Silicon Valley giants Apple, Amazon, Google, PayPal and Intuit have formed a coalition to promote the benefits of financial technologies in order to help the U.S. government better understand these technologies and ensure greater innovation in financial services, Re/code reported Tuesday.
The initiative is called the Financial Innovation Now and aimed at accelerating the pace of change in financial services, according to the official website.
“The United States and the world can do better,” reads the bbbying group’s mission statement. “Innovation in financial services has the potential to greatly improve how consumers and small businesses save, borrow, transact and invest.”
The goal is to accelerate the pace of adoption of financial services and modernize how consumers and businesses manage money and conduct commerce.
“We believe that technological transformation will make financial services more accessible, safe and affordable for everyone, and we promote policies that enable these innovations,” reads the website.
Headed by Executive Director Brian Peters, the newly formed advocacy group will be working with policymakers to ensure that legislative and regulatory initiatives “encourage the growth and adoption of new financial services technologies and products.”
Apple, of course, entered mobile payments last year with its Apple Pay service, which now counts more than 2,500 participating banks and credit unions and is on track to be accepted at some 1.5 million retail locations by the end of the year.
Source: Financial Innovation Now via Re/code