The Bank of England (BoE) has published the results of the latest round of proofs of concepts (PoC) considered by its Fintech Accelerator. The PoCs cover the following four important elements of the BoE’s work:
- analysing large-scale supervisory data sets. The BoE worked with Mindbridge Analytics Inc, a machine learning and artificial intelligence firm, to explore the analytical value of using artificial intelligence tools to detect anomalies in supervisory data sets. This PoC enabled its internal team of data scientists to compare and contrast their own findings and the underlying algorithms being used;
- executing high-value payments across currencies and borders; In its PoC with Ripple, the BoE looked into how distributed ledger technology (DLT) could be used to model synchronised movement of two different currencies across two different ledgers, as part of the BoE’s wider research into the future of high-value payments. Although the BoE has already concluded that DLT is not sufficiently mature to support the core real-time gross settlements (RTGS) system, the learnings from this exercise with Ripple reinforced the BoE’s intention to ensure its new RTGS systems is compatible with DLT usage in the private sector and has highlighted areas where the BoE would like to conduct more exploratory work;
- identifying and applying cross-cutting legal themes from regulatory enforcement actions. The BoE worked with Enforcd, giving a group of staff from its Regulatory Action Division access to a cloud-based database of regulatory enforcement actions with supporting commentary and trend analysis. This PoC demonstrated how technology could potentially facilitate compliance and the development of best practice in some key areas of regulation; and
- measuring performance on the BoE’s internal projects portfolio. The BoE ran a PoC with Experimentus, using their Optimised Results for Business tool, to analyse historic BOE projects and visualise how they had performed against a range of standard key performance indicators (KPI). This PoC allowed the BoE to explore whether its existing test data were sufficient to carry out effective KPI reporting and where further data collection might be needed.
Commenting on the latest PoCs, Andrew Hauser, Executive Director for Banking, Payments and Financial Resilience, said:
“We have learnt a great deal through these latest Proofs of Concept, both in terms of what Fintech can do, but also in terms of how it can help us work, think and communicate differently. The breadth of topics covered by these projects, and the Accelerator programme as a whole, show how much central banks potentially have to gain from continued engagement with the sector in delivering their mission of monetary and financial stability.”
The BoE also expects to announced the successful firms shortly from its fourth round of PoCs that took place in April 2017.
View Bank of England publishes results of latest round of Fintech Accelerator proofs of concepts, 11 July 2017
