FinTech lab nabs DFS alum Vullo

Maria Vullo apparently can’t stand idle hands for too long, as the former superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services has been tapped to become “Regulator-in-Residence” at the FinTech Innovation Lab, a mentorship and accelerator program for early- and growth-stage enterprise technology companies, run by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City.

Vullo, who left DFS after three years in February, championed cybersecurity regulations for financial institutions that became the national standard for digital security. She also headed the department at a time when it was getting a substantial amount of flack for what critics said was a slow rollout and prohibitive costs of the BitLicense, which is required for any virtual currency business in New York.

The FinTech Innovation Lab’s 2019 class includes 11 companies ranging from cyberinsurance technology to artificial intelligence-based regulatory tech. Companies work with financial and insurance institution partners to accelerate their product and business – part of the hope being that the startups can provide their services to those kinds of institutions. Vullo said she’s looking forward to working with the new class of companies to orient themselves in the regulatory landscape that financial institutions face.

“I'm going to have office hours, and I hope all 11 of them sign up for office hours so that I can help them based upon my regulatory experience to sort of understand the regulatory environment, the legal environment and the compliance environment,” she said.

For the rest of today's tech news, head over to First Read Tech.