Treasury

Treasury to open £2m fintech competition




HM Treasury is offering £2m to entrepreneurs who can develop an application to help renters obtain a mortgage.

The competition has been launched to develop an application that will enable Britain’s 11 million renters to record and share their rent payment data; helping to improve their credit scores and boost their chances of getting a mortgage. 

Winning bids to the Rent Recognition Challenge will be selected by a panel of leading figures from the fintech sector.

The competition will provide an initial round of grant funding to six promising proposals to help turn ideas into a workable product. 

The expert judges will then cut the six down to just a handful of teams who will receive further funding and support to bring their ideas to market.

“Most lenders and Credit Reference Agencies are unable to take rental data into account, because they don’t have access to it,” said Stephen Barclay, economic secretary to the Treasury.  

“The Rent Recognition Challenge will challenge firms to develop an innovative solution to this problem and help to restore the dream of home ownership for a new generation.”

The challenge will be open to applications early this year and development will conclude in October 2018.

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