US, UK Announce Partnership to Improve Trade, Financial Services

The U.S. and United Kingdom announced the Financial Innovation Partnership, a collaboration between the two countries to boost “bilateral engagement” in financial services innovation and expand trade, the Treasury Department said in a May 29 press release. Along with “encouraging collaboration in the private sector,” Treasury said the goal is to generally promote “growth and innovation.”

As part of its mission, Treasury said the U.S. and U.K. plan to increase “commercial engagement” in the two countries’ private sectors, providing “enhanced and regular opportunities for the private sector in one country to engage with industry associations, and market participants in the other country,” the press release said. Treasury said the partnership will allow the U.K.’s Department for International Trade to bring U.K. firms to the U.S. and for the U.S. Commerce Department to "coordinate trade promotion missions to the” U.K.

In a statement, Graham Stuart, U.K.’s minister for investment, highlighted the fact that the U.S. is the U.K.’s “largest bilateral trading partner, so it is brilliant to see this commitment to increase commercial and regulatory cooperation between our leading financial services sectors.” Gilbert Kaplan, Commerce undersecretary for international trade, said the partnership will help U.S. and U.K. companies “at the intersection of financial services, technology and international commerce.”