From: RegTech Analyst
The Australian government has reconsidered the timetable for its FinTech and RegTech committee because of the coronavirus.
The FinTech and RegTech industries in Australia has changed tremendously over the past few years. Looking at investment alone, the Aussie FinTech sector has annually been able to attract bigger and bigger sums over the past five years. In 2015, the industry saw $224m injected into it. That figure skyrocketed over the next few years to reach $1.45bn in 2019, according to FinTech Global’s research.
In other words, the Australian industry is booming. However, the nation’s government has wants it to thrive even more. That’s why the senate launched a select committee at the end of last year to look into the health of the sector and identify and obstacles for its growth.
As part of this probe, the committee reached out to both the FinTech and the RegTech industries to hear their views. This initial hearing period ended in February.
But since then the coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the global economy, forcing businesses to change their prognosis of the next year, send workers to work from home and, in some cases, to close shop entirely.
Given the rapidly changing environment for its FinTech and RegTech sector, the committee has now decided to extend the hearing period until April 10 2020 to provide sector stakeholders with more opportunities to provide their insights.
“The committee would like to hear what support is necessary in the short, medium and long term, including post-recovery, focusing on solutions that can be delivered swiftly by government and the private sector,” the committee wrote in a statement.
Nevertheless, the committee has already yielded some strong opinions. For instance, startup accelerator Stone & Chalk has warned that if “an effective, comprehensive strategy to encourage technological innovation and the ability to support emerging companies is not implemented as a matter of urgency, Australia is at risk of losing the regional race in positioning itself as a market of choice for FinTech and RegTech resources – natural, human and financial.”
Others hoped for more support from the government. “I think the RegTech sector would like to see the further development of efforts like the [Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s] Innovation Hub to promote deeper engagement between RegTechs, regulators and firms,” Marc Gilman, general counsel and vice president of compliance at Theta Lake, the communication compliance technology provider, recently told RegTech Analyst.
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