Fintech companies sceptical about the ability or willingness of regulators to support innovation in financial services should not be too quick to judge, a World Economic Forum executive says.Jesse McWaters, a WEF project manager who has worked with Deloitte over the past 18 months on the Future of Financial Services Report, said feedback from companies using regulators' innovation hubs overseas has been positive.Earlier this year, Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman Greg Medcraft said the regulator was building an innovation hub to assist startups navigate the regulatory system.The hub has been designed to streamline licence application processes, provide dedicated contacts within ASIC for innovative businesses, and offer live webchat facilities.However, local fintechs have complained that when they deal with ASIC they still come up against cumbersome processes, slow approvals, undue caution in dealing with unusual business models and "box-ticking".McWaters, who was in Sydney this week to launch the Deloitte and WEF report, said ASIC looked at some overseas models, such as the UK Financial Conduct Authority's Project Innovate, when it was planning its innovation hub."We have not done a review of the responses of fintechs to overseas programs but anecdotally we are hearing that the reaction is positive," he said."Even if there is still some friction the message is that fintech is welcome."In a speech in May, ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said the regulator was keen to do what it could to help industry take advantage of the opportunities on offer, "provided it does not compromise investor and financial consumer trust and confidence."Tanzer said ASIC would participate in the Stone and Chalk fintech hub and would establish a Digital Finance Advisory Committee with members from a cross-section of the fintech community."We are committed to doing what we can to facilitate - and make ourselves more accessible to - innovative businesses that genuinely benefit customers," Tanzer said.The fintech industry is not convinced. Earlier this month, K&L Gates partner Andrea Beatty told delegates at a Finsia conference that the "one size fits all" approach to approving applications for Australian Credit Licences, Australian Financial Services Licences and authorised deposit-taking institution licences was not working.Beatty said: "To set up a P2P business you need to be licensed to operate a managed investment scheme. That does not fit the new banking model."To launch a crowd funding business in Australia you need a financial markets licence to carry out secondary market trading - the same licence the Australian Securities Exchange has. It is not viable."Speakers on a panel of peer-to-peer and marketplace lenders at an AB&F conference in June said dealing with ASIC was slow. The executive chairman of marketplace lender DirectMoney, Stephen Porges, questioned whether what his company was doing was so different from more established lending businesses that it required such specific focus from the regulator.McWaters said: "Regulators can play a part in making collaboration work. They recognise the need to engage and in the leading domains they have developed effective outreach mechanisms."The innovation leader at Deloitte Financial Services, Joel Lipman, said Delotte was