Fintech community members will be invited to meet with the Bank two to four times a year to share updates on trends and developments in the sector and participate in quarterly networking and knowledge-sharing events.

The BofE community network currently consists of eighteen firm operating across the full fintech ecosystem, including startups, regulatory bodies, industry lobbies, legal firms and VCs.

Launched in June 2016, the central bank's fintech accelerator seeks to work in partnership with third party tech firms to help provide insights on new approaches to Bank operations and wider marketplace developments.

The latest proof of concept trials to emerge from the accelerator include and AI-driven application from MindBridge, and a cross-border payments pilot with Ripple.

MindBridge’s AI auditor detects anomalies in financial transactions and reports. "We are using it to explore the benefits of machine learning for analysing the quality of regulatory data input," states the Bank.

The engagement with Ripple will seek to demonstrate the synchronised movement of two different currencies across two different real-time gross settlement systems. It comes as the bank works towards a 2020 timeframe for the overhaul of the country's real-time gross settlement system.

"The aim is to show how this kind of synchronisation might lower settlement risk and improve the speed and efficiency of cross-border payments," the Bank says.

An earlier POC with Anomali on cyberthreat intellgience sharing led to an extended working relationship to explore the production of a working application for commercial deployment.