Innotribe, SWIFT’s innovation arm, and Innovate Finance, the independent membership organisation for global FinTech, have announced the launch of the Global FinTech Hubs Federation (GFHF) to help foster innovation across the world’s financial services industry. To date, more than 20 countries – including Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, to name a few – are participating in the GFHF, with more countries expected to join in the coming months.
As an independent and inclusive global network of FinTech hubs, GFHF aims to fulfil the need within the international FinTech community to create a cross border and open platform that brings together established and emerging FinTech hubs.
The GFHF will provide a global voice and global stage for FinTech hubs, with participants gaining an influential point of engagement with international stakeholders and like-minded organisations from across the world. It will also facilitate access to key international events including Sibos and the Innovate Finance Global Summit, as well as accessing events hosted by GFHF participants.
Fabian Vandenreydt, SWIFT
Fabian Vandenreydt, Global Head of Securities Markets, Innotribe and The SWIFT Institute at SWIFT, commented:
As the FinTech sector develops globally, it has never been as important to encourage discussion and collaboration within the financial industry. Being one of the premier global innovation platforms, SWIFT Innotribe looks forward to foster a bigger and stronger FinTech ecosystem through this initiative, bringing its expertise and leveraging its network for the benefit of the banking and startup communities.”
The discussions continued during Innovate Finance’s Global Summit earlier this year, where Innotribe and Innovate Finance saw an opportunity for the financial industry to engage collaboratively to accelerate the pace of financial innovation through a brand new initiative: the GFHF.
Lawrence Wintermeyer, CEO of Innovate Finance said:
Coordination and cross border dialogue between emerging FinTech startups, established FinTech companies, financial institutions and policy makers remains key for long term success of our sector. The launch of the GFHF will provide a platform for global FinTech players and hubs to share knowledge and build an inclusive community network that will help accelerate the growth and influence of global FinTech and help shape a better financial services future.”
GFHF is open to participants that nurture the development of FinTech ecosystem in their region and abroad. The federation aims to democratically support global engagement, best practices and standardise knowledge across the sector, as well as build bridges and support member FinTech hubs.
Following the launch of the GFHF, different FinTech hubs will be invited to Sibos again this year, as a follow-up to Innotribe’s FinTech benchmark session in Singapore in 2015. The event will be organised in Geneva, from 26-29 September 2016. FinTech hubs are essential to create the right dynamic, approach and support to FinTech within the financial industry, and Sibos is the perfect occasion to deepen collaboration and debate.
The federation will also publish its inaugural report later this year. This report will establish the 2016 baseline for over 20 emerging and established FinTech hubs and will be developed in collaboration with Deloitte.