Bank of England angles in on fintech hub scene
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With a hop, skip and a jump the Bank of England (BoE) has hoisted its heavy frame onto the fintech hub bandwagon.
In a speech by Dave Ramsden, deputy governor for markets and banking, Bank of England, at yet another fintech conference in London, he outlined the central bank’s plans.
Ramsden says the hub “will sit at the heart of the bank” to consider “both how it understands and how it applies fintech, relevant to its mission”.
The hub “will be a central point of contact for the fintech sector to engage with the bank, and will play an active role in the new HMT [HM Treasury] / FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] / Bank taskforce”.
This is a reference to the UK government’s Fintech Sector Strategy. As reported yesterday (22 March), the nation’s rulers unveiled a new cryptoassets task force, revealed its next steps in “robo-regulation” and built a UK-Australia “fintech bridge”.
Ramsden adds that the hub will “support the next wave of innovation in finance, and ensure that the UK has the right infrastructure to support that into the future”.
Keen to advertise the BoE without paying for it, Ramsden plugged its fintech accelerator – such as proofs of concepts including those using distributed ledger technology (DLT), regtech, machine learning and cybersecurity.
Also in the speech, Ramsden said BoE’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) “recently discussed the current risks posed by crypto-assets and judged that they do not pose a material risk to UK financial stability”.
He adds: “We judge that crypto-assets themselves may have limited utility, particularly as money. They are too volatile to be a store of value, and with high transaction costs and slow settlement times, they are an inefficient medium of exchange. However, we also recognise the opportunities in the technologies that underpin crypto-assets.”
Pretty much summarising what his boss, Mark Carney, said earlier at another event. Which was a slight change to what Carney had said before.
