Amidst all the talk of UK growth and areas of expertise, technological innovations – in particular those used in the financial services sector – are still a major weak point. The biggest threat to the recovery and growth of UK financial services comes in the form of stronger regulations, weaker utilisation of social media and from the ever-evolving technologies coming out of US-based tech companies.

The EU digital single market

In 2014 the FCA recognised a very real threat to UK financial services business from the new products and services offered stateside. Project Innovate was launched in an attempt to answer this threat, to help ensure regulations support and to promote the application of the innovative products and services available.

The European Commission (EC) has outlined the importance of creating a digital single market, and with it a digital passport. The EC firmly believes removing specific regulatory boundaries from the 28 individual markets and creating a single market could contribute over €400bn (£313.5bn) to the continent’s economy and create new jobs across several sectors.

This would likewise positively impact property portfolio management services such as those offered by Robert Stones Target Markets.

Technical limitation barriers

The UK’s other unseen barriers come in the form of our technological limitations, which include patchy and slow internet connections that hinder networks and devices running smoothly. They also include travel difficulties across the UK, which make face-to-face working surprisingly difficult for such a small island nation.

These issues are further exasperated once services expand within the EU, as technical disparities can interfere with networks, code alignment problems arise in different standards and consumer laws vary wildly.

US reaping the rewards

Although the UK is well placed within the EU to compete with the US in terms of its size and market power, the US still stands out as a tech example. The majority of the leading social media platforms and financial services innovations are US owned and operated. In this respect, regulatory rules are an issue.

This is not only because US financial services benefit from their proximity to this technology but also from the fact that it is being developed within their own regulatory sphere.

Until regulations are changed, UK financial services will not be able to benefit from these innovations.