ravi menon : singapore's fintech journey - where we are, what is next speech by mr ravi menon, managing director of the monetary authority of singapore, at the singapore fintech festival - fintech conference, singapore, 16 november 2016. * * * ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the inaugural singapore fintech festival. we have more than 11, 000 participants from more than 50 countries, attending one or more of the many events lined up over these five days. technologies transforming finance financial technology or fintech is transforming financial services, in a way not seen before. we have unprecedented mobility. the smartphone is becoming our bank. people can consume financial services on the go. we have unprecedented connectivity. the internet has compressed time and space. interaction is real - time and unconstrained by physical boundaries. we have unprecedented computing power. the devices in our hands or on our wrists are literally pokemons – pocket - sized monsters that pack more data and more processing power than super computers just a couple of decades ago. digital payments are becoming more widespread, propelled by advances in near - field communications, identity authentication, digital ids, and biometrics. blockchains or distributed ledgers are being tested for a wide variety of financial operations, to make them faster, more robust, more efficient : to settle interbank payments ; to verify and reconcile trade finance invoices ; to execute, enforce, and verify the performance of contracts ; to keep an audit trail and deter money laundering. perhaps the biggest potential is in what is called big data. we are beginning to aggregate and analyse large data sets to : gain richer insights into customer behaviour and needs ; detect fraud or anomalies in financial transactions ; sharpen surveillance of market trends and emerging risks. big data is in turn being driven by advances in : sensor networks and natural language processing to gather information from a wide universe of sources ; cloud technologies to store and retrieve large volumes of information at low cost and ondemand ; learning machines and smart algorithms that can continuously adapt and improve on their decision making with every iteration. 1 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches smart financial centre vision be it countries, businesses, or people – those who are alert to technology trends, understand their implications, and harness their potential will gain a competitive edge. to be sure, many of these technologies are disruptive to existing jobs and existing business models. but if we do not disrupt ourselves – in a manner we choose – somebody else will

and securities commission ( cnbv ), the insurance and surety national commission ( cnsf ), the national commission for retirement savings ( consar ), and the bank savings protection institute ( ipab ). the council complies with, or is oriented toward complying with, the four principles i mentioned that are essential for these kinds of arrangements to work : the cesf has a clear mandate for performing its duties in this area, specified in the statutes of each of the institutions that comprise it and in its own statutes ; the cesf works in a transparent way and with complete respect for the responsibilities and, if applicable, autonomy of the institutions involved ; and the cesf operates on the basis of a mechanism of accountability, based mainly on periodic reports to the general public. finally, the composition of the council has served as a basis for underpinning the availability of information and the analytical foundation for evaluating the risks that could affect the financial system as a whole, as well as the instruments needed for facing them, although much remains to be done in this respect. given the importance of this entity, the executive has requested congress to approve its incorporation into law. 4. conclusion one of the main lessons from the global economic crisis is that financial stability requires a new policy approach in which two features are particularly noteworthy : 1. macroprudential policy is likely to adopt a more important role than before ; and 2. the achievement of financial stability requires simultaneous and coordinated efforts at the macroeconomic, microprudential and macroprudential levels. although macroprudential policy is not a new concept, the issue at this stage is radically different from the experience of previous years, both in reach and relevance. in particular, the focus today is on the potential for a generalized use of these instruments at a global level and for a greater responsibility in the achievement of financial stability. the problem is that despite an explosion of research in this area, we still find ourselves with many gaps from theoretical and empirical standpoints. a number of measures need to be implemented at the domestic and international levels if these challenges are to be overcome. this comprises research, more and better statistics, building the appropriate analytical capacity, and adjusting national institutional frameworks as needed, among other measures. furthermore, in view of the implications of financial globalization for contagion and regulatory arbitrage, cooperation from the international community is of the essence. it is also important to emphasize that expectations on the role of macroprudential