of work in this area. today i will explore three points with you that frame our thinking on the issues. first, fintech has the potential to transform the financial system across a broad range of services. and that is a good thing, because there is a lot of inefficiency that can be shed. second, although some of the technology may be revolutionary, its overall effect on the financial system is likely to be evolutionary. financial institutions that adapt will survive, and see, for example, d. tapscott and a. tapscott, blockchain revolution : how the technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world ( new york : portfolio, 2016 ) ; mark walport, distributed ledger technology : beyond block chain ( london : government office for science, 2016 ). omers ventures, “ canadian next - gen financial technologies & services, ” september 2015. this is about five times the $ 4 billion that was invested two years earlier. see r. ghose et al., “ digital disruption – how fintech is forcing banking to a tipping point, ” citigroup inc., march 2016. bis central bankers ’ speeches new service providers will become part of the financial ecosystem. in some areas, this evolution is happening fast, while in others, the most transformative technologies still have developmental hurdles to clear. finally, now is the time for financial institutions, new entrants and policy - makers to work together. that is the best way to create the right environment for modernizing the financial sector and sensibly managing the risks that arise. this applies to many areas. for the bank, the focus is on preserving financial stability and maintaining the safe and sound operation of core payment systems in canada. change is in the air my first point is that change is definitely in the air. in many cases, financial innovations are simply interesting twists on existing technologies and business models. they promise to lower costs, improve services and broaden access. peer - to - peer lending is one example. as we have already seen with the taxi and hotel industries, peer - to - peer services challenge traditional intermediaries. this new competition could fundamentally change the relationship that traditional financial institutions have with their customers. from a regulatory perspective, the main issues relate to consumer protection, market integrity and rules that guard against money laundering and terrorism financing. authorities are working to close significant gaps in these areas and are monitoring implications for financial stability. then we have financial services enabled

##ominated in us dollar as well as in hong kong dollar to provide more investor choice. out of the total deposit base of over hk $ 4. 3 trillion in our banking sector, about one - third are in us dollars. we believe there should be good demand for these two - year notes, especially given the recent pause in interest rate hike by the us federal reserve. to sum up, the retail bonds offered today will provide the general public with an additional, relatively safe investment vehicle. i trust that our product innovation will also promote the development of the bond market in hong kong. this creates a win - win situation for the investors, the placing banks and the corporation. i like to thank the banking community for supporting our bond issuance. in particular, hsbc and bank of china ( hong kong ) are underwriting a portion of the bond issue as well as placing the notes. my appreciation also goes to the other placing banks, namely, bank of america ( asia ), bank of communications, bank of east asia, chiyu bank, citic ka wah bank, dah sing bank, dbs bank ( hong kong ), hang seng bank, icbc ( asia ), liu chong hing bank, nanyang commercial bank, shanghai commercial bank, standard chartered bank ( hong kong ), wing hang bank and wing lung bank. with your support, i am sure we will have another successful retail bond issue that is welcome by the investors. thank you.