As you may have heard at some point over the last couple of years, the economic situation has been somewhat turbulent. The reasons for this have been covered extensively and my days as a history student are now firmly behind me.

The Intellect Financial Services Group convened for its first Conference halfway up one of the strangest buildings to grace the English capital – the eye-catching Gherkin - in late February determined to look forward. Enough of the past, what about the opportunity to move ahead with UK technology at the helm?

Are we past the worst of the crisis? That is a question I dare not answer. But I can tell you that there will be no sustainable recovery unless it is open to innovation and technology driven.

As we near an election, simple calls for ‘more regulation’ will continue to headline stories about bankers’ bonuses – but, as British Bankers Association Chief Executive Angela Knight told Intellect members, ‘more’ regulation is not a good enough answer. It must be ‘better’ regulation which is both flexible and innovative, and that will require the best of UK technology.

Despite the crisis, the City of London remains the financial centre where vast quantities of capital reside and most of the biggest players still aspire to be seen as part of the ‘City brand’. UK plc, led by forward-thinking Intellect members, must now be ready to step up to provide the twenty-first century power tools to keep it that way as international alternatives develop apace. The technology industry must show its value as both an enabler and an innovator for the UK economy at a time when there is an opportunity and appetite for change on a grand scale.

This is the next battle; perhaps it is time to marshal the troops and move on from the last one.

Yesterday, the FSB launched a new report urging the Government to transform post offices into small business hubs. A number of interesting ideas were put forward, including establishing a business desk at each Post Office with specially trained staff or offering meeting room facilities to start-ups and micro businesses.

I welcome the report and its call for action. A number of the points resonate with proposals Intellect put forward in its response to the Business and Enterprise Committee’s inquiry into the future of the PO network. For example, Intellect’s response suggested:
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It’s not a trick question, I do want to know but I don’t want to start counting characters per page, but 20 pages of guidance on how to twitter in government would be a lot of tweets. The latest government guidance is called ‘Template Twitter Strategy for Government Departments’ and is available here. News outlets are all reporting on it and the author even guest blogged on the cabinet office’s Digital Engagement Blog to promote it. Let’s hope the guidance is put to use sensibly.

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The collapse of the Postal Services Bill led the news last night and – along with Andy Murray – dominated much of the quality press this morning. The fallout from Lord Mandelson’s announcement has caused much head scratching with all the stakeholders as they figure out what lies ahead.

Politically, the Bill has been a hot potato from the start, with the Labour Party demonstrating an ability to tear itself apart over it, and the Conservatives, with their support for the Bill, adding further pressure to the Government. So what happens now?

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Things in the City have been murky recently. Redundancies, reputational-damage and regulatory-overhaul have caused concern (to put it mildly) throughout the Square Mile. However, a good news story emerged about the capital when new research published earlier this week found that London’s ICT infrastructure is as ‘good as anywhere in the world’. The report, commissioned by the City of London, found the City has sufficient depth of network connectivity and enough data centre providers to offer network resilience and security to businesses. Also, from a human point of view, the skills to support the ICT infrastructure are currently a major strength of the City.

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We all know that technology is evolving faster than we can keep track of; for example, web 2.0 solutions are just being implemented across the economy on a wider scale, but ‘techies’ are already developing and debating web 4.0. No doubt the future will enable us to do so much more with the help of technology. However, part of this future depends upon reliable and tested identity management processes. I, for one, do not want four other “Jon’s” running around using my identity and money simply because technology enables them to.

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There is an excellent article in the latest issue of Computing about the impact of the downturn on the ability of financial services firms to innovate. Although one might think that the economic slowdown would impact negatively on the levels of innovation occurring, it’s clear that many firms realise the benefits of investing in new or existing ideas to help push their businesses forward during these difficult times.

The three ‘innovation winners’ highlighted in the article are mobile banking, customer networking and ‘un-sexy innovation’. The last of these can be summed as efficiency projects that, although they don’t grab the headlines, improve the customer experience and deliver results. In light of some of the results announced this morning, this would be a wise move.

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I was at the launch event of ‘The UK’s Digital Road to Recovery’ yesterday, a joint report from the LSE and Washington based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) which assesses the employment benefits of investment in three key areas of the UK’s digital infrastructure. The headline figure from the report suggests that £15 billion of investment in broadband, smart grid and intelligent transport systems could result in 700,000 jobs retained or created in the UK.

There was a lively debate with the delegates over the 700,000 figure, with some in the audience querying the validity of the job growth claims, and others questioning the availability of a £15 billion stimulus in the current climate. (more…)

As expected there were no big giveaways from Alistair Darling in this year’s budget. Whilst it was nowhere near as drastic as the recent second Irish budget in which taxes were hiked and budgets were slashed, the Chancellor gave a keen sense that the UK is battening down the hatches to weather the economic storm. But it was not all doom and gloom, and indeed there were plenty of positive points for the technology industry to take. So was this the first ‘Technology Budget’? (more…)

This afternoon’s Budget saw the Chancellor announce that he would shortly be publishing a paper with his ‘recommendations for wide-ranging reform’ of financial regulation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the banks are in the firing line: the paper will put forward ideas to improve regulation of capital and liquidity, and also to reform their corporate governance and remuneration.

However, I hope that the Chancellor has spoken to his colleagues in the FSA. Since 1 January 2009, at the time of writing, there have been 13 FSA consultations, covering subjects like reforming remuneration practices and strengthening liquidity standards.

Regulation may be a necessary evil but there is a real danger of over-regulation within financial services. No doubt steps must be taken to prevent the financial calamities that we have seen in recent months but what is needed is a better quality of regulation, not higher quantities of it. I look forward to reading the Chancellor’s paper.