Podcast appearances and mentions of jesse mcwaters

“In the end, I'm hoping that one day digital assets will actually become boring. And that's actually one of my aspirational goals.” Of all the virtual ink spilled on the crypto economy, particularly in recent weeks, no one is accusing it of being boring. But that's what Linda Jeng, the chief global regulatory officer for the Crypto Council for Innovation, believes could happen if new regulations are eventually written to make digital currencies safer.In the latest episode of “What's Next In,” the Mastercard podcast that explores technology, innovation and ideas, host Vicki Hyman discusses digital currency regulation and crypto innovation. Her guests for this episode are Jeng, whose organization encourages responsible crypto regulation, and Jesse McWaters, Mastercard's head of regulatory advocacy.

The continued growth in digital currencies - whether as a means of payment, investment asset or hedge against the dollar - continues to upend the traditional financial landscape. Jesse McWaters, global head of regulatory advocacy at Mastercard, joins Patricia Haas Cleveland, OMFIF's US president, to discuss the key drivers of the growth in cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and CBDCs and implications for the evolving payments system, regulatory challenges, and public-private sector collaboration.

The arms race for digital currencies is on. Facebook is getting there with Novi. The People's Bank of China has central bank digital currency in trials in different cities. Both the UK Bank of England and the US Fed are looking seriously at issuing CBDC's. But what will that change for the consumer? Maybe everything. Today we discuss that with Jesse McWaters, VP of Digital Policy, MasterCard. Guest: Jesse McWaters, VP of Digital Policy, MasterCardHosts: Sanjib Kalita, Editor-in-Chief, Money20/20 Gary Dempsey, Content Lead, Money20/20 EuropeProducers: Roland Bodenham, Senior Video Editor, Ascential Gary Dempsey, Content Lead, Money20/20 Europe Rachel Morrissey, Content Producer, Money20/20 USA

The arms race for digital currencies is on. Facebook is getting there with Novi. The People's Bank of China has central bank digital currency in trials in different cities. Both the UK Bank of England and the US Fed are looking seriously at issuing CBDC's. But what will that change for the consumer? Maybe everything. Today we discuss that with Jesse McWaters, VP of Digital Policy, MasterCard. Guest: Jesse McWaters, VP of Digital Policy, MasterCardHosts: Sanjib Kalita, Editor-in-Chief, Money20/20 Gary Dempsey, Content Lead, Money20/20 EuropeProducers: Roland Bodenham, Senior Video Editor, Ascential Gary Dempsey, Content Lead, Money20/20 Europe Rachel Morrissey, Content Producer, Money20/20 USA

