and platforms. they can choose digital or physical, niche or universal. 9. not surprisingly, competition is bringing down costs and improving customer experience. for example, traditional banks have been phasing out fees for maintaining low account balances. many are proactively improving their digital platforms to improve the user experience. 10. we owe this progress to the innovators, entrepreneurs, and bankers in today ’ s audience. it has been driven by your hard work and determination. 11. as a regulator, we help to facilitate this progress. we ensure a level playing field for all types of financial institutions. and we uphold the integrity of the banking system. 12. 160 - plus incumbent banks and new virtual banks — including banks built by tech giants — operate in our ecosystem. they may have different fintech strategies. they may try and grow their digital banking businesses in different ways. but it ’ s precisely this diversity that 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches makes the hong kong banking market so dynamic and well - positioned to drive innovation. this diversity is crucial to our vision of shaping hong kong into a global fintech hub. 13. so hong kong has embraced a new era for smart banking. but what will thenext era look like? how will we bring our vision to life? i think we ’ re all here today with those questions in mind. 14. at the hkma, we know data will be vital to the future of banking. data analytics is pivotal in customer authentication, credit assessment, and compliance monitoring. indeed, data is key to almost every banking function. it is perhaps the most powerful tool for delivering the timeless banking principles i mentioned. as we head into the next era, data will enable better service, greater trust, and more efficient capital management. 15. going back to my dining analogy, you could say data is banking ’ s “ secret sauce ”. it makes every meal better — no matter how you serve it. and that is why the hkma is adopting a data - centric strategy to support the future of banking in hong kong. 16. i have been talking a lot about our efforts to promote diversity and innovation through a level playing field. that reflects our supervisory role. equally important is our role in fintech market development. this market development mandate is the context for our new data strategy. let me give you some background. data and the next era 17. hong kong businesses and people are embracing technology. they ’ re ready for the future

measurement of output and price. as member of the technical advisory committee of national accounts statistics ( nas ), statistics on prices and cost of living ( spcl ), revision of wpi and cpi series, etc., rbi has been playing a critical role. let me highlight a few recent initiatives. the procedure of converting current price estimate into constant price followed earlier, especially for estimating the output of financial sector, resulted in some kind of anomalies. in some cases, while estimate at current price was negative, constant price estimate was positive and increasing. however, in the last gdp revision ( 1999 - 00 series ), this problem was corrected after a series academic discussion with cso. similarly, treatment of some of the financial intermediaries like mutual funds was not defined clearly in sna 1993. and treating mutual funds similar to banks was conceptually not correct. recently, cso set up a committee in rbi to look into this matter and the recommendations of the committee has been accepted by tac of nas. besides, rbi is also working in close collaboration with cso for implementing the ensuing changes of sna revision due this year. let me cite an example of rbi ’ s recent involvement in price measurement issues. the need for integration cpis is nothing new. the national statistical commission ( 2001 ) recommended, inter alia, that the current cpis do not provide changes in the prices for the entire rural and urban population since they are designed to measure the changes in the prices of goods and services consumed by specific segments of the population and hence there is a need to compile the cpi separately for the entire rural and urban population. in this context, a sub - group set - up in rbi, recommended the compilation of separate cpis for whole rural and urban population and provided a roadmap for compilation. i happy to note that tac on spcl has finally accepted this and shortly we shall have cpi ( u ) and cpi ( r ). needless to mention that these price indices will be very useful for monetary policy purposes. application of statistical methods in rbi : need for further work before i conclude, let me outline a few areas of work in rbi where statisticians can contribute significantly. first, as monetary policy formulation largely depends on the forward - looking behaviour of the economy, the use of forecasting techniques automatically comes in the forefront. while traditional time series techniques are useful, we need to build up expertise on forecasting using calibrated models. such models