Treasury initiative boosts fintech partnerships
A Treasury initiative backed by the UK’s biggest banks has helped foster fintech partnerships, research has found.
The Fintech Pledge, launched in September 2020, is a Treasury-backed initiative to set principles on collaboration with fintechs that will boost growth in the fintech sector. The UK’s five largest retail banks, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Santander, were its founders.
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Tech Nation has found that the initiative now has over 20 signatories and has helped drive changes such reducing the number of steps in the due diligence process to new onboarding assets such as dashboards, information resources and model contracts and raising awareness of fintech innovation.
The organisation found the appetite for fintech collaboration is increasing. In a survey of Fintech Pledge signatories, 82 per cent said they expect to grow the number of fintech partnerships over the next five years, while 80 per cent of institutions predict that they will increase their firm’s investment into fintech.
When asked at what stage of maturity a fintech is considered ready for partnership, signatory institutions said they mostly prefer those fintechs which had secured series A financing (£2m to £10m) or series B financing (£10m to £50m).
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“The Fintech Pledge represents a powerful commitment to transparency and partnership between fintechs and more established firms,” John Glen MP, economic secretary to the Treasury and City Minister, said in a blog on Tech Nation’s website.
“As well as being good news for fintechs and for the financial services sector as a whole, these partnerships also result in better outcomes and services for business and customers.
“I welcome the growth in the number of signatories over the past 18 months and hope to see this trend continue.”