Nordic visitors on FinTech mission to the region

A delegation of approximately 20 international FinTech scale-ups are visiting the North West next week.

The visitors – mainly from the Nordic-Baltic region – are coming to the region as part of a FinTech mission led by the Department for International Trade and Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

The delegations will be spending time in Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds in a schedule that will showcase the region’s businesses, universities, and economic landscape, whilst also providing the visitors with the opportunity to pitch to and meet with UK organisations with an interest in FinTech.

Whitecap Consulting has working with the Department for International Trade and Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the project.

In February a similar sized European delegation expected to be made up of FinTech firms predominantly from Western Europe will visit the North West.

Julian Wells, Director at Whitecap Consulting, said: “We are proud to once again have the opportunity to work with DIT on its programme of FinTech missions. Our primary objective is to create opportunities for the visiting FinTechs to engage directly with organisations and individuals in the north so they can discuss genuine commercial opportunities.

“We will be working closely with the regional cities across the north to ensure the missions showcase the collective strength and opportunity offered by the Northern Powerhouse as a region.”

Jeremy Coupland, Financial Services Sector Specialist for the Northern Powerhouse at DIT, said: “We’re delighted to be working on these two important missions which will showcase the UK’s excellent capabilities in FinTech innovation.

“We want to promote investment opportunities in the Northern Powerhouse as a comparative and complementary option to London, and our aim is that the visiting FinTech firms gain an understanding of the regional financial services ecosystems in the north, including identifying business opportunities and seeing a clear demonstration of the UK’s pro-innovation regulation.”

FinTech is a fast-growing sector that contributes £6.6 billion annually to the UK economy, and employs over 60,000 people.

The foundations of the Government’s Industrial Strategy include making the UK the best place to start and grow a business, making the UK the world’s most innovative economy, and creating prosperous communities across the UK.

The Fintech Sector Strategy set out by the government included plans to secure the future of UK Fintech, ensuring that the UK remains the best place in the world for Fintech.