FDIC Names First-Ever Chief Innovation Officer

Mar 8, 2021Federal Regulation, FinTech, News

Last month, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) named Sultan Meghji as the agency’s first Chief Innovation Officer. Meghji will lead the agency’s efforts to promote the usage of innovative technologies throughout the financial services sector.

“I am immensely honored to join a team that is working towards finding innovative ways to meet the challenges of tomorrow,” said Meghji. “It is important that the FDIC leads at this transformative moment in our nation’s banking history. My personal mission is to engage both public and private sector partners to ensure the financial system of the future is innovative, resilient, and equitable.”

Prior to his role with the FDIC, Meghji co-founded Neocova, a fintech firm that provides cloud-native, artificial intelligence-based software for credit unions and community banks. He has also worked with fintechs and central banks to form peer-to-peer solutions for underserved populations in Africa and Central Asia.

Currently, Meghji is a nonresident scholar in the Cyber Policy Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His work focuses on cyber infrastructure security, the design of the global financial system, and the impact of quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

“As a recognized expert in financial technology, Sultan brings years of technical knowledge and an entrepreneurial spirit to our FDiTech team,” said FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams. “Under his leadership, I am confident we will find innovative ways to utilize technology to modernize our bank supervision, enable community banks to adopt technological solutions, and bring more underserved people into the financial fabric of our nation.”

Meghji has served as an advisor to the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). He is also an adjunct professor at Washington University’s Olin Business School and a distinguished member of the Bretton Woods Committee and the Missouri Advocacy Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

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