The next president, Donald J. Trump, has a lot on his plate over the next four years. He is still three weeks away from officially becoming the President-elect, and then another month away from becoming the 45th President of the United States. He is receiving advice from every corner of the country, even the globe, and he has a lot of important decisions to make. Might one be creating a regulator for the emerging FinTech industry? Many industry leaders think so, or something along those lines.
Trump receives a letter from an alliance of major tech firms
You may not have previously heard of FIN (Financial Innovation Now) but their list of members is pretty impressive. FIN includes such names as Apple, Amazon, Google and Paypal, among others. FIN has sent a letter to the Trump transition team in Washington to lobby and inquire about creating a new cabinet position around the technology industry, which they call a “Treasury Undersecretary for Technology.”
In their mind, such an individual would be “responsible for developing a national vision and coordinated strategy to ensure America wins the race to create FinTech companies and grow jobs in the United States, and work across all federal financial regulators to foster competition and innovation in an antiquated banking sector to better serve consumers and the economy.”
Making an empowering statement that would definitely apply to Bitcoin users, the letter posits: “FIN recommends that your administration works to empower consumers to securely access their own accounts via whatever application or technology they wish, without charges that favor any one application or technology over another.”
The letter points out that the United States is noticeably behind in many FinTech technologies and capabilities, relative to the rest of the world. Real-time payments are becoming more common internationally, but are difficult to implement in the U.S. due to different regulation requirements in each state.
“FIN urges you to consider appointing financial regulators who value technology and who will seek to promote innovation as a means to foster competition in financial services. In particular, we encourage the appointment of a Treasury Undersecretary for Technology, responsible for developing a national vision and coordinated strategy to ensure America is the best country to create companies and grow jobs developing financial technologies; and work across all federal financial regulators to foster competition and innovation in an antiquated banking sector to better serve consumers and the economy.”
I think this is an excellent idea, although I would personally call the person the “Secretary of FinTech,” as the FinTech industry is going to be one of the largest growth industries in the world over the next decade. This sector will attract the best and brightest minds, both domestically and internationally, and position the United States as an instant global leader in this emerging financial field.
It is clear that the U.S. Government, as with most governments, is not ready to tackle such a technology as it is currently constructed, and this kind of leadership would be a great step forward. This would foster innovation, attract jobs and companies to the U.S., and help new startups to grow new businesses much faster, rather than fighting against bureaucracies like New York’s “BitLicense.”
Maybe we can all hit the future President up on Twitter and lend our support to this seemingly noble cause?