such as e - commerce and elearning, which are currently hampered by constrained access to payment services. in this manner, fintech is expected to contribute to economic development. however, in developed countries where basic financial services are already widespread, it would not be easy to quantitatively assess the impacts of fintech on the economy through existing economic statistics. for instance, if banks, while reducing the cost of maintaining their bricks & mortar branches, improve services through free apps downloaded to each customer ’ s smartphone, it would not be very certain how existing economic statistics reflect the economic impacts ( i. e., the decrease in fixed investments and the improvement of free apps ). also, if fintech stimulates the development of sharing - economy businesses, how to reflect the consequent increases in utilization rates of various idle assets, such as unused rooms in individual houses and parked cars in front yards, in economic statistics will be another interesting issue. these examples give rise to the challenging issue of how economic statistics can grasp the increases in economic welfare caused by innovations in information technology. moreover, if fintech stimulates economic transactions through the internet and smartphones as well as business applications of dlt, it might become increasingly difficult to identify the physical “ location ” where transactions take place and the relevant ledgers are kept. this could lead to a variety of issues including those related to regulation and taxation. iv. central banking and fintech as stated in the theme of today ’ s conference, fintech encourages us to think about the future of money and central banking. " information ” and “ trust " most central banks were born after the establishment of modern nation - states and have been serving as the single issuer of sovereign currency as their liabilities. these historical facts illustrate that central banks inherently have characteristics as “ centralized bookkeepers. ” in view of such “ centralized ” attributes of central banks, people are interested in the issue of how the new “ decentralization - oriented ” technologies such as blockchain and dlt will influence the future of currency and central banking. such interest is linked to the specific question of : what happens if virtual currencies such as bitcoin reach a significant circulation? indeed, if virtual currencies such as bitcoin are to be widely used to purchase goods and services directly, there should of course be influences on monetary policy. at present, however, the consensus view in various international forums is that virtual currencies are unlikely to overwhelm sovereign cu

resort ( lolr ) ” mainly for banks in order to prevent financial crises. on the contrary, non - bank fintech companies do not take deposits. some of them focus solely on payment services, while others provide fund intermediation services such as p2p lending without using their own balance sheets. moreover, many fintech companies are trying to realize “ economies of scope ” through combining financial services with other activities related to ecommerce, sharing - economy businesses and big data analytics in order to deliver new addedvalue. " globalizing ” financial services moreover, fintech has the potential to “ globalize ” basic financial services through enhancing “ financial inclusion. ” not only in advanced economies but also in developing and emerging economies where financial services are not yet widespread, cellphones and smartphones are now spreading rapidly, and fintech has opened up the possibility of providing basic financial services through these new instruments. " personalizing ” financial services furthermore, fintech may facilitate “ personalized ” financial services. cellphones and 2 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches smartphones have characteristics of “ personalized ” tools, and fintech now makes it possible to analyze individual customers by utilizing big data. by combining such new tools with analytics methodology, fintech may make it easier for the industry to provide more customized services. also, new technologies of fintech can be used to explore the frontiers of financial services through “ dynamic ” customization. for example, buying insurance policy can impair the policyholders ’ incentives to be sufficiently cautious, and such “ moral hazard ” is an inherent problem of insurance. in this regards, blockchain technology is expected to enable “ smart contracts ” for various purposes, such as continuously adjusting automobile insurance fees in accordance with driving behavior of each policyholder. as this case illustrates, smart contracts might have the potential to overcome “ moral hazard ” by leveraging new information technology. " virtualizing ” financial services in accordance with the development of information technology, hard infrastructure such as brick & mortar branches and atm machines may not be prerequisites for providing financial services. in this regard, i have found similar characteristics between such changes in business models and the recent “ pokemon go ” boom. game companies used to focus on popularizing the necessary hardware such as ds, x - box and playstation before releasing game software. in contrast, “ pokemon go ” suddenly became popular worldwide because people can start playing it simply by downloading the app to their own smartphones. it is technically possible