Britain to Offer Fast-Track Visas to Bolster Fintech Companies After Brexit

Over 40 percent of fintech staff in Britain come from overseas.

By Reuters | Updated: 27 February 2021 11:10 IST

Britain to Offer Fast-Track Visas to Bolster Fintech Companies After Brexit

Photo Credit: Pexels/ Bernadett Varga

Brexit cut fintechs' access to the EU single market

Highlights

Britain is set to offer a fast-track visa scheme for jobs
It is aimed to ease recruitment process for fintech firms
Britain has a 10 percent share of the global fintech market

Britain said on Friday it would offer a fast-track visa scheme for jobs at high-growth companies after a government-backed review warned that financial technology firms will struggle with Brexit and tougher competition for global talent.

Finance minister Rishi Sunak said that now Britain has left the European Union, it wants to make sure its immigration system helps businesses attract the best hires.

"This new fast-track scale-up stream will make it easier for fintech firms to recruit innovators and job creators, who will help them grow," Sunak said in a statement.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

Over 40 percent of fintech staff in Britain come from overseas, and the new visa scheme, open to migrants with job offers at high-growth firms that are scaling up, will start in March 2022.

Brexit cut fintechs' access to the EU single market and made it far harder to employ staff from the bloc, leaving Britain less attractive for the industry.

The review published on Friday and headed by Ron Kalifa, former CEO of payments fintech Worldpay, set out a "strategy and delivery model" that also includes a new GBP 1 billion ($1.39 billion or roughly Rs. 10,250 crores) startup fund.

Ant Group Said to Reach Deal With China Regulators on Restructuring

"It's about underpinning financial services and our place in the world, and bringing innovation into mainstream banking," Kalifa told Reuters.

Britain has a 10 percent share of the global fintech market, generating GBP 11 billion ($15.6 billion or roughly Rs. 1,12,700 crores) in revenue.

The review said Brexit, heavy investment in fintech by Australia, Canada and Singapore, and the need to be nimbler as COVID-19 accelerates digitalisation of finance, all mean the sector's future in Britain is not assured.

Amazon's New Offerings Make India Centre of Fintech Push

It also recommends more flexible listing rules for fintechs to catch up with New York.

"We recognise the need to make the UK attractive a more attractive location for IPOs," said Britain's financial services minister John Glen, adding that a separate review on listings rules would be published shortly.

"Those findings, along with Ron's report today, should provide an excellent evidence base for further reform."

Scaling up
Britain pioneered "sandboxes" to allow fintechs to test products on real consumers under supervision, and the review says regulators should move to the next stage and set up "scale-boxes" to help fintechs navigate red tape to grow.

"It's a question of knowing who to call when there's a problem," said Kay Swinburne, vice chair of financial services at consultants KPMG and a contributor to the review.

A UK fintech wanting to serve EU clients would have to open a hub in the bloc, an expensive undertaking for a startup.

"Leaving the EU and access to the single market going away is a big deal, so the UK has to do something significant to make fintechs stay here," Swinburne said.

The review seeks to join the dots on fintech policy across government departments and regulators, and marshal private sector efforts under a new Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT).

"There is no framework but bits of individual policies, and nowhere does it come together," said Rachel Kent, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells and contributor to the review.

What will be the most exciting tech launch of 2021? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.