Regtech Industry Survey

In 2022, City of London Corporation, Innovate Finance and Grant Thornton UK LLP jointly launched a survey to understand challenges, opportunities, and the priorities which currently characterise the regtech ecosystem. The partners surveyed a variety of participants including regtech buyers, vendors, regulators and trade associations. The aim of the survey was to provide industry insights which can help us elevate, strengthen and generate more awareness of the industry.

This insight project is an important step in ensuring the UK remains one of the leading markets for regtech innovation, adoption and benefits realisation. The results will shape our thinking for future work which will help amplify the voice of the sector.

An outline of findings is set out below:

• There is a need for regtech industry representation.
• When buying new regtech, 1 in 4 firms advise integration with existing systems is key, with 22% considering ease of use key as well.
• There is clear message from the market that regtech users would be motivated to invest more into regtech if they had clearer signals from regulators to show support for regtech solutions.
• The top 2 areas of investment over the next 12 months for regtech users is combatting financial crime and horizon scanning.
• 65% of regulated firms anticipate more regulatory obligations in 2023/24. 55% expect this to be less than 20% more than the previous year. Only 50% say they will invest more in regtech solutions 2023/24.
• The main business areas of focus for regtech firms is acquiring new clients (30.4%), product development (25%), and servicing existing clients (17.9%)
• 4 areas accounted for over 75% of the biggest challenges, according to respondents. These items are access to capital, consumer confidence, availability of talent/skills and geo-political volatility.
• Horizon scanning was the biggest area of challenge and the element that was rated highest in priority for the regulatory environment. A key point to note is that financial crime featured in the top 10 but not the top 5.

For more information contact us on: colregulatoryaffairs@cityoflondon.gov.uk