Liz Truss wants to be friends with fintech and crypto, says Lisa Cameron MP

Lisa Cameron, MP and Chair of the Parliamentary Group on Crypto and Digital Assets, positive about the future of crypto under a Liz Truss government.

Image Source: Image Source: LisaCameron MP.

Lisa Cameron, Member of Parliament for the Scottish National Party, Chair of the Crypto and Digital Assets All Party Parliamentary Group (DAAPPG) believes that fintech and crypto will be central to the newly elected Prime Minister Liz Truss’ leadership.

“My feeling is very positive. Truss is very aware of how central fintech is to the UK and cities like London and Edinburgh,” Cameron said AltFi in an interview yesterday.

Elected on Monday after defeating former finance minister Rishi Sunak in the leadership race, Truss has previously shown his willingness to fight the crypto industry.

Back in 2018, when Truss was chief secretary to the Treasury, she tweeted: “We should welcome cryptocurrencies in a way that doesn’t limit their potential….”

Two years later, Truss was appointed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as his Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Trade Board.

During this time, she claimed that she wanted to “create great opportunities in areas such as blockchain”.

Although the new incumbents in Truss’s cabinet have yet to be unveiled, the current Secretary of State for Business is tipped to take on the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In a report entitled UK Innovation Strategy published in 2021 under Kwarteng’s leadership, blockchain solutions are considered part of the UK’s innovation agenda.

“She [Truss] will maximize the UK and its place in the world in terms of these sector developments, Cameron said.

Following the collapse of stablecoin Terra in May, regulatory jurisdictions around the world have looked to take on the often turbulent crypto industry.

In July, the UK unveiled its Financial Services and Markets Bill (FSMB), which aims to bring stablecoins under the purview of UK regulators.

Nadhim Zahawi, who briefly took over the role of finance minister after Sunak’s leadership bid, said the bill reinforced Britain’s position as a “leading centre” for technology and that the country looked to be “confidently adopting crypto assets”.

In the wake of the FSMB, the DAAPPG, chaired by Cameron, announced it wanted to conduct an inquiry into the UK’s crypto sector.

Throughout August, DAAPPG invited input from interested parties across the industry, with the deadline for written submissions on 5 September.

“People are becoming much more informed across the Lords and the House of Commons. There is a genuine interest in the sector,” Cameron said.

DAAPPG has not been the only parliamentary group that has brought industry and public actors together.

In June, the Metaverse and Web 3.0 APPG is registered, chaired by Simon Fell MP for Barrows and Furness and chaired by Baroness Pola Uddin.

The purpose of the parliamentary group is to evaluate the impact web 3 and the metaverse can have on society and industries across the country.