WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said today that he prefers private over government solutions when it comes to collecting and using consumer data for financial products and services, speaking at a fintech conference hosted here by the FDIC.

Data aggregation — and getting consumers comfortable with allowing companies to access their data — is important, he said in a conversation with FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams during the agency’s “Fintech and the Future of Banking” event. But Mnuchin also said that consumers rightfully expect certain levels of security and privacy. “From the consumer standpoint, it should be very clear and simple if your data is being shared, and who it’s being shared with,” he said.

On bank-fintech partnerships, the secretary noted that, while big banks have the ability to create their own technology to differentiate themselves, community and regional banks often can’t afford to take a build-it-yourself path. “They want to be able to partner, and I think that’s important,” he added.

Asked by McWilliams how much he thinks technology has already disrupted the banking industry, compared to the potential, Mnuchin said he thinks the changes happening now are only the beginning of what’s to come. “There’s not a one-size-fits-all answer to this,” he said. “You don’t want to move too quickly but, on the other hand, you don’t want to move to slow. You want to encourage innovation.”

Mnuchin later said regulators need to ensure the overall safety of the financial system without creating a burdensome bureaucracy that stifles innovation. McWilliams had said in her introduction that regulators are too-often playing catch-up with the innovators.

On the health of the overall economy, Mnuchin said that the U.S. is the “bright spot” in the world, that Europe is “in a real slowdown,” and that China has also “slowed down.”

Aaron Klein of the Brookings Institution asked Mnuchin when the Federal Reserve will catch up with Europe and elsewhere on real-time payments, adding that, for years, people have been able to send payments from Portugal to Latvia faster than they could send them from Kansas to Montana. Mnuchin replied that the Fed “has a lot of priorities.”