A coalition of major tech companies — including Google, Amazon and Apple — is calling on President-elect Donald Trump to appoint a Treasury undersecretary for technology.
Financial Innovation Now (FIN), which also includes PayPal and Intuit, is asking the Trump administration to appoint regulators and promote policies that will bolster the use of financial technology (FinTech) as it gains popularity and prominence.
FinTech includes a wide array of smartphone apps and websites that aim to offer quicker, safer and more accessible financial services. These include apps that let users access their bank accounts and send money to each other.
FIN executive director Brian Peters emphasized Trump’s business experience in a Wednesday letter outlining the coalition’s desire for “a national vision and coordinated strategy” to grow FinTech jobs and use FinTech to drive competition between financial services providers.
“You campaigned on a promise to bring change to Washington, and your business experience, unique for any incoming President in history, offers a rare leadership opportunity that we believe sets the stage for modernizing some of our most antiquated financial rules,” wrote Peters.
FIN broke down seven goals it laid out for the Trump administration, including appointing pro-technology regulators, streamlining federal money transmission and state lending rules and broadening access to FinTech.
FIN asked Trump to appoint regulators, including a special Treasury undersecretary for technology, that “value technology and who will seek to promote innovation as a means to foster competition in financial services.”
The new Treasury undersecretary would be charged with spearheading a national FinTech strategy “to ensure America is the best country to create companies and grow jobs developing financial technologies.”
Technical goals include analyzing and exploring credit card security measures meant to limit fraud and stave off hackers, and making it possible for every American to access their financial accounts online by 2020.
Others focus on FinTech’s potential to expand financial services access. FIN asked the Trump administration to promote technology to help areas with few brick-and-mortar banks access online banking and payment services.
“We are hopeful your team will embrace the essential role that technology plays in the democratization of finance,” wrote Peters.