UK bids to cut red tape for fintech firms
0
Last year, the UK's burgeoning fintech sector attracted $3.6 billion in investment, representing a key pillar in the Government's go-for-growth strategy.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle says fragmented rules and regulatory complexity slow down innovation, delay safer financial products reaching the public, and deter investment.
The collaborative work between the RIO and DRCF will lead to creation of as unified digital library providing 'one stop' access to digital policy and regulations for innovators.
Kyle says the initiative will better help fintech firms navigate through the maze of regulations, noting that this could be especially tough for smaller companies, who often don't have teams of compliance experts on hand.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
30 minutes ago
- Reuters
Fed's Bowman suggests allowing central bank staff to own small amounts of crypto products
WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's top regulatory official suggested on Tuesday that central bank staff should be permitted to own small amounts of crypto products, arguing experience would better inform their work policing activities in those financial markets. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said easing restrictions on staff investments may also help recruit and retain expert bank examiners, and "de minimus" holdings of crypto and other digital assets would help staff develop a working understanding of those products. "There's no replacement for experimenting and understanding how that ownership and transfer process flows," she said in prepared remarks delivered to a crypto conference in Wyoming. "I certainly wouldn't trust someone to teach me to ski if they'd never put on skis, regardless of how many books and articles they have read, or even wrote, about it." Bowman did not offer specifics in terms of amounts or types of holdings she was considering, but her remarks serve as the latest indication of the friendlier tone regulators in the Trump administration are taking towards the crypto sector. Under Trump, the Fed and other bank regulators have already taken several steps to be more open to crypto activities by banks, after years of requiring banks to clear additional hurdles before diving into the sector. Throughout her remarks, Bowman emphasized that bank regulators need to be less skeptical of new technologies in the financial sector, including crypto products. She accused bank watchdogs of having an "overly cautious mindset," which she argued could actually hinder the banking sector by placing undue restrictions on activities. "We must choose whether to embrace the change and help shape a framework that will be reliable and durable - ensuring safety and soundness and incorporating the benefits of both efficiency and speed - or to stand still and allow new technology to bypass the traditional banking system altogether. From a regulator's perspective, the choice is clear," she said. Bowman said there are risks that come from any rapid transformations, but she maintained regulators need to acknowledge the potential benefits of those changes as well as potential problems. "Risks may be offset or at least determined to be manageable when we recognize and consider the potentially extensive benefits of new technology," she said.
The Sun
30 minutes ago
- The Sun
Six ways to save on costs when buying tech to support your studies
THE new school term is just around the corner, so it's time to learn what tech can best support your studies. Pupils often need to work on a laptop or tablet, but buying one can be pricey. Fortunately, big brands provide ways to save at this time of year. 7 Here's our pick of the deals. HURRY TO CURRYS: Students can get £100 off selected Windows laptops worth £799 or more. You'll need to verify you are a student online or in-store with student ID or a university acceptance letter. Offer runs until September 23. HOW TO EXCEL: Students, parents and teachers can get ten per cent off selected computers at Students also get free software, Office 365. You'll need to sign in and create an account to be eligible for the discount. TOP OF THE LAPTOPS: Buy selected laptops or tablets at Argos before the end of September and get a £50 gift card. DELL-IGHTFUL: Start the school year with ten per cent off Dell laptops for students aged 16 and over. You'll need to register for Dell's loyalty programme and verify your student status online at HP DAYS: Laugh all the way to the bank with savings of up to 20 per cent on laptops and desktops, as well as ten percent off printers through HP's student discount. You'll need to join the HP Student Store online with a higher education email address. BYTE OF THE APPLE: The tech giant is offering special pricing for higher education students, teachers and staff. I'm a cleaning pro, this is how to safely clean your tech devices And for a limited time, students will get selected AirPods or an eligible accessory for free when buying a Mac or iPad. Through education savings, the iPad Air starts from £549, saving around £50, and MacBook Air from £899, saving £100. You'll need to verify eligibility through student discount scheme Unidays. All prices on page correct at time of going to press. Deals and offers subject to availability Deal of the day PERK up your home brew with the Nescafe Dolce Gusto mini-me coffee machine, down from £65 to £38.96 at Asda. Cheap treat STAY relaxed and stylish with this slogan T-shirt, £7.50 from F&F at Tesco. Top swap WAKE up to fresher skin with Estee Lauder advanced night-repair serum, £65 at John Lewis. Or try Aldi's pronight serum, £4.49. In stores from today. Shop & save GIVE hair extra shine with Tresemme lamellar shampoo, down from £7.99 to £3.99 for Superdrug loyalty scheme members. Hot right now SAVE 20 per cent on Matalan orders over £40, or 25 per cent on orders over £65. Online only, use the code SUMMER. PLAY NOW TO WIN £200 JOIN thousands of readers taking part in The Sun Raffle. Every month we're giving away £100 to 250 lucky readers - whether you're saving up or just in need of some extra cash, The Sun could have you covered. Every Sun Savers code entered equals one Raffle ticket.
