Parliament’s fintech chair bullish on post-Brexit opportunities
THE CHAIR of the all-party parliamentary group for fintech has underlined his confidence in the sector post-Brexit.
Exiting the EU could, in fact, offer huge trade and partnership opportunities in fast-growing emerging markets in Africa and Asia, said Adam Afriyie, who is also MP for Windsor.
“As one member of a 28-member club, it is only fair that we would receive a proportionately small degree of the EU trade negotiator’s concern when constructing trade agreements with other nations,” he said.
“But as an independent country with our own power to negotiate we will be able to push and promote these areas, like fintech, where the UK is most specialised.”
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Afriyie made these comments in Fintech Nation 2018, a report compiled by fintech trade body Innovate Finance and communications agency Cicero.
He called on the government to make fintech “front and centre” of the UK’s free trade agreements with the EU and to use our greater regulatory autonomy to create a talent-based immigration framework, which would allow fintech firms to access the right talent from around the world and end the “immigration discrimination” against non-EU based workers.
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Post-Brexit, with better control over our immigration policy, the MP predicts that the number of Exceptional Talent Visas will double.
2017 was a record-breaking year for investment in financial technology start-ups, with £1.8bn in venture capital invested and Afriyie said he is confident that this growth can continue with “pro-enterprise” trade policies that have a “global disposition”.
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