Covington's Andrew Smith Testifies Before House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit

Covington's Andrew Smith Testifies Before House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit

January 30, 2018

WASHINGTON—Covington partner Andrew Smith testified on Tuesday before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit at a hearing entitled, “Examining Opportunities and Challenges in the Financial Technology (“Fintech”) Marketplace.”

Mr. Smith’s testimony addressed the opportunities and challenges posed by fintech in the financial services marketplace, the current regulatory framework, and whether there is a need to amend the regulatory framework or existing financial laws, or whether to develop new legislative proposals that would allow financial services entities to use fintech to deliver new products and services to consumers.

Mr. Smith focused on three key points, including that bank partnerships with fintech providers are good for consumers, bank partnerships are rigorously supervised, and new and inconsistent court decisions threaten to undermine bank partnerships with fintech providers.

“The ultimate promise of fintech—delivering safer, more transparent, lower cost, and more convenient financial products and services to consumers over the Internet and mobile devices—depends on the ability of banks, particularly community banks, to cooperate with third-party fintech providers to offer financial products and services to consumers,” testified Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith’s complete testimony can be found here.