The Regulatory Innovation Office has partnered with the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum to support fintech development and fuel the governmental Plan for Change.
This initiative ensures that fintech and other digital firms will be helped to navigate the complexity of the regulatory framework through tools backed by the RIO.
Helping fintechs navigate the complex regulatory landscape
In 2024, the UK’s fintech sector rose USD 3.6 billion in investment. However, fintechs, startups, and scale-ups often face challenges when it comes to understanding regulations and compliance measures. This issue is even bigger for SMEs, which don’t have specialised compliance teams. The move aims to tackle this, supporting the evolving sector to bring new developments to the market, from better fraud prevention to money management services and more. This is a key step for the Plan for Change.
The plan’s mission is to strengthen the economy, create a better NHS, improve safety on the UK’s streets, offer more opportunities, and make Britain a clean energy hub. RIO’s partnership with DRCF aligns with the Plan for Change, helping with the development of new tools that make regulation understanding faster and more accessible.
Government representatives mention that the UK is a significant player in both financial services and technology innovation, and in the intersection of these two sectors, fintech. However, with an ever-rising number of companies, the complex regulatory landscape can be challenging to navigate. They hope that RIO will remove these issues and help innovators focus on solving bigger problems, such as fighting financial fraud, improving access to banking, and helping people save, borrow, and invest more easily.
The partnership with DRCF follows RIO’s support of four technologies: space, engineering biology, AI in healthcare, and drones and autonomous technologies. This reflects the government’s commitment to unlocking science for real-world benefit. Additionally, the Science Secretary marked six months since the launch of the AI Opportunities Action Plan, which helps fund responsible AI trials and supports regulators to better engage with the technology. The use of technologies like AI presents enormous opportunities for the sector, as shown at the Financial Conduct Authority’s AI Sprint earlier this year, which looked at how new technologies are set to overhaul the delivery of financial advice, compliance for firms, customer service and more.
