Financial innovation can deliver “tremendous benefits” to consumers and help minority depository institutions enhance participation in the mainstream financial system, FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams said today.
Speaking at a webinar hosted by the American Financial Exchange, she outlined steps the FDIC is taking to facilitate community bank and MDI innovation, including its proposal for a standard-setting partnership and voluntary certification program to ease the challenge of introducing new tech at banks.
“For community banks, including MDIs, the path to innovation may seem daunting,” McWilliams said. “The cost to innovate is often prohibitively high. They may lack the expertise, information technology infrastructure, or research and development budgets to independently develop and deploy their own technology.”
