were among the first to announce our nononsense position on crypto assets, dissociating financial services from activities related to virtual currencies or icos. in terms of the overall risk outlook, the bank of lithuania joined forces with 8 other national public authorities – from law enforcement to data protection – to anticipate and manage fintech risks. institutions will, under their remit, regularly provide us with the relevant aggregated information. however, risk management is only one of the areas where cross - institutional cooperation has taken place. public bodies in lithuania have been active in complementing the efforts of the regulator on a range of issues, resulting in a government - level fintech strategy. together, we have been singing in unison, delivering a consistent message, which has attracted international attention. this is despite the breeze of political headwinds, which i expect to pass without affecting our institutional backbone. — in all of the efforts that i described, lithuania is trying to overcome boundaries of a small domestic market. in fact, we have already established ourselves as a gateway for third country fintechs to enter the european payments and banking markets. however, this cannot mean that our goal is purely the greatest number of market participants. rather, our aim is to enable the growth of the highest quality fintech companies. here i am talking about businesses that are transparent, that follow the supervisory requirements and that deliver excellent financial services for the public. for the society at large, lithuania ’ s fintech ecosystem will bring benefits through other channels as well. expect positive spillovers to multiple sectors, which could help develop activities and innovations that yield high value added for the real economy. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches this somewhat larger picture is also an important reason why we care about financial technologies. — ladies and gentlemen, on this note, let me once again welcome you to this event. we have the perfect blend of public authorities and market practitioners gathered here today. hopefully, this will result in a candid and insightful conversation on the delicate balance between risks and opportunities brought about by fintech. i also expect that the seminar will lay a strong foundation for a fruitful cooperation between the imf and lithuanian institutions in the area of financial technologies. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

vitas vasiliauskas : balancing fintech opportunities and risks welcome speech by mr vitas vasiliauskas, chairman of the board of the bank of lithuania, at the joint bank of lithuania - international monetary fund seminar " balancing fintech opportunities and risks ", rise, vilnius, 10 june 2019. * * * good afternoon, distinguished guests, innovators and leaders in financial technology, policy makers. welcome to the seminar, jointly organised by the imf and the bank of lithuania. over the years, we have successfully cooperated with the fund on a number of issues relevant to lithuania ’ s economy and financial sector. and, when it comes to fintech, we set a good precedent almost three months ago in end - march. back then, our member of the board mr marius jurgilas conducted an internal seminar on lithuania ’ s fintech experience at the imf ’ s offices in washington. today we find ourselves to be discussing financial technologies in vilnius – indeed, an appropriate follow - up. given the importance of the issue, we are deeply honoured to have imf deputy managing director mr tao zhang participating in the event. his presence is truly a recognition of lithuania ’ s achievements in the fintech domain. to help frame today ’ s debate, let me briefly depict lithuania ’ s fintech landscape from the perspective of a regulator. but first, i should perhaps explain why the bank of lithuania has put strategic emphasis on fintech. i will be frank and open : we have some very pragmatic reasons. the most important is the market concentration. the share of the three largest banks, as measured by assets, now exceeds 80 %. we also observe similar levels of concentration in key market segments, for instance, payments. this drives us to encourage new participants. in a truly competitive market, the incumbents can never feel at ease, because there ’ s always someone ready to take your slice of the pie. indeed, the free and dynamic market may be a harsh place. but it is best at providing the consumer with the highest quality services at a fair price. needless to say, for a public authority, promoting the benefit of consumers is one of our key goals. — being an integrated regulator, the bank of lithuania has developed a wide range of instruments to attract new players and stimulate competition. in fact, i find the recent guidance provided by the imf to well reflect our methods. this is particularly the case with the bali fintech agenda