Vibrant economic research is needed to help us dealing with these challenges, notably in three key areas. The first relates to the economics and implications of blockchain and crypto-assets, and will be the topic of David Andolfatto’s keynote lecture and of the concluding panel discussion: What are the implications for the financial system in general, and for central banks in particular? Will Central banks’ monetary policy become less effective and, if so, are Central Bank Digital Currencies a way to restore their effectiveness? The second one, which will be addressed by several research papers today, relates to the financing of the economy: Do alternative and innovative ways to finance the economy (marketplace lending, ICOs, alternative scoring models) perform better than traditional financial intermediation without increasing the risks? What roles can incumbent banks play if financial services are to be driven by data? The third one is not on the agenda for today’s conference, but should be on the research agenda, relates to the use of artificial intelligence in finance: What would be the dynamics of financial markets if most participants were to rely on AI and machine learning techniques? How should regulation and supervision practices adapt to ensure that AI behaves in accordance with a financial and social optimum? Conclusion I would like to conclude my intervention by quoting Bill Gates himself: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction”.

On the other hand, the market capitalization of the GAFA – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple – is 25 times higher than that of the whole FinTech universe. The BigTechs already have a material footprint in financial services1 and competitive advantages to expand their activities further in this area. On top of massive financial resources able to support investment at scale and an undeniable digital agility, they benefit from strong brand recognition, worldwide customer base on which they have accumulated proprietary database and privileged access to forefront technologies. In that context, BigTechs more than FinTechs have the potential to fundamentally  redefine financial intermediation beyond the universal banking model toward integrating financial services within a universal ecosystem. Such a move is already gaining considerable traction in China. And it is raising very fundamental questions to which I will come back. To conclude my first point, digital finance may not lead to a more decentralized system as the centripetal forces of network effects may profit most to large conglomerates. Rather than  eliminating intermediation, if left on its own, digital finance will more likely lead to reshuffling the cards with the most digitally agile incumbents and the most financially able challengers becoming the new dominant (and potentially systemic) intermediaries. II. A common challenge: Rethinking old issues, investigating new ones This leads me to my second point. The digitalization of finance forces us to revisit old regulatory and supervisory questions and to face new ones. Among old issues to revisit, I would like to highlight two of them.