Guests  Richard Zuroff, Director of AI Advisory and Enablement at Element AI Tanya O'Carroll, Director of Amnesty Tech at Amnesty International Alix Dunn, Founder and Director of Computer Says Maybe Jesse McWaters, Financial Innovation Lead at World Economic Forum   AI is a powerful tool and with that power comes a great deal of responsibility. How can we be sure that we’re in control of AI systems? And what should the governance look like?   Data governance is an existing practice that covers a lot of good ground because of how integral data is to AI’s functioning. However, AI’s ability to learn and evolve over time means it will adapt to changes in its environment based on its given objective. That dynamic relationship between environment and model makes things like the design of the system and its objectives just as integral as the data the model runs on. Managing the risks of these new, dynamic systems has been widely branded as “AI Governance”.   Richard Zuroff breaks down the concept of AI governance and how it differs from data governance. Tanya O’Caroll and Alix Dunn tell us about the importance of governance in protecting human rights when building AI systems. Jesse McWaters shares his insights on AI’s impact on the financial sector and why a new form of governance will soon be necessary.    00:48 - How AI risk management is different and what to do about it - Element AI 05:07 - All the Ways Hiring Algorithms Can Introduce Bias - HBR 06:45 - The Why of Explainable AI - Element AI 07:37 - Amnesty Tech - Twitter 07:39 - Computer Says Maybe 07:52 - The Engine Room  10:18 - UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights  14:18 - The Matthew Effect - Wikipedia 15:00 - Agile Ethics - Medium 17:48 - Human Rights Due Diligence 20:07 - The New Physics of Financial Services - World Economic Forum 24:30 - Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 29:00 - GDPR   Other Reading: Putting AI Ethics Guidelines to Work - Element AI  AI-Enabled Human Rights Monitoring - Element AI New Power Means New Responsibility: A Framework for AI Governance - JF Gagne Podcast: Opening the AI Black Box - Element AI     ---------   De la gouvernance des données à la gouvernance de l’IA   Richard Zuroff, directeur du conseil et de la mise en oeuvre de l'IA chez Element AI Tanya O'Carroll, directrice d'Amnesty Tech à Amnistie Internationale Alix Dunn, fondatrice et directrice de Computer Says Maybe Jesse McWaters, responsable de l'innovation financière au World Economic Forum   L’IA est un outil puissant et ce pouvoir s’accompagne d’une grande responsabilité. Comment pouvons-nous être sûrs de contrôler les systèmes d’IA? Et à quoi devrait ressembler la gouvernance?   La gouvernance des données est une pratique existante qui couvre beaucoup de bonnes choses en raison de la façon dont les données font partie intégrante du fonctionnement de l’IA. Cependant, la capacité de l’IA à apprendre et à évoluer au fil du temps signifie qu’elle s’adaptera aux changements de son environnement en fonction de son objectif donné. Cette relation dynamique entre l’environnement et le modèle rend les choses comme la conception du système et ses objectifs tout aussi intégrales que les données sur lesquelles le modèle fonctionne. La gestion des risques de ces nouveaux systèmes dynamiques a été largement qualifiée de « gouvernance de l’IA ».   Richard Zuroff analyse le concept de gouvernance de l’IA et en quoi il diffère de la gouvernance des données. Tanya O’Caroll et Alix Dunn nous parlent de l’importance de la gouvernance dans la protection des droits de la personne lors de l’élaboration de systèmes d’IA. Jesse McWaters nous fait part de son point de vue sur l’effet de l’IA dans le secteur financier et nous explique pourquoi une nouvelle forme de gouvernance sera bientôt nécessaire.    00:48 – En quoi la gestion du risque de l’IA est-elle différente et que faire à ce sujet – Element AI 05:07 – All the Ways Hiring Algorithms Can Introduce Bias - HBR 06:45 – Le «

Artificial intelligence is helping move the financial services sector into a new era of operation. We’ll learn about the invisible forces shaping how AI and other technologies could reinvent the industry in the coming years. Our hosts are joined by Jefferies Managing Director and technology lead Vaughn Harvey and Jesse McWaters, financial innovation lead for the World Economic Forum. We’ll also hear from Betterment CEO Jon Stein and IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama, two entrepreneurs already relying on AI to disrupt different areas of the financial space – from online financial advising to building better exchanges for the next decade. 

In this second episode, Barclays VP Innovation Officer, Charlotte Roberts, speaks with Jesse McWaters, Innovation Lead at World Economic Forum. Charlotte and Jesse discuss what the future holds for FinTechs, open banking and blockchain, and what they would be doing if they could start their careers all over again.

I had the chance and privilege to recently sit down and talk in detail with Jesse McWaters, lead author of this important and very detailed report. If you want to find out how AI and machine learning is transforming the financial services industry, listen to our discussion here, and refer to the full document on the WEF website for the whole package @ (https://goo.gl/UzDw71). From the website: Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the physics of financial services. It is weakening the bonds that have held together the component parts of incumbent financial institutions, opening the door to entirely new operating models and ushering in a new set of competitive dynamics that will reward institutions focused on the scale and sophistication of data much more than the scale or complexity of capital. A clear vision of the future financial landscape will be critical to good strategic and governance decisions as financial institutions around the world face growing competitive pressure to make major strategic investments in AI and policy makers seek to navigate the challenging regulatory and social uncertainties emerging globally. Building on the World Economic Forum’s past work on disruptive innovation in financial services, this report provides a comprehensive exploration of the impact of AI on financial services. Key findings include: • From cost centre to profit centre: Institutions will turn AI-enabled back-office operations into external services, both accelerating the rate at which these capabilities improve and necessitating others to become consumers of those capabilities to avoid falling behind • A new battlefield for customer loyalty: As past methods of differentiation erode, AI presents an opportunity for institutions to escape a "race to the bottom" in price competition by introducing new ways to distinguish themselves to customers • Self-driving finance: Future customer experiences will be centred around AI, which automates much of customers’ financial lives and improves their financial outcomes • Collective solutions for shared problems: Collaborative solutions built on shared datasets will radically increase the accuracy, timeliness, and performance of non-competitive functions, creating mutual efficiencies in operations and improving the safety of the financial system • Bifurcation of market structure: As AI reduces search and comparison costs for customers, firm structures will be pushed to market extremes, amplifying the returns for large-scale players and creating new opportunities for niche and agile innovators • Uneasy data alliances: In an ecosystem where every institution is vying for diversity of data, managing partnerships with competitors and potential competitors will be critical but fraught with strategic and operational risks • The power of data regulators: Regulations governing the privacy and portability of data will shape the relative ability of financial and non-financial institutions to deploy AI, thus becoming as important as traditional regulations to the competitive positioning of firms • Finding a balanced approach to talent: Talent transformation will be the most challenging speed limit on institutions’ implementations of AI, putting at risk the competitive positioning of firms and geographies that fail to effectively transition talent alongside technology • New ethical dilemmas: AI will necessitate a collaborative re-examination of principles and supervisory techniques to address the ethical grey areas and regulatory uncertainties that reduce institutions’ willingness to adopt more transformative AI capabilities This report is the culmination of one year’s worth of research, including over 200 interviews with subject matter experts and seven global workshops, prepared by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Deloitte. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/WYFT/support

