HM Treasury is offering £2 million to budding entrepreneurs who can develop an application that will enable the UK's 11 million renters to record and share their rent payment data, helping to improve their credit scores and their chances of getting a mortgage, reports Finextra. "Most lenders and Credit Reference Agencies are unable to take rental data into account, because they don't have access to it. The Rent Recognition Challenge will challenge firms to develop an innovative solution to this problem," said Stephen Barclay, economic secretary to the Treasury. Winning bids will be selected by a panel of "leading figures" from the fintech sector. Chinese insurer Ping An is now the second largest stakeholder in HSBC after increasing its stake in Europe's biggest bank to 5.01 per cent. Ping An's asset management arm acquired 10 million HSBC shares, reports the FT. Former HSBC chairman Douglas Flint, US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and Microsoft chairman John Thompson have all joined the global advisory council of Motive Partners, a recently established fintech investment vehicle set up by veterans of the global financial technology industry, reports Finextra. The new venture, backed by Warburg Pincus, says it plans to "invest, operate and innovate" across the financial technology ecosystem in London and New York. In January it made its first deal, investing $7 million in FX compression outfit LMRKTS.