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The Strategy emphasises the UK government’s continued push to create a world-leading FinTech sector.

By Stuart Davis, Charlotte Collins and Sam Wong

At the second International Fintech Conference held on 22 March 2018, Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the launch of the UK’s first Fintech Sector Strategy.

The Strategy includes the following key measures:

  • A new Cryptoassets Task Force — consisting of HM Treasury, the Bank of England, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) — will be set up to help the UK manage risks relating to cryptoassets and to harness potential benefits of the underlying technology.
  • “Robo-regulation” pilot schemes will be developed to assist regulated firms in complying with regulation, by creating software that would automatically ensure regulated firms follow the relevant rules. It is hoped this will help reduce compliance costs for newer and smaller firms, who are often disproportionately burdened, as well as potentially improving the accuracy of data submissions.

The FCA seeks industry feedback to capitalise on global regulatory sandbox trend.

By Stuart Davis and Charlotte Collins

The regulatory sandbox was pioneered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) back in November 2015 — a “safe space” in which businesses can test innovative products, services, business models, and delivery mechanisms without immediately incurring all the normal regulatory consequences of engaging in the activity in question.

The sandbox has been a success to date, helping both existing and new businesses to develop and launch innovative products and business models (see Latham’s previous blog post on the success of the first round of sandbox participants, and Client Alert that tracks the use of the sandbox model across the globe).