Maria Vullo, former superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, has joined the FinTech Innovation Lab, a 12-week program in which dozens of New York bank executives coach a group of fintech startups, as an adviser. The Lab is run by the Partnership Fund for New York City and Accenture.
Vullo, who left the New York regulator in December, will be the program’s regulator-in-residence and will counsel the tech companies on how to consider regulators’ priorities when collaborating with banks and insurance companies.
“This fintech innovation lab is the perfect place for me to utilize my knowledge and experience in assisting technology startups in their engagement with New York’s financial institutions to provide better access to services and accountability to consumers of those financial institutions,” Vullo said. “It’s a terrific program the Partnership Fund for New York City has to partner with these fintech companies that hold great promise to working with New York’s financial institutions to improve those financial institutions’ operations, compliance and efficiencies.”
As a regulator, Vullo was tough at times with fintechs that wanted to operate as online lenders or money transmitters in New York. But she said she has steadfastly supported financial institutions’ efforts to become more technologically efficient to improve their processes and therefore their customer experience.
“That’s what this fintech lab is doing and my role is to assist them to understand the regulatory environment that the financial institutions are in so the fintech companies can better formulate their products and services in order to grow and help support the regulated financial institution environment,” Vullo said.
The program runs from April through June. Vullo will be holding office hours for the fintech startups "who hopefully all will want to meet with me.”
Eleven startups were chosen for this year's FinTech Innovation Lab: CloudFrame, Cyberwrite, Extend, FairFrame, Genus AI, Goalsetter, HyperScience, Inpher, Magma Trading, npm and Theta Lake.
