Public sector fintech leaders from nations including Austria, Azerbaijan, Bermuda, Germany, Israel, Latvia, Spain and the UK – as well as host nation Ireland – gathered in Dublin today (18 May) for the second Global Government Fintech Lab.
The Lab is our international event for senior public servants interested in exploring and implementing fintech solutions. It was taking place for the second time after the inaugural event brought global government pioneers together in Estonia’s capital city Tallinn in June 2022.
Ireland’s minister of state with responsibility for financial services, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, kicked off the event with a keynote speech championing the role that fintech “can play for governments in the future as we look to achieve our public policy goals”.
Minister Carroll MacNeill used the Lab to announce the launch of a “pioneering” Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Financial Technology & Innovation that will be government-funded through Ireland’s recently created International Sustainable Finance Centre of Excellence. The centre is co-ordinating the delivery of Ireland’s National Sustainable Finance Roadmap 2022-2025 and the “enterprise-led demand-driven” new diploma will be delivered by the National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Carroll MacNeill took up her ministerial role in December 2022. “Over five months since my appointment as minister in the department, I have come to realise just how important digital finance and fintech is for government policy and how the partnership with industry works in practice,” she said at the event, which was held at Dublin Castle’s Printworks venue and broadcast globally via a live stream.
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Sharing international expertise
The event, organised in partnership with Ireland’s Department of Finance, featured panel discussions and breakout sessions focused on fintech-related opportunities and challenges for those working in central government, agencies and other public authorities. It also included plenty of opportunities for networking, reflecting our spirit of sharing knowledge across borders.
Three panel discussions – ‘How best should financial authorities explore fintech solutions?’, ‘How can financial authorities capitalise on data to improve what they do?’ and a session on ‘Government payments’ – were held during the morning. Breakout sessions on SupTech (supervisory technology), blockchain, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and Fraud, Error & Debt followed in the afternoon.
The event culminated with fireside chats with Ezechi Britton MBE, chief executive officer of the UK’s Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT); with Aiaze Mitha, global lead for digital finance and sustainable development goals (SDGs) at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); and a panel discussing emerging topics (the ‘frontiers of public fintech’).
“It’s been fantastic to bring together such a range of international expertise and experiences here in Dublin today,” said Global Government Fintech editor Ian Hall. “The fact that delegates have travelled from nations including New Zealand and Canada pays tribute to the interest in sharing knowledge across borders across the topics on the day’s agenda.”
Panel session reports are already in production and you can also review the day by searching on hashtag #GGFintechLab on Global Government Fintech’s Twitter account. Further information can also be found on the Global Government Fintech Lab webpage.
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