Money 20/20 Day Three: Deregulation of the payments industry

 

On the third day of the annual Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas the power of blockchain and the deregulation of the US payments industry were hot topics.

Deregulation of the US payments industry was a hot topic at Money 20/20 as open banking regulations are pushing for change.

“One of the reasons you haven’t seen that much payments innovation in the US is because it is a very tightly regulated industry. You can understand why – the risk of money laundering and fraud is very high,” argues Simran Singh, director of business development and strategy for Hyperwallet.

“As an industry, we have erred on the side of ensuring that doesn’t happen rather than the consumer experience in the past. Today we are trying to tie the great consumer experience with the security,” he said.

Some could argue that the continued use of cheques by many Americans is far less secure than digital currencies. However, Singh disagreed.

“Digital currencies are not completely secure, that is just the media story around it. No matter what type of payment type you come up with, there will always be fraudsters and hackers will come up with a way to attack it,” said Singh.

“Regulation encourages innovation as well because you know if something is approved through the stringent regulatory structure you know that it will be secure,” he added.

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