Britain’s Lead as Fintech Sector Hub Still Shaky Post-Brexit

By August 9, 2016Bitcoin Business

Since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in June, there have been several discussions surrounding London losing its spot as a leading global fintech hub. The topic became particularly interesting after Paris Europlace, which promotes French finance plans, chose to travel to London to entice financial firms and professionals. The French government agency, Business France, also distributed leaflets to promote the benefits of working and living in Paris. On the other side of the border, Frankfurt city officials set up a specialist hotline for banks that want to discuss moving operations outside of the United Kingdom. The likes of Jochen Siegert, the chief operating officer of Traxpay, a Frankfurt-based payments platform, described London as having “committed suicide” as a leading fintech centre following the vote. These were some of the moves that raised the stake that there could be a high contention with London over which city would be the global financial hub. It was a shaky start for London and its vital business statistics in that direction. According to the City of London’s website, the British capital handles $2.7 trillion of foreign exchange turnover each day – 41 percent of global foreign exchange while 20 percent of the world’s foreign equity market is listed in London. It is also home to 251 foreign banks. Shrinking the Talent Pool However, despite the fact that it’s been six weeks since the Brexit vote, there are still obvious fears that these statistics could change in the future. Britain would likely lose access to Europe’s single market. This, in turn, will shrink the talent pool, put off foreign investors and damage the country’s fintech status. If that happens, the roughly £6.6 billion worth of revenue generated by the U.K. fintech sector in 2015 alone, according to a report by Ernst & […]

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