Friday, June 17, 2016

Bank of England Becomes First Central Bank to Launch a Fintech Accelerator

From City AM:

The Bank of England is getting a slice of the start-up revolution
 Random stock photo, not the Bank of England
The Bank of England has launched a fintech accelerator today to help startups with a plan to shake up central banking get the support and backing of Threadneedle Street.

The Old Lady is the first central bank in the world to create such a programme, as it opens its doors to fintech firms working on areas such as cyber security, data protection and distributed ledger - or blockchain - technology.

The scheme was scheduled to be announced by governor Mark Carney yesterday evening at Mansion House. However, following the death of Labour MP Jo Cox, Carney instead delivered a short speech reflecting on her life. The accelerator was instead launched today.

Carney would have said: "I am announcing that the Bank is launching a fintech accelerator 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."...MORE