It also allows financial institutions to scale-down on the high cost brick-and-mortar model and shift to less costly and more efficient digital services. Meanwhile, resilience is strengthened when financial institutions use payment or online data to better analyze and forecast credit demand and credit risks. Additionally, advancement of technology like biometrics and blockchains can help safeguard financial information and reduce the number and magnitude of fraudulent activities. Finally, financial inclusion is improved as digitization of financial services and platforms allow access through online or smartphone, which can benefit consumers both in cities and in remote areas. Moreover, the ever-expanding universe of new financial services means there are a number of choices and solutions available to fulfill different needs, especially those currently underserved. Ladies and gentlemen, As financial technology can help unlock massive potential of our people, it is now up to us, the leaders and policymakers, to play an important role of “the catalysts,” to pave way for greater adoption of financial technology. On this point, I believe there are at least four key areas that catalysts like us must act together:  3/5  First, we must encourage common standards of technologies or platforms to avoid market fragmentation. Having common standards would improve competition and innovation, as they allow easy access for all players, especially small innovative players. A good example of the common standards is the Standardized QR Code for electronic payment here in Thailand, where banks and non-banks can apply the common standard to their applications.

To the extent that such policies can be anticipated by market participants, financial intermediaries could be expected to price in the resulting shift in the relative supply of and demand for currency before capital flows take place. As a consequence, international portfolio rebalancing considerations may, at times, drive a wedge between expected future short-term rates and the exchange rate. My remarks today are by no means conclusive and they are based on tentative evidence. But I hope that they provide impetus to further, more systematic research on a topic that is not only intriguing from an intellectual perspective, but also of significant relevance to policymakers in their efforts to improve the understanding of the transmission channels of non-standard monetary policy measures. Thank you for your attention. 1 See e.g. Fratzscher, M., M. Lo Duca and R. Straub (2016), “ECB Unconventional Monetary Policy: Market Impact  and International Spillovers”, IMF Economic Review, 64(1), pp. 36-74; Georgiadis, G. and J. Gräb (2016), “Global Financial Market Impact of the Announcement of the ECB’s Asset Purchase Programme”, Journal of Financial Stability, 26, pp. 257-265; Rajan, R. (2014), “Competitive monetary easing: is it yesterday once more?”, remarks at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., April 10; and Bernanke, B.S. (2015), “Federal Reserve Policy in an International Context”, paper presented at the 16th Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference hosted by the International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C., 5 and 6 November. 2 See Cœuré, B.