ScotlandIS, the trade body championing the digital technologies industry in Scotland, has released the latest in its series of Brexit briefings for the IT industry. The briefing focuses on the impact of Brexit on Scotland’s burgeoning FinTech sector and is produced in partnership with leading Scottish law firm Burness Paull, 博天堂入口的会员公司.
The UK is the leading global hub for FinTech and strong growth clusters are developing in Glasgow and Edinburgh, benefiting from the strong financial services sector in Scotland. This sector is largely regulated on EU level and will therefore be impacted by Brexit, which will have ramifications for FinTech businesses in Scotland.
Svea Miesch, 博天堂入口大学的研究和政策经理, says: “British banks and other financial services companies owe their success partially to the ability to trade in all EU countries without having to register separately in each country, 通过欧盟护照权得到保障. These rights are linked to the UK’s membership in the EU single market.
“The majority of FinTech companies are operating only in the UK and therefore do not rely directly on passporting. 然而, FinTech businesses often work in partnership with banks and will therefore be indirectly affected. The loss of passporting would also make future expansion to other European countries more difficult for UK FinTech firms.”
在英国退出欧盟之后, banks and financial services will look for ways to continue to trade easily in the EU, 卡勒姆·辛克莱认为, 伯恩斯·保罗的合伙人兼技术主管.
Sinclair says: “One option will be to establish part of the business in an EU country. 这将需要一个“重要的存在”。. It is not yet clear what defines such a significant presence in detail but some may interpret this as having headquarters within the EU. 此类举措在监管方面将会很复杂, costly and risk undermining Scotland’s strong financial services sector on which FinTech companies rely.
He continues: “Another option would be to obtain an equivalence status from the European Commission, confirming that British and EU financial services regulations are compatible. This option has also been mentioned in the UK Government’s Brexit white paper. 然而, 同等地位可在30天内撤销, so it is unlikely to give sufficient security to financial institutions. The UK Government would also have to mirror all new EU financial services regulations to protect the equivalence status.”
如果博天堂入口能继续留在欧洲单一市场, 正如博天堂入口政府的脱欧提案所提议的那样, banks with a significant presence in Scotland would retain passporting rights.
Even though the regulatory environment for financial services and FinTech will not change until 2019 when Brexit will come into effect, 英国脱欧已经产生了影响.
KPMG reported in November 2016 that uncertainty around the exit from European Union has led to a downturn in venture capital investment in British FinTech companies, 与此同时，德国的投资继续增长. KPMG is expecting more confidence of VC investors in 2017 though, “as the immediate ramifications associated with Brexit ease”.*
Miesch says: “The UK Government wants to negotiate “the freest possible trade in financial services between the UK and EU Member States” as part of its future trade agreement with the EU. ScotlandIS will continue to lobby on Scottish and UK level to make sure that the interest of FinTech companies and the wider digital technologies industry are taken into account during these negotiations.”
FinTech SMEs might just be the right partners for banks that need to find innovative and agile solutions to the challenges Brexit will bring.
Sinclair believes that “with its emerging tech hubs and highly experienced resource pool, the Scottish financial services sector is well placed to tackle these challenges. The fintech accelerator that has been announced this week by Entrepreneurial Spark and Royal Bank of Scotland is the newest addition to Scotland’s fintech landscape and aims to facilitate such innovation partnerships.”
Scotland’s digital technologies industry contributes £5 billion in GVA to the economy and some 84,000 people are employed in the sector with start–up incubators such as Rookie Oven in Glasgow and CodeBase in Edinburgh enjoying huge success and growth. According to KPMG’s Tech Monitor, the number of tech sector enterprises in Scotland grew 43.4 per cent between 2010 and 2015, second only to London (54.6%).
来源: SBNN