Washington, D.C., July 31, 2018 – SIFMA today issued the following statement from president and CEO Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr. on the new Department of Treasury report on nonbank financials, fintech, and innovation:

“We commend Secretary Mnuchin and the Treasury Department staff for the on-going, thorough review of our financial regulatory system. We are pleased that a core foundation of this report is to create a regulatory environment that encourages responsible innovation and improves regulatory coordination and responsiveness.  We are also pleased to see the strong attention paid to data aggregation, with recommendations that are consistent with and acknowledge the SIFMA Principles for Data Aggregation.

“The financial services industry is rapidly evolving, and innovation should allow financial institutions to more efficiently serve clients commensurate with strong consumer protection, improve the security of the fintech ecosystem, compete with other providers of financial services, and enhance compliance with regulations.  To foster such innovation, regulators and legislators must rethink how old concepts and principles apply to financial services delivered through new technologies and acknowledge that responsible innovation will advance the interests of both consumers and the financial system. The time for a comprehensive examination is now and we look forward to further reviewing the Treasury’s report.”

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SIFMA is the voice of the U.S. securities industry. We represent the broker-dealers, banks and asset managers whose nearly 1 million employees provide access to the capital markets, raising over $2.5 trillion for businesses and municipalities in the U.S., serving clients with over $18.5 trillion in assets and managing more than $67 trillion in assets for individual and institutional clients including mutual funds and retirement plans. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more information, visit http://www.sifma.org.