Will fintech flee London?

From mobile payment apps to digital currencies, from the blockchain to artificially intelligent insurance brokers, financial technology is one of the hottest areas for tech investment.

And London, one of the world’s most important financial centres with plenty of talented software engineers, is regarded as just about the best city on earth for anyone starting a fintech business.

But will that continue to be the case after the UK leaves the European Union?

The British government certainly hopes so, and it convened the International Fintech conference in London last week to bang that message home.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, and the Bank of England governor Mark Carney, took to the stage to tell the delegates that the UK had a unique mix of the right talent and the right kind of regulation to allow fintech to thrive.

But there was a rather different message from the founder of TransferWise, probably the most successful fintech firm to be born in the UK.

Taavet Hinrikus, who came to the UK from Estonia to start a money transfer business that now employs over 600 people, says Brexit has made everything uncertain.

His principal concern is about access to talent because he fears skilled people are already being put off from coming to the UK.

But he’s also concerned about the loss of passporting, which allows financial firms to operate across the European Union.

So would he still start a business in the UK today, he is asked. “Probably not,” he replies. “When it comes to how easy it is to get people to come to London, we don’t know how it will be in two years time... it is the right thing to consider whether you should do it in Amsterdam or Berlin or any other city in Europe.”

But one gets a more cheerful view from Erik Abrahamsson, who launched his social media insurance business Digital Fineprint in London last year.

He says investment did dry up for a while after the Brexit vote but now the weak pound is helping him attract overseas investors and customers because his products look cheaper to them.

Around the world people now take it for granted that you can pop into a cafe or a public space and get online via a wi-fi network.

But in Germany you will struggle - there are about half as many wi-fi hotspots per head as in the UK.

That is because businesses fear the consequences of people using their wireless networks to do something illegal.

German law makes them responsible if someone downloads pirated content.

And as German copyright owners are very hot on defending their rights, that can prove costly.

Now there is a new draft law going through the German parliament which makes it clear that third parties should not be liable for the activities of those using wireless networks illegally.

That could make offering hotspots easier, but copyright holders will still be able to demand that access to their content is blocked on wireless networks where piracy has been detected.

Germany, like every modern economy, wants to be seen as a highly connected nation, but when it comes to public wi-fi it is still in the slow lane.