The last time the UK government switched from one of its main parties to another was in 2010. David Cameron’s Conservative Party ended 13 years of Labor rule by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The country is expected to make a similar shift again with the general elections, scheduled for July 4 this year.

There have been many prime ministers in the UK since 2010 (go on, count ’em), but a change in the party marks a change in the era. Most futurists I know say they look forward by examining the choices and outcomes of the past. This led me to think back to the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, when the UK, and especially London, became the global fintech hub.

Many regions around the world have sought to establish themselves as technology hubs. Places that would attract smart, innovative entrepreneurs, who could create the next Google or Apple, and establish the place as progressive, welcoming to educated talent, and, above all, wealthy.

However, before there were silicon chips and data residing in the cloud, London was a financial centre. Outside of its role as the capital of the United Kingdom, London has been a trading post for centuries. It served as an administrative center and source of funding for the world-wide British Empire. If money makes the world go round, the hub of that cash-rich carousel was London.

Previous and current UK governments have sought to invest in innovation and the digital revolution more broadly, being careful not to focus exclusively on financial services.

UK tech superstar Brent Hoberman, chairman and co-founder of Founders Forum Group, Founders Factory and Firstminute Capital, recently wrote in the Financial Times about the threat of the UK falling further behind other European countries in welcoming the technological ecosystem. He pointed out that “recent governments have not always had messages front and center in technology” and claimed that a senior UK politician told him that “there were no votes in technology”.

However, if we talk about supporting and growing the technology sector in the UK and particularly in London, the vast majority of that sector’s focus will be in financial services.

The spiritual home of fintech is the Big Smoke.

Leading government a few years after the 2008 global financial crisis, Cameron and George Osborne, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, recognized that the sector was demanding answers that would not necessarily come from traditional banking and financial services players. 2010 also saw the launch of Metropolitan Bankthe UK’s leading bank for 100 years.

That new bank is where I think the birth of fintech really began in the UK. Members of government and regulatory bodies looked at the fact that it took 100 years for the country to see a new bank and realized that progress, innovation and increased competition should not be that difficult to create.

Fintech was placed firmly at the heart of the Conservative-backed Innovate Finance Manifesto in 2015. A manifesto which has remained in place despite a coalition government with the smaller Liberal Democrats.

2014 was the year fintech got serious and interesting. London was the center of that universe. Level 39 emerged in Canary Wharf, just a year earlier, full of vibrant young fintech start-ups. From a direct plan by Osborne, Innovate Finance arrived in 2014, serving as an independent voice for the fintech community. Barclays followed suit by launching its own “new home for fintech” with Rise, created by Barclays (known to most simply as Barclays Rise) in 2017.

All these new and emerging companies, which were finding themselves based in east London, meant that the area at the end of Old Street, on the edge of the City of London, was dubbed the “Silicon Roundabout”.

More importantly, in 2014 the Financial Conduct Authority launched Project Innovate, which would evolve into a permanent regulatory sandbox. Regulators from around the world flocked to London to “learn” how the FCA was enabling the creation of a new class of financial services providers. .

Everything felt fresh, new and exciting. Will banks exist in 30 years? If not, would anyone care? What is this new currency people are talking about called bitcoin? (I was actually given a bitcoin around 2013 by a happy attendee at one of my talks – no one knows where it is now. #FindLizziesBitcoin.)

This is not a political column. However, I judge almost all mention of fintech by current or perceived government through the lens of that era.

Earlier this year, Labor published a report, Financing growth: Labour’s plan for financial services. The report claims, among other things, that a Labor government will scale back regional financial centers (OK, that’s been in the pipeline for years); look at “buy now, pay later” regulation (you and every single regulatory body on the planet); embrace tokenization (way to recognize a trend); as well as boosting funding for start-ups (well, duh).

Seriously, did anything puzzle you? Most of these plans are simply a recognition of the work that is being done now and whose roots lie in the heady years after 2014.

The conservatives don’t promise much more. A look at increasing financing and productivity for small and medium-sized businesses and a commitment to implementing the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and changes to the Common Reporting Standard.

Was the Cameron/Osborne-backed fintech manifesto just a product of its time? Fintech has become mature and am I asking too much for the new government to work beyond just maintaining the status quo and make fundraising slightly easier?

I want to wait. We are no longer in a post-global financial crisis world, but in a post-Covid world. Many countries find themselves with aging populations, while climate issues and geopolitical tensions will further impact immigration and global economies. We need increased competition and innovative thinking from fintech more than ever.

For now I will sit here in my ivory tower and read the various “promises” with a grain of salt. Whoever sits in Downing Street after July 4th (probably Labour), my only question will be: “What have you done for fintech lately?”

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