First, Regtech benefits banks: In today’s sessions, banking leaders have told us how Regtech is important to their institutions. It enables banks to achieve higher quality risk management and compliance outcomes. It reduces costs. It frees up staff from repetitive manual tasks for more value-adding work. The use of Cloud-based Regtech technology, for example, gives banks the flexibility to adapt to changes in regulation and risk management, while maintaining superb quality in risk management and compliance activities. 6. Secondly, Regtech benefits customers: In our “Path Forward” panel, Mr Deniz Güven from Mox Bank spoke of how Regtech had significantly speeded up the bank’s end-to-end account opening process. Mr Victor Lam also cited how iAM Smart, a personalised digital services platform in Hong Kong, can support Regtech use cases such as remote onboarding. That was echoed by Mr Tat Lee of WeLab Bank and Mr Werner Schlossmacher of Credit Suisse in the “Pulse of Regtech” session. They talked about how banks can leverage alternative datasets to improve the loan application process and enhance the evaluation of product suitability. We also heard how they have designed solutions that put customer experience at the centre – by respecting customer needs, eliminating duplication, offering the most suitable products and, most importantly, keeping customers protected. The use cases discussed in those sessions showed that Regtech offers exciting opportunities that go beyond a compliance tick-box exercise and greatly improve customer experience and satisfaction. 7.

As a result, a growing number of places in the region have either recovered or are close to recovering the jobs that were lost during the Great Recession. More troubling, however, is that Puerto Rico’s economy remains exceptionally weak; activity and employment on the Island continue to decline. Our economists will elaborate on these trends this morning. Private for profit institutions in the higher education landscape The important role of post-secondary education is undeniable given the key role that human capital plays in economic growth. However, the higher education landscape comprises different types of post-secondary institutions that provide different educational experiences. One such group of institutions – private for-profit institutions – have progressively become more visible in the U.S. higher education market. For-profit institutions and their growth in the market for student loans and federal need-based aid is the subject of the special topic in today’s briefing. Analysis done here at the New York Fed reveals that enrollment in for-profit colleges showed explosive growth nationally during, and for some time after, the Great Recession. Interestingly, this growth in enrollment has leveled off perceptibly as the economic recovery has taken hold. These patterns suggest that workers who were displaced from their jobs during the Great Recession chose to enroll in two-year and less-than-two-year colleges, mostly in for-profits but also in public community colleges. Now, with improved labor market conditions, individuals have less reason to get a short-term degree or may have returned to the labor force. Stark patterns are also observed in the market for student loans.