Pew Offers Suggestions to Promote Responsible Innovation in Banking

On May 31, The Pew Charitable Trusts filed the following letter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), in response to the office’s request for comment regarding its efforts to foster and ensure responsible innovation in the financial sector. Pew’s history of data-driven research in consumer finance has provided a strong understanding of political, market, and consumer-focused issues that can arise when discussing and evaluating innovative products designed to make consumers—particularly the underserved—more financially secure. The letter highlights support for strong consumer protections, engagement of people who are outside the banking system, public access to data, and strategies to bring traditional financial institutions into the small-dollar lending market, as well as other areas in which our research can inform the OCC’s work to encourage and foster financial innovations that will meet consumers’ evolving needs.