Ahead of the Game: Five key factors driving UK banking and fintech in a post-Covid and Brexit world​

The UK’s SMEs are under constant pressure from all sides: operating under the enormous uncertainty of Covid, struggling to recruit and retain bright people, and always in need of swift, secure and targeted help from banks. It is fortunate, then, that it seems that UK banks and fintechs are developing better ways to collaborate in order to make business banking easier and more secure for the almost 6m smaller businesses across the country.

Given the various pressures, not working smoothly with their financial service providers is one headache they don’t need, explained Professor Barbara Casu Lukac of Bayes Business School, who recently took part in a webinar we ran in partnership with DueDil.

Titled ‘Beyond Compliance’, a webinar focused on the challenges facing the UK banking and fintech worlds post Covid and post Brexit. This webinar combined the expertise of academics, technologists and financial crime experts to look at the ways in which new and established providers can work together with regulators to improve the banking services on offer to SMEs.

Read below the five insights captured below, shared by the likes of Justin Fitzpatrick CEO of DueDil, Professor Barbara Casu Lukac, Director of the Centre of Banking Research from Bayes Business School, Ricky Lee CEO and Founder of sync.money and Matthew Tataryn Head of FinCrime at Tide.

Onboarding

Onboarding remains a problem. Banks want to extend their lending books to new customers, but the current KYB can still be cumbersome and time consuming.

Challenger banks

Challenger banks still face a battle to past the trust test. While they are driving many of the innovations that keep the UK at the forefront of banking technology, challenger banks need to do more to reassure customers – retail and business – that they are equipped to take on large scale lending securely.

UK Regulators Lead

The UK regulator leads the world. The FCA has its critics but fintechs, banks, investors and consumers can all feel grateful that the UK’s watchdog takes such an active and progressive
role in shaping the banking landscape. The world is watching, and following.

Stop the fraudsters

Fraud isn’t going away. If the figures from the National Crime Agency are a guide, we are in a golden age of banking and online fraud. Good news, then, that the tools, systems and processes employed to counter the fraudsters are developing at a rapid rate.

Lets innovate

The status quo isn’t always a good thing. New technologies and processes will always carry a risk, but with a robust regulatory framework in place, the UK is better placed to support innovation in the banking space than anywhere else.