UK-India Bilateral Trade in FinTech and FinTech-Enabled Services: Emerging trends and potential for growth

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FinTech refers to a wide range of ways in which new technologies are being used to deliver financial services, often delivered by start-up firms rather than established financial services firms such as banks. This project aims to enable increases in the quantity and maximise the benefits of trade between India and the UK by identifying potential changes to FinTech-related regulation, policy and practice at a time of rapid growth in the sector. Trade between India and the UK has the potential to grow enormously, benefiting consumers, businesses and governments in both nations; given the thriving state of the domestic FinTech industries in both countries, but low levels of trade in in FinTech and FinTech-enabled services, enhancing trade in this area is a particularly promising avenue for strengthening bilateral trade in goods and services between the two countries.We have four research aims, which are expressed in our research questions:(1) What is the current evidence on barriers to and enablers of trade in FinTech and FinTech-enabled services?(2) What changes could be made to regulation, policy, practice and investment to increase the quantity and maximise the benefits of FinTech trade between India and the UK?(3) What are the factors specific to FinTech start-ups that influence their ability and appetite to trade internationally?(4) What is the role of FinTech in promoting cross-border investment?The proposed project will adopt mixed-methods, including literature reviewing, documentary analysis, qualitative interviewing, and analysis of quantitative firm-level data to establish the barriers to and enablers of trade in FinTech and FinTech-enabled services in order to identify potential changes to regulation, policy and practice that could increase the quantity and maximise the benefits of FinTech trade between India and the UK.Our research objectives are:(1) to conduct a systematic and comprehensive review of the scholarly and policy/practice literature in order to establish the current evidence on barriers to and enablers of trade in FinTech and FinTech-enabled services;(2) to analyse and assess regulatory, policy, practice and investment documents in order to identify what changes could be made to increase the quantity and maximise the benefits of FinTech trade between India and the UK;(3) to conduct key stakeholder interviews and surveying in order to establish the factors specific to FinTech start-ups that influence their ability and appetite to trade internationally; and(4) assemble and analyse a database of bilateral investments identifying the degree to which each has been facilitated by FinTech in order to establish the role of FinTech in promoting cross-border investment.As well as producing scholarly outputs, our study will produce findings that will be of direct relevance to regulators, policy-makers and various practitioners in FinTech and adjacent sectors. We will disseminate these findings to the relevant audiences in order to provide them with additional tools to enhance trade in FinTech and FinTech-enabled services between India and the UK.The UK project team is led by researchers from the Essex Business School and the Centre for Computational Finance and Economic Agents (CCFEA), School of Economics; Centre for Global Finance, SOAS; Lancashire School of Business and Enterprise. The Indian team is led by RIS, New Delhi; IIDS, New Delhi; GIFT, Thiruvananthapuram. The project will be supported by an international advisory board.