by an increase in the use of fintech, formed part of the biennial exploratory scenario in our 2017 stress test. as well as looking at these infrastructure changes impacting the firms we regulate, we are also opening ourselves to change by experimenting with new technologies when we think about enhancing how we work – including for the infrastructure we are responsible for. hauser, a europe ’ s second payment services directive cunliffe, j bank of england ( 2017a ) all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches the bank of england is currently investing in its rtgs service, a critical piece of national infrastructure, renewing the heart of the uk ’ s overall payment system to meet the challenges posed by a rapidly changing landscape. the bank has already established arrangements under which non - bank payment service providers could access rtgs directly. we are now using the fintech accelerator ’ s proof - of - concept approach when considering how new technologies can plug into the renewed rtgs. we recognise the potential for new technologies to create a more distributed and diverse payments system. so we are doing a proof - of - concept with a small cohort of firms to consider how our renewed service could interface with innovative settlement systems, such as those built on distributed ledger technology. the proof of concept is designed to assess the demands that would be placed on central rtgs infrastructure by a range of fintech firms ’ settlement models, rather than assessing the specific offering provided by a particular firm. by allowing a range of system structures to access the new rtgs system, the bank can support innovation in the private sector. and the bank of england is continuing to investigate ways in which fintech could help to improve regulation, building on existing work internally and in collaboration with the fca. we have initiated work to understand how machine readable technology could be applied to the next iteration of the pra rulebook, and will continue to work closely with the fca to understand the potential for machine readable regulation. we are also investigating if machine learning could be deployed to support judgement based supervision, via its application to both structured and unstructured data. investment in the uk ’ s financial technology is going to be an important factor in sustaining the uk ’ s global position. with its open approach of considering, adapting to, and applying fintech across the breadth of its mission, including through its own investments, the bank will play its part. bank of england ( 2017b ) the

proof of concept connects firms to a specifically built, offline version of rtgs so that the live rtgs system is protected. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches references bank of england ( 2018 ), financial policy committee statement from tis meeting, 12 march 2018, available at : https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / statement / fpc / 2018 / financial - policy - committee - statement - march - 2018 bank of england ( 2017a ), stress testing the uk banking system : 2017 results, 28 november 2017, available at : https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / stress - testing / 2017 / stress - testing - the - uk - banking - system2017 - results bank of england ( 2017b ), a blueprint for a new rtgs service for the united kingdom, 9 may 2017, available at : https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / paper / 2017 / a - blueprint - for - a - new - rtgs - service - for - the - uk carney, m ( 2018 ), the future of money, 02 march 2018, available at : https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / speech / 2018 / mark - carney - speech - to - the - inaugural - scottish - economicsconference central banking ( 2018 ), initiative of the year, 23 jan 2018, available at : https : / / www. centralbanking. com / awards / 3333176 / initiative - of - the - year - bank - of - englands - fintech - accelerator cunliffe, j ( 2018 ), looking after our money, 26 february 2018, available at https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / - / media / boe / files / news / 2018 / february / looking - after - our - money - speech - byjon - cunliffe. pdf george, e ( 1996 ), risk reduction in payment and settlement systems ’ a bank of england quarterly bulletin article, 9 december 1996, available at : https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / - / media / boe / files / quarterlybulletin / 1996 / risk - reduction - in - the - payment - and - settlement - systems. pdf hauser, a ( 2017 ) the bank