Paris, 18 February 2017 - The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held a roundtable on FinTech and RegTech in Paris on 18 February 2017. The roundtable was chaired by the FATF President, Mr. Juan Manuel Vega-Serrano.
Technology-based innovations are starting to radically change the financial industry. The FATF has already undertaken a large body of work to understand the risks and vulnerabilities of new payment products and services, and to ensure that AML/CFT measures remain up-to-date as new technologies emerge. The next step and one of the key priorities of the Spanish Presidency is to develop a partnership with the FinTech and RegTech community to support innovation in financial services, while maintaining transparency and mitigating the associated risks. Building such a partnership will enable FATF to become more proactive in the development of standards, guidance and best practice, anticipating and being involved in these new developments rather than responding to them.
Today’s roundtable was a first step to take this initiative forward in order to engage with various stakeholders. The event brought together anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) professionals, national supervisors, international organisations and other relevant experts, including experts from banks which have partnered with FinTech and RegTech firms to discuss issues of common interest.
Participants in this dialogue included 144 delegates from 30 jurisdictions and 14 organisations, as well as 11 representatives from the banking sector. The key objective of this roundtable was to better understand and exchange views on the current and emerging state of play on interaction of the established traditional financial institutions with the FinTech and RegTech industries, and the impact financial innovations and technologies are having (or expected to have) on reshaping the delivery and provisions of financial services. The practical impact of AML/CFT standards on financial innovation and different approaches followed by a number of jurisdictions to help promote innovative business models and emerging technologies, while mitigating and addressing associated money laundering and terrorist financing risks, were also discussed.
During the half a day-long series of discussions, representatives of financial institutions shared their experiences in the emerging FinTech and RegTech solutions in areas such as distributed ledger technologies, new payment methods and techniques, digital currency, regulatory reporting solutions and products and technologies supporting initial and ongoing customer due diligence measures. Participants also noted how these and other related developments in the emergence of new products, services and technologies are creating opportunities for growth and efficiency, and at the same time, posing challenges both for the private and the public sector.
Since the global nature of some of these developments has a cross-border implication, participants also stressed upon the need to have effective mechanisms for proactive information sharing among relevant stakeholders, in order to take a more coordinated approach in addressing the emerging challenges.
The FATF will continue to remain engaged with these issues through a much broader engagement, including with representatives from the FinTech and RegTech industry, going forward.
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