The Bank of England has announced that the online application process for its FinTech Accelerator programme is now open and is inviting fintech firms to join the fourth cohort of proofs of concept.

“FinTech firms can engage with us through submitting a response to one of our open calls for applications to work on a proof of concept (PoC) in one of our priority areas”, the central bank said. “All PoCs are time-bound and will in most cases be ring-fenced from the Bank's daily operations for the course of the PoC.”

The BoE said that it is particularly interested in advancing its understanding of quantitative and qualitative machine learning solutions and conducting a more detailed exploration of privacy in distributed ledger networks. Accordingly, the central bank is looking for firms to work on a time-limited PoC in areas including Big Data, privacy in distributed ledger systems, and XBRL data storage.

“Our FinTech Accelerator works in partnership with firms working with new technology to explore how FinTech innovations could be used in central banking. This helps us to improve our understanding of FinTech trends, and also allows us to support development of the sector. In return, we offer the firms a chance to demonstrate their solutions for real issues, gain knowledge from Bank experts and a valuable client reference”, the BoE said.

In the past, the central bank has worked with firms including PwC, BMLL, BitSight, Privitar, Anomali and ThreatConnect. It is currently working with fintech firms including MindBridge AI, Ripple, and Enforcd.

The bank has also created a community of FinTech-related organizations, which counts the likes of British Bankers’ Assocation (BBA), Deloitte, Financial Conduct Authority, PwC, Thomson Reuters, and others among its members.

The application process for the accelerator program will close in 17 May 2017. After an initial evaluation of expressions of interest, the BoE said that it will contact the shortlisted applicants for further information.