Jesse McWaters of the World Economic Forum talks about how fintech has disrupted the financial services industry in subtler ways than we had anticipated they would five years ago. For example, data will become not only a huge source of revenue for exchanges, but also an essential tool for training machine learning models.

Jesse McWaters speaks about analyzing the impact of blockchain technology on industry and society at the World Economic Forum, disruption vs. collaboration in the financial sector, why blockchain technology gives people a license to image a future without constraint, the role of established financial institutions in the cryptoasset space, why the road of blockchain entrepreneurs differs from those in the FinTech space, how the blockchain narrative changed in recent years, blockchain regulation, checks and balances, code of conduct in ICOs, why blockchain technology might become less of a binary idea in the future, and much more. Jesse leads the World Economic Forum's exploration of fintech and financial innovation where he works with financial executives, regulators and a global network of innovators to analyze the implications of open banking, blockchains, digital identity, and AI on the financial sector and society. Jesse is a frequent speaker and media commentator on CNBC's Closing Bell, in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and the New York Times and he has presented his analyses to financial institutions and global policymakers such as the Financial Stability Board, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Federal Reserve Board, the Peoples Bank of China, the European Parliament, and the FDIC. Jesse McWaters: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/jesse-mcwaters/, https://twitter.com/rjmcwaters Previous interview with Jesse for my blockchain documentary (2017): https://blockchain-documentary.com/jesse-mcwaters-wef/ The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, sign up for the newsletter.

In this episode: We bring you the highlights from the RFI global banking summit where we were lucky enough to speak to a variety of different guests, on a range of topics. First up, Aden spoke with Louise Beaumont, Co-Chair at Open Bank Working Group, to talk about all things open banking, before he dived into a chat with regular FinTech Insider guest Ghela Boskovich. Later on he chats to Luis Rodriguez, VP Strands Lab and Ricky Knox, founder of Tandem. Later on, Simon Taylor takes the reigns as he chats with Mike Kelly, the Founder of Curl, Jesse McWaters of the World Economic Forum, Charles Green, CEO of RFi Group, the host of the event, and Yarrick, CEO of NBank. Guests: Louise Beaumont – Co chair, Open Bank Working Group Luis Rodriguez, VP Strands Labs Ghela Boskovich Ricky Knox – founder of Tandem Mike Kelly – Founder of Curl Jesse McWaters – Financial Innovation Lead, The World Economic Forum Charles Green – Founder and Group CEO RFi   Enjoying FinTech Insider? Tell a friend about us and please leave us a review on iTunes. The post Ep. 266. Insights – RFI Global Banking Summit appeared first on 11:FS. Special Guest: Ghela Boskovich.

In this episode: We bring you the highlights from the RFI global banking summit where we were lucky enough to speak to a variety of different guests, on a range of topics. First up, Aden spoke with Louise Beaumont, Co-Chair at Open Bank Working Group, to talk about all things open banking, before he dived into a chat with regular FinTech Insider guest Ghela Boskovich. Later on he chats to Luis Rodriguez, VP Strands Lab and Ricky Knox, founder of Tandem. Later on, Simon Taylor takes the reigns as he chats with Mike Kelly, the Founder of Curl, Jesse McWaters of the World Economic Forum, Charles Green, CEO of RFi Group, the host of the event, and Yarrick, CEO of NBank. Guests: Louise Beaumont – Co chair, Open Bank Working Group Luis Rodriguez, VP Strands Labs Ghela Boskovich Ricky Knox – founder of Tandem Mike Kelly – Founder of Curl Jesse McWaters – Financial Innovation Lead, The World Economic Forum Charles Green – Founder and Group CEO RFi   Enjoying FinTech Insider? Tell a friend about us and please leave us a review on iTunes. The post Ep. 266. Insights – RFI Global Banking Summit appeared first on 11:FS. Special Guest: Ghela Boskovich.

