2  Many of these studies emphasise as the most salient features of recent developments: (i) the growing role of digital technologies in back, middle and front-office activities,2 (ii) the cross-jurisdictional nature of a wealth of financial services offerings today, (iii) the emergence and consolidation of non-traditional competitors, often with a previous universal footprint in the ITC field, and (iv) the prioritisation of customer-centric commercial strategies in response to what clearly are much less stable and long-term bank-client relationships. Banks have been reacting to the challenges of this new environment, and they have done so in manifold ways. For instance, financial intermediaries have been particularly agile in leveraging the opportunities offered by novel services such as cloud computing. They have also pioneered the analysis of how artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can help in both reducing the level of credit defaults and anticipating customer needs. In addition, some of them are actively pursuing strategic alliances with promising Fin Tech companies in search of business synergies. For this purpose, banks frequently combine cooperation agreements with ex-ante collaboration across potential partners via self-run accelerators or incubators. In addition, banks have also explored the extent to which liaising with Big Tech can yield mutual benefits and, conversely, in what circumstances their threat can be confronted by promoting cooperative ventures across the industry (both nationally and internationally). As a result, we have been witnessing how these more dynamic innovative environments are able to better address actual user needs and, in parallel, to generate new business opportunities.

The theme of this Conference, Building resilience in uncertain times: safeguarding financial stability, encouraging investments, is particularly timely. Today we are going to debate a number of challenges that our countries are currently facing: from the role of central banks in the current uncertain environment to the reforms needed to improve the business climate in the region, as well as the impact of digital finance on financial and economic integration and the role of sustainable infrastructure and connectivity in fostering regional value chains. Allow me to take advantage of chairing the first session of this conference that focuses on the impact of digital finance on the economic and financial outlook to briefly reflect on what are, in my view, some of the key challenges our respective institutions face as a result of the profound and relentless process of digital transformation that the global financial system is currently engaged in. This is certainly a topic that has gained much attention in both policy and academic circles, thus giving rise to a significant amount of research that touches upon the causes and factors underlying the changing landscape, including the extent to which the pandemic has contributed to accelerating this phenomenon.1  1  For example, according to a McKinsey & Company study, due to Covid-19, businesses’ digital offerings leapfrogged about seven years in a matter of months during 2020. In their view, this trend is likely to continue in the near future albeit at a slower pace. This study is available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/ourinsights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever.