The Bank of England has announced that its Fintech Accelerator has a launched a new community which will bring together fintech organizations to collaborate and discuss innovation and developments in this emerging sector.

In the official release, the central bank outlined the community's three main objectives, which includes sharing developments, trends and insights; ensuring that the BoE is engaging with different fintech firms from across the sector; and enabling firms with an interest in fintech to network, supporting the development of the sector.

“Community members will be invited to meet us two to four times a year to share updates on trends and developments in the sector. We will also hold quarterly networking and knowledge-sharing events, and publish summaries of the topics discussed”, the BoE said.

The community currently has 18 members including Anomali; BBA; BBA Innovation Working Group; Bitsight; BMLL; BT; Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; Enforcd; FCA; Illuminate Financial Management LLP; Innovate Finance; London and Partners; NEX / Euclid Opportunities; Omidyar Network;  Privitar; PWC; Simmons and Simmons LLP; Thomson Reuters.

Last year, the BoE set up FinTech Accelerator, working in partnership with new technology firms to help it harness fintech innovations for central banking. The next call for applications to the accelerator will open in Spring 2017, the release said.

The central bank also announced the firms with which it will be working for its latest proof of concept. These include MindBridge AI and Ripple:

“MindBridge’s AI (artificial intelligence) auditor detects anomalies in financial transactions and reports using data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. We are using it to explore the benefits of machine learning for analysing the quality of regulatory data input”, the bank said.

The BoE is carrying out a proof of concept with Ripple to demonstrate the synchronised movement of two different currencies across two different real-time gross settlement systems.

“The aim is to show how this kind of synchronisation might lower settlement risk and improve the speed and efficiency of cross-border payments”, it added.