The April 29 and 30 event brought together members of the fintech community, including Dave Ramsden, deputy governor for markets and banking at the Bank of England, to discuss technology services and financial innovations. In a speech at the summit, Ramsden said unbundling,—the separation of banking activities into “core functions”— artificial intelligence and using Real Time Gross Settlement services are a few of the ways the Bank of England is using fintech to achieve its goals. He said some new technologies are virtually a foregone conclusion.

“Finance is amongst the first sectors to deploy AI at scale. Deloitte estimates that financial services executives expect cognitive-related technologies to become mainstream in the next [two to five] years. And the Global Association of Risk Professionals expect up to 80% of financial services firms to use it,” said Ramsden in his speech. “The technology has the potential to increase efficiency across the financial sector, including leaner, faster and more responsive operations.”

Ramsden said, in practice, the bank is exploring ways to maximize society’s opportunities while minimizing its risks. To accomplish this, the bank has set up a Fintech Hub, he said, borne out of its fintech accelerator. “Fintech is enabling new players and business models to enter the market. This is increasing competition, helping meet unfulfilled customer needs, reducing inefficiencies and changing the way institutions provide–and consumers and businesses use–financial services,” said Ramsden at the summit. “It could transform the structure of the financial sector, with implications for customers, firms and regulators.”

FCA Chief Calls for Competition, Debate

Andrew Bailey, chief executive at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), also addressed the future of fintech. Baily highlighted the importance of public debate and economic competition, among other things, speaking separately in London. Bailey said, when discussing regulation, there have been “long waves” of changes.

“Those changes can be large and destabilising for both the regulator and the regulated. Prior to the financial crisis, the light touch era reflected a view that a greater emphasis on the private interests of firms, their owners and managers would benefit all and thus the public interest,” said Bailey. “I tend to call this the ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ view of our world. But it didn’t turn out that way–there were very clear losers, and the scale of that problem has emerged over a long period of time. The consequence has been a decade of re-regulation, reversing the long swing.”

Bailey said financial regulators must promote competition for the sake of consumers, pointing out the importance of the FCA in ensuring that very objective. “It is also very important that, almost uniquely among financial regulators, the FCA has a full-blown competition objective, namely to promote competition in the interests of consumers. And this objective is deeply in the DNA of the FCA, rightly so.”

U.S. Rep. Calls for Clarity, But Cautions Overregulation

Stateside, Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, said the U.S. must find its footing with respect to blockchain innovation and regulation as it has already fallen behind the rest of the world. In order to do so, he said, mitigating “confusing, spasmodic guidance from the [Securities and Exchange Commission], and an inconsistent patchwork of court decisions,” is crucial to ensure the U.S. does not lose out to other places, like Europe and Asia, with more established frameworks.

To that end, Davidson is a co-sponsor of the Token Taxonomy Act, aimed at clarifying the role of regulators, addressing national security, and protecting consumers and facilitating growth. “We must ensure that we avoid over-complicating, overregulating, and frustrating the spirit of enterprise that built our free market economy into what it is today. In an era of partisanship, the Token Taxonomy Act offers a nonpartisan solution to a nonpartisan issue—American leadership in blockchain technology,” he said in a statement. “We welcome dialogue as we work to pass this important piece of legislation to help keep American leadership preeminent in technology and innovation.”