I'm immensely proud to be part of the UK financial services community.

I also wouldn’t be able to write this as the CEO of ClearBank without the UK’s supportive regulatory regime that enabled our creation. Let alone a thriving ecosystem that has supported our development. Today, we’re proud to serve over 240 financial services providers from start-ups to industry leaders, bringing about positive and meaningful change for UK businesses and consumers.

But we cannot cheer the successes of the past and assume the UK has a right to remain a financial services powerhouse simply because it has been so far. We need to work, collectively to ensure the UK continues to be a place where fintech firms can flourish as they build and scale into global businesses.

Ecosystems must be nurtured. As they evolve, they create new opportunities as well as new challenges. Nowhere is that more apparent than UK fintech where the first wave of innovators are no longer the ‘challengers’ they are the industry – from Allica Bank, ClearBank, Monzo and OakNorth Bank to Revolut, Starling Bank, Tide and Zopa.

Today, fintech is a crucial strategic sector of the UK economy, contributing to the country’s growth, productivity and innovation. If you take all the fintech valuations in the UK, it represents 25% of the FTSE 100 value.

While funding still faces significant headwinds, latest figures show UK firms attracted $2bn in VC investment across 184 deals. What’s notable is that 167 of those deals came in at under $20m at Seed and Series A stages, reinforcing that the UK remains a great place for innovators to build.

It also underscores that this is a sector that must be supported and encouraged. The question, then, is how?

One answer lies in adopting a similar model that has made so many of the consumer-facing firms so successful – a focus on community. Innovate Finance is the ideal entity to co-ordinate these efforts having been a driving force supporting the fintech community and so, when asked to be part of its Unicorn Council, I jumped at the opportunity.

The Council, co-chaired by Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, myself, Philip Belamant, CEO of Zilch and Francesca Carlesi, UK CEO of Revolut, is using the lessons we have collectively learned to ensure that the UK continues to have the best business and regulatory environment for the sector.

More specifically, it is examining what can be done to ensure world class, financial services brands are developed in the UK, supported to grow internationally and if they go public, list in the UK.

Our combined focus is on improving policy, perception and liquidity for the fintech sector. We want to create a policy playbook that outlines precisely what the government, regulators and the broader ecosystem need to address if our generation of fintech businesses are to continue thriving on a global stage.

The Council is working on identifying the prevailing issues for UK companies to truly scale-up and grow and is having direct interaction with senior Government ministers and officials to provide recommendations as to how policy interventions can best help these companies. In turn, that will help unlock and drive greater direct foreign investment into the UK, enhancing our international competitiveness.

I believe having that united front makes us much stronger, with an amplified industry voice discussing the key priorities of CEOs, investors and board members to scale their organisations.

The combined knowledge, passion and advocacy of the Council’s members can push for meaningful development.

I encourage everyone, from established firms to those at the start of their growth journey to read the Council’s initial policy recommendations.

For example, we can’t ignore the decline in the number of companies choosing the UK as the venue for their listing and a symptom of the broader decline in London’s attractiveness as a venue. According to the UK Listing Review, the number of listed companies in the UK has fallen by about 40% from a recent peak in 2008. So, it's encouraging to see the FCA making changes to UK listing rules that the Council and many others have been consistently and persistently calling for.

Other topics being examined include dialogue to unlock capital by encouraging UK public and private pension funds to invest in UK fintech as well as ongoing discussions around tackling APP fraud. Then there’s the future of Open Banking which has already created 4,800 jobs in the UK, building a sector worth £4.1bn, with 10% of UK residents now making use of these services.

While each of us has taken on these roles to help steer the various working groups, it’s not about us. It’s about the community. Our focus, and that of everyone involved, is on what we must do to ensure the UK remains the best location for people with brilliant ideas to flourish.

We are fortunate to have such an array of talented founders, technologists and industry experts to call on and collaborate with and we look forward to working with many more over the coming months and years.

Charles McManus is ClearBank’s Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. He is an experienced international banking professional with over 30 years in global investment banking, wealth management and retail banking. Prior to joining ClearBank in 2015, Charles was the Group CFO of RBS Ulster Bank Group until 2013, before which he spent 13 years with The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). His time with RBC culminated in a role as CFO of Europe and Asia and Global Head of Product Control.