The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority(FINRA) is seeking comment on how it can support financial technology innovation in the Broker-Dealer Industry.
Last year, FINRA launched its Innovation Outreach Initiative to improve communication with the securities industry around FinTech and to better understand how advances in financial technology affect the brokerage industry.
FINRA has now issued a Special Notice seeking comment on FinTech areas such as data aggregation services, supervisory processes around the use of artificial intelligence, and the development of a taxonomy-based machine-readable rulebook.
“The Innovation Outreach Initiative has helped us better understand FinTech developments across the broker-dealer industry,” said FINRA President and CEO Robert Cook. “As we consider taking additional steps, it is important to broaden the dialogue to hear how any FINRA rules or administrative processes could be modified to better support FinTech innovation without adversely affecting investor protection or market integrity. We also hope to learn about any potential areas of innovation that would benefit from a greater focus on investor protection safeguards.”
FINRA claims the Innovation Outreach Initiative has already resulted in a number of positive changes, including the formation of a FinTech Industry Committee, which is composed of both large and small member firms, non-member firms offering FinTech-related services, as well as committee observers from the SEC and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), to provide a platform for ongoing dialogue and analysis of FinTech developments.
Following feedback it received through discussions with market participants since the start of Innovation Outreach Initiative, FINRA is also exploring the implications of RegTech for the securities industry. FINRA has also issued related Investor Alerts on data aggregation risks, Cryptocurrency-related scams and Initial coin offerings.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
