the outstanding balance of rmb loans reached 17. 36 trillion yuan, accounting for 90 percent of total outstanding loans of financial institutions, with monthly inquiry averaging at 1. 44 million times. 340 million individuals are registered in the individual credit registration system ; among whom, 35 million individuals have credit records, with 2. 2 trillion yuan of outstanding balance of loans, accounting for 97. 5 percent of the outstanding balance of total consumer loans and daily inquiry averaging at 110 thousand times. these two systems have played a crucial role in preventing credit risks. in sum, the credit registration system will help promote the establishment of a good social credit environment. of course, many tasks remain to be done in this regard, including improving the database, developing both hardware and software, improving relevant laws and deep processing of the information. for example, some problems are caused by the absence of defined laws or regulations on credit registration, such as, what kind of information can be used by the third party? what information cannot be provided due to privacy concern? whether different information including bank account, payment history, tax payment, mortgage, fake goods production records and black points in the customs can be gathered in a package? in addition, information processing is very complicate due to different demands. if both the central bank and commercial banks cannot meet the needs of information, processing by the third party will require legal approval to be conducted. currently, credit registration system has been functioning well ; both the industrial and financial sectors have paid high attention to it and acknowledged its important role in china ’ s economic and industrial development. third is an inter - bank bankcard information exchange system. bankcards are mainly used by individual consumers, but many enterprises and government agencies also use them in their daily activities. the bankcard market is a competitive one with different brands issued by different companies. without cross - bank acceptance, a pos machine placed in a shop could only process a particular bankcard, so the payment efficiency will be seriously reduced, and bankcard users will also feel inconveniency in using the cards. accordingly, an inter - bank bankcard information exchange system must be established to realize cross - bank acceptance. under the pbc ’ s coordination, the china unionpay was established by commercial banks to be responsible for the bankcard information exchange among commercial banks. successful cross - bank transactions done through the china unionpay in 2005 totaled 2. 209 billion, involving a value of 108 million yuan. at present, the unionpa

% to gross domestic product ( gdp ). digitisation, for example, has reshaped financial services in countries such as china, estonia and singapore. less than a decade ago, the chinese e - commerce retail transaction value accounted for less than 1 % of the global value. this figure has risen to nearly 40 % today and, in 2016, mobile payments for goods and services in china totalled us $ 790 billion – 11 times more than in the united states. research by the imf shows that a 1 percentage point growth in the digitisation of china ’ s economy is associated with a 0. 3 percentage point growth in its gdp. estonia is a small country, with minimal natural resources, but it is leading the charge in embracing digital enablers across various sectors. an astounding 99 % of estonian companies are established online, reducing the time it takes to establish a business from 5 days to 18 minutes. in estonia, 97 % of healthcare patients have country - wide accessible digital records, with 99 % of all prescriptions issued digitally. at least 2 % of estonia ’ s gdp is saved due to the collective use of digital signatures. in singapore, citizens have the ability to store their basic identification such as their unique identification number, name, gender, age etc. electronically on a one - stop data repository known as myinfo. this enables faster completion of online information requirements such as e - government or banking services. the examples from china, estonia and singapore demonstrate the potential of technological innovation and fintech. if south africa had to adopt a similar technology, it could be used to administer social grants and could potentially result in significant page 7 of 9 cost savings. a further application could see the simplification and streamlining of compliance with the fic act. as the sarb, we have kept a close eye on fintech developments as we appreciate the developmental potential they hold. there is, for example, sufficient evidence to suggest that the pursuance of common infrastructure such as digital identity platforms, or basic citizen demographics being housed digitally ( such as myinfo in singapore ), can promote progress towards electronic transactions and financial inclusion. in india, their unified payments interface allows one to make payments simply by knowing a person ’ s unique yet simple proxy address. 5 all these capabilities have demonstrated that digital authentication platforms form the foundation for other financial services. in moving towards a digital economy, identifying new threats, including cyberspace threats, becomes increasingly important. this is why two -