The EPA is looking to support the government in making the case for why UK companies should receive the same, or equivalent, rights to do business across the EEA as they do at present.
The UK is likely to leave the EU in 2019 and may lose its passporting rights to the European single market. Without such rights or equivalents, many fintech companies may be unable to deliver products and services across the European Economic Area (EEA). The FCA’s own figures state that UK companies have 336,421 passports held by 5,500 UK registered companies.
The report notes that the UK remains the best jurisdiction in which to be a regulated payment company currently, but provides an in-depth analysis on the merits of the six best-placed alternatives for UK fintech, should passporting rights be removed. The six are Cyprus, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Sweden.
There are serious consequences of the UK falling outside of the EEA, including: the impact on current MasterCard and Visa principal membership rights and licence requirements, whether the UK will be within or outside of the SEPA area, and whether the UK will have equivalent status for AML, data protection and more.
The UK fintech industry leads the world, employing over 60,000 professionals and contributing GBP 6 billion to the UK treasury as part of a wider financial services sector employing almost 2 million people and contributing 10% of the UK GDP.
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