CFPB Seeks Comments on Tech Sprints

The CFPB recently published a notice requesting comments on how it could utilize Tech Sprints, whereby teams of stakeholders compete to solve a problem using technology, to encourage regulatory innovation and develop solutions to regulatory compliance challenges.  Comments must be submitted by November 8, 2019.

As described in greater detail in the notice, Tech Sprints are a model for collaborative innovation that gathers together regulators, technologists, financial institutions, and subject matter experts from key stakeholders.  The regulator assigns a specific compliance or market problem to small teams of these stakeholders, who then work together for several days to solve the problem using modern technologies and approaches.  On the final day of the Tech Sprint, the teams present their solutions to an independent panel of judges that selects winners.

In the notice, the CFPB indicates that it seeks to better understand “how technology might reshape compliance, speed effective interaction between regulators and financial institutions, and decrease cost and administrative burden.”  The CFPB expresses an interest in using Tech Sprints in a variety of contexts, including, for example, exploring “technological approaches to robust and secure data access or exchange between regulated entities and the Bureau.”  The notice raises a number of specific questions for commenters to respond to, including a request for comment on which regulatory compliance issues could most benefit from innovation through a Tech Sprint.