Fintech will unlock funding, says Carney
Artificial intelligence can help to unlock the potential of Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses by making it easier for them to access credit, Mark Carney has said.
Digital innovations in financial services will improve bank supervision and create better services for consumers and businesses, helping to deliver “more sustainable and inclusive growth”, the Bank of England governor told the Innovate Finance global summit in London yesterday.
Among the greatest benefits of the financial technology revolution was the potential it offered “to unlock finance for smaller enterprises whose assets are increasingly intangible”, he said.
Finance for small business has become a problem in recent years. The British Chambers of Commerce has spoken of a “shift from credit crisis to credit apathy” because smaller businesses no longer want to take out a loan. Only 38 per cent used external finance in 2017, down from 44 per cent in 2012. A Treasury select committee report last year claimed that such apathy had been caused by a lack of trust in high street banks, a perception that applications would be rejected and over-complicated procedures.
Digital bank start-ups and other financial companies are “opening up new opportunities for more competitive, platform-based finance of [small companies]”, Mr Carney said. He added that the Bank was at the forefront of efforts to encourage a digital transformation. It was the first to open up its payment services to non-bank payment service providers and it is “responding to demands from fintech providers”, he said.
[Note Philip Aldrick had an article on 23rd May suggesting fintech ain't up to much...]
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