The UK’s fintech dominance is under threat with industry leaders at the 11th edition of the Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS) urging immediate and decisive action to preserve its competitive edge.
IFGS 2025, the flagship event of UK FinTech Week 2025 at London’s Guildhall, saw Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, deliver a passionate address highlighting the sector’s critical economic importance.
With fintech contributing £8.3billion to the UK economy and potential to add £328million more, she warned that “now is the time for the UK to step up and be not just a global leader, but the global leader in fintech”.
While the UK remains second globally in fintech investment, behind the US, other countries are quickly catching up, she said. Key challenges include streamlining regulations, improving access to growth capital and creating an environment that attracts global talent.
Emerging technologies like AI, blockchain and smart data were identified as important to future growth.
Hirt challenged the audience: “Let’s be bold. Let’s be confident and let’s unleash some of the incredible energy and enthusiasm and optimism and positivity that so many of the founders and the entrepreneurs here in the room today naturally embody and naturally inspire.”
Strategic significance
In one of the summit’s morning speeches, Tim Levene, Alderman of the City of London Corporation and CEO of fintech fund Augentum Fintech also touched on the importance of the UK establishing and maintaining leadership in the fintech space.
He highlighted the sector’s resilience, pointing to major funding rounds by companies like Monzo and Zopa as proof of British financial technology’s strength.
“Crucially, our fintech industry has demonstrated resilience, perhaps the most indispensable quality in the age of geopolitical macroeconomic uncertainty,” said Levene. “We are determined to ensure that fintech sees the city (of London) as a place where they can scale and grow.”
Now or never
It was a point that really set the tone for the next session. Picking up where Levene left off, a panel featuring Charles McManus, co-founder and board director at ClearBank, Diana Avila, global banking and expansion officer at Wise, Philip Belamant, CEO and co-founder at Zilch and Iana Dimitrova, CEO of OpenPayd, opened up a broader conversation about what it will actually take to keep the UK at the forefront.
Their discussion quickly homed in on the need for faster regulation, investment in digital assets and better strategies to keep top talent on home soil. Leaders warned that without urgent action, the UK will lose the fintech edge it has worked so hard to build.
McManus commented: “London will lose its crown if we’re not into digital and digital assets and stablecoins. That’s not talking about crypto, that’s talking about more efficient transfer of value between cash and stocks. There’s a race that’s on. The UK used to lead in relation to those… but we are losing out to the Europeans and the Americans at the moment. So we need to step up and move forward faster.”
While Belamant said: “Speed is so important. We have a group of fintech unicorns today worth about £100billion, and they’re growing. Look at our business: we’re growing 100 per cent year over year. In the next five years, could that £100billion become a trillion? Probably, and that’s just fintech. Why can’t we add £2trillion to the FTSE market cap in the next five years? Now is the moment.”
Reviewing UK economic growth
The UK economy, lending landscape and the role of the new governmental action also came under the spotlight as Richard Davies, CEO at Allica Bank, broke down the bank’s latest research, which revealed a £65billion gap in SME credit.
“There is a massive problem here that we need to wake up and fix if we are going to restore SME as a source of economic growth in the UK.”
“This is not just a fintech challenge – it’s an economic challenge,” added Lisa Jacobs, CEO of Funding Circle, the commercial lender focused on SMEs. “On the positive side, we have seen a resurgence in other lenders, which supports choice and competition. The British Business Bank has played a really important role in supporting non-bank lenders and the newer challenger banks in the last decade. We’re now in a position where the lending from outside of the big banks to SMES is much higher than the lending from the big banks.”
Ylva Oertengren, co-founder and COO of Simply Asset Finance, also discussed how a lack of investment in public infrastructure has negatively impacted SME growth: “It’s clear what the fintech industry needs to ensure future growth, and how we can support this. But we don’t operate in a bubble, and growth at a large scale can come from an easier trading environment.
“For many years, SMEs have been somewhat neglected. The problem is that these SMEs are facing practical hurdles including roads, trains and other communications infrastructure that enable growth.”
Some progress in AI
Against the backdrop of urgent calls for action, Jessica Rusu, chief data, information and intelligence officer at the FCA, outlined steps the regulator is taking to support fintech innovation. She pointed to the FCA’s five-year strategy to create a smarter, more growth-focused regulatory environment, but acknowledged the rising pressure.
One key announcement was the launch of AI live testing, a new programme allowing firms to collaborate directly with FCA supervisors to trial generative AI models in real-world conditions. The service is a new component of the FCA’s AI Lab, which has been supporting firms with the development and deployment of AI and would help to fill a testing gap slowing firms’ adoption of AI.
The aim, Rusu said, is to give firms the confidence to invest in AI while maintaining responsible standards in financial markets, insisting that “the innovation front door is open”.
“Fintech should consider the UK the best place in the world to scale and grow a business. Our proportionate, tech-positive and agile approach to regulation is a game changer. The FCA is open for business, including AI business. Our AI live testing is available to help firms adopt AI responsibly, giving them a competitive advantage.”
