The City minister has said the tax regime “matters” for how the UK can strengthen capital markets as part of its bid to lock down the next cohort of listing candidates. Lucy Rigby, economic secretary to the Treasury, said the government was looking to build on the “historical success of our capital market” as it sought to galvanise fintech IPO prospects. The Treasury minister touted the stamp duty measure announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget, where the 0.5 per cent rate paid by investors when purchasing shares was dropped for newly-listed companies for the first three years following their public debut.
But earlier this year, City AM revealed that top fintech unicorns have warned that the Treasury’s stamp duty overhaul would not be enough to convince them to list in London The City minister said she “totally recognises… importance of tax” and how it “sends a message” for those mulling which public market they will head to. “This is about a direction of travel and this is really, really important because what we want to do is to further build… and further make sure that we are getting capital into some of the places where we really, really want to be able to drive growth,” Rigby said during a panel at Innovate Finance’s Global Fintech Summit in the Square Mile.
Concerns over some of Britain’s fastest-growing fintech companies snubbing the London market have spiked further over the last year after Wise ditched its primary listing in the City for New York. Access to capital and tax incentives have remained top issues on the docket as the Treasury continues to court firms viewed as ripe for a listing. Treasury unveils new stablecoin push Rigby’s remarks came as the Treasury unveiled its package targeted at boosting the fintech ecosystem.
The government said it would bring forward legislation to “cut administrative burdens” for companies wanting to provide stablecoin payments in a bid to grab a slice of the fast-growing digital assets market. The Bank of England last year relaxed its stance on stablecoin, after previously facing calls to “publicly walk back” over fears the UK was missing out on the market. Rigby also laid out plans for a “single, coherent framework” for tokenised payments – the security process of replacing sensitive data, such as a card number, with a uniquely generated alphanumeric identifier called a ‘token’ that has no value if stolen.
Chris Woolard, a former partner at EY and interim top boss at the Financial Conduct Authority, was also announced as the Treasury’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion. The Treasury said Woolard would lead the government’s work to deliver a more efficient and competitive financial sector through building a tokenised wholesale financial markets system. “Today’s package is our latest stake in the ground as we build a payments ecosystem that is secure, competitive and fully equipped to harness the opportunities created by rapid technological change,” Rigby said.