The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), a fintech industry body and innovation hub based in the UK, has made three new additions to its board this month, appointing former Labour MP Chris Pond as non-executive chair.
This appointment marks the sixth board position currently held by Pond, alongside Gamstop, TrustMark, the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, and the Financial Services Consumer Panel, among others.
A former member of parliament for Gravesham in Kent, Pond previously served as director of financial capability at the Financial Services Authority (FCA), as well as chair of the Financial Inclusion Commission up until May this year. He succeeds Madush Gupta, who filled the position of acting board chair upon the departure of CFIT founding chair Charlotte Crosswell in May.
Joining Pond on the CFIT board are Nausicaa Delfas and Vivienne Artz, who the organisation have now named as independent non-executive directors. Like Pond, Delfas is also a veteran of the FCA, having worked across several leadership roles, including executive director of international, during a nearly 10-year tenure with the regulator. She also headed the Financial Ombudsman Service up until October 2022, and currently serves as CEO of The Pensions Regulator.
Meanwhile, Artz holds a number of high-profile board appointments alongside CFIT, including the AI and data advisory group of the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange (IBDE), Freegold Ventures, and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF). She was previously managing director and chief privacy officer for London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), chief privacy officer at both Refinitiv and Thomson Reuters, and CEO of Women in Banking and Finance.
In comments, Anna Wallace, a former FCA regulator who joined CFIT as CEO in July, says that with the three new board appointments, the organisation plans to “drive forward our work to co-create new tech solutions and policy recommendations in Smart Data, Digital ID, SME finance and a range of other new areas”.
CFIT was set up in 2023 to accelerate UK fintech innovation and help remove barriers to growth in the financial technology sector. The organisation’s current agenda includes work to accelerate the development of a Digital Company ID for UK businesses. Barclays, Monzo, Mastercard, GLEIF, UK Finance, and the Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA) are all involved in the initiative, for which CFIT established working groups in April.
Source: https://www.fintechfutures.com/
