The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has been contributing to relevant fintech research and policy discussion. Our economists and data scientist team have explored emerging issues around fintech, such as the impact on credit access to the “invisible prime” or thin-file consumers, monetary policy effectiveness, financial stability, and funding availability to small businesses. In addition to conducting research on fintech and related issues, we put together a fintech conference annually. Our fintech conferences aim to engender a robust exchange and discussion from leading scholars, regulators, and market participants on fintech’s potential disruption and its impact on financial landscapes and financial stability.

Past conference speakers have come from various backgrounds, including academic research, legal, regulators, the fintech industry (the disruptors), and banking industry (the incumbent). In the past, we also had several founders and CEOs from fintech lending platforms and AI vendors, top executives from consulting firms, law firms, technology companies, rating agencies, and more. Top regulators, including a Federal Reserve Governor, the FDIC Chair, and the OCC Comptroller, have shared their thoughts at our fintech conferences. Last year, we had 267 people registered (by invitation only).

Our Third Annual Fintech Conference will be held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on November 14–15, 2019. As in previous years, we are partnering with outside experts from well-known organizations. Our partners this year include the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Bank Policy Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the University of Cambridge.

Conference Organizing Committee:

  • Julapa Jagtiani, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
  • Christopher Feeney, Bank Policy Institute
  • Itay Goldstein, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
  • Richard Herring, The Wharton Financial Institutions Center
  • Aaron Klein, Brookings Institution, Center on Regulation and Markets
  • Raghu Rau, University of Cambridge

For more details about our previous fintech conferences, with the agenda, speakers’ bios, presentation slides, research papers, photos, videos, and our published article that summarizes key messages from the conferences, see the links below:

2018: Fintech and the New Financial Landscape
2017: Fintech: The Impact on Consumers, Banking, and Regulatory Policy

Agenda

Thursday, November 14

Opening Remarks

Patrick T. Harker, President and CEO, FRB Philadelphia

Opening Keynote

Charles L. Evans, President and CEO, FRB Chicago

Introduction: Patrick T. Harker, President and CEO, FRB Philadelphia

The Increasing Roles of Tech Firms in Financial Services

Moderator: Julapa Jagtiani, Senior Economic Advisor and Economist, FRB Philadelphia

Speakers:
Lewis Goodwin, President and CEO, Square Financial Services

Stuart Breslow, Managing Director and Head of Financial Services Industries Vertical, Google Cloud

Hal S. Scott, Emeritus Nomura Professor of International Financial System, Harvard Law School, Harvard University

Martin Chorzempa, Research Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Choosing the Best Fintech Partners for Your Businesses

Moderator: Christopher F. Feeney, President, BITS, Bank Policy Institute

Speakers:
Paul Gu, Cofounder and Head of Product, Upstart

Kathryn Van Nuys, Fintech Lead, Global Startup Business Development, Amazon Web Services

Campbell Gibson, Head of Public Policy, Avant

Scott Astrada, Director of Government and Community Relations, Affirm

Mike Kinane, Head of US Bankcards, TD Bank

Brian Martin, Head of Business Development, Blend

Recent Fintech Research on Bitcoin and Other Cryptoassets 

Moderator: Kose John, Charles William Gerstenberg Professor of Banking and Finance, NYU Stern School of Business
Introduction: “New Directions in Research on Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies”
Presenter: Itay Goldstein, Joel S. Ehrenkranz Family Professor, Finance Department, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Paper 1: “Miner Collusion and the Bitcoin Protocol” by Christine A. Parlour, University of California, Berkeley, and Alfred Lehar, University of Calgary
Presenter: Christine A. Parlour, Sylvan C. Coleman Chair, Finance and Accounting, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Discussant: Asani Sarkar, Assistant Vice President, Research and Statistics Group, FRB New York

Paper 2: “A Model of the Optimal Selection of Crypto Assets“ by Andrei Kirilenko, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and Silvia Bartolucci, Imperial College Business School
Presenter: Andrei Kirilenko, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Discussant: Andreas Park, Associate Professor of Finance, University of Toronto

Paper 3: “Bitcoin’s Fatal Flaw: The Limited Adoption Problem” by Franz Hinzen, New York University, Kose John, New York University, and Fahad Saleh, McGill University
Presenter: Fahad Saleh, Assistant Professor of Finance, McGill University

Discussant: Katya Malinova, Associate Professor, MacKenzie Investments Chair, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University

Designing Effective Regulatory Sandboxes for Fintech Innovations

Moderator: Greg Feldberg, Director of Research for the Yale Program on Financial Stability, Yale School of Management, Yale University

Speakers:
Jonah Crane, Principal, West 4th Street Advisors, and Regulator in Residence, FinTech Innovation Lab

Schan Duff, Senior Fellow, The Aspen Institute

Dan Quan, Managing Partner, Banks Street Advisory, and Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Co.

Brian R. Knight, Director of Innovation and Governance, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University

Nathaniel Hoopes, Executive Director, Marketplace Lending Association

Friday, November 15

Private Digital Currencies or Central Bank Digital Currencies?

Featured Guest: Timothy Lane, Deputy Governor, Bank of Canada
Moderator: Robert M. Hunt, Associate Director, Consumer Finance Institute, and Senior Vice President, FRB Philadelphia

Panelists:
Rodney Garratt, Maxwell C. and Mary Pellish Chair in Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Andreas Park, Associate Professor of Finance, University of Toronto

Kevin Werbach, Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, The Wharton School

Special Remarks on Private Digital Currencies and Libra

Presenter: Gary Gensler, Professor of the Practice of Global Economics and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Future Fintech Regulations: A Conversation with John Ryan

Featured Guest: John Ryan, CEO, Conference of State Bank Supervisors
Moderator: William G. Spaniel, Senior Vice President and Lending Officer, FRB Philadelphia

Panelists:
Aaron Klein, Fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution

Richard Herring, Jacob Safra Professor of Banking, The Wharton School

Richard H. Neiman, Head of Public Policy, LendingClub

New Challenges in Fintech Lending — A Conversation with Max Levchin

Featured Guest: Max Levchin, Founder and CEO, Affirm, and Cofounder, PayPal
Introduction: James D. Narron, First Vice President and COO, FRB Philadelphia
Moderator: Michael D. Calhoun, President, Center for Responsible Lending

Fintech Roles in Small Business Lending and Regulations

Moderator: Patricia Hasson, President and CEO, Clarifi, and Member of the Board of Directors, FRB Philadelphia

Speakers:
Ryan Rosett, Founder and Co-CEO, Credibly

Ryan Metcalf, Head of U.S. Regulatory Affairs, Funding Circle

Gwendy Brown, Vice President, Research and Policy, Opportunity Fund

David Snitkof, Head of Analytics and Data Strategy, Kabbage, Inc.

James Wu, Founder and CEO, MonJa

Looking Ahead: The Future of Fintech

Moderator: Behnaz Kibria, Senior Policy Counsel, Google

Speakers:
F. Christopher Calabia, Senior Advisor, Supervisory & Regulatory Policy, and Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Eric S. Belsky, Director of the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Alla Goldman Seiffert, Director of Cloud Policy and Counsel, Internet Association

Armen Meyer, Vice President, Public Policy, LendingClub

Don Gayhardt, President and CEO, CURO Financial Technologies Corp.

Closing Remarks

William G. Spaniel, Senior Vice President and Lending Officer, FRB Philadelphia