important elements. in this context, another initiative that the boj has been working on is to shorten the time lag between the execution of jgb trading and settlement. at present, the jgb settlement cycle is t + 2 for both standard outright transactions and special collateral repo transactions, and t + 1 for general collateral repo transactions. as you can see on slide 8, we have been working with market participants to shorten such settlement cycles, from t + 2 to t + 1 for both standard outright transactions and special collateral repo transactions, and from t + 1 to t + 0 for general collateral repo transactions to ensure improvement of the safety in jgb markets. in fact, the working group on shortening of jgb settlement cycle, which was set up under the auspices of the japan securities dealers association, identified three overarching principles for shortening the jgb settlement cycle. the first was to reduce the settlement risk. the longer the time lag between trading and settlement, the more unsettled positions accumulate ; hence, the settlement risk rises. by containing such a build - up of unsettled positions, we can effectively mitigate the settlement risk. the second principle was to enhance the liquidity, safety, and efficiency of the jgb market. the jgb market – the largest financial market in japan – provides a benchmark that facilitates the transactions of other financial assets such as corporate bonds and cp. shortening the settlement cycles will make it smoother for banks to raise funds against jgb bis central bankers ’ speeches collateral. in effect, this will in turn provide investors with a variety of short - term investment opportunities. the last principle for the shortening of jgb settlement cycles was to maintain and reinforce the international acceptance of jgbs. as for the outright transactions, t + 1 has already been achieved in the united states and the united kingdom. in asia, singapore has also moved to the t + 1 platform. in these economies, shortening of the cycles has often been discussed in the context of maintaining a competitive edge against peers overseas. based on these principles, market participants are now aiming to achieve t + 1 for jgb transactions as early as 2017. this is also a part of efforts to achieve the ubiquity of jgbs. by the end of spring 2015, members of the working group will come up with a more concrete timetable to achieve t + 1, and we are actively providing support on that front. on

haruhiko kuroda : integrating information and financial systemsbeyond as - a - service remarks by mr haruhiko kuroda, governor of the bank of japan, at the fin / sum 2021, 16 march 2021. * * * introduction i am delighted to be given this opportunity to speak to you at the fin / sum 2021 through a video message. rise of as - a - service the main theme of this year ’ s fin / sum is “ fintech as a service, in search for a platform for digitalized society. ” the term “ as - a - service, ” appearing more frequently nowadays, seems to indicate servitization of product functions or, to put it simply, a business model for providing “ services ” on customer demand, instead of “ sales ” to sell products out to customers. for example, a software service used to consist of a combination of purchase and usage. in the internet society, however, we only have to call for necessary services when they are needed. when we make a restaurant reservation on a smartphone, we only receive a reservation service. as for business activities, various business applications are available — for services such as accounting, ordering and invoicing, customer management and sales support, and human resources and labor management — as software as a service ( saas ) to be called on demand. these developments are not limited to software. various types of as - a - service are appearing one after another, partly with the shift toward a service economy. these include mobility as a service ( maas ) — where a user purchases a mobility service instead of owning a car — and infrastructure as a service ( iaas ) — where a user purchases a service to use it infrastructure, including servers, instead of owning the hardware. these are sometimes collectively referred to as “ everything as a service ” ( xaas ). as - a - service in finance the trend of as - a - service is also emerging in finance. the financial businesses of banking, securities, and insurance are industries that require large fixed costs and strict compliance with regulations. for this reason, instead of recreating financial businesses from scratch, it has become mainstream for fintech providers to utilize deposit and loan services of traditional financial institutions through an open application programming interface ( open api ) to create new customer services and convenient and comfortable user experiences. the bearers of these services are wide - ranging. they are not limited to startups but include large firms with core businesses in