Belgium and London have agreed to set up a “fintech bridge” that will enable cooperation between the two countries in the financial sector. The deal was struck between “B-Hive”, (part government owned platform that was designed to link Belgium’s fintech sector with that of traditional fintech sectors), and Innovate Finance (trade body of Britain’s fintech sector). The announcement comes after Britain’s success signing similar “fintech bridge” deals with Australia, Singapore, and South Korea.
After Britain left the EU, some were worried that startups and other financial firms would leave Britain in order to remain taking advantage of the EU”s passporting system which allowed free trade of goods and services throughout the EU. Belgium’s Finance Minister says that there was no intention to use this bridge as a way to poach employees and companies to relocate to the EU, instead reassuring that London will stay the financial capital of Europe. “Britain’s fintech sector, employed over 60,000 people and generated $8 billion in revenue, according to the Treasury.” This shows a strong sector in Britain that may be resilient to move elsewhere unless economic conditions became extremely favorable.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/01/11/business/11reuters-belgium-britain-fintech.html
I think that this is an interesting article especially through the fact that it looks at FIS from an international perspective. I think after Brexit as you mentioned, it is extremely important for Britain to create such links, which I did not know they were doing so I also found that to be interesting. While these bridges were not created for the purpose of poaching or relocation as Belgium’s Prime Minister made clear to note, could it be a possible inevitable side effect?