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AIR is a global nonprofit leveraging digital modernization to help build a financial system that serves everyone and produces widespread financial health.
Digitization is transforming finance. “Responsible innovation” can help solve systemic problems – financial exclusion, race and gender bias, predatory practices, financial crimes like human trafficking, and even climate change. At the same time, innovation can threaten privacy, security, and fairness.
Founded by Jo Ann Barefoot and David Ehrich, AIR arms regulators with digital tools to counter these dangers and optimize financial services for the digital age.
AIR CEO Jo Ann Barefoot has been named Finovate Fintech Woman of the Year
Given to a woman whose achievements and work in fintech-related areas of financial services have helped enhance the sector or raise its profile as a career for women. Through education, leadership, mentoring, coaching or acting as a role model.
AIR CEO Jo Ann Barefoot included in Forbes 50 over 50
AIR CEO and Co-Founder Jo Ann Barefoot included in Forbes 50 over 50: Investment. These 50 women are shaping the future of finance, fueling high-growth businesses and forging a more fair and inclusive financial future.
AIR Welcomes UK Regtech Leader Nick Cook as Head of Global Strategy and Partnerships
AIR, the Alliance for Innovative Regulation, announced that as of September 1, Nick Cook, former head of innovation at the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is joining AIR as Head of Global Strategy and Partnerships. He will lead the AIR Accelerator and TechSprint strategy and, based in London, will anchor much of AIR’s global work.
The Courage to Step Forward: Kenya Central Bank Deputy Governor Sheila M’Mbijjewe
Kenya is the birthplace of mobile money. In 2007, long before most of the world had even imagined mobile electronic payments, Safaricom introduced M-Pesa, enabling Kenyans to load money into their phones and use the phone to pay for things. The rest is history. Spreading quickly throughout Kenya and far beyond, this innovation sparked a worldwide shift toward instant, mobile, affordable movement of money. And it helped inspire a whole generation of fintech innovators, who saw that cell phones were reaching nearly everyone in the world and could become, in effect, banking infrastructure.
AIR Events
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Developing the Digital Regulator
As digitization and software transform how the world engages in financial activity, it’s time to ask whether regulators have the culture, tools, and technology needed to keep pace. Some have argued that regulators need to become more like the quantitative and digital firms that they regulate by leveraging next-generation technologies and talent. Using status quo approaches, can financial regulators detect risks in fast-changing markets, including those related to cybersecurity, fraud, financial crime, and trading manipulation? Can they properly monitor, detect, and assess bias in consumer-facing models? This program sought to answer these questions in two ways.
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AI and Financial Regulation: Exploring Benefits and Managing Risks
AIR partnered with Google to host a webinar, ‘AI and Financial Regulation: Exploring Benefits and Managing Risks’. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are transforming the way financial services institutions monitor and mitigate risk and ensure regulatory compliance. The discussion included policymakers, thought leaders, technologists, and AI/ML subject matter experts to learn more about AI/ML advances, regulatory considerations, and ways to maximize the benefits and mitigate the risks of these new technologies.
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Consumer Protection: Hot Topics in Digital Finance
AIR partnered with Consumer Reports and Consumer Federation of America to host a virtual convening on three hot issues in emerging consumer financial services. We gathered thought leaders from all corners of the money ecosystem to discuss consumer financial data permissioning, cryptocurrencies and new forms of lending. Is innovation bad for consumers? Panelists included academics, advocates, business leaders, and regulators about the benefits of new technology and how we can create a marketplace where fair financial services predominate.
