haruhiko kuroda : information technology and financial services – the central bank's perspective remarks by mr haruhiko kuroda, governor of the bank of japan, at the fintech forum, tokyo, 23 august 2016. * * * introduction it is a great pleasure to welcome all of you to our first meeting of the fintech forum. i. information technology and financial services today's forum focuses on information and financial services. indeed, financial activities make full use of wide - ranging information technologies created throughout human history, and financial industries have almost always developed parallel to advances in various techniques and infrastructure related to information processing. money, which constitutes the basic infrastructure for financial activities, physically symbolizes information pertaining to value in the form of metal or paper by using relevant technologies, thereby enabling the exchange and preservation of value. moreover, money attaches information on “ price, ” which is based on a widely - shared common “ scale, ” to various goods and services. such price information has worked as a critical signal leading to efficient resource allocation in the economy. furthermore, “ ledgers ” and “ double - entry bookkeeping, ” whose developments were accelerated by paper and printing technology, enabled efficient and centralized management of information, including various prices. using double - entry bookkeeping ledgers, firms and individuals became able to share the information necessary for conducting economic activities. financial services have developed with the support of such information infrastructure. financial intermediation, such as bank lending, has made full use of borrowers'information shared through ledgers and corporate accounting. payments and settlements of business transactions as well as financial transactions in modern economies and financial markets have largely been processed through bank deposit transfers and securities transfers based on centralized ledgers and book - entry systems. from the perspective of information processing, payments and settlements relieve economic entities from burdensome information management, such as credit risk management of accounts receivables stemming from past transactions. this allows entities to concentrate their resources in forward - looking economic activities. through financial intermediation, financial resources are allocated to investment in projects with higher productivity. the bundling and integration of refined mechanisms of information processing into financial services have contributed importantly to the development of economic society. ii. recent innovation in information technology and “ fintech ” today, we are observing very rapid innovation in information technology. due to the spread of the internet, smartphones and social networks, the amount of data and information disseminated through various networks has expanded exponentially.

fintech has a wide influence on payments, settlements and financial services, and could stimulate various economic activities, including e - commerce and “ sharing economy ” businesses. also, fintech can encourage mutual feedback between financial activities and high - end technologies, including cryptographic techniques. moreover, financial literacy and education are needed to promote the sound development of fintech. the bank of japan is ready to lead research and analysis on fintech, in view of the possibility that the bank itself may apply fintech technologies to its operations in the future. given the far - reaching implications of fintech, the bank established its “ fintech center ” on april 1 in the payment and settlement systems department. the bank has also built up a “ fintech network ” comprised of a wide range of staff drawn from the relevant departments of the bank. this fintech network, for which the fintech center functions as the secretariat, promotes the sharing of information and expertise related to fintech in a cross - sectoral manner within the bank. the bank, as the central bank of japan, is ready to make its best efforts to support the sound development of fintech in order to enhance the welfare of financial service users as well as economic activities. in today's forum, we welcome a rich variety of participants. when we look back at history, we see that communication and positive feedbacks among various entities from different cultures, such as cross - border trading between europe and the orient during the renaissance, led to the development of banking as well as double - entry bookkeeping. in a similar vein, in order to promote the development of the new financial services that we have come to call fintech, it is extremely important to realize positive and interactive communication among a broad spectrum of entities that go beyond the traditional financial industry to include it enterprises, retailers, start - ups and others. i sincerely hope that today's forum will contribute to all the participants in terms of sharing new insights and perspectives. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches