Former Labour minister Pond to chair financial innovation body | Money News

A former pensions minister under Tony Blair will this week be named as the new chair of a publicly funded organisation which aims to cement Britain’s status as a global leader in financial innovation.

Sky News understands that the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) will announce on Thursday that Chris Pond will replace Charlotte Crosswell as its chair.

Mr Pond, who also worked for the Financial Services Authority, is now chair of the City watchdog’s consumer panel and the gambling self-exclusion scheme Gamstop.

His appointment at CFIT will be announced alongside those of two other board members, including Nausicaa Delfas, who runs The Pensions Regulator.

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Vivienne Artz, chief executive of the FTSE Women Leaders Review, will also join CFIT as a non-executive director.

CFIT was established to address challenges emerging from the explosive growth in the use of technology across the financial sector, by developing policy recommendations and jointly creating technology solutions for wider industry adoption.

Set up following a review of Britain’s fintech sector overseen by the businessman Sir Ron Kalifa, it has proposed initiatives such as a Digital Company ID programme aimed at reducing fraud.

“The impact of CFIT’s work to date has been widely felt across industry and government, and recognised in the last Budget, the recent Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy and the National Payments Vision,” Mr Pond said in a statement issued to Sky News.

He added that the organisation was “tackling some of the most complex systemic challenges facing financial services and the wider economy”.

Collectively, the new board members will work with Anna Wallace, recently appointed as CFIT’s chief executive.