The Fintech Foundation and the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN)  announced the Fintech Regulatory Futures Index (FRFI), a new global benchmark designed to assess and compare the regulatory environments that shape fintech markets around the world.

The initiative will bring together regulators, central banks, multilateral institutions, industry leaders, civil society organizations, and academic researchers to develop a transparent, evidence-based methodology for evaluating fintech regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions. 

By combining the resources and network power behind DC Fintech Week, which is organized by the FintechFoundation, and GFTN's global forums, Singapore FintechFestival, Point Zero Forum in Zurich, and the 3i Summit in Ghana, the two organizations expect to make an immediate, positive contribution for global standard setters. The FRFI will be housed at the Fintech Foundation and supported by GFTN.

The launch comes as governments are reassessing how to regulate AI-enabled financial services, digital assets, embedded finance, real-time payments, cross-border data flows, and new forms of market infrastructure. As fintech becomes more global, policymakers increasingly need tools that allow them to compare regulatory approaches, identify gaps, and learn from peer jurisdictions.

The index will assess jurisdictions across five dimensions: Regulatory Clarity and Comprehensiveness, Consumer Protection and Market Integrity, Innovation Enablement, Market Access and Economic Opportunity, and Resilience.

Unlike traditional benchmarking exercises, the FRFI will be developed through an open and participatory process. The initiative will publish a draft methodology to crowdsource public comments, invite critique from practitioners and academics, and host online and in person forums where experts across law, economics, technology, development, and market practice examine the index's intended policy impacts, design choices and trade-offs.

"Regulatory benchmarking should not be a black box," said Professor Christopher J. Brummer, Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Financial Technology at Georgetown University Law Center and Founder of the Fintech Foundation. "The FRFI is designed to bring methodology into the open—combining legal, economic, technological, and market expertise to build a framework that improves over time."

"As AI adoption accelerates and tokenisation gains acceptance, governance frameworks across the global fintech ecosystem must keep evolving in step," said Sopnendu Mohanty, Group Chief Executive Officer, GFTN and former Chief FinTech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore."

The FRFI is designed to reflect the breadth of the global fintech landscape, including advanced economies, emerging markets, and frontier jurisdictions across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.