David Ramsden: The Bank of England and fintech - public support for private innovation

Speech by Sir David Ramsden, Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking of the Bank of England, at the UK Fintech Week 2021, 21 April 2021.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

Thank you for this invitation to speak at UK Fintech Week. Every year this event performs an important role in highlighting the strength and potential of the fintech sector in the UK. After a year like the last one, we need to be more certain than ever about the resilience of the sector. Today, I will discuss how the Bank of England delivers its role to support the safe development of UK fintech in line with our mission: to promote the good of the people of the UK through monetary and financial stability.

Engaging with fintech is an important part of achieving that mission, as I emphasised when I spoke here last two years ago in 2019. In the three years since the Bank set up its 'Fintech Hub', and the two years since Huw van Steenis' 2019 'Future of Finance' report for the Bank, the UK fintech sector has grown significantly.

The Covid crisis has seen a further acceleration in the pace of digitalisation. Online sales have surged – coupled with a decline in the use of cash and less reliance on cards – and use of digital banking has increased. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee has been focusing on the macroeconomic impacts of the changes the pandemic has caused to what we buy, what we make and how we work, as I outlined in a speech I gave last November. It's a complex picture, and it's still far too early to say what the long term economic effects of these developments will be. But what certainly has changed for good are our expectations of what services all of us should be able to access from our homes; which will see more work done such as my speech to you today .Digital finance, in all its forms, will be crucial to the recovery and to the post-Covid form of the economy.