Lord Mayor of the City of London pays virtual visit to Chile
During his virtual visit to Chile, William Russell met key policymakers, practitioners and fintech companies looking towards the UK market.
Lord Mayor of the City of London, William Russell
The Lord Mayor of London, global ambassador for the UK’s financial and professional services industry, paid a virtual visit to Chile on 9 and 10 March. The aim of the visit was strengthening trade links with the City of London. William Russell, the Lord Mayor, met government and business leaders, regulators, and trade bodies in Santiago. This virtual visit focused around collaboration on green finance, open banking, fintech and cyber security, as well as positioning UK strengths in financial services and innovation..
On the first day of the visit, the Lord Mayor attended a roundtable with the Ministry of Finance, regulators, representatives of the Chilean financial sector, and InBest –organisers of Chile Day. At the meeting, headed by the Chilean Minister of Finance Mr. Rodrigo Cerda, discussions where held about Chile’s approach to financial development. Other topics were sustainability and innovation, as well as opportunities for engagement in 2021, including at Chile Day in London.
The Lord Mayor also led discussions on the challenges and opportunities in open banking regulation. Chile is currently designing rules for this emerging sector. UK experts from the Open Banking Implementation Entity, and the companies Raidiam and Open Banking Delivery held discussions with key Chilean policy makers. They presented the UK implementation strategy for open banking, the challenges and spoke on the importance of good design. They shared lessons on how UK expertise can help create a dynamic and safe ecosystem.
Another focus of the Lord Mayor’s visit was promoting the UK market to Chilean fintech companies interested in scaling up. The Lord Mayor also referred to the latest outcomes of the Kalifa Review of UK Fintech, oriented to guide the future of the UK ecosystem.
Mr. Russell also participated in agreen finance roundtable meeting organised by the British Chilean Chamber of Commerce. The webinar ‘Mobilising UK-Chile Net Zero Green Financial Systems’ included participants from the Chamber’s member companies, finance and sustainability committees and other financial sector actors, who shared views on how to successfully take part in the race to net zero 2050.
On Wednesday 10 March, the Lord Mayor participated in an event for pension funds organised by Aberdeen Standard. The event focused on sustainability and how financial firms can incorporate climate risk into their investment decisions. Later that day the Lord Mayor led a discussion on cybersecurity for insurance firms, an event oriented to Latin American firms and organised by City of London.
About trade and investment relations UK-Chile
- the UK and Chile partnership is well-established and the UK-Chile Association Agreement has ensured that companies from both countries retain the preferential tariffs enjoyed under the previous EU-Chile agreement
- the City of London has an excellent relationship with Chile, which has strengthened further in recent years through Lord Mayor visits to Chile and Chile Day in London
- there are a wealth of bilateral trade and investment opportunities between the UK and Chile, with close to £2 billion of bilateral trade recorded last year
- the UK is now pursuing its own independent trade policy. We have established a UK-Chile trade dialogue to take forward strategic collaboration and adapt bilateral trading arrangements to the reality of our countries
- from 2015, the Santiago office of the Department for International Trade (DIT) has helped 29 Chilean companies to open or expand operations creating jobs in the UK, mainly in the tech and financial services sector. A high percentage of these have been scale-ups
About the UK economy
- the UK is a strong economy and a great place to do business, ranking eighth globally in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index (2020). This is thanks to its flexible labour markets, high levels of employment and competitive environment – with high standards and dependable rule of law
- the UK is recognised as a global leader on climate change action, including green finance and green growth promotion
- the UK has one of the strongest Fintech ecosystems worldwide and the lowest tax rate in the G20. The UK fintech sector contributes £6.6 billion annually to the UK economy, and employs over 60,000 people across 1,600 companies
- DIT in Latin America and the Caribbean has supported more than 250 companies in the region to invest more than £3 billion in the UK. These investments come from enterprises operating in a wide array of sectors such as technology, finance, food and drink, and chemicals
Further information
If you want to know more about this virtual visit, please contact the British embassy’s Communications Office in Chile.
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