world. 9 around the world, 1. 7 billon adults are unbanked or underserved with respect to financial services. 10 in many countries, fintech is already helping the unbanked and small businesses to access finance. from rural households in china, who can invest in a money market fund on their smartphone, to retailers in india, who can accept new forms of payments from their customers. in advanced economies, as well, consumers stand to benefit. new market entrants can offer innovative services efficiently thanks to fully digital business models and 6 see frost j., shin, h. s. and wierts, p. ( forthcoming ). 7 see financial stability board ( 2019 ), “ regulatory issues of stablecoins ” ; g7 working group on stablecoins ( 2019 ). 8 see financial stability board ( 2017 ), “ financial stability implications from fintech, supervisory and regulatory issues that merit authorities ’ attention. ” 9 see bank for international settlements ( 2019 ), “ welfare implications of digital financial innovation. ” 10 world bank ( 2019 ). the use of latest technologies. they also stimulate incumbent entities to invest in modernising their services. 11 regulatory reforms are also contributing to this. in europe, psd2 enables third - parties to access payment - related data previously only available to banks. consumer consent is of course required. in the netherlands, new and innovative services are starting to emerge in areas such as payments and personal finance management. these are offered by new entrants, banks, or through partnerships. of course, customers have to trust these new services. the combination of payment data with large volumes of personal data in particular could lead to privacy concerns among the general public. a recent survey carried out by de nederlandsche bank shows that, on average, 11 percent of respondents are willing to give consent to various forms of data usage. nearly 72 percent are not prepared to do so. and more than 59 percent of the respondents would be more inclined to allow a bank more active use of payment data than they would a tech company. 12 this makes public trust an asset of great value for the banking sector at this juncture. but it remains to be seen how these developments will impact the banking sector in the longer run. 13 let ’ s look at the risk side of the equation. despite their innovative character, fintech activities remain subject to traditional risks. 14 activities that resemble deposit taking remain subject to liquidity mismatches and the potential

governor veerathai ’ s statement your excellency, fellow governors, ladies and gentlemen, members of the press, a very good afternoon to you all, it is my great pleasure to welcome our distinguished guests to this special event before the year ends. let me extend a very warm welcome to governor agus and governor muhammad ibrahim who have both travelled to bangkok specifically for this occasion. the year of 2016, which is coming to the end soon will be remembered by economists and financial professionals as a year of the unexpected, beginning from china's circuit breaker in the very first week of the year, to negative policy rates, to brexit and the us elections. greater uncertainties now hang over the global economy. fortunately, our asean region, with its high potential, is a bright spot in the world. this is therefore time for us to navigate today ’ s uncertainties through our concerted efforts to bring out the potentials of our asean region. what we are witnessing here today is a renewal of the spirit of regional integration by relying more on collaboration to serve as a key driver for sustainable growth to benefit all of us. the mous that we are about to sign will provide flexibilities on foreign exchange regulations for the settlement of trade and investment in local currencies, resulting in greater efficiency and convenience for businesses. another key merit of this framework is that businesses will be able to better manage exchange rate risks. this is because our local currencies are generally correlated with each other. also, there will be less reliance on currencies of advanced countries which last year account for over 85 percent of thailand ’ s trade with indonesia and malaysia. you may recall that earlier this year, bank negara malaysia and the bank of thailand implemented a ringgitbaht arrangement in march as a pilot project. since then, we have seen a noticeably narrower spread between the ringgit and the baht. moreover, we have noted an increasing number of businesses applying this local currency scheme in their day - to - day business conduct. today, i am very delighted that bank indonesia is carrying on this initiative by signing the mous with both bank negara malaysia and the bank of thailand. i really hope that this scheme will continue to expand to other countries in the region. ultimately, this would be one important step closer to having greater regional financial integration in asean. on this note, may i invite governor agus to say a few words, and followed by governor muhammad ibrahim. thank