modernisation.