• Bank for International Settlements and Bank of England launch the BIS Innovation Hub London Centre.
• Expansion marks the fourth new BIS Innovation Hub Centre in two years.
• The London centre will help advance Innovation Hub’s work on priority themes.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of England today launched the BIS Innovation Hub London Centre, the fourth Innovation Hub Centre to be opened in the past two years. 

“The BIS, together with its partners, is taking a leading role in coordinating the work of central banks on technological innovation in the financial sector to pave the way for the future of central banking. This new Centre in London reflects the Bank of England’s critical role as an innovator in responding to the challenges and opportunities of the digital world while safeguarding financial stability,” said BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, said: “As a central bank, we recognise the importance of innovation for the global financial system and look to support its safe deployment wherever possible. This requires collaboration between public authorities in all jurisdictions, and the BIS Innovation Hub is an important global initiative for achieving this.” 

Today’s launch is part of a plan to expand the global reach of the BIS Innovation Hub, which also includes the opening of Centres with the Bank of Canada (Toronto), the European Central Bank/Eurosystem (Frankfurt and Paris) and the four Nordic central banks (Danmarks Nationalbank, the Central Bank of Iceland, the Central Bank of Norway and Sveriges Riksbank) in Stockholm. In January 2021, the BIS signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic collaboration with the Federal Reserve System (New York).

“I am delighted to welcome the next phase of the BIS Innovation Hub’s expansion with the establishment of the new Centre with the Bank of England in London, where there is such a strong nexus of technology and finance. Through this collaboration, the BIS Innovation Hub will continue to develop key public goods that address financial sector issues of importance to central banks,” said BIS Innovation Hub Head Benoît Cœuré.

The BIS Innovation Hub’s work programme is currently focused on six areas: use of technological innovation in supervision and regulation (suptech and regtech); next-generation financial market infrastructures; central bank digital currencies; open finance; cyber security; and green finance. Work related to these themes is distributed across the various Hub Centres. 

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, said: “The UK is known for pushing the boundaries of digital finance so it’s great to have the new Innovation Hub opening here. Its work will help central banks to support safe innovation, and boost our efforts to capture the extraordinary potential of technology.”