Bank of England announces launch of fintech accelerator

The fintech party keeps going, with the Bank of England announcing the launch of a new accelerator to help businesses in the sector expand

Bank of England announces launch of fintech accelerator

UK fintech certainly has reason to celebrate. Not only did the industry disrupting the financial institutions grow by 135% between 2014 and 2015, the Bank of England today announced that it is launching a fintech accelerator to help foster further growth in the sector.

The initiative will see the institution partner up with fintech firms to help it face some of the challenges of the modern economic landscape. The accelerator will invite fintech startups – selected based on their potential to be innovative and relevance to the bank’s mission – to engage in short proof of concept projects to prove their viability. At the end of this process, the bank will then consider producing an assessment of the work, as well as potentially publishing its findings and acting as a reference client for the firms.

Having already carried out initial work in areas such as data anonymisation, cybersecurity and distributed ledger technology, the accelerator is now looking to the future. Upcoming areas of focus will be new ways to structure and analyse large datasets, machine learning – particularly in relation to anomaly detection and pattern recognition – and protection of sensitive data.

Mick Carney, governor of the Bank of England, was planning to announce the accelerator in a speech at the Mansion House on June 16, However, due to the tragic murder of MP Jo Cox, he chose to pay tribute to her and the high standards of public service she devoted her life to.

Now released by the bank, Carney’s planned speech said: “Fintech heralds the dawn of narrow banking and portfolio optimisation. It will change the nature of money, shake the foundations of central banking and deliver nothing less than a democratic revolution for all who use financial services.”

Here’s to the brave new world of finance technologies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eric Johansson
Eric Johansson
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