UK: FCA wants global effort to speed up fintech innovation

Christopher Woolard, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Executive Director of Strategy and Competition, delivered a keynote speech on March 19 at the Innovate Finance Global Summit.

Woolard is the defender and champion of the vital competition mandate that has made the FCA a successful financial regulator. Woolard states that a traditional regulators point of view is to ask the question “what is the risk?” Currently, this approach has changed to “what is the risk of not doing this?” This important difference has helped to make the UK the leading Fintech innovation hub, globally.

In Woolard’s keynote he tackles an important aspect of Fintech (financial technologies). It is a global revolution yet regulatory structures are national. What Fintech needs to thrive and grow further faster, is a global approach. A harmonized structure to benefit of all nations.

“There’s real momentum behind this and we hope that before long the ambition of a global sandbox will be a reality”, he added. As well as making it easier for fintech firms to expand internationally by testing their products in multiple jurisdictions, the FCA is hoping a coordinated effort will help regulators tackle cross-border problems such as money laundering.

Full Content: Financial Times

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.