Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officials are seeking public input as a means of bolstering the organization’s FinTech initiative.
CFTC personnel said LabCFTC is requesting ideas and topics for innovation competitions to advance FinTech goals. All comments must be received within 90 days of publication of the request in the Federal Register.
“We launched the LabCFTC initiative to stimulate and promote market-enhancing FinTech solutions,” CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo said. “By soliciting feedback from innovators on how the CFTC can best encourage innovation and leverage FinTech and RegTech solutions for the marketplace, we are not only fulfilling the mission of this initiative, we are moving the CFTC closer to my ultimate goal of making the agency a 21st-century regulator.”
The solicitation of ideas focuses on areas for potential innovation competitions, officials said, as well as how competitions could best be structured and administered to maximize their impact.
“Innovation competitions and our effort to crowdsource priority RegTech topics are exciting regulatory tools that can unleash creativity, ingenuity, and new technologies that can solve challenges that benefit the American public,” LabCFTC Director Daniel Gorfine said. “Our ultimate goal is to focus the energy of America’s innovators on ways to improve our agency and our markets so we can keep pace with a rapidly digitizing world.”
Under the Science Prize Competition Act (2015), the CFTC may hold a competition and award prizes, such as non-monetary prizes and prizes in partnership with external organizations, in order to stimulate innovation designed to advance the goals of LabCFTC.