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

Researchers from the Centre for Global Finance at SOAS University of London, in collaboration with their colleagues at the University of Essex, UCLAN and several universities in India have been awarded one of only 4 collaborative research projects between the UK and India.

The project, funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), aims to assess the role of FinTech in the expansion of UK-India bilateral trade in goods and financial services.

It is part of funding of up to £1.3million available from ESRC, earlier announced by the UK and India governments for collaborative projects between Indian and UK researchers, focusing on the future of India-UK trade and investment relations in the context of a changing global environment (exemplified not least by the UK’s prospective departure from the European Union and threats to the global trading system posed by a drift towards protectionism).

The research partnership involves SOAS University of London (Professor Victor Murinde), University of Essex (Professor Thankom Arun, the PI, and Professor Sheri Markose), the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, New Delhi (Professor Sachin Chaturvedi and Dr Priyadarshi Das), UCLAN (Dr. Philip Kostov), Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, Thiruvananthapuram (Professor K. J. Joseph), and the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi (Dr Reji Joseph).

Professor Adam Habib, Director of SOAS University of London, had this to say, “We are thrilled that SOAS is represented through the person of Professor Victor Murinde and other colleagues on this research award. It is worth noting that our contemporary challenges are transnational in character and the fashioning of solutions will require the establishment of cross-institutional and transcontinental teams of researchers and institutions. This project is one such example of this kind of partnership and needs to be increasingly emulated”.

Professor Victor Murinde at SOAS remarked, “This project is timely, given the global FinTech revolution. We will generate new evidence that will directly inform policies and strategies for enhancing trade in FinTech and FinTech-enabled services between the UK and India.”

Professor Thankom Arun at the University of Essex commented “FinTech provides enormous opportunities for the development of financial markets and economic growth. This project aims to make significant contributions to the ongoing India-UK economic cooperation, by contributing to the development of the FinTech sector and FinTech-enabled services in India and the UK.”

Dr. Reji Joseph at ISIS New Delhi added, "FinTech is one of the focus areas of economic cooperation between India and UK and both countries have globally leading start-up ecosystems. This project will capture the potential of FinTech start-up ecosystems in both countries in promoting bilateral trade in services and the regulatory issues that affect their growth and contribution".

Visit UKRI website for more details about the project: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT016213%2F1 

The launch has been featured by Fintech News Today and Finextra.