Welcome to Barefoot innovation as we start into a fresh new year. Being appreciated! We are kicking off 2016 with a wonderful guest, Nitish Pandey of BMO, and also with exciting momentum for Barefoot Innovation. In December, we were named one of the top 9 fintech podcasts by FintechNews Switzerland. We are delighted to be counted among the best in the world, including the Breaking Banks show of my friend Brett King.  (If you’re enjoying Barefoot Innovation, please do consider donating to our efforts to produce it using the button below!)  Innovation Nation – fintech in the UK That recognition of our series was especially timely, because I was in London at the time to participate in a roundtable of the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority on the topic of today’s podcast. The FCA has taken the lead globally in proposing creation of a “regulatory sandbox” – a safe space in which financial innovators can experiment with ideas that might benefit consumers, but that could hit trip wires or raise concerns under today’s rules. Americans should focus on this: the U.K. has adopted a national strategy, from its top leaders on down, of becoming the fintech capital of the world.  One facet of that strategy is the FCA’s launch ofProject Innovate, which has  goals like this one:  “We promote competition through disruptive innovation − innovation that offers new services to customers and challenges existing business models.”  Consider that language – the regulator is explicitly “promoting…disruptive innovation.” The FCA’s efforts include creating an Innovation HUB that provides support for promising innovation, and a methodical review of how regulation impacts innovation. Last year they formally requested public input on two crucial questions: what regulations are impeding beneficial innovation, and is there a need for new regulations to foster innovation? While digesting the resulting comments, they put out their proposal on the sandbox concept. They’ve been sharing these ideas globally and exploring very creative approaches, like whether it would make sense to create a “virtual sandbox” in which innovators could test certain ideas through shared data, without exposing real consumers to any risk at all. Lawrence Wintermeyer of Innovate Finance, speaking at the FCA’s December sandbox roundtable, cited growing excitement around both “fintech” and “regtech.” He argued that London has the “tech” of the U.S. west coast, the “fin” of New York, and the “reg” of Washington – all clustered in one city where everyone can get together by public transport in fifteen minutes. The U.K. has other innovation advantages over the U.S., including a more concentrated banking system and a much simpler regulatory structure.  Startups are also attracted by the ability to “passport” UK activities throughout the European Union, offering easy access to large markets. All this contrasts sharply with the U.S. model in which innovators seeking national scale must undertake the complex process of securing either a bank charter or 50 state licenses, or both. Still, part of London’s innovation success clearly stems from deciding to value the upside promise of innovation, in addition to policing the very real downside risk. The FCA’s efforts include a conscious effort to be nimble – something that does not come easily to any regulatory system. The resulting vibrancy is palpable. On this side of the Atlantic In the U.S., the same thinking is gaining traction. Comptroller of the Currency Tom Curry has appointed anew task force for Responsible Innovation, as we discussed in our recent episode with him. The CFPB has its Project Catalyst innovation lab, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco held a conference last fall on the “(R)evolution Underway” in financial services, addressing “how technological changes are presenting opportunities and challenges for financial institutions while compelling regulatory agencies to think about how innovation impacts the supervisory process.” These U.S. discussions increasingly include exploration of creating a regulatory sandbox – which brings me to our guest for this episode. Nitish Pandey is Senior Vice-President & Chief Legal Officer, U.S. Personal & Commercial Banking, for BMO Financial Group of BMO Harris. He believes our financial ecosystem needs a safe sandbox in which to innovate (as did Jesse McWaters and Rob Galaski in our episode on the “Secrets of Fintech”). Nitish and I started discussing the sandbox concept last summer (before the U.K.’s proposal). I’d convened a roundtable on disruption of consumer finance and how to (and not to) regulate it. Nitish, whom I’ve known for years, came to the meeting armed with the most specific blueprint I had seen on these ideas. In the months since then, he’s refined it and shared it publically several times. The goal of a sandbox approach is to allow testing of pro-consumer innovation, while assuring that customers are still well-protected.  