Exclusive: Liz Truss will be friend to fintech and crypto, says Lisa Cameron MP

Lisa Cameron, MP and Chair of the Crypto and Digital Assets All Party Parliamentary Group positive on the future of crypto under a Liz Truss government.

Lisa Cameron an MP for the Scottish National Party, Chair of the Crypto and Digital Assets All Party Parliamentary Group (DAAPPG) believes that fintech and crypto will be central to newly elected Prime Minister Liz Truss's leadership.  

"My feeling is very positive. Truss is very much aware of how central fintech is to the UK and cities like London and Edinburgh", Cameron told AltFi in an interview yesterday. 

Elected on Monday after defeating former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak in the leadership race, Truss has previously demonstrated her willingness to contend with the crypto industry. 

Back in 2018, when Truss was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, she tweeted: "We should welcome cryptocurrencies in a way that doesn’t constrain their potential. . ."

Two years later, Truss was appointed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as his Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. 

During this time, she claimed that she wanted to "create great opportunities in areas such as blockchain." 

Although the new incumbents of Truss' cabinet are yet to be unveiled, the current Secretary of State for Business is tipped to assume the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

In a report titled UK Innovation Strategy published in 2021 under Kwarteng's leadership, blockchain solutions are considered part of the UK's innovation programme. 

"She [Truss] will want to maximise the UK and its place in the world in terms of this sector's development", Cameron said. 

Following the collapse of stablecoin Terra in May, regulatory jurisdictions across the globe have looked to take the oftentimes turbulent crypto industry. 

In July, the UK unveiled its Financial Services and Markets Bill (FSMB), which intends to bring stablecoins into the remit of UK regulators. 

Nadhim Zahawi, who briefly took over the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer following Sunak's leadership bid said that the bill reinforced the UK's position as a "leading centre" for technology and that the country looked to "safely adopt crypto assets". 

In the wake of the FSMB, the DAAPPG, chaired by Cameron announced it was looking to undertake an inquiry into the UK's crypto sector. 

Throughout August, the DAAPPG invited inputs from interested parties across the industry, with the deadline for written submissions concluding on 5 September. 

"People are becoming much more informed across the Lords and the House of Commons. There's a genuine interest in the sector," Cameron said. 

The DAAPPG has not been the only parliamentary group bringing together industry and government players. 

In June, the Metaverse and Web 3.0 APPG become registered, chaired by Simon Fell MP for Barrows and Furness and co-chaired by Baroness Pola Uddin.

The purpose of the parliamentary group is to evaluate the impact that web 3 and the metaverse could have on society and industries across the country.