The summit is looking to actively accommodate sector-wide discussions, collaborations, and thought leadership with a specific focus on the technologies capable of promoting scale and stability across the industry nationally. The summit has returned to London's historic Guildhall to host its two-day agenda for 2024 in conjunction with UK Fintech Week.

Fintech in the UK: its future

Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, stated in her introductory speech that the goal of the occasion's decennial commemoration was to “not look back, but to look forward”.

In order to do this, she said, the industry organization is presently working on a fintech manifesto that is focused on positioning the UK as a major center for the smart data economy on a worldwide scale, as well as a top location for the adoption of innovative technology and safe financing.

The creation of the Unicorn Council for UK Fintech (UCFT) last month, which Hirt will chair along with Charles McManus, CEO of ClearBank, and Philip Belamant, CEO of Zilch, has given these initiatives a boost.

Hirt stated that Innovate Finance is now "focusing on what we want to do in the next 10 years" after taking stock of everything that has been accomplished since the event's launch in 2015 in a speech to FinTech Futures on Monday at the summit.

According to Hirt, its industry vision is inextricably tied to the actions of the primary regulatory bodies in the UK, and the organization acts as a conduit for information between the government and fintech.

She referred to the IFGS agenda for this year as "a deep dive into so many of the technologies that are underpinning this so-called revolution," with main themes including digital assets and tokenization, embedded finance, open banking, and generative AI.

Hirt underscored the importance of AI as "a serious conversation we need to have" and the increased emphasis on regtech at the summit, saying that "this is an area we think the UK can be a global leader on."

This year's summit did not fail to draw a varied range of fintech attendees, industry executives, and prominent thinkers to the UK capital for the first day's proceedings, thanks to its broad and ambitious mandate.

IPOs and innovation

Leading from the top, Charles McManus, co-founder and CEO of TrueLayer Francesco Simoneschi, CEO of Thought Machine Paul Taylor, CEO of Revolut UK Francesca Carlesi, CEO of OpenPayd Iana Dimitrova, CEO of TrueLayer, and former news anchor Sasha Qadri outlined their expectations for the industry in the "Generation unicorn: CEO perspectives on the next decade of growth."

The main topics of discussion during the group's deep dive into opinions on the present and future state of the sector were the effects of innovation, talent retention, and the UK's ongoing struggles with "brain drain."

But the most prominent issue to come out of this discussion seemed to be stock market flotations, with the panel weighing the advantages and disadvantages of making their debut in London.

The UK IPO market is currently "starting to see some traction," according to McManus, whose firm recently achieved its first full year of profitability, even if he believes that liquidity issues are still "a massive issue."

All panelists agreed that a C-suite's extreme discipline is required to fully reap the benefits of an IPO and that listing in the same jurisdiction as important business ventures offers strategic advantages. Dimitrova specifically mentioned the UK's robust talent pool and technological know-how as advantages for this endeavor.

Rules, rules, and more rules

Regarding regulations, Ian Phoenix, the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) director of intelligence and digital, gave a keynote speech in the afternoon at the Old Library stage titled "Innovation in Financial Services While Protecting the Consumer." The speech focused on striking a balance between financial innovation and regulatory enforcement.

Phoenix identified "AI and quantum, financial inclusion and open finance" as among its top and most current lines of focus, demonstrating how well the regulator's present strategy aligns with the summit host's.

He said to the audience, "We want to keep evolving with your developments and changes in the market and technology."

"Preparing for the future: a reshaping of financial services" was one of the day's noteworthy sessions. It brought together executives from JP Morgan, Mastercard, Lloyds Banking Group, Citi, and London-based early-stage investor Antler to discuss how emerging technologies would be integrated into incumbents' legacy systems. "Cents and sensibility: raising a financially literate generation" addressed money management and investment skills among adolescence with thought leadership from TotallyMoney, GoHenry, Finimize, Wealth Wizards, and the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE). "Navigating the AI landscape: considerations to address for fintech companies using AI," featured speakers from Miquido, Baker McKenzie, Airwallex, KPMG, and Kingston University.

Considering the future
In summary, 2024 brought about an intriguing change in the goals and emphasis of the summit, with many discussions about the intersection of technology and finance actively aiming to understand how the industry's start-up community can be best supported as well as how their subsequent evolution as scale-ups can reach new heights.

Hirt tells FinTech Futures, "The difference is that we've actually already proven how much of an impact fintech has." Thus, instead of focusing just on helping startups in their early stages, we're now talking about helping high-growth businesses that are already having a significant influence on a large number of customers around the United Kingdom.

This support is being extended to the second day of the event on Tuesday. In addition to promoting industry thought leadership on data, fraud, cross-border, and open banking, the schedule features start-up competitions during the summit's much awaited Pitch360 sessions.