The 15 selected startups will be partnered with senior-level bank executives from 16 banks for a 12-week mentoring programme at London innovation hub Level39. Six of these startups will ultimately be selected to present at an Investor Day in April 2016 in front of venture capitalists and senior financial-industry executives.

Accenture fielded applications from 30 countries for participation in this year's programme, as banks look to embrace the opportunities from collaboration with early-stage startups.

Stuart Gulliver, group chief executive of HSBC, comments: "HSBC is already working with firms from last year's programme and we are pleased to be supporting the Innovation Lab again. Matching our experience with the creativity of the selected entrepreneurs is a proven way of developing technologies that bring real benefits to customers."

His sentiments are echoed by Kim Hammonds, chief operating officer and chief information officer, Deutsche Bank: “Adopting disruptive technology is a priority for the banking sector and collaborating with startups through initiatives such as the Fintech Innovation Labs is an important part of this process for Deutsche Bank."

Those taking part in the London Lab are: biometric authentication firm AimBrain, mobile bookkeeping app Albert, risk analytics outfit AlgoDynamix, document management company Clausematch, ID checker Contego, blockchain startup Crowdaura, enterprise events co-ordinator Cutover, compliance management firm PassFort, social networking payments keyboard PayKey, wealth management advisory Quotip, AI-based CRM platform SBDA Group, recruitment and screening group Talent Rank, coding platform Undo, investment clubber Voleo, and cloud security firm ZeroDB.