michele bullock : financial technology and payments regulation keynote speech by ms michele bullock, assistant governor ( financial system ) of the reserve bank of australia, at the 5th bund summit on fintech, shanghai, 8 july 2018. * * * my thanks to chay fisher, jiamin lim, sean langcake and stephanie bolt who carried out the work on which this speech is based. thank you to the shanghai finance institute for the invitation to speak at this summit. the theme of the summit – new finance, new technology, new trends – really captures the excitement of the payments industry at the moment. but it is also a challenging time for regulators who want to encourage innovation but at the same time ensure that payment systems remain safe for users and that there is a level regulatory playing field. today i am going to talk about some of those challenges and how we are thinking about them at the reserve bank of australia. i will start by briefly setting out the australian regulatory framework for payments before talking about the key forces shaping payments. i will then talk about some of the potential implications for retail payments and for regulators. payments regulation in australia like in china, the primary regulator of the payments system in australia is the central bank – the reserve bank of australia. the reserve bank ’ s payments system policy is determined by the payments system board ( psb ), which is chaired by the governor of the reserve bank and includes a number of external members. the key duties of the psb with respect to the payments system are to ensure that the powers of the bank are exercised in a way that best contribute to controlling risk in the financial system, promoting efficiency of the payments system and promoting competition in the market for payment services consistent with overall stability of the financial system. the reserve bank has strong powers to regulate payments systems and in some cases it does. for example, certain competition and efficiency issues associated with credit card systems could not be addressed by participants so the bank introduced regulation that required changes to certain practices in these schemes. but the bank ’ s preferred approach is to identify areas where competition, efficiency or safety could be enhanced and then encourage industry to address those issues. a good example of this was the development of the new payments platform ( npp ). the npp is an open access infrastructure for fast payments in australia. it went live earlier this year and is gradually ramping up. it allows users of the payments system to send real - time payments with simple addressing 24 / 7. it also allows more complete information to

gertrude tumpel - gugerell : the role of retail finance for financial markets efficiency and stability speech by ms gertrude tumpel - gugerell, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the eleventh conference of the ecb - cfs research network, prague, 20 october 2008. * * * introduction it is for me a real pleasure to speak here in prague at the european central bank and centre of financial studies research network conference. i would like to thank the organizers of the conference for compiling a very interesting and stimulating program. my special thanks go to our host, the czech national bank, for the very good cooperation and for an outstanding local organization of this conference. being here in prague, i was reminded that joseph schumpeter was born not too far away from prague in a small town named trest. it was joseph schumpeter who once said that “ economic progress in capitalist society means turmoil ”. it would be, of course, unfair and undue reference to associate schumpeter ’ s notion of turmoil with the current period we are experiencing in financial markets. in my speech today, i would like to focus on the retail banking sectors ’ contribution to efficiency and stability in financial markets also in light of the ongoing financial market turbulences. i will also stress the importance of retail payment infrastructures, and particularly the issue of harmonisation and integration as it underlies the single european payment area ( sepa ) project as a fundamental basis for the efficiency and stability of the european retail finance market. 1. the role of retail banking for economic development and monetary policy ( i ) retail banking plays a crucial role in fostering economic activity retail banking is the backbone of banking activities. retail sector banks, in particular, have the expertise to provide credit to small and medium - sized enterprises ( or smes ) and to evaluate the associated risks. as smes are the main engines of job creation and economic growth, they are also important drivers of innovation in the economy. therefore, an efficient and stable retail banking business is needed for the financing of sme activities. as these firms do not have access to global capital markets, they are heavily dependent on banks for their funding. this is particularly true for european smes, as the european market for venture capital remains very small compared to the one in the us. the availability of bank credit is, thus, crucial for sustained investment of firms and, therefore, plays an important role for economic development and growth