FDIC Chair McWilliams Urges More Collaboration On FinTech

FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams urged regulators and industry innovators to work together to "increase the velocity of transformation" to ensure that "banks are safe and sound and consumers sufficiently protected."

In remarks delivered at the FinTech and the New Financial Landscape Conference, Ms. McWilliams underscored that innovation is expanding bank access to more customers, and that new technology has enhanced "customer experience, [lowered] transaction costs, and increase[d] credit availability." However, she cautioned, millions of U.S. households do not experience these technological benefits because they are "unbanked" or "underbanked." According to Ms. McWilliams, "It will be up to institutions to leverage technology and develop products to reach these consumers."