Holland & Knight Helps Build Trans-Atlantic Partnership for FinTech Industry
ATLANTA (February 2, 2017) – Holland & Knight Attorneys Roth Kehoe and Robert Green, members of the firm’s financial services practice, were instrumental in the creation of the newly-announced P20 alliance between two global hubs of the payments and FinTech industry, Atlanta and London. The alliance was formally announced today by the British and American governments, businesses and other influential leaders.
The P20 partnership will hold its inaugural meeting of the 20 most influential leaders in the payments industry, along with top U.K. and U.S. government officials, on Oct. 9 and 10 in London.
The annual meeting will serve as a platform for thought leadership and best practices across many areas including regulatory and compliance frameworks and pressing issues such as cybersecurity, innovation and how the payments and FinTech industry can achieve greater financial inclusion. The P20 meeting will rotate between Atlanta and London.
In organizing the P20, the Messrs. Kehoe and Green recruited key stakeholders in the industry including industry leaders, governmental leaders and regulators to support the alliance and help set its agenda. Three years ago, the attorneys also helped launch the American Transaction Processors Coalition (ATPC), a group that represents the more than 70 Georgia-based companies that develop products and provide resources supporting the financial service industry's technology needs.
"Through the P20, we’ve created a trans-Atlantic partnership that will promote the growth of the payments industry by helping it to collectively solve problems and share solutions," said Mr. Kehoe
The announcement of the P20 partnership was praised by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed; parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for International Trade, Mark Garnier; chairman of the P20 Advisory Board and the UK prime minister’s business ambassador for FinTech, Alastair Lukies; and executive director of the ATPC, H. West Richards.
"I am proud that our Atlanta-based organization, its leadership and one of our founding sponsors, Holland & Knight, had such unique foresight to pull together such a terrific international platform," said Mr. Richards. "We are most grateful for the unified support we have received from Georgia’s political leaders to back this initiative. We are also grateful to have secured such a terrific partner in the City of London and the U.K. government."
"I am proud to support the P20 initiative to strengthen the ties between the Atlanta and London. Atlanta is home to a strong and diverse workforce and processes more than 70 percent of all payments in the United States each year," said Mayor Reed. "Our two cities are major international financial technology hubs, and building stronger relationships between government and business leaders here and in the United Kingdom offers tremendous potential for the exchange of ideas, as well as trade and investment opportunities."