Her speech outlined a comprehensive vision for strengthening the UK’s position as a world-leading FinTech hub. Key highlights include:

UK’s Global FinTech Leadership
The UK continues to lead Europe in FinTech innovation and investment. In 2024 alone, it attracted $3.6 billion in FinTech funding, second globally only to the United States and surpassing the next three European countries combined. The UK is also home to nearly half of Europe’s FinTech unicorns, with fintechs making up around a third of all UK unicorns—the highest proportion among global markets.

A Supportive Regulatory Framework
Reeves emphasised the government’s focus on ensuring regulation enables growth rather than constrains it. The UK aims to balance effective oversight with reduced regulatory burden for both individuals and businesses, reinforcing its appeal as a hub for financial services and innovation.

Digital Asset Regulation
The Chancellor confirmed that the government published draft legislation to create a comprehensive regulatory regime for crypto assets, reinforcing the UK’s ambition to become a global hub for digital asset investment. 

UK regulators are among the first to adopt innovation-led approaches, including the development of sandboxes such as the digital securities sandbox for testing and advancing digital asset solutions.

International collaboration is central to this vision. As part of ongoing UK-US regulatory dialogue, discussions are underway to explore the creation of a transatlantic sandbox for digital securities between London and New York. This initiative aims to support cross-border innovation and maintain the long-standing partnership between the world’s two largest financial centres.

Unlocking Investment and Capital
To ensure high-growth companies have access to capital, the UK continues to champion schemes such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), which provide tax incentives to investors. The government also plans to legislate through the Pension Schemes Bill to unlock up to £80 billion in long-term investment, driven by consolidation in defined contribution and local government pension schemes.

Modernising Market Infrastructure and Listings
The UK aims to become the best place for FinTech firms to start, scale, and go public. Last July, the Financial Conduct Authority introduced sweeping reforms to listing rules—the most significant in a generation—providing greater flexibility and competitiveness. A new initiative, the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES), will create a dedicated market for private share trading, supporting company growth outside of public markets. The final legislation for PISCES is expected to be published in May 2025. Further reforms will also ease research restrictions on UK-listed firms and reduce compliance burdens on public companies, encouraging more dynamic capital markets.

Backing the builders of fintech
Financial services have been recognised as a cornerstone of the UK’s industrial strategy, with FinTech at the forefront. The Chancellor reiterated her goal to “back the builders” and “back the changemakers” by ensuring access to global talent and promoting the UK as a world-class business environment.

The government’s full Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy will be unveiled at Mansion House on the 15th July 2025.