[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 144 (Thursday, September 22, 2016)] [House] [Page H5813] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] FIDELITY INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO LAUNCH VC FINTECH ACCELERATOR The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) for 5 minutes. Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the important collaboration that is taking place in central Arkansas. The Venture Center in downtown Little Rock has been working with the publicly traded financial services company, Fidelity Information Systems, or FIS, to launch the VC FinTech Accelerator, a program that will bring innovators and entrepreneurs from across the world to Little Rock, where they will have formation opportunities for their early- stage organizations. They will work through a curriculum designed to engender creativity, development, and potential. Through this program, we are able to invest in the future of our State and ensure that our economy and our business environment in central Arkansas will continue to thrive and expand. I recently had the opportunity to visit The Venture Center with the gentlewoman from Missouri, Representative Ann Wagner, and was impressed with the success of the center's accelerator program. It is providing a 12-week rigorous program to assist FinTech startups, providing them with quality business development services. Ten FinTech companies were chosen to participate in this first accelerator program, and it will relaunch in 2017. This FinTech sandbox is producing transformational opportunities for both FIS, the innovative entrepreneurs in Little Rock, and for future consumers of these services. While this exciting program has only been active for a short time, it is already proving that it has the ability to assist in our efforts to grow the technology economy across our region. Little Rock's storied history and the evolution of FIS makes it a perfect site for this accelerator. I greatly appreciate the choice of Little Rock as the location to implement this source of future economic growth. I am grateful for the farsighted leadership at FIS, our chamber of commerce leadership team, and all those involved in making this program a success for central Arkansas. ____________________