Onfido Calls for Public-Private Collaboration to Boost British FinTech

Onfido is encouraging British lawmakers and regulatory agencies to solicit input from technology stakeholders as they work to modernize the country’s financial ecosystem. The company made the request on the one-year anniversary of the Kalifa Review, which was published by the UK Treasury in February of 2021 to help create a roadmap for the country’s financial industry moving forward.

In that regard, the Kalifa review detailed some of the steps that the British financial industry could take toward digital transformation to remain competitive internationally. Onfido praised the government for following through on many of those initiatives, especially when it comes to business incentives. For example, the government has made more R&D tax credits available to companies that are developing new FinTech applications, while the Department of Digital Culture Media and Sport has pushed digital identity and the Financial Conduct Authority has created sandboxes to help financial start-ups get off the ground.

However, Onfido believes that the government could be doing more to push innovation in other areas of the economy. Most notably, the company wants to see more coordination between different government agencies to make sure that the financial regulations are consistent across different sectors of the market. It also wants the government to be more proactive about regulating cryptocurrencies.

For its part, Onfido argues that industry players should be a part of those discussions. Technology providers like Onfido can address some of the logistical challenges that the financial industry will need to overcome, and can help the government come up with practical policies that promote future development while still protecting the basic rights of individual end users.

Onfido itself joined the European FinTech Association back in November. The company has reported that selfie-based biometric identity verification services can help mitigate the threat of fraud, especially now that remote financial services have become more popular during the pandemic.