London's Lord Mayor to lead a five day financial technology delegation to India

The Lord Mayor of London, who is in charge of the financial heart of the British capital, will lead a five-day financial technology delegation to India from Sunday to scope out new fintech collaborations and strengthen trade relations with the country.

Lord Mayor Charles Bowman will travel to Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi for meetings with senior government and industry leaders during the visit, which includes a delegation of 12-strong companies from the UK keen to explore fintech tie-ups in India across fields such as blockchain, payments, insurance, or insurance related technology models, and reg tech, or regulatory technologies.

"India is an important priority market for us. Travelling with me on this visit are some of the best and brightest fintech firms the UK has to offer, and I can’t wait to see them fly the flag for UK industry," said Bowman, for whom it will mark the first visit to India, having visited 27 countries in his role as the global ambassador for the UK’s financial and professional services industry.

“The UK and India enjoy a strong and enduring relationship that continues to reap results in many areas including finance and commerce," he said.

"India is the fourth-largest foreign investor in the UK, and ties between our two countries are growing. But there is so much more we can do together, particularly in the area of fintech, where UK expertise perfectly matches the needs of India’s growing digital market."

Fintech is a new industry that uses technology to improve activities in finance.

The Lord Mayor said he would be taking a message of "reassurance" that despite Brexit and the UK’s impending exit from the European Union (EU), London will continue to be the world’s leading financial centre.

He will also be promoting the City as the preferred destination for Green Masala Bonds during some of the planned meetings with representatives of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Department for Information Technology of Maharashtra, among others.

Bowman will be accompanied the Lord Mayor elect, Alderman Peter Estlin, who is set to take over the year-long traditional post from him next month.

Bowman is the 690th incumbent of a role that dates back centuries as the leader of London’s so-called "Square Mile", or financial district.

His visit to India aims to enhance ties in the fintech sector and follows work by the City of London Corporation with the UK government and the Indian High Commission in London on a number of programmes, including Access India — which works to support UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs) expanding into the country.

"Trade between the UK and India has risen by 19 per cent to GBP 18.8 billion but there is still enormous potential to expand this relationship even further. This is particularly true for areas like fintech where Britain is a world leader – last year alone, the UK secured more tech venture capital investment than Germany, France, Spain and Ireland combined," said UK trade minister Liam Fox in a pre-visit statement for the Lord Mayor’s delegation.

"The Lord Mayor's visit to India comes at a very opportune time, given the ever-strengthening bilateral ties between our two countries,” said Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Y K Sinha, who added that London will “always remain a global financial hub".

During the India visit, the Lord Mayor will also announce that a Scholarship to be awarded to one exceptional Indian student as part of the Mansion House Scholarship Scheme, which is run alongside the UK Foreign Office to give students from around the world the chance to work closely within the financial hub of London for a year.

(With inputs from agencies.)