DC Fintech Week

DC Fintech Week is the principal US fintech policy event, deliberately hosted in Washington to bring industry leadership into direct contact with federal regulators, congressional staff and policy researchers shaping the US fintech regulatory environment. It sits alongside NRF: Retail's Big Show, EWPN Annual Conference and WORLDEF Roadshow Riyadh as calendar anchors for the same audiences.

What happens

The programme combines plenary sessions on the US fintech policy agenda with parallel tracks on banking regulation, payment systems policy, crypto and digital asset regulation, consumer protection, AI policy and the practical implications of evolving federal rulemaking. Closed roundtables with regulators and policy researchers feature alongside the public programme. The event functions as both a public conference and an industry policy gathering, with substantial off-record dialogue between industry and government that shapes subsequent regulatory and legislative action. Side events at think tanks, law firms and embassies extend the week.

Who attends

The audience is unusually focused on policy: senior policy and regulatory affairs leadership from US banks and fintechs, federal regulators from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve, FDIC, Treasury and SEC, congressional staff from the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees, policy researchers from think tanks and academic institutions, and the legal community serving US financial services. International visitors come from foreign regulators studying the US framework and from international companies with significant US regulatory exposure.

Dominant themes

The US fintech policy agenda dominates: the CFPB's open-banking rule under section 1033, federal stablecoin legislation and the evolving regulatory environment for digital assets, AI policy and the practical implications of executive-branch guidance for financial services, the future of bank-fintech partnership arrangements, the regulatory landscape for embedded finance and Banking-as-a-Service, federal preemption considerations for fintechs operating across state lines, the modernisation of US payment systems including FedNow adoption, and the policy implications of generative AI in lending, fraud and customer service. Cross-border payments and the role of US authorities in shaping global fintech standards round out the programme.

Planning to attend

Washington hotel pricing varies sharply by location and political calendar; book early. Hotels in downtown DC near the conference venue support walking to most events; Foggy Bottom and Dupont Circle hotels are easily reached by Metro. The conference language is English. International visitors should plan for the heavily policy-focused content and consider extending the trip to attend adjacent policy events at DC think tanks and law firms. The audience is unusually small and senior, making structured pre-event meeting scheduling especially valuable.

Use the expense calculator below to estimate the total cost of attending — registration, flights, hotels, meals, and ground transport.