Mastercard launches 3rd ‘Get Britain Growing’ report, with FinTech North support
Ryan Walsh / 24th January 2024
FinTech North is delighted to support Mastercard, one of our main strategic partners, alongside some other fantastic organisations including, Innovate Finance, British Chamber of Commerce and British Retail Consortium, with the latest iteration of their ‘Get Britain Growing’ policy programme publication.
The paper is focused on how Mastercard can enable growth and productivity by continuing to support digital payments innovation as the foundation of the next generation of FinTechs, and maintain the competitiveness of the UK’s vibrant FinTech sector, in particular creating the right ecosystem to boost FinTech innovation in the ESG space and supporting the transition to net-zero.
This iteration is the third paper in Mastercard‘s Get Britain Growing policy programme. It is a collection of views from across the financial services industry, consumer, business and third sector organisations on how we create sustainable and equitable growth across the UK economy by better harnessing digital payments technologies and innovation.
From Mastercard‘s various discussions with FinTechs, industry experts and business representatives, a number of consistent themes emerged:
The importance of partnerships, both private and public, across the UK: Change is not something that industry can drive on its own, and government has an important role to play at a local and national level
FinTech and digital payments have an exciting role to play in helping individuals and businesses understand and increase their impact on the drive to net-zero, but this can happen only if there is a coherent and unified approach by government, ensuring that different departments work together cohesively as part of a wider strategy to support fintech and create sustainable economic growth.
Government must build the foundations and infrastructure from which businesses can harness payments and wider innovation to create meaningful impact in tackling exclusion or supporting the U.K.’s net zero transition – for instance, through a common framework for measuring carbon emissions, or through further and more targeted support for ESG-focused fintechs.
FinTech North’s contribution shone a spotlight on how the North of England’s vibrant FinTech ecosystems can power sustainable and inclusive growth for a more prosperous future. Joe Roche, Engagement Manager at FinTech North, stressed the criticality of ensuring the UK government continues to foster an ecosystem that can support the growth of FinTech innovation in the North of England and implored the investor community to look beyond London and to actively engage in the North and invest in Northern companies.
We’d like to thank Mastercard for the opportunity to participate and highlight the role Northern innovators can play in Getting Britain Growing.
To read Get Britain Growing: How Digital Payments Technologies Enable Growth: Powering the UK’s next economy – FinTech Innovation and The Transition to Net-Zero in full, follow the link here.
