On the White House FinTech Summit in June 2016, Cupboard Secretaries and senior officers from throughout the Administration engaged with stakeholders concerning the potential for fintech to additional myriad coverage targets, together with small enterprise entry to capital, monetary inclusion and well being, home development, and worldwide improvement. On the identical occasion, trade and different stakeholders conveyed the necessity for a framework that articulates the U.S. authorities’s perspective on fintech. Right now, after sustained stakeholder engagement, we’re proud to publish a whitepaper, A Framework for FinTech, that takes our work one step additional to supply that perspective. This whitepaper expresses the forward-leaning posture of this Administration to innovation and entrepreneurship, typically, and fintech specifically.
Coverage Aims and FinTech Rules
This doc units forth Administration coverage goals that replicate widely-shared values and sensible expectations for the monetary providers sector and the U.S. authorities entities that work together with the sector. It then supplies ten overarching ideas that represent a framework policymakers and regulators can use to consider, interact with, and assess the fintech ecosystem so as to meet these coverage goals. Equally, trade and different stakeholders can use the framework to grasp how they will contribute to a well-functioning and inclusive monetary system, and to look at their services towards articulated ideas.
The ten ideas encourage stakeholders to:
- suppose broadly concerning the monetary ecosystem;
- begin with the buyer in thoughts;
- promote secure monetary inclusion and monetary well being;
- acknowledge and overcome potential technological bias;
- maximize transparency;
- try for interoperability and harmonize technical requirements;
- construct in cybersecurity, knowledge safety, and privateness protections from the beginning;
- improve effectivity and effectiveness in monetary infrastructure;
- defend monetary stability; and
- proceed and strengthen cross-sector engagement.
Federal Authorities Engagement
Federal policymakers and regulators have achieved so much within the fintech area. Govt companies throughout the federal government – together with the Division of Commerce (Commerce), the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA), the Division of State (State), the Division of the Treasury (Treasury), the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID), and others – and impartial regulators have engaged with stakeholders throughout the trade by occasions, Requests for Data (RFIs), whitepapers, technical help and analysis, and casual outreach and conversations, to raised perceive the trade and decide the suitable position for presidency in fintech improvement. The White House FinTech Summit, the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Foreign money’s (OCC) Responsible Innovation initiative, the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau’s (CFPB) Project Catalyst, the Securities and Trade Fee’s (SEC) Fintech Working Group, Commerce’s Open for Innovation events, Treasury and USAID’s Monetary Inclusion Boards, and Treasury’s whitepaper, Opportunities and Challenges in Online Marketplace Lending, are just some examples.
The Highway Forward
Vital work stays, nonetheless. The US ought to proceed growing a coverage technique that helps advance fintech and the broader monetary providers sector, obtain coverage goals the place monetary providers play an integral position, and preserve a strong aggressive benefit within the expertise and monetary providers sectors to advertise broad-based financial development at house and overseas.
Moreover, policymakers, regulators, and the personal sector ought to proceed participating with each other to foster innovation in fintech whereas defending customers and the monetary system. This whitepaper is each a product of ongoing public-private cooperation and a roadmap for future collaboration. Because the fintech ecosystem continues to evolve, this assertion of ideas ought to function a useful resource to information the event of sensible, pragmatic, and modern cross-sector engagement.
Adrienne Harris is a Particular Assistant to the President for Financial Coverage. Alex Zerden is a Presidential Administration Fellow.