Writing an opinion piece in American Banker Jonah Crane, a fintech advisor, points out that the CFPB and other regulators need to keep a watchful eye on the data sharing guidance; the rules are currently non binding but offer the regulators a chance to use current oversight power to enforce egregious violations; ensuring a level playing field and working with industry players can help not only consumers but regulators better understand how data sharing can be done is the most beneficial way. Source.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly improve loan decisioning accuracy, but several factors must be considered to maximize that effectiveness. Luckily, given some care and consideration, Zest AI’s chief legal officer Teddy Flo said they can be easily applied.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released a report on financial innovation; the report entitled “Project Catalyst Report: Promoting Consumer Friendly Innovation” is an effort from the CFPB to expand its knowledge and inform consumers on the benefits of financial innovation. One specific approaches reflected upon is the CFPB's "Trial Disclosure Waiver Policy" to test and revise disclosure statements in a controlled environment, and no-action letters. Source
In the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's complaint reports, the agency showed only seven US complaints pertaining to bitcoin in 2016; data mined by LendEDU reports four filed against CoinBase and three against Circle; nonprofit advocacy group Coin Center says 37 complaints were filed on digital currency from 2011 to 2015. Source
Alexandra Villarreal O’Rourke from McGuireWoods discusses Project Catalyst and the no-action letter program from the CFPB in a Let’s Talk Payments interview; the first no-action letter was issued to Upstart, a consumer lender in the US. Source
With open banking starting last week in the UK, we might soon see a global push as Hong Kong is looking to explore the idea; the CFPB in the US recently came out with data sharing guidelines that look to begin creating a framework for future legislation; there is not yet the expectation that Hong Kong will adopt such regulations but they did ask for banks and fintechs to weigh in on the open API framework; the FT also sits down with former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins to further discuss open banking and what it could mean for all participants. Source.
We learned in October that the CFPB was revisiting their ability to repay provisions in the small dollar lending rule;...
At an event held by the CFPB banks, fintechs, regulators and consumer advocates discussed the data sharing experience; screen scraping...
An opinion editorial in American Banker makes the case for eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; says the agency provides for unnecessary expansion of federal regulatory power; suggests a return to segregated oversight; provides a list of overreaching executive powers in addition to its recent unconstitutional ruling. Source
With the fintech world gathering in Las Vegas this week for Money20/20 there was quite a lot of fintech news.