Fintech and Techno-Solutionism

Authors

Hilary J. Allen, American University Washington College of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Journal

Southern California Law Review (forthcoming)

Abstract

Silicon Valley-style technological innovation is ill-suited to addressing complex problems like financial inclusion, concentrated market power, and privacy harms, yet promises abound that “fintech” can fix them. This oversimplified reduction of complex structural problems into technological puzzles is known as “techno-solutionism,” and it poses real dangers for public policy. When we start with the tech industry’s favored tools and then ask how to solve complex problems using those tools – rather than starting by defining the problem to be solved – it can distract policymakers from supporting real, structural solutions. Techno-solutionism can also deter policymakers from interrogating the limitations, and regulating the harms, of the proffered technological solutions.

This Article argues that not only are many fintech products themselves extremely techno-solutionist, techno-solutionism is also impeding financial regulation’s ability to protect the public from fintech’s harms. It makes three major contributions. First, this Article offers a theory of how the law can perpetuate, and then be stymied by, techno-solutionism. Second, it comprehensively calls out the techno-solutionism inherent in many fintech offerings (particularly crypto), laying bare their harms and demonstrating where they are unable to solve the problems they claim to address. Such harmful non-solutions do not warrant accommodative regulatory treatment – and yet, some policymakers have sought to give fintech products just that. This Article’s third contribution is a detailed exploration of techno-solutionism’s impact on US financial regulatory policy as it pertains to fintech. This Article also uses this lens to consider how techno-solutionism might impact the regulation of AI in financial services.

Recommended Citation

Hilary J. Allen, Fintech and Techno-Solutionism, Southern California Law Review (forthcoming) (2025).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_lawrev/2269