Pub. 11 2020 Issue 1

www.wvbankers.org 8 West Virginia Banker that emerging technology can have on serving customers, particularly the unbanked and the underbanked, and all are adopting initiatives to examine, study and update the regulatory framework so that it doesn’t impede technological advances, while ensuring that banks remain safe and sound and consumers are sufficiently protected. There has also been a lot of discussion and some movement with regard to fintech regulatory sandboxes. Arizona, Wyo- ming and Utah created their own state-level sandboxes, and now West Virginia seeks to do the same. House Bill 4621, in- troduced Jan. 31, 2020, by Delegates Capito, Cowles, Espino- sa and Shott, will create The West Virginia Fintech Regulatory Sandbox Program. The legislation was promoted by Vantage Ventures, a partner of the John Chambers School of Business and Economics, as a means to help reinvent West Virginia’s economy as a leader in entrepreneurship and innovation. A regulatory sandbox is a program that allows fintech compa- nies to test new products in the real market on a temporary basis without incurring the regulatory costs and burdens that would otherwise be imposed. Unlike other state-level pro- grams, HB 4621 seeks to name the state banking regulator as the program administrator. The legislation also encourages sandbox applicants to establish relationships, either through partnership or collaboration, with an existing financial institu- tion licensed by the state of West Virginia in the hope that it will support West Virginia banks in testing new ideas and new products through fintech entrepreneurs. The concept of a sandbox allows exemption from state laws that regulate the financial product or service, but the participants and the products and services they are testing would be subject to applicable provisions within the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act. Further- more, the Division of Financial Institutions may determine that certain state laws that regulate a financial product or service should apply if the service or product to be tested poses significant enough risk to consumers or to the safety and soundness of other institutions within the financial services marketplace. Before the introduction of HB 4621, the leadership of the West Virginia Legislature sought the input of West Virginia bankers. We made a series of recommendations aimed at encouraging cooperation between innovators seeking to introduce new products into the sandbox and the existing banking and financial services industries, which would make West Virginia the first state in the nation to take such an approach. The sandbox regulatory model is still very new and relatively untested. Many questions remain unanswered and there is still much work to be done, but our banks have been doing the work in this space for over 200 years and the banking industry will continue to be a powerful driving force for innovative new financial products and services. As our lawmakers consider a fintech sandbox in West Virginia, the banking industry will remain engaged and vigilant with the goal of protecting the interests of our banks, improving and expanding options for our customers and ensuring the safety and soundness of our financial services system for all.  WHY ADVERTISE IN PRINT? “Digital media is great, but we also need less mediated, more real experiences and I believe print is better at delivering that. Magazines offer the kind of tactile engagement you cannot find anywhere else. It satisfies the senses on many levels – sight, touch, smell. That’s unique to print. Also in a world where everything moves so fast – driven by the dictates of data and the digital world – magazines provide respite from all that: a moment of calm, contemplation, enjoyment.” — Vince Medeiros, Publisher, Think Quarterly, google https://www.thenewslinkgroup.com/publications/Goldfish/index.html — Satya Nadella CEO, Microsoft The true scarce commodity is human attention. Kris Montione (v) 8 . . | . . Kris@thenewslinkgroup.com Continued from page 6