There was lots of talk at Money20/20 about the slowdown in IPOs and mergers, but one topic got very little airplay at the world’s biggest fintech conference: the U.S. presidential election.
Whoever is elected on November 5—Vice President Kamala Harris or Former President Donald Trump—will have a huge impact on businesses as well the regulations that govern them. But the more than 10,000 fintech entrepreneurs, bankers and investors from over 90 countries who attended Money20/20 in Las Vegas last week didn’t appear ready to discuss the issue.
'There is a deafening silence,” said one executive of a major fintech. The exec said they had about 30 client meetings at Money20/20 and not one brought up the election. “When I travel around the world, to Asia and Mexico, the U.S. election is the first topic,” the executive said.
"Everyone is in denial because so much can change,” another head of a fintech said.
Regulators were also mum. Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, received a very positive welcome just days after the agency finalized its long-awaited rule on open banking on Oct. 22. Rule 1033 makes it easier for consumers to switch between financial service providers and is viewed by some as a game changer. “This is huge. This is amazing,” one startup executive said.
On the same day that the agency issued the rule, two bank lobby groups, the Bank Policy Institute and the Kentucky Bankers Association, sued the CFPB, claiming the regulator overstepped its authority.
Chopra said during a Money20/20 keynote that he wasn’t surprised that the largest players want to stop the rule. “This is normal. Where those that already have power want to hold onto it, it is often an obstacle to progress,” he said.
"No one is happy with 1033, but the rule needs to exist. Without regulatory backstop, it is hard for the fintech ecosystem,” said Jane Barratt, MX’s chief advocacy officer and head of global public policy.
CFPB’s Chopra, however, didn’t mention the upcoming election or his plans for the future. Chopra is a former FTC commissioner who also previously worked at McKinsey. If Harris is elected, Chopra may get to lead another agency, the second fintech exec said. “Under Trump, Chopra is gone,” the person said.
Gary Gensler, the embattled chair of the SEC, answered questions during an Oct. 28 fireside chat but refused to comment on the election. In response to questions of whether his recent media appearances were a series of exit interviews or a campaign to keep his job, Gensler didn’t bite, saying only that he would stay as SEC chair until the “referee calls the whistle.”