during the recent crisis, the bank will, in cooperation with the fsa, continue to strive to ensure the stability of the financial system. closing remarks in closing, i would like to say a few words about the importance of information infrastructure in ensuring financial system stability. in order to analyze the financial system as a whole, it is essential to have information that is accessible to investors and other market participants. on this point, disclosure regarding risks inherent in individual financial institutions and specific financial products is critical. in addition, from a macroprudential perspective the importance of statistics that cover financial markets as a whole needs to be underscored. at the beginning, i pointed out as one of the causes of the recent global financial crisis the widening of maturity mismatches at financial institutions with regard to liquidity and the lack of a habit to check such developments on a macro basis. although, with the crisis having erupted, we now have the benefit of hindsight, the locational banking statistics released quarterly by the bank for international settlements do show a remarkable increase in u. s. dollar maturity mismatches for financial institutions from advanced economies, and particularly european economies, in recent years. 4 moreover, although the experience of past bubbles clearly shows that fluctuations in real estate prices have a great impact on the financial system, in japan, for example, little price information on real estate transactions has been gathered and the statistics in this field are far from satisfactory. although the compilation of such statistics places a burden on those providing the data, such data represents one critical part of the information necessary to ensure the stability of the financial system. while i have pointed out the importance of disclosure information and statistics concerning financial institutions and financial products, it goes without saying that what is ultimately required is a proper analysis based on such information. during the recent crisis, trust in credit rating information declined. regarding credit ratings, various problems have been highlighted. 5 but while these are indeed important issues, it would not be very balanced to criticize only credit ratings. i mentioned that when thinking about macroprudence, two dimensions are important, that is, the cross - sectional dimension and the time dimension, but to properly reflect these two dimensions in the analysis of securities seems like a particularly difficult challenge. however, if this challenge is not addressed, the value of micro analysis also declines. at any rate, it goes without saying that the role played by securities analysts, who are experts in this kind of analysis, is substantial. one major element that

april 16, 2018 bank of japan central banking in the digital age closing remarks at the imf - jfsa - boj conference on fintech masayoshi amamiya deputy governor of the bank of japan introduction i would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the participants. it was a great pleasure for us, the international monetary fund, the financial services agency, and the bank of japan, to hold such a large conference on financial innovation in asia. indeed, this conference symbolizes how the world has changed in this decade. it innovation and changes in finance and economy looking back on 2008, a decade ago, the biggest challenge to the imf and financial authorities all over the world was how to tackle the global financial crisis. smartphones were still in their very early stage. crypto - currencies had not yet appeared. since then the world economic landscape has dramatically changed. the global economy has overcome the crisis and regained its growth momentum. with the rapid innovation of information technologies, the movement described as the " information revolution " or " data revolution " has developed globally, bringing new growth opportunities for financial services and economic activities. asia has been particularly influenced by such it innovation. let me pick up the issue of " financial inclusion " for example. this was a global social issue already as early as 2008. since then the number of smartphones has skyrocketed, and many people, including those in emerging economies in asia, have become able to access financial services via smartphones. it innovation has promoted " financial inclusion " in a way which was not expected a decade ago. such wider access to financial services is also stimulating various new economic activities. smartphones also produce a gigantic amount of data as people use smartphones everywhere in their daily lives. such " big data " are becoming more and more important as intangible assets in a broad range of economic activities. global " data - giant " companies, which have grown rapidly in recent years, often provide various services including financial ones free of charge, while utilizing big data gathered through these services for multiple purposes. moreover, it innovation has created new business models, such as " the sharing economy. " new policy challenges it innovation also raises various new challenges to financial authorities, including central banks. among them, let me point out four issues. ( i ) impacts on financial markets first, high - frequency trading, or hft, utilizing algorithms and ai has recently increased its role in various financial markets. financial authorities need to carefully examine