Recently, CATO Summit’s Fintech Unbound 2018 took place, and a video was posted online around September 12th. This video showed a group of fintech experts and regulatory entities discussing the issue of remittance. Both Gerry Tsai (Fintech Director at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) and Ryan Zagone (Ripple) discussed how the regulations and advancements impacted the remittance industry, specifically due to blockchain technology. Tsai discussed how the recent efforts to explore blockchain technology.

Tsai also wanted to discuss how the innovations have not been setup with the intention of a completely new infrastructure. Instead, the main goal appears to be the improvement of user experience and the increase efficiency for payments. Basically, despite the progress made so far, there are many more advancements to be made at this point.

The next topic of discussion happened to be the position that the US regulators in the global scheme of regulations. Ripple’s Director of Regulatory Relations spoke about how dependent fintech is on both blockchain and cryptocurrency for their advancement.

Specifically, he said,

“I do think what we’re seeing now is a recognition that blockchain and crypto will play a key role in the next generation of infrastructure for financial services. And countries now recognizing there’s potential to be a leader there, so they can become a global capital finance.”

As he continued, the director discussed the many countries that have managed to pass the US in adopting blockchain. London, for instance, has a substantially greater number of workers around blockchain than New York.

Zagone noted,

“Their fintech growth has been astounding, and it is domestic growth, but foreign companies are moving there because the environment is so much more workable. It is not easier. There are still high bars and strict rules but it’s flexible and workable to allow innovation to happen.”

One of the most important comments of the conversation was regarding China’s place in all of this. He believes that the VC investments that China has established in the technology are substantially greater than what the United States is doing. This is a monumental transition, and it coincides with China’s attention to supporting financial services. Right now, China is easily surpassing the performance within the United States, overtaking the world of finance.