Leveraging FinTech to Combat the Effects of COVID-19

Our FinTech program team explores how finance platforms of all kinds can best leverage technology to provide the optimal amount and type of capital to small businesses and consumers in an efficient and responsible manner during the COVID-19 crisis.

We have identified some initial policy recommendations:
 

• Relax Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency third-party risk management requirements to further enable insured depository institutions with less than $5 billion in assets to leverage technology solutions and bank-nonbank partnerships to more effectively respond to small business concerns in affected communities.

• Provide guidance on the eligibility of “other lenders” to participate in the Federal Reserve’s Paycheck Protection Program Lending Facility (PPPLF).

• Increase the number of non-bank licenses with proven LMI focus.

• Create a mechanism to track the types of Small Businesses receiving funding from the PPP.
   

In addition to these recommendations, we are working with our FinTech Advisory Committee to understand the impact of the pandemic on local economies and in what ways local, state, and federal officials should respond to best support the capital needs of those most affected by the current pandemic.

Learn more about the Center for Financial Markets' work on COVID-19.