A range of recommendations have been made for the FinTech industry in the UK in a brand new manifesto which has had the full backing of over 150 venture capitalists and startup companies. This includes the introduction of new legislation to be brought in by the UK government to make it more bitcoin-friendly.
A number of companies that provide investments for businesses including Seedcamp, Index Ventures and King have put their weight behind the new proposal that has been laid out in the manifesto and has been given the name ‘Startup Manifesto’. The manifesto was released earlier in the week by the Coalition for a Digital Economy or Coadec in its shortened form, which has sponsorship from Techhub, iHorizon, Google and Intuit, and was written by the executive director of the coalition Guy Levin.
A large portion of the document focused on the companies involved in financial technology although it did also recommend that a number of policies that were more business friendly be adopted. These policies would come in the form of anything from visa reforms through to tax cuts and to back these policies up it also requested that a range of laws were also enacted.
Using Project Innovate as a prime example the manifesto did give some credit to the government for the policies that it had already brought in to increase innovation within UK businesses.
A key recommendation made of FinTech, however, was that a new set of regulations for digital currencies along with a legal framework to strengthen these regulations were put in place. Doing this would aid the UK in becoming more Bitcoin-Friendly with the use of new regulations
A review of the UK’s rules for know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) were among a range of other measures that would have a significant impact on the use of bitcoins throughout the country. Suggestions that the analogue technology used for identification in Britain should be scrapped in favour of a new system that relied on digital technology were also made by the manifesto.
The manifesto stated that by moving over to digital identity checks a large number of FinTech companies would see significant benefits when having to make checks against KYC and AML.
A new system that would provide services within the UK government with identity assurance is already underway with the government currently in talks with five providers of identity services. The move to digital systems, however, is something that Coadec argue would be of much greater benefit if it were moved straight into businesses, especially new startup companies, rather than being initially kept just for government use.
Back in June last year the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced the Project Innovate initiative and so far it looks to be a shining example of how much the UK wants to help support a greater level of innovation within the country’s financial sector. To this end the FCA stated that it was imperative that the UKBit’s regulatory environment had to support new developments like the bitcoin and other innovative digital currencies.