London FinTech Week: What to watch for

London's FinTech community prepares for a week of seminars, challenges, exhibitions and lectures as the world's innovators descend on the UK capital.
By Conner Guidry
Saturday 16 July 2016 marked the start of the third annual London FinTech Week. The world of financial technology gathers at London’s Grange Tower Bridge Hotel for eight days of panels, exhibits, and drinks.

Some have claimed that London’s reputation as the global headquarters of FinTech innovation may be under threat as the result of the recent EU referendum vote but this convention will attempt to allay such fears.

Delegates over the eight days can expect dialogue between established multi-nationals, innovation firms, start-ups, governments, and, of course, the media.

The opening weekend kicked off with a Blockchain Hackathon – a competition where teams compete against each other to create an innovative solution that leverages distributed ledger technology in order to improve the financial services sector.

Teams can generate Crypto Payments, unique clearing methodologies, or even something completely different. The winning team will get £2,000 and a speaking slot later in the Fintech week programme.

Then, from Monday a series of lectures, seminars, exhibitions and workshops begin.

Rajesh Agrawal has been scheduled as one the highlighted speakers. Agrawal is the newly appointed London deputy mayor for business as well as a FinTech entrepreneur. He is best known for cofounding international money transfer service Xendpay and online foreign exchange service RationalFX.

The deputy mayor recently commented on negotiations with the EU and has said he is determined to build a coalition that ensures the needs of business and financial services. We can expect some mention of this in his opening speech from 9:25-9:45 on Monday 18 July.

HM Treasury’s special envoy for FinTech Eileen Burbidge will also be speaking on Monday at 1:30pm. Burbidge is partner at Passion Capital – an early-stage technology venture capital investment firm based in London.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s Christopher Woolard is likely to be a big draw. The director of strategy and competition at the regulator will be speaking at 10:30am on Wednesday 20 July. Woolard is responsible for policy, strategy, consumer ideas and market intelligence at the FCA.

Monday can be categorised by the Money and Payments themes where delegates will discuss transaction banking, innovation in retail, virtual currencies and mobile banking.

Tuesday signals the beginning of the capital markets conference covering social trading, forex and opportunities in capital markets.

Wednesday is comprised of banking, insurance and financial services themes. The primary topics will be around how large enterprise firms are utilising technology to cut costs, enhance services and become more competitive.

Thursday is home to the Data, Security and Blockchain conference. It will also host a live hacking demo and hear talks from innovators in the distributed ledger technology industry. Several startups will also be exhibited.

Finally, the closing drinks on Friday will wrap up the conference and consist of a celebration with all the speakers, sponsors, and VIPs.

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