The CEO of UK fintech industry trade body Innovate Finance has called on the UK fintech sector to be “properly supported” in the next budget, highlighting data showing UK fintech had dropped down the investment rankings.
Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, whose members include Revolut and Monzo, said: “Fintech is still a tremendous force for good, it is a story of growth, it is a story of inclusion and it is a story of democracy.
“We need government and we need regulators to get behind us as well and support this sector. It is imperative that we see fintech properly supported in the budget.
“This is how we are going to drive growth, it is how we are going to cement our leadership in financial services.”
Hirt, speaking at an Innovate Finance conference, pointed to statistics such as fintech lenders providing more than 60 per cent of SME lending and fintechs “driving job creation” as indicators of its health.
But Hirt also pointed to Innovate Finance figures showing the UK had been relegated from second to third place in the global fintech investment landscape, replaced by the UAE, in the first half of 2025.
She added: “We have to grasp the opportunity that lies before us, because other countries around the world, they see that opportunity too and they are moving forward and they are moving forward at pace.”
Innovate Finance is calling for several reforms in the Autumn budget to help incentivise fintech founders to build in the UK.
She said: “We need to make sure the UK remains the place for entrepreneurs and founders to choose to build their business here both for the long term and the short term.”
She called for a “rethink” of the tax environment, to better incentivise founders, and corporation tax holidays for companies that list in the UK, to reinvigorate the IPO market.
She added: “In addition, we need to make sure that our highest growth companies are actually able to access the growth capital that they need.”
Innovate Finance is backing the Mansion House Accord, which could see billions of pounds of pension funds invested in UK assets.
Innovate Finance has also expressed concern about how the existing regulatory regime constrains the growth of challenger banks.
IMAGE:PIXABAY
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