The UK government wants to let start-ups operate under “provisional licences” while they work towards full authorisation. It is a bold attempt to fix a slow, rules-heavy system. Whether it can revive the country’s claim to be the world’s favourite fintech launchpad is a subtler question.
When HM Treasury quietly published a policy update on “provisional licences” in early December, it did not read like a revolution. It was a slim, 14-page document, couched in Whitehall prose about “threshold conditions”, “mobilisation” and “Regulation Action Plans”.
Yet behind the jargon sits a sharp change of direction.
