Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT)

Leading the world in financial innovation

Our mission

The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) was set up following the Kalifa Review of Fintech (2021) to position the United Kingdom as a global leader in financial innovation. CFIT’s purpose is to unblock barriers to growth for financial technology by bringing together the best minds from across the UK in order to drive better outcomes for consumers and SMEs.

CFIT wants to lead the world in financial innovation, and in doing so, maximise economic growth across all regions of the UK.

How CFIT will drive UK growth

Generate high-income tech-based employment nationwide

Enable firms to achieve global scale

Improve access to financial services for citizens and small businesses

Our founding principles

Data-driven, research-led policy exploration

Using data-driven insights to highlight policy opportunities to overcome growth barriers

Engaging industry thought leaders

Creating cross-sectoral opportunities for thought leaders from across the UK to drive and inform CFIT’s mission

Inclusive community

Bringing together an inclusive community with diversity of thought and experience to drive innovation

The coalition model

CFIT will lead the world in financial innovation by bringing together coalitions of the brightest minds and best talent from across the country.

Coalitions will allow CFIT to be agile and responsive to a fast-paced industry

Coalitions will give CFIT the opportunity to leverage the best talent, skills and tech across the UK, accelerating ideation, design and build

Coalitions will provide a laser-focus on regional opportunities

CFIT’s launch event

The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) launched on Tuesday, 28 February 2023 at Nexus, Leeds University.

Charlotte Crosswell OBE (Chair) and Ezechi Britton MBE (CEO-elect) set out the vision, mission, and strategy. They outlined how this will help to accelerate opportunities and unlock barriers to growth for UK fintech, as identified in the Kalifa Review of UK Fintech.

As a leading regional hub of the Northern Powerhouse (NPH), Leeds was the perfect place to launch CFIT. Offering a great opportunity to see how regional hubs and CFIT will work together with the next generation of innovators across academia, industry, investment, finance, technology, and beyond.

News

CFIT Leads the Charge Against Economic Crime with Digital ID Innovation

London, 2nd December, 2024 – The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) today reveals details of progress by its industry-wide coalition towards creating a digital company ID that will counter economic crime and, according to the Government, contribute to the £600M annual addition to the UK economy, from the widespread use of secure digital […]

Finance and Technology Giants Join Industry Coalition to Fight Economic Crime

London | 2nd September 2024 – Some of the world’s leading finance and tech firms have come together to form a new industry coalition in the UK to fight economic crime through digital verification, the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) has announced today. Companies including Amazon Web Services (AWS), A&O Shearman, Barclays, CRIF, […]

Banking and Financial Services Taskforce Delivers SME Action Plan to Boost UK Economic Growth

LONDON – 1 August 2024 – The SME Finance Taskforce, a group of leading banks, alternative lenders, fintechs, accountancy software providers, payment schemes, credit reference agencies and industry bodies, has developed an action plan to energise the UK economy. The plan will speed up lending and access to finance for 5.5 million SMEs, which employ […]

CFIT Forms Industry Coalition – ‘Fighting Economic Crime Through Enhanced Verification’

London – 10 June 2024 – A new industry coalition will be formed to fight economic crime through enhanced verification, the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) has announced today. The coalition will bring together experts from a broad range of fields including finance, technology, policy, academia and others, to devise solutions for detecting […]

CFIT’s Q1 2024 Progress Update

Ez lays out the opportunity for Open Finance in his opening and closing remarks at CFIT’s Showcase It’s been a busy and delivery-focused period for CFIT since our last newsletter update in late 2023. This new edition will provide you with a detailed overview of our work up to the end of Q1 2024 and […]

CFIT’s work on the Open Finance Industry-led Taskforce

The Open Finance industry-led taskforce, comprising of leading financial institutions and technology companies, has a mandate to identity and prioritise more use cases for Open Finance, data sets to be unlocked and APIs to be created to facilitate better SME finance availability. The taskforce will collectively look to identify commercially viable approaches to incentivise businesses […]

CFIT Launches Open Finance Initiatives for Consumer, SME Benefit

London, 17 April 2024 – Leading retail banks, credit agencies, fintech firms and Citizens Advice are uniting to revolutionise access to finance in the UK, based on recommendations put forward earlier this year by the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT). Today, CFIT has announced two trial initiatives, following key recommendations set out in […]

CFIT to chair industry-led Open Finance Taskforce announced by UK Government

London, 15 April 2024 – The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Bim Afolami MP, has announced a new industry-led taskforce, to be chaired by the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), that will endeavour to unlock the full potential of Open Finance. The taskforce will build on the foundational work done by CFIT’s industry-wide […]

Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT)

Our mission

How CFIT will drive UK growth

Our founding principles

The coalition model

CFIT’s launch event

News

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We collect your email address for the purpose of sending you updates on our work and furthering our mission. You can opt-out at any time. For more information on how we collect and store your email data, please see our privacy notice.