The FCA's Project Innovate is designed to foster competition and growth in financial services by helping small and large businesses that are developing products that could "genuinely improve" services for consumers.

The FCA's chief executive Martin Wheatley marked the opening of the Innovation Hub in a speech at Financial News' Fintech Conference in London today.

He said: "The Innovation Hub is part of our commitment to support innovation by opening doors to those – regulated and not – who come with fresh ideas about how to deliver financial services.
This work levels the playing field by giving all firms eager to innovate access to our expertise so that the process of joining the financial markets or introducing new products does not seem so daunting."

The Innovation Hub will provide direct support from a team of dedicated FCA staff to both regulated and non-regulated innovators. In order to receive support from the FCA, businesses will need to show that their innovation could bring benefits to the end consumer, either an individual or business.

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The Innovation Hub will provide businesses who qualify with access to the following services:

· a dedicated contact for innovation-related queries, including provision of individual guidance and informal steers, as appropriate;
· continuation of additional support for up to a year after authorisation (for those firms who have been supported through the authorisations process);
· help to understand the regulatory framework and how it applies.
· identify areas where the regulatory regime needs to adapt to facilitate innovation;
· use the expertise gained through our work with firms to inform future policy development in a way that supports innovation.

The full criteria that will be used to assess requests for support is available on the FCA website fca.org.uk/project-innovate.