Fintech lessons from London

I have just flown home from London after a UK Trade & Investment event over two weeks with 150 amazing speakers, three cities and 25 venues. The 24-hour flight is a pert reminder of Australia’s geographic distance from the centres of finance. For more than 200 years, this physical distance has shaped Australian businesses for better and for worse. The distance gave Australian businesses the airspace to grow in the local market, but it also denied many Australian companies the environment to dominate on a global scale. Financial technologies disrupt by unbundling and disaggregating financial services. This decentralisation of power challenges the fundamental drivers that led to London becoming one of the world’s greatest financial centres. This is not to suggest that fintech will not cluster. Only that there is a new game in town where the outcome is not necessarily pre-determined, and Australia is not necessarily starting from a competitive disadvantage. London is doing everything within its power to avoid relinquishing its relevance as a financial centre in a world where technology will trump proximity. Read more: (VIEW LINK)