FIN.

FinTech bridge to China agreed

Announced as part of the 8th annual UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue at Lancaster House in London this month, the FCA has signed a Co-operation Agreement with the People’s Bank of China in a bid to share information on promoting innovation in financial services. This is the fourth co-operation agreement signed with AsiaPac countries this year.

Andrew Bailey, Chief Executive of the FCA said: “We are delighted to be signing a Co-operation Agreement with the People’s Bank of China, which will underpin a UK-China FinTech Bridge. The Co-operation Agreement will allow us to share information about financial services innovations in our respective markets, including emerging trends and regulatory issues.”

It is hoped that by strengthening links between the regulators, it will boost reciprocal market access for both UK and Chinese FinTechs and that this in turn will encourage wider innovation in their financial services sectors.

Eileen Burbidge, a partner at Passion Capital and HM Treasury’s special envoy for Fintech said: “China’s FinTech sector has grown to a staggering size over the past few years. The alternative finance market alone is worth more than £98bn, it houses eight of the world’s 27 FinTech unicorns and last year it received over £2bn worth of investment. Naturally, some of the UK’s most ambitious FinTech companies want to explore opportunities and set up operations in China, while at the same time Chinese FinTech giants and investors are increasingly looking to meet the demand for financial services in the UK. This new FinTech bridge will streamline the dialogue between our two FinTech sectors, making it easier for FinTech to move across borders.”

You can see the Co-operation Agreement here.

Innovation is extremely important to us at Bond Dickinson.  In a changing and challenging legal market it is important we constantly strive to creatively improve the way we deliver our legal services and ensure they are truly aligned with our client’s needs. As well as excellent advice, clients want transparency, efficiency and cost effectiveness. They want us to work in partnership with them (and others) to help solve their commercial and sometimes practical and administrative issues.

Artificial Intelligence in particular is radically altering the way we carry out legal services.  We are using our international alliances and other relationships to deliver cutting edge products which can be used by our global clients across international boundaries.  Examples include document assembly systems, online document storage solutions, due diligence tools and legal research.

 

Emma Radmore