US-CFTC announces renovation of its FinTech arm LabCFTC and Primer on AI for financial markets

As scheduled, the ‘Fintech Forward 2019’ has been held at the CFTC’s headquarters in Washington, DC on October 24th, 2019. At this event, the LabCFTC was lined-up to discuss the impact of derivatives on Crypto-Asset, Stable-Coin Oversight and Custody Models in FinTech. 

At the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Fintech Forward conference today, The newly appointed chairman Heath P. Tarbert announced LabCFTC will transform into an independent operating office of the CFTC, reporting directly to the Chairman.

“LabCFTC was established to be a beachhead in the emerging world of fintech,” said Tarbert. He clarified the purpose of this transformation by stating “Blockchain, digital assets, and other developments hold great promise for our economy. Now is the time for LabCFTC to play an even greater role as we work to develop and write the rules for these transformative new products. That reality requires engagement at the highest levels within the CFTC, which is why I am elevating LabCFTC to be an independent operating office of the agency and a direct report to me.” 

Established within the Office of General Counsel in 2017 under the then Chairman Chris Giancarlo, LabCFTC was designed to be the agency’s focal point to engage with fintech innovators and promote responsible innovation. The office is currently led by Director and Chief Innovation Officer Melissa Netram, who was recently appointed by Chairman Tarbert and previously served as a policy and regulatory affairs executive at Silicon Valley-based Intuit. 

“LabCFTC has done fantastic work since its inception to examine emerging fintech issues and bring together innovators and regulators,” said General Counsel Dan Davis. 

Heath Tarbert added by stating “the Chairman’s elevation of LabCFTC reflects its growth and importance as well as his pro-innovation mindset for the agency, and I want to thank Dan for his outstanding leadership overseeing this important initiative”.

In a Panel 2: subjects like re-imagining markets, what digitization means, the custody, and markets are discussed.

Jorge Herrada, Tech Lead, LabCFTC was the moderator for this panel to consider the future of money and alternative means of exchange. As the digital money happens to be the new reality, the value can now be transferred virtually, pragmatically real-time, payments mechanism worldwide are being overturned by models such as PayTM in India, M-Pesa in Kenya, and Venmo in the US. Efforts to digitize assets are also underway.

In conjunction with today’s conference, LabCFTC also came up with its primer on Artificial Intelligence in Financial Markets, with the purpose of equipping market participants for the better clarity and understanding. The primer is part of a series produced by LabCFTC to provide fundamental and essential information about fintech innovation. 

“AI’s power to analyse vast pools of data to detect patterns and generate insights presents great opportunities to enhance the integrity of our derivatives markets, this primer provides an overview of how AI is applied in financial markets and further illustrates the CFTC’s commitment to AI and innovation,” added Netram.