fintech has a wide influence on payments, settlements and financial services, and could stimulate various economic activities, including e - commerce and “ sharing economy ” businesses. also, fintech can encourage mutual feedback between financial activities and high - end technologies, including cryptographic techniques. moreover, financial literacy and education are needed to promote the sound development of fintech. the bank of japan is ready to lead research and analysis on fintech, in view of the possibility that the bank itself may apply fintech technologies to its operations in the future. given the far - reaching implications of fintech, the bank established its “ fintech center ” on april 1 in the payment and settlement systems department. the bank has also built up a “ fintech network ” comprised of a wide range of staff drawn from the relevant departments of the bank. this fintech network, for which the fintech center functions as the secretariat, promotes the sharing of information and expertise related to fintech in a cross - sectoral manner within the bank. the bank, as the central bank of japan, is ready to make its best efforts to support the sound development of fintech in order to enhance the welfare of financial service users as well as economic activities. in today's forum, we welcome a rich variety of participants. when we look back at history, we see that communication and positive feedbacks among various entities from different cultures, such as cross - border trading between europe and the orient during the renaissance, led to the development of banking as well as double - entry bookkeeping. in a similar vein, in order to promote the development of the new financial services that we have come to call fintech, it is extremely important to realize positive and interactive communication among a broad spectrum of entities that go beyond the traditional financial industry to include it enterprises, retailers, start - ups and others. i sincerely hope that today's forum will contribute to all the participants in terms of sharing new insights and perspectives. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

bank of japan ’ s august report of recent economic and financial developments bank of japan communication, xx / 8 / 98. the bank ’ s view1 japan ’ s economic conditions continue to deteriorate. with respect to final demand, public investment seems to have bottomed out. net exports have resumed to increase mainly due to a decline in imports. however, business fixed investment has been decreasing significantly, and housing investment has weakened further. private consumption has not yet shown a resumption. against this background of weak final demand, substantial production cutbacks continue. as a result, inventories have decreased somewhat, but the level is still high. with the decline in expenditure and production, corporate profits continue to decrease, and employee income remains below the previous year ’ s level. in addition, the ratio of job offers to applications has dropped to a historically low level, and the unemployment rate has increased further. as a whole, employment and income conditions have worsened. although the above indicates a continued negative interactions of production, income, and expenditure, a further deterioration in the economy is expected to cease gradually from the effects of the comprehensive economic stimulus package including additional public works and the special income tax reduction. given the current considerably low level of economic activities, however, the positive influence of the package on private demand will likely be limited, and the economy ’ s immediate transition to a self - sustained recovery is hardly expected. in these circumstances, the relevant bills have been submitted to the diet to rebuild the stability of the financial system. moreover, the new administration is planning to launch new economic stimulus measures, including additional public investment in the supplementary budget for fiscal 1998 and the reduction in personal income taxes and corporate taxes. the materialization of these policies along with their effects on corporate and household sentiment should be carefully monitored. with regard to prices, wholesale prices are on a downtrend, and consumer prices ( excluding the effects of institutional changes2 ) remain below the previous year ’ s level. with respect to the factors affecting the outlook, the downward pressure on domestic prices induced by the decline in import prices is weakening. in addition, the expansion in the output gap in the economy is expected to slow in line with the implementation of the comprehensive economic stimulus package. nevertheless, reflecting the present large output gap, the downward pressure from domestic factors is unlikely to weaken considerably, and hence, prices are likely to be weak for some time. as for financial markets, yields on long - term government bonds and stock prices rose toward mid