The Bank of England (“BoE”) has published a statement in relation to the launch of its own FinTech Accelerator. According to the statement, the BoE starts the initiative to work in partnership with FinTech firms on challenges that we, as a central bank, uniquely face. The Accelerator will work with new technology firms to help us harness FinTech innovations for central banking.
In return, it will offer firms the chance to demonstrate their solutions for real issues facing us as policymakers, together with the valuable ‘first client’ reference that comes with it. With time, the Accelerator will build a network of firms working in this space for the benefit of us and them alike.
Partner firms will be selected to engage in short Proof of Concept projects (POCs) via a transparent and competitive process, based on clearly defined selection criteria. These criteria will ensure each project has the potential to be truly innovative, relevant to the Bank’s Mission and that commercial considerations are taken into account.
At the end of the POC, the Bank will consider producing an assessment of our experience of the work. Where appropriate, the BoE will consider making this accessible through publishing a description of the findings. For successfully completed POCs, the Bank will consider acting as a reference client for the firms.
The Accelerator has already carried out initial work in the areas of data anonymization, cyber security and distributed ledger technology. Other areas of potential future interest for the Accelerator include finding new ways to structure and analyse large datasets, machine learning, particularly in relation to anomaly detection and pattern recognition, and protection of the Bank’s sensitive data.
However, the Bank’s interest is not limited to the topics above; we would also welcome expressions of interest from innovative firms in all areas of FinTech that can demonstrate how their work relates to the Bank’s mission.
The BoE statement and related information are available here.