25 February 2017

The Guardian: Hi-tech financial firms flee UK amid doubts over Brexit

Every reasonably-sized company in the flourishing financial technology sector – involving e-lending, money transfers and the banking markets – is now actively looking at moving staff and investment out of the country because of the uncertainty caused by Brexit, it is claimed.

Simon Black, chief executive of PPRO Group, reputedly one of the fastest-growing fintech businesses in Europe, said his firm was now starting an operation in Luxembourg because of question marks over whether UK-based companies would still be able to trade in the rest of the EU under current “passport” rules which are granted to all member states.

“I don’t know of a licensed fintech company in the UK that isn’t looking at options,” he said. “Everyone is thinking about it and anyone that is any size, that is employing more than 10 people, is active. The exodus is beginning. It will be more visible in 2018.”

The UK has been a pioneer of the fintech revolution, which employs 60,000 here and has won government initiatives to help investment. The sector earned £6.6bn in 2015, and the then chancellor George Osborne said he wanted London to become “the global centre for fintech”.

Black said the industry could not wait for the outcome of Brexit negotiations, so investment that could have been made in the UK was being diverted overseas. “We have to plan for the scenarios when passporting ends, and that means we have to get a licence in another EU country.”

“The reason we can’t wait for results from the negotiation is that the full application process can take, in some countries, from six months right up to 18 months, and maybe longer. Then you need to recruit locally, you need specialists in compliance. It is a really big undertaking.” [...]

Full article on The Guardian

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