{"id":63077,"date":"2015-10-21T10:36:55","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T10:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=9b1b5131198b16668882c6fcd7f54dfc"},"modified":"2015-10-21T10:36:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T10:36:55","slug":"speech-economic-secretary-we-want-to-see-peer-to-peer-lending-continue-to-grow-and-evolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=63077","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Economic Secretary: We want to see peer-to-peer lending continue to grow and evolve"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I came to this job just under half a year ago, I set out my vision for the financial services sector. I was very clear that financial services had to deliver for the customer. <\/p>\n

There are two aspects to this.<\/p>\n

The first is to work with the customer to help them meet their long-term aspirations \u2013 whether that\u2019s buying a home, saving for a comfortable retirement, or setting up a business.<\/p>\n

The second is to make life easier for them in their day-to-day transactions. That could be as simple as enabling retail banking services to be available on a smartphone, rather than making the customer travel to a branch. <\/p>\n

As some of the most innovative players in the market, I believe you are brilliantly placed to rise to this challenge.<\/p>\n

I see three factors as creating specific opportunities for you.<\/p>\n

The first is the technological revolution.<\/p>\n

The frontiers of what we can do with technology are growing bigger and bigger every year. It\u2019s unprecedentedly rapid change, and that\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n

We want to harness the power of technology in financial services. Not only does it make the customer\u2019s lives easier \u2013 but tech companies innovate; they create opportunities, jobs and growth; they expand the economy.<\/p>\n

Our ambition is for the UK to be the global hub for financial technology \u2013 and I\u2019ll be talking a little later about how we make that a reality. <\/p>\n

The second factor is that here in the UK, we are making radical changes to give savers more freedom to use the money they\u2019ve earned in the way that works best for them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very basic principle: it\u2019s your money; you\u2019ve earned it; you should be able to choose how you use it. <\/p>\n

On pensions, for example, this government\u2019s reforms are giving savers unprecedented access to their pension savings. To date, over 200,000 have taken advantage of the new flexibilities.<\/p>\n

With greater freedoms come greater responsibilities. So what we will be seeing over the coming years is a fresh wave of customers who are much better-informed, and much keener to exercise these new powers \u2013 not least, through investing.<\/p>\n

A real opportunity for the financial services sector to deliver for them.<\/p>\n

The third factor is that, as a government, we have made it a priority to inject choice and competition into the retail banking sector. <\/p>\n

More competition means that banks are incentivised to offer the best possible products and services to their customers.<\/p>\n

There have been a number of important steps forward in this area:<\/p>\n