Digital minister Paul Scully addresses fintech chiefs in Parliament

Fintech leaders gathered in Parliament last night for a special briefing on the UK’s technology strategy with Paul Scully, Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy.

The event, chaired by Steven George-Hilley of Centropy PR and Ben Howlett of Chamber UK, saw fifteen senior executives from the UK’s fintech and tech scene, who discussed growth, investment strategies and equipping the next generation with the latest fintech skills. Speaking to delegates, Mr Scully called on industry leaders to do more to drive growth across Britain’s booming tech and fintech sector.

Moris Strub, an expert in financial engineering from the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology said, “Fintech can play a crucial role in the UK’s economic growth and it’s encouraging to see ministers lining up to support such an important industry.”

Andrew Drylie of Quadri Ventures said: “It’s time for the government and investment firms to fully get behind the next generation of start-ups and scale-ups. Ambitious and upcoming businesses need access to financial support to expand, grow and reach their full potential to compete internationally.”

Other key attendees who contributed to the discussion included Paul Dixon, Global Head of Public Sector, Capgemini Invent and Sandeep Kumar, CTO and Head of Enterprise Transformation, Capgemini Invent UK.

Also in attendance was Tom Tugendhat, Minister of State for Security who warned attendees about the growing threat posed to national security by financial crime, online fraud and deepfakes.

Suid Adeyanju, CEO of cyber consultancy RiverSafe said, “The rise of AI combined with an increased cyber threat poses huge risks to national security, so it’s great to see ministers engaging with industry to tackle these challenges.”

Andy Ward, VP at Absolute Software added, “It’s vital that public sector policy makers and ministers work hand-in-hand with cyber specialist firms to reduce endpoint breaches and improve our national cyber resilience strategy.”

The event comes ahead of next months Global AI Summit, hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and expected to attract world leaders who are keen to discuss the threat posed by AI.