Fintech department of the SEC is upgraded to its own authority

The American Securities and Exchange Commission department responsible for the crypto industry will act independently in the future, but will remain part of the SEC.

According to an official announcement on December 3, the financial technology department of the US Securities and Exchange Commission will be upgraded to a separate sub-authority

The Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub) was founded in 2018 under the aegis of Bill Hinman , and has since been instrumental in regulating companies and securities in the field of financial technology (Fintech).

Since the SEC at the same time increasingly acted against so-called Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), i.e. token sales, which represent an alternative form of raising capital via crypto currency, FinHub was busy with the crypto industry.

The upgrade to a separate authority means that FinHub is no longer subordinate to the Division of Corporate Finance, but that FinHub boss Valerie Szczepanik will in future be directly subordinate to SEC chairman Jay Clayton .

To this end, the SEC chief writes in the announcement:

„Our decision to upgrade FinHub to our own authority is a testament to our efforts to encourage the adoption of new technologies so that investors and markets can benefit from them.“

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the American supervisory authority for futures and options trading, took a similar step last year when it appointed its LabCFTC department as its own authority.