Bank of England FinTech Accelerator to Work with AI and Ripple

The Bank of England (BoE) recently posted a press release announcing that its FinTech Accelerator launched a new community which brings together FinTech-related organizations. On March 17 the BoE posted on its official website a press release where it states its Fintech Accelerator was launching a new community to share developments and engage with different fintech firms across the financial sector.

The BoE stated that this community is aiming to establish three fundamentals:

To share developments, trends, and insights. To make sure the Bank is engaging with different FinTech firms from across the sector. To enable firms with an interest in FinTech to network, supporting the development of the sector.

The BoE also decided the firms engaging the community will be working with the following proof of concepts; Mindbrindge’s AI (artificial intelligence) and the Ripple network.

MindBridge’s AI auditor detects anomalies in financial transactions and reports using data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence and explores the benefits of machine learning for analyzing the quality of regulatory data input. While Ripple will enable to carry out a proof of concept to demonstrate the synchronized movement of two different currencies across two different real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS).

With this, the BoE aim is to show how this kind of synchronization might lower settlement risk and improve the speed and efficiency of cross-border payments. It seems that the Bank of England sees RTGS as the “electronic counterpart to banknotes, and the ultimate risk-free means of final payment — RTGS lies at the very heart of delivering the Bank’s mission for monetary and financial stability.” And since Ripple’s solution is built around an open and neutral Inter-ledger Protocol and serves to power interoperable payments across different ledgers and networks, the BoE decided it would be its best choice.

Overall, the goal will be to showcase the synchronized movement of two different currencies across two separate RTGS systems and how this kind of synchronization might lower settlement risk and improve the speed and efficiency of cross-border payments. And with the help of MindBridge’s AI auditor, the BoE is surely trying to understand how to implement a foolproof system that might be able to scout and track digital currencies.

The Community Program

The Bank deliberated that the community members will be invited to meet with the BoE about two to four times a year to share updates on trends and developments in the sector. The BoE will also hold quarterly networking and knowledge-sharing events, and publish summaries of the topics discussed. The BoE will start the call for applications to the accelerator in Spring 2017.

With the help of this new Fintech community, the Bank of England is looking to research the simultaneous use of different real-time settlement systems and an artificial intelligence auditor to keep track of those systems. This collaboration marks the first time is actively and publicly stating its interest in exploring how it can use blockchain technology to improve its cross-border payments operations.