Innovation and Policy in FinTech

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the first annual Digital Finance Roundtable, a conference in Washington DC focused on innovation and policy within FinTech. The small but curated guest list featured many of the top entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, policy-makers, and thought leaders in the industry (including Wharton’s very own David Klein of CommonBond).

Conference chair Seth Wheeler of the Brookings Institute kicked off the session with a discussion on three drivers of the FinTech revolution: the financial crisis and its aftermath, recent innovations in consumer technology, and links between shifting demographics and changing consumer preferences. The agenda featured two keynote panels on innovation and policy, punctuated by small group sessions around focus topics: payments, small business lending, bitcoin/blockchain, and insurance, to name just a few.

The bitcoin/blockchain discussion - led by Barry Silbert (founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group) and Blythe Masters (CEO of Digital Asset Holdings) - was particularly interesting. Entrepreneurs exchanged contentious arguments with big-bank representatives and policy-makers over the benefits and risks of emerging blockchain technology.

Although as far as I could tell I was the only member of a student organization at the conference, many attendees were very interested in Wharton FinTech’s mission and our perspective on the industry. During the Payments panel, moderator Tim Bowers (who wound down the TARP program in the aftermath of the financial crisis) began with a question about how millennials are changing the payments landscape. As one of the few millennials in attendance, I shared our generation’s perspective and Wharton FinTech’s view on industry dynamics (Daniel McAuley and Steve Weiner presented a white paper at Sibos last year on the same topic).

I’d like to thank Seth Wheeler for extending an invitation to Wharton FinTech. I hope to return next year!