. bear in mind that psd2 is designed to introduce more competition by requiring banks to share data that they today use to cross - sell financial services. with access to such data, fintech companies could for instance increasingly capture the value formerly retained by banks. i see two broad scenarios. in the first one, banks rise to the challenge, cut costs, internalise new technology, including by purchasing fintech companies, and gain new sources of revenue. this scenario crucially assumes that banks are profitable enough to carry out the necessary technological investments. in the other scenario, banks fail to internalise fintech and run the risk of becoming mere platforms, with all the value being created outside. this could happen in particular if digital giants, who already have access to large amounts of customer data, start targeting parts of the banking value chain, ultimately crowding banks out of large swathe of financial services. firms and households may then benefit from new financial services and products, but the stability of the banking system would be at stake, and regulation would need to be carefully reviewed to close any loopholes. what role can central banks or regulators play in this? we need to stick to a very simple principle : equivalent activities should be regulated in an equivalent way. for instance, if we see non - bank players starting to provide credit, they will need to be regulated in an equivalent way, although not necessarily the same way, giving different deposit - taking restrictions. and since all these activities are cross - border, we need international coordination. the right forum for this discussion is the financial stability board, where chinese authorities are active participants. 7 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches

make sure that we fully understand the long - term consequences for the financial system. today, most of the money used in the economy is created by banks. how would digital money affect the role of banks as financial intermediaries, and would it make the financial system more, or less, stable? these are issues on which much more reflection is required, hence our great caution. how does the ecb ’ s new target instant payment settlement ( tips ) initiative factor into this? this is actually my last point. a lot of the current interest in central bank digital currencies, or private digital currencies, stems from the fact that people expect them to be faster and cheaper than existing means of payment. these expectations can be easily met by upgrading existing payment systems. that ’ s true for domestic payments, and it is exactly what we ’ re doing in europe with tips, an infrastructure allowing for 24 / 7, 365 - day instant payments. tips will go live in november 2018. it ’ s also true for cross - border payments. but here we are less advanced. one reason why bitcoin is popular is because it allows for cross - border payments that are cheaper and faster than with existing infrastructures. the international community has a duty to get together and act to improve the speed and cost of cross - border payments, to avoid being taken over by technologies such as bitcoin, which entail risks for their users, not to mention possible fraud and crime. in china, private sector non - banks are also becoming disruptive players in the payment space. in europe, we have a new legal framework for payments entering into force in january 2018, called the second payment services directive ( psd2 ). under this revised framework, payment service providers ( psps ) can be non - banks and will have access to the bank accounts of their customers, but at the same time they will be regulated, not only in terms of financial stability but also in terms of data use and privacy. opening up the payments market is good for consumers and it will spur innovation, but it should not come at the expense of privacy and security. how do you see technology and tech firms ’ impact on banks and the financial structure? 6 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches in a nutshell, fintech creates opportunities for non - bank actors to become players in the financial services sector. it has the potential to significantly destabilise the banking system or at least to erode its profitability