This Wednesday April 24th, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative will host a conference titled “Fintech and the Future of Banking” in Arlington, Virginia. The FDIC describes the catalyst for the event as the belief that “at the intersection of research and experience lies good public policy.”

The conference features a brief introduction with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams. Afterwards, the conference programming includes discussions regarding regulatory approaches to innovation, data and technology in lending, industry competition, the role of venture capital, and the potential benefits and unintended consequences of using data and technology to inform financial consumer decision-making.

The description of the event emphasizes that while the financial services industry innovated long before the advent of smartphones and machine learning, the activity in recent years “marks a shift from earlier eras.” The FDIC views current advances in payments, credit, and funding as having the potential to transform how banks conduct business and how consumers interact with financial institutions.