adoption process. 14. the third action we are taking is to encourage new regtech solutions. it ’ s one thing to help banks become willing and ready to embrace regtech. but they will only do this if there are fit - for - purpose regtech solutions to enhance the way that they manage their businesses. this requires commitment from regtech companies and financial institutions, and also support from the regulators and government. 15. one way to encourage new solutions and innovation is through offering incentives and organising competitions to resolve real - life pain points. in march this year the hkma launched the global regtech challenge. this competition motivated 86 global and local regtech firms to come up with possible regtech solutions for four specific pain points faced by banks in hong kong in the areas of governance, risk and compliance ; conduct and customer protection ; customer data privacy ; and also stress testing. later today we will announce the winners from this challenge, and the audience will hear more about how the innovative solutions can benefit banks in hong kong. 16. working alongside us is the financial services and the treasury bureau. this january, the bureau launched a fintech proof - of - concept subsidy scheme. this scheme provides financial incentives to banks to transform their processes through the use of innovative regtech solutions. regtech firms will also benefit as they will have more opportunities to showcase and validate their solutions and gain experience in the hong kong market. 17. in addition to offering incentives and opportunities for developing innovative use cases, i would also like to highlight several key infrastructure developments that will make launching regtech solutions easier. 18. one example of these is that the hkma is developing the cdi, the commercial data interchange, that will allow smes to grant financial institutions access to their data at different commercial establishments, of course with their consent. these will include ecommerce platforms and utilities companies. with more alternative data available to financial institutions, smes will stand a better chance of obtaining bank financing and also other customised services that will be made possible by the use of advanced data analytics. 19. i should also mention the hkma ’ s collaboration with the government on the “ iam smart ” platform, which is a one - stop personalised digital services platform available free of charge for everyone in hong kong. financial institutions can now leverage iam smart to provide 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches customers with regtech services such as remote onboarding and log - in authentication. the hkma is now exploring a corporate

china ’ s wealthiest and economically most advanced cities along the pearl river delta into a metropolitan cluster. it covers a population of nearly 70 million and generates gdp of about us $ 1. 5 trillion, providing a unique stage for financial institutions to launch and expand their business. besides, the depth of hong kong ’ s financial markets could help enterprises in the gba to access global capital. at the initial phase, we are studying ways to facilitate capital flows within the gba at the individual level, such as cross - border use of mobile payment and mutual access of wealth management products by residents in hong kong and in the mainland part of the gba. 10. apart from being a major platform for capturing china opportunities, the hkma is actively moving towards the new era of smart banking. we launched the faster payment system ( fps ) last september – a round - the - clock instant payment platform that achieves full connectivity between banks and stored value facilities. in just over three months ’ time, we have got more than two million registrations for fps. another important development is the promotion of virtual banking. we have received about 30 applications for our virtual banking licences and we hope to begin granting the first batch of licences within this quarter. in a short span of a few years, we have gone through a very high speed journey into fintech, and i am sure that there is a lot that we can share and discuss in the later panel on new finances. 11. another exciting development is green finance. the french government issued the first sovereign green bonds in 2017, which set an important market benchmark. hong kong is also actively promoting its green finance platform. in fact, in the first three quarters in 2018, 28 green bonds were issued in hong kong, with an aggregate size of over us $ 8 billion. the hksar government is launching a hk $ 100 billion government green bond programme and the first green bond will be issued later this year. with france being a forerunner in green finance and the third largest global issuer of green bonds, we look forward to sharing experiences and collaborating with paris in this area. 12. this is a quick overview of the recent developments in hong kong and the new opportunities ahead. i am sure the industry experts here today would have a lot more to share on these topics in the panel sessions, and i hope you will have a very fruitful discussion. 13. thank you. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches