Why Zest AI is joining the new Fintech Trade Association

We’re excited to announce that Zest AI has joined other prominent fintech companies in founding the Financial Technology Association (FTA), an organization advocating a modern approach to fintech policy and regulation. FTA’s priorities are laid out in a new white paper, Shaping the Future of Finance.

They include:

• Safeguarding consumers and promoting financial education and literacy
• Providing fair, accessible, and transparent financial services to consumers, with a particular focus on marginalized and underserved communities
• Championing the role of the U.S. and its norms in the global financial ecosystem
• Encouraging responsible and equitable private sector innovation and competition
• Upgrading the national financial infrastructure

The FTA’s goal is to become the leading trade body for the technology-centered financial services industry. Other founding members include Afterpay, Betterment, Brex, Carta, Figure, Marqeta, Quadpay, Plaid, Ribbit Capital, Wise. The FTA’s mission is to educate stakeholders on the value of fintech and advocate for the modernization of financial regulation to support inclusion and innovation. The organization will focus on proactively shaping regulations, policy frameworks, and public understanding to safeguard consumers and advance the development of trusted, digital financial markets and services.
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We’re joining the FTA to support its mission to provide a path forward to reshape the financial services landscape to ensure equitable outcomes through innovation.

At Zest AI, we’re frequently visiting (via Zoom, but hopefully soon in person) with policymakers to educate and learn about the role machine learning and other technologies have in solving critical challenges such as making fair and transparent credit available to all. The FTA believes that a regulatory framework, if done correctly, could play a pivotal role in broader adoption of fintech. The FTA welcomes oversight that would accord fintech the legitimacy that the industry has earned. As with any industry, fintech regulation should advance consumer protection and prevent against bad-faith actors, not restrict entrants or market competitiveness.

We’ve always believed that technology-driven innovation will transform lending to provide more opportunities for the tens of millions of underbanked or underserved Americans. We’re joining the FTA to support its mission to provide a path forward to reshape the financial services landscape to ensure equitable outcomes through innovation.

More information on the association’s priorities, as well as the introductory paper, can be found on the FTA website.