Budget 2020: Chancellor announces creation of a fintech review and delivery panel

Today’s Budget, Rishi Sunak’s first, was overwhelmingly dominated by the coronavirus and what measures the Government can put in place to help curtail the spread of it.

Despite this, the new Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the launch of a review into the fintech sector and additional funding for the fintech delivery panel.

The review will be headed by Ron Kalifa OBE who is a non-executive director of the Court of Directors at the Bank of England and the vice-chairman of WorldPay, where he has been for the last 18 years.

According to the Budget transcript, Kalifa will “lead a major review into the fintech sector.”

The main aim of the review is to “identify what more industry and government can do to support growth and competitiveness, to ensure that the UK maintains its global leadership in this vital sector”

“The government will also extend funding for the Fintech Delivery Panel, as well as touring the regions and nations of the UK to showcase its diverse range of fintech firms,” it went on.

The amount of funding the existing panel is set to receive was not disclosed in the Budget transcript.

The UK is currently one of the most desirable locations for fintech and despite not receiving some of the boosts they had perhaps wanted to, the creation of this panel could see the UK become even more attractive to international startups and scaleups, as well as giving a helping hand to homegrown talent.

There are more and more regional fintech bases springing up around the UK and the Chancellor appeared to be aware of the need to shift focus to outside of London to bolster growth across the country.

Sunak repeatedly mentioned the need to distribute opportunity across the country and perhaps this panel could do just that. 

Just last week Starling announced it was opening a new office in Cardiff, just down the road from Monzo’s Welsh base, giving a welcome boost to the burgeoning Welsh fintech industry.