By Oliver Smith on Thursday 12 September 2019
Two-thirds believe that Brexit is either a risk or offers no business benefits.
Just 22% of London’s fintech startups say they’re prepared to deal with a “no deal” Brexit next month if the Government’s negotiations with Europe fail.
According to a survey of 58 London-based financial technology firms by industry group Innovate Finance, two-thirds believe that Brexit is either a risk or offers no business benefits.
Only 13 of the companies surveyed said they feel confident with their preparedness should Britain crash out of the European Union on the 31 October.
Passporting, cross-border transactions, serving EU clients and concerns over the retaining and attracting of new talent were all raised as areas most affected by a “no deal” situation.
“At this time of rapid growth in the UK’s fintech sector, which is at the heart of the future prosperity of the UK economy and innovation, we would prefer our members to be focusing on their businesses, scaling up to conquer new markets, at home and internationally,” said Charlotte Crosswell, chief executive of Innovate Finance.
Should Boris Johnson agree a deal with Europe for an orderly exit from the European Union, 55% of those companies surveyed said they felt prepared to deal with a transition period.
OakNorth Bank and Crowdcube were among the 58 companies surveyed.
Alok Prasad, Deputy CEO and COO of OakNorth Bank, said: “we pay close attention to factors that may impact the bank and our customers. In addition, we will be reviewing intra-day data to ensure we are fully abreast of how our customers are reacting and to adapt our approach in real-time.”
“We are proactively adding capacity to support customer inquiries in case our customers want to talk to someone. Again, while we expect limited impact to our business, we are fully prepared to deal with a no-deal Brexit scenario.”
