data be developed by the regulators or by the market? how is customer data protection being ensured, and what commercial arrangements might arise from owning that data? when dealing with such large data sets, what measures are in place to detect, respond to and recover from cyberattacks? addressing these and other open questions is important in moving the fintech dial forward. in south africa, numerous fintech firms applied for our regulatory sandbox process to trial new open banking models. to make progress within this space, we require incumbents and fintech firms to work together to shape our policy thinking and policy stances. any unaddressed solutions will possibly continue to see fintech firms using methods that may pose an increased operational risk. the solutions of open application programming interfaces ( apis ) are therefore pressing. the industry should actively engage with fintech firms on this long - standing matter. we also need to learn from jurisdictions that have already traversed this path, and modestly take from their emerging lessons. conclusion allow me to conclude. the south african regulators recognise the role they can play in addressing these access challenges. the ifwg aims to demystify the regulatory landscape, provide space for safe experimentation, and actively advance innovation. we do this through the innovation hub, launched earlier this year, and its three facilitators : the regulatory guidance unit, the regulatory sandbox and the innovation accelerator. page 8 of 9 since launching the innovation hub, we have received nearly 100 queries in the regulatory guidance unit and over 50 applications to the regulatory sandbox. these numbers show just how vibrant and dynamic the south african fintech ecosystem is. most importantly, though, they are a positive sign of increasing access to regulators and rule - making for fintechs, which enables us to hear more of those divergent and new voices. in addition, the innovation accelerator is a space for us to drive both internally oriented and market - facing innovation initiatives. we focus particularly on those initiatives that address the challenges faced, and have the potential to deliver benefits across the regulatory and broader financial services landscape. we currently have eight initiatives under the accelerator, looking at important topics such as digital platforms, cryptoassets, financial markets innovation, open banking, non - traditional data and big tech in fintech. what makes this unique is that regulators are journeying along to co - create an understanding of the major issues facing fintechs, including co - developing policy stances. the fintech phenomenon is here to stay,

scientists, programmers, software developers and design thinkers. the challenge, of course, is not specific to fintech firms ; it also affects us as regulators. however, based on our discussions with fintech firms, the race for acquiring such skills sets is pronounced for fintechs, especially if they are still in their 7 information and communication technology 8 johannesburg centre for software engineering ( jcse ) ( wits university ) and the institute of information technology professionals south africa ( iitpsa ), 2019, south african ict skills survey page 6 of 9 early phases of development and / or maturity. it is less so for big - tech firms with wellestablished markets. access to refined financial services data finally, we turn to the importance of data, specifically refined and granular data. it has become cliche to say that ‘ data is the new oil of the economy ’. as the digital economy continues to be embedded through the use of mobile devices, the use of social media platforms, and generally increasing activities over the internet and online commercial platforms, we will increasingly create and leave behind ‘ digital bread crumbs ’ of unprecedented volumes. never before have we seen such volumes of data. and for the first time in human history, we also now have evolving tools and techniques at our disposal through cloud - computing, ai and machine - learning methods to handle such volumes of data. however, in this new digital economy, the availability of, and access to, data related to, for example, transactional payments or specific customer behaviour, has become a key competitive driver. access to both structured and especially unstructured data can provide significant competitive advantages to those who own it. fintechs in particular are exploring the use of big data to produce new services such as product comparisons and tailored solutions based on consumer - specific data. while big data presents new opportunities, the scope of available data, and how to govern access to that data, poses new challenges for the financial services industry and regulatory authorities around the world. as a result of the above, access to refined data is a key issue that regulatory authorities have to deal with. examples of addressing it through open banking and open finance efforts are increasing in many jurisdictions. for south africa, it is important to land on the policy imperatives for such efforts. there are a number of open questions for authorities. these include ( but are not limited to ) : should incumbents be required to share their data with fintechs? page 7 of 9 should the standards for sharing