The U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) has issued a
report titled, “Financial Technology: Information on Subsectors and Regulatory Oversight.” The GAO Report provides a
description of the FinTech industry broken down by sector. The sectors include: Marketplace Lending;
Mobile Payments; Digital Wealth Management; and Distributed Ledger
Technology. For each sector, the Report
describes “what it is and how it works”; “who uses it”; “potential benefits”; “potential
risks”; “industry trends” and “oversight and regulation.” The introduction to the Report states:
Advances in technology and the widespread use of the Internet
and mobile communication devices have helped fuel the growth in financial
technology (fintech) products and services. Consumer access to these new
technologies has resulted in changes in their preferences and expectations
regarding how they conduct financial transactions, such as using their
smartphones to make payments or purchases. Fintech products and services
include small business financing, education refinancing, mobile wallets,
virtual currencies, and platforms to connect investors and start-ups.
There is no universal definition of fintech. It is also
difficult to quantify the size of the industry because data are not separately
reported from existing financial services or products’ data, and because the
industry is constantly evolving. Traditional financial service firms also
provide fintech products or services (e.g., existing financial services firms
introducing fintech products and services). The fintech industry is generally
described in terms of subsectors that have or are likely to have the greatest
impact on traditional financial services, such as credit and payments.
The Report is a helpful overview
of FinTech and more reports are supposedly on the way. Hopefully, a report on IP and FinTech will be released.
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Posted By Mike Mireles to
IP finance on 4/27/2017 06:18:00 pm