Industry leaders defend the future of fintech at Parliamentary summit

The fintech industry will continue to play a crucial role in the UK economy, despite recent challenges such as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, according to industry chiefs.

Speaking at the Parliament Street fintech summit last night, which was hosted by Dean Russell MP for Watford and chaired by Steven George-Hilley of Centropy PR, a panel of fintech experts hit out at critics of the industry and outlined their vision for the future of the sector.

On issues such as regulation, MP Mr Russell said: “If you regulate too soon you may kill innovation, but if you do regulate too late or incorrectly then there will be loopholes, this is a major challenge that the Fintech industry faces.”

Jay Patel, Head of Product Management at regtech provider Encompass Corporation added: “Regulators have a role to play in our society but ultimately we need banks to look and interpret these regulations and make sure they are compliant for their customer base.”

Meanwhile Neh Thaker, Co-Founder of financial toolkit HedgeFlows said, “7 out of 10 SMEs could benefit from international expansion but the reality is that only 1 in 10 achieve it. SMEs don’t currently get the support and tools to effectively break down the barriers to international trade.”

Fintech entrepreneur Fraser Stewart, COO of Lyfeguard raised the issue of the skills crisis facing the industry. “We need access to education, reskilling and to show clear pathways through to Fintech. It’s also clear more needs to be done around diversity, just 2% of Fintech owners are female.”

While Khalid Talukder, co-founder of DKK Partners said: “We work in an industry where we look for efficiencies, we automate and lose the human aspect. A chatbot won’t know what things people have in their wallet that can be commercialised and they don’t give a personal touch.”

Samni Akinmusire co-founder of ImaliPay said: “Fintech entrepreneurs are usually creative wanting to solve real time problems. Innovation should follow regulation, but it can be complex. What do regulators do to catch up when innovation falls outside of regulations?”

Finally Xavier De Pauw of kennek said: “Regulation typically goes hand in hand for B2C business models, but in the B2B space there are typically fewer regulations as it’s dealing with professionals.”