In a speech at Web Summit in Lisbon Charlotte Hogg, the Bank of England’s Chief Operating Officer, gave an update on the work of the Bank’s FinTech Accelerator since its launch in June. Charlotte detailed the current work underway and the firms we are engaging with. She also announced that the window for applications for the next round is now open.
The FinTech Accelerator deploys innovative technologies on issues that matter to the Bank’s mission and operations. Working in partnership with FinTech firms we are seeking to develop new approaches, build our understanding of these new technologies and in some way support development of the sector.
Commenting on the progress of the FinTech Accelerator since its launch in June and the completed proof of concepts, Charlotte said:
“We set up the Bank’s FinTech Accelerator in the Bank, launched in June this year, precisely to develop our practical experience of FinTech. Just over the past six months we have met or researched over 130 start-ups, participated in around 25 conferences, and held roundtables with more than 80 organisations. In listening and learning, we are ableto begin forming a judgement about the impact of these technologies. In the Accelerator, we seek to engage with a large number of FinTech firms and technologies, and to run a series of targeted, rapid proof of concepts (POCs) with a number of them. All POCs are work on problems or challenges that are important to us, and the firms are carefully chosen through an open process based on our published criteria…Recent POCs have covered three main areas – data analytics, information security, and some work exploring distributed ledgers.”
Charlotte then announced the current POCs and the start-ups the Bank is working with:
“A recent addition to the FinTech Accelerator is a POC with BMLL Technologies that uses a machine learning platform, applied to historic limit order book data, to spot anomalies and facilitate the use of new tools in our analytical capabilities. A second new POC, with Enforcd, uses an analytic platform designed specifically to share public information on regulatory enforcement action.
We have also partnered with two firms – Anomali and ThreatConnect – that provide innovative technologies to collect, correlate, categorise and integrate cyber security intelligence data.”
Charlotte concluded by announcing that the window for the next round of applications is now open:
“New technologies present opportunities and risks and we need to assess both…as part of our mission to promote the public good. Today, we’ve opened our next call for applications as we seek to further our research and work, continuing to bridge the gap between institution and innovation.”