The issue has endless subtopics. For instance, is a sandbox really needed? How do current rules impede innovation -- if they do – and which ones are most problematic? Is it appropriate to use the concept of “risk tolerance” in consumer protection?  If so, can risks be defined? Can they be quantified and measured? And, if a sandbox would help, how should it be designed? Do regulators have the legal power to waive or suspend rules to allow experimentation and if not, should they? What standards should innovators have to meet? How would experiments be time-limited? What standards should be used to permit them, and to judge their success? If new ideas prove out, should they be publicized? Should the whole market be allowed to adopt them? If so, would this require extensive rewriting of current rules? Will innovators have sufficient incentive to enter the sandbox, if competitors can simply adopt the ideas they pilot (in contrast to, say, government approval of new drugs after testing that ultimately produce patents)?  How can innovators protect their confidential intellectual property?  Would agency pre-review of sandbox proposals bog innovation down in bureaucracy, defeating the purpose of the whole exercise? And perhaps most importantly, how should consumers in a sandbox be protected? What limits should be placed on potential harm to them? Should they be compensated for any harm and if so, how? What disclosures should they receive? Should they have to give consent? How would harm be quantified? While Nitish doesn’t try to answer all of these questions, he tackles many of the hardest ones. And he pinpoints a core issue that’s widely underestimated. The problem is not just rigid and potentially counterproductive regulatory requirements. It’s also the sheer cost and effort of implementing full-scope compliance for virtually any change.  If businesses can’t inexpensively test how customers would respond to an innovation, they won’t offer it. And they can’t test real-life response to new ideas today, without also building out massive compliance machinery – Nitish calls it the “pipes” – affecting nearly every function of the company. We’re in a “Lean Startup” world today where innovators grow by designing and refining a minimum viable product (MVP) through quick, intensive consumer interaction. Traditional companies can’t do this well, partly because their compliance systems weigh them down. Nitish has ideas how to design and execute a practical solution for this – without going bureaucrazy! Compliance as innovator? While I had Nitish with me, I also took the chance to have him share his advice on the revolution underway in the compliance function. He is the first bank compliance manager we’ve had as a guest, and a visionary in the field. He believes, as I do, that consumer financial protection is migrating from a rules-based system to an increasingly principles-based one. That shift is bringing permanent uncertainty which, in turn, requires deeply remaking the compliance management model. “It used to be, if you knew your regulations, you were fine,” he says in our discussion, whereas today’s compliance manager is a “true risk management professional who can be creative in the process and demonstrate excellent judgment as we rapidly move into an increasingly gray world.” He lays out the new role of compliance in today’s bank, why it’s needed, the key changes required, and how to make it happen. Nitish’s insight derives partly from his broad background. He has undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in Law, Economics and Management in his native Australia and has held positions ranging from marketing to nearly every facet of risk management. He spent a decade at American Express in Compliance, Risk Management and Operations, focusing on consumer, small business and commercial portfolios. He was Deputy Chief Compliance Officer for American Express Centurion Bank, responsible for the oversight and implementation of the bank’s Compliance Program. In November 2014 he joined BMO as Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) for U.S. Personal and Commercial Banking. I hope you enjoy my talk with him as much as I did! More Links: BMO Bank Nitish’s slides from his presentation  The FCA's Project Innovate The FCA’s Paper on the “Regulatory Sandbox”  The CFPB’s Project Catalyst CFSI’s research on consumer financial wellness If you enjoy our work to bring together thought provoking ideas and people please consider a contribution to support the site. Donate Please subscribe to the podcast by opening your favorite podcast app and searching for "Jo Ann Barefoot", or in iTunes.    

