data producer, the bank of italy has always strived to make its statistics available to the widest possible audience. we already share some data with researchers and other institutions, while protecting confidentiality. we have also started to design a research data centre that will provide a safe haven for processing different kinds of microdata. the number of possible applications of big data for central banks is huge, but some are critical. the financial services sector handles sensitive information about individuals and firms. more data available in digital format makes life easier for analysts but increases exposure to security breaches. as more services go online, data ubiquity, and hence data security, are proving to be a major challenge for both private companies and central banks. financial operators are able to gather massive amounts of data about customers and visitors, which are then analysed to generate insights into buying behaviour. some of this data is personal, and deserves to be protected against inappropriate use. that is a goal that the whole of society must pursue. another important aspect of these innovative technologies is financial stability. new entries have arrived in the landscape of financial services ; fintech is a portmanteau word meaning any application of digital technologies to finance. under this label we can include both giants of the digital world wanting to enter the financial market and tiny start - ups whose ambition is to erode the market power of the incumbents. all this is beneficial to competition and productivity in the financial industry, provided that the new entrants are properly supervised. technology can help to innovate financial products and services currently provided by the traditional industry to the benefit of consumers. however, given all the well - known interconnections between operators in the market, the repercussions of technological innovation on the system ’ s stability are not clear. public institutions like central banks and other financial supervisory authorities should examine the matter carefully. the bank of italy has created an internal multidisciplinary team on big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. the team includes economists, statisticians and computer scientists from different departments, working in close cooperation with the information technology department. ivass, the insurance supervisory authority working under the umbrella of the bank of italy, has opened a regulatory sandbox for some aspects of fintech / insurtech. to conclude, i am confident this conference will be an important occasion to review the most recent findings on big data econometrics and its application to national institutions, in particular central banks, and

and exchange traded segments of the currency futures market. it is generally understood that exchange traded currency futures, rather than being used by the real sector are mostly being driven by speculative interests. currently, the liquidity in exchange traded market is confined to very short - term. if such products are to be positioned as a credible hedging products then the liquidity has to extend beyond short - term. these issues need to be addressed going forward for development of a deep and liquid currency derivatives market for hedging currency risks. use of options while there is increasing interest amongst end - users in using currency options, not many banks in india have scaled up their expertise in this area and the option activity remains confined to just a few banks. this prevents development of an active options market. it is necessary that banks enhance the necessary skill - sets in this product which has been catching the attention of the end - users. while this will give a fillip to market development, the end - users ’ hedging needs will also be met in a more competitive environment. liberalization of net open position limits ( nopl ) of banks another important area is the net open position limits ( nopl ) of banks. large open forex positions have systemic risk implications and need to be monitored closely. however, relaxation in these limits is essential to deepen the currency market as excessive restriction on speculation hinders the development of the market. thus, a fine balance has to be maintained between the need to minimize risk and deepen the forex market in india. data collected by rbi reveals that, at least in the last few months, banks have healthy bidirectional views on rupee ( in contrast to general unidirectional bias ), which have helped promote healthy markets. polling for financial benchmarks rbi has already chalked out a programme to move over to trade - based financial benchmarks from a polling - based system in a gradual and non - disruptive manner. in the last few months, stung by the regulatory actions abroad, many banks have shown a great amount of reluctance to participate in the polling process in india. it needs to be recognized and borne in mind that that the move from a polling based system to trade - based system is a carefully calibrated process and cannot be accelerated at the cost of bringing the system to disruption. bis central bankers ’ speeches it is, therefore, necessary, in the interests of market integrity, for the active players to continue to participate in the polling process till