Technological advances key to UK as financial powerhouse, Chancellor will warn

The UK's status as a financial powerhouse could be at risk unless technological advances are seized and exploited, Philip Hammond will warn.

The Chancellor will praise the financial technology (FinTech) sector as an area where the UK leads the world at a conference aimed at attracting investors to back British entrepreneurs.

He will say that Brexit offers the chance for the UK to forge a new role for itself in the global economy but will stress that the country must remain open to the "brightest and best" migrant workers.

The conference in the City of London will bring together more than 100 FinTech firms and investors from around the world.

Setting out the challenges - and opportunities - facing the UK, Mr Hammond will say: "We can't remain the number one place for FinTech and the other technologies of the fourth industrial revolution by simply relying on our ingenuity, talent and openness, we have to go out and get the business.

"We will have to strive and graft and fight to seize the opportunities - and make the most of them. That means growing and strengthening the areas - like FinTech - in which we enjoy a competitive advantage.

He will say that "while we need to continue to attract the brightest and the best from around the world to these shores" the UK "must also do better at nurturing and developing the home-grown talent to drive our economy forward in the future".

"Our vision of an outward-looking, global Britain will deliver the high-skilled, high-wage economy of the future that will power the higher living standards we all want to see for future generations."

FinTech companies already employ more than 60,000 people, with innovations such as contactless payments, banking apps and crowd funding worth around £7 billion to the economy.

Mr Hammond will say: "FinTech provides consumers with better services, more choice, and lower costs for businesses, it can mean access to new and cheaper credit."

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