If I had to choose just one episode of Barefoot Innovation to introduce listeners to the series, this is it. My guests are Jesse McWaters of the World Economic Forum and Rob Galasky of Monitor Deloitte, who co-led the WEF's landmark research project on financial technology (executive summary here).  Switzerland-based WEF focuses on public/private collaboration and is best known for hosting the annual global forum in Davos. When I first read news accounts of this report, I reached out immediately to Jesse and (new father) Rob to ask them to join our dialogue. It took some time to get together, but we finally met at the WEF offices in New York. It was more than worth the wait. They launched their study of the global evolution of fintech at the Davos meeting in 2014. By the summer of 2015, they had crystallized the keys to understanding it. Their work is built on extensive interviews and on the technique I increasingly see as the key to progress -- convening disparate participants. They held six meetings with traditional financial institutions, disruptive innovators, and regulators in the same room, grappling with the coming change. In their early meetings, the financial industry executives were interested in fintech and wanted to monitor it, but were not worried - Jesse and Rob call them "tepid" about its urgency. By the end, this view had reversed. My guests use words like "bewilderment," "paranoia," "enemies" and "invading the fortress" as they describe the financial industry's rising concern. They also see these concerns starting to give way to hopefulness about the opportunities. The 193-page study has a global scope, emphasizes the developed world, and looks at eleven areas where innovation is driving transformation. What's working? Here are some of the insights Jesse and Rob share in our conversation: While today's banks feel besieged by disruptors on all fronts, the study shows that innovators are actually mainly targeting specific spots where two key factors intersect - that is, where high friction and customer frustration exist in products that are highly profitable. One participant said they are, "skimming the cream." Recognizing these points of vulnerability can guide traditional companies in what to defend and where to allocate capital. The emerging models have certain key attributes -- they are platform-based, modular, data-intensive, and "capital-lite." The disruptors focus on "shadow" or "fringe" areas, avoiding the heavily regulated core world of deposit-taking financial institutions. They are serious about complying with regulations, but strategically choose the rules to which they will subject their businesses. They are using established assets to scale up, a la Uber, rather than investing in a long, expensive process of creating their own products and infrastructures. They are actively partnering with established institutions for this leveraging of both existing assets and infrastructure and also "regulatory permissions." (Interestingly, this is drawing some major investment companies into retail markets for the first time.) They are focused on controlling the customer experience, using their superior platforms and data analytics. A key subset are "mission-oriented" entities creating inclusive and affordable services to consumers and small businesses. Jesse and Rob mentioned Active Hours and LendUp as U.S. examples, in addition to the huge global potential in emerging markets. Advice to industry: Jesse and Rob discuss how all this is impacting the traditional industry, including this advice: Don't count out banks as an "old world industry." Address the twin pressures of having aging legacy operating systems and processes, clashing with the high demands of today's consumers, especially millennials. People increasingly want personalized, bespoke, low-cost services and are ready to trust online providers. Review and clean out the accumulation of old policies and procedures that prevent banks from creating a great customer experience. Don't make the mistake of viewing fintech as a one-year budget issue. Create a new enterprise-wide, multi-year investment model that is not controlled by the current owners of the business line P&L's. Explore merging models for learning, partnering, and "coexistence." Evaluate the wisdom, or folly, of essentially "outsourcing R&D" to the venture capital world until it figures out the winners and losers. Consider that financial institutions may be major players in shaping what will win and what will lose, especially since they have capital. Use their suggestions on how do innovation inside a traditional company. Expect upward age migration of fintech adoption - don't expect to retain even older customers to the end of their lives in old-style products. Watch for big changes in insurance offering options for bespoke, advisory, concierge models and radically new value propositions (they mention Oscar in the U.S. and Vitality in the UK). Understand the likely sequence in which products will be forced to change, and why - they explain this in our discussion Impacts on consumers: Rob and Jesse predict big changes for consumers, including vastly more choice, hugely better customer experience, better pricing, and much better insight into and control over their own financial lives. They also see rising risks and regulatory needs, including that consumers will be harmed by unsuitable, high risk products. Advice for regulators: Jesse and Rob also have insights for and about regulators. Some of the regulators who joined their meetings were among the most thoughtful people they encountered, but they also warn of a very wide delta between the "leaders and laggers" in the regulatory world. They predict likely regulatory arbitrage if that gap does not close quickly. They also emphasize the need for "regulatory sandboxes" (on that point, watch for our upcoming Barefoot Innovation episode on sandbox innovation with Nitish Pandey of BMO Harris). What next? The project plans to leverage its convening power to tackle further priorities. One is exploring the revolutionary potential of block chain technology and distributed ledgers, including and beyond bitcoin. Another is seeking innovation in managing digital identity, including expanded roles for banks. Might our bank someday help us buy a bottle of wine by sending not only the money, but by verifying our age! Enjoy the episode! References: Here are some of the resources and companies we discussed in this episode: World Economic Forum Full WEF report on The Future of Financial Services ActiveHours (accessing pay that's already earned) LendUp (online lending)                                                                                 Transferwise (payments innovation)                                       Oscar (health insurance in U.S.)                                                  Vitality (health and life insurance in U.K.)    Please subscribe to the podcast by opening your favorite podcast app and searching for "Jo Ann Barefoot", or in iTunes.                         If you enjoy our work to bring together thought provoking ideas and people please consider a contribution to support the site. Donate