Times
30 minutes ago
- Times
In-fighting will only speed up the demise of British horse racing
Racing is up in arms. Many trumpets are being sounded as the sport's often-divided battalions form up behind the British Horseracing Authority's (BHA) organised 'strike' on September 10. But they need to be very careful of an early fallout with the betting industry as they assault a beleaguered Treasury desperate for extra cash. They must remember it is not fury, but figures that will win the day. I have long felt that without radical reform racing faces an existential crisis. Another 6 per cent betting tax and already serious leaks to the black market will only grow, bookmakers' profits on racing will decline, as will the £380million they provide racing via marketing, sponsorship, media rights and the Levy. All this will only hasten the game's decline. Disturbing, then, to see cracks in the bookmaker-racing relationship as we go into four of the best racing days of the year in the Sky Bet Ebor Festival. For the BHA chose not to tell the bookmakers about the strike — which is expected to cost the industry about £700,000 — in advance and a fair degree of umbrage was taken, most notably by Michael Dugher, the former Labour MP and present chairman of the Betting and Gaming Council, who talked of 'folly' and had earlier spoken of 'lions led by donkeys' as he castigated the National Trainers' Federation's support of the Social Market Foundation's (SMF) condemnation of online casino betting. But while Dugher is an important figure and his Racing Post article contained the magnificent line, 'In the end the crocodile gets round to eating us all', he is surely being disingenuous when he tries to equate betting on racing (taxed at 15 per cent) with that on gaming and online casinos (21 per cent). Of course they have bookmaking costs, but they don't involve communities all around the country, let alone being integral with a national heritage with 300 years of history. It's a disagreement, but the last thing we need is a full-blown row. Good, therefore, to hear a rather milder reaction from Seb Butterworth, strategic racing director of betting behemoth Flutter, the owner, among many other things, of York sponsor Sky Bet and of Paddy Power, who back ITV Racing. 'We are concerned that some in racing are cosying up to the anti-betting lobby, and the SMF, who have no genuine interest in the long-term future of the sport and would rather see it and betting banned,' Butterworth said. 'If bookmakers are hit with a tax rise — betting or gaming — racing's finances will be impacted. We at Flutter are already looking at where we spend money given this huge uncertainty.' Good also that on Sunday, the Jockey Club chair, Dido Harding, was out at Pontefract to impress on the importance of racing's grass roots. Given half a chance there is nothing some in racing would like to do more than to pick a fight with both the bookmakers and a Labour government. But while big demonstrations of support on 'strike day' are important to express solidarity, treasuries with massive black holes to fill are hard-hearted listeners. They have ignored plenty of other pleas in the past. By far our best bet is to find someone to persuade them that raising the tax rate would cut the tax take. Step forward someone better equipped than anyone on the planet to link the racing and bookmaking case: the 55-year-old Glasgow-born Jim Mullen, former CEO of Ladbrokes Coral and now in the driving seat at the Jockey Club. 'It's actually quite a simple equation if you understand cash,' Mullen said. 'The modelled impact of a 'tax harmonisation' highlights a loss of £66million a year to the sport and that would be felt everywhere. It would mean less cash going into prize money, staff wages, rent and rates, diesel for horseboxes and maintenance for training yards, studs and racecourses — everything from leaking roofs to making vital improvements. 'It's a sum so significant that some businesses, even racecourses, at the heart of our sport would almost certainly be forced to shut down in time, simply due to a lack of financial resources. These would be businesses that you couldn't just start up again, because the assets are taken over by other ventures and the process of replacing them is even more substantial when starting afresh. That requires more cash and, with the tax rate so high, there simply wouldn't be a business case to do so, by which time it's too late. 'People might think that it's hyperbolic to claim that a simple adjustment to tax rates on horse racing bets will have such a devastating impact on the wider sport, but this is the reality. It's why we are asking the government to stop and think properly about the real consequences of what they are proposing.' To govern is to choose. Having a go at what are easily termed as 'greedy bookmakers' or 'fat cat' owners may certainly seem an easy option. But the law of unintended consequences has already given this government a couple of nasty bites in the behind. It doesn't need another one. Neither do we.
