Leading FinTech firms meet with City Minister, Simon Kirby to discuss how to build on the previous success of the sector.
Today (01 November 2016), some of Britain’s cutting-edge FinTech companies met with Simon Kirby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, to discuss how the UK’s world-leading FinTech sector can build on its previous success and take advantage of the opportunities ahead.
Earlier this year London was voted the global FinTech capital and in October 2016 the Treasury unveiled plans to hold a new international FinTech conference in London designed to attract more investment into the sector.
The meeting was the first of 2 roundtables with the sector, taking place over 2 days, at which the government is listening to the issues affecting the sector and the plans it has to grow and develop.
Attendees included chief executives from across the FinTech industry, financial regulators and Eileen Burbidge, HM Treasury’s FinTech envoy. Robin Walker, a Minister for the Department for Exiting the European Union, and Mark Garnier, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Trade, will also represent the government.
In his opening statement the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, said:
"FinTech is one of the shining lights of the UK economy. It is expanding rapidly, receiving high levels of investment, and employing some of the brightest minds the UK, Europe, and the World have to offer.
“I am determined to see FinTech remain one of our great British success stories.”
Attendees
Tuesday 1 November:
- Simon Kirby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury
- Robin Walker, Minister at Department for Exiting the European Union
- Chris Woolard, Director of Strategy and Competition. Financial Conduct Authority
- Eileen Burbidge, Treasury’s FinTech Envoy and CEO of Passion Capital
- Lawrence Wintermeyer, CEO, Innovate Finance
- Paul Cassey, General Counsel, Crowd Cube
- Jeff Lynn, CEO, Seedrs
- Martin Cook, UK Gen Counsel, Funding Circle
- Andrew Lawson, Chief Product Officer, Zopa
- John Battersby, Director of Policy and Comms, Ratesetter
- Simon Brown, Enterprise business architect, Atom Bank
- Paul Rippon @paul Deputy CEO, Monzo
- Ruth Handcock, Chief Customer Officer, Tandem
- Diana Paredes, CEO, Suade
- Eamon Jubbawy, COO and Co-founder, Onfido
- Justin Fitzpatrick, COO and Co-founder, DueDil
- Sharn Kaur, International Head of Compliance, Circle
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-leading-uk-fintech-firms-discuss-sector-plans-at-roundtable
for spotting that one! I was at the Treasury 
on Tuesday and to be honest I wasn’t sure how the session would go. I can honestly say it was worth my time going. Simon Kirby MP was definitely in the mood for listening and although the session was scheduled for an hour he spent about 1h20m mostly listening to feedback. The feedback from the table, unsurprisingly, focussed quickly on the reliance our industry places on highly skilled EU workers. Around the table it seemed 20-80% of employees fell in this group and the MPs were keen to say that there was no plan to send them home and indeed quite the reverse. This was of course great to hear and I shared that news with the 
team. One thing that I really liked was at the end of the meeting Simon Kirby, a busy man I’m sure, personally thanked each person for attending and contributing. I’m happy to expand more or take questions 
from Simon Kirby, or rather one of his team, again thanking me for attendance and asking for any specific suggestion to improve/aid the (fintech) sector so if the community has any I’m keen to hear and discuss these.
) did come up at the meeting, but only to acknowledge the importance of it. As an alternative thought though, I do wonder if passporting is actually this issue/solution or that access to people/markets across the EU and the 
is actually of more interest.