While we might have been somewhat surprised by the number of responses that we received, we were not surprised by the hard work that was evident in the letters. On this note, I would like to offer the Committee’s appreciation to the banks, banking associations, including the members of the IIF, and public agencies in Asia and elsewhere that devoted considerable time and resources to the consultations. If you’ve been following our work since the first consultative paper was released in 1999, you know that the proposals have evolved and improved considerably thanks to the honest responses and letters that you and others shared with us. At the Committee’s meeting last month, all members acknowledged our responsibility to consider carefully all comments. At the same time, we recognised the need to resolve the open issues and release the New Accord as soon as possible so that banks can continue to prepare for the new rules. In a statement to the press after our meeting, the members of the Committee noted that we expect to take account of the remaining issues and complete the text of the New Accord in the coming months and not later than mid-year 2004. Let me briefly mention some of the issues present in the comment letters. Complexity and the balance with risk sensitivity and comparability Certainly a key issue that we are addressing is balancing the complexity of the agreement with the need to be sensitive to risk and to offer different kinds of banks comparable approaches.
First, Regtech benefits banks: In today’s sessions, banking leaders have told us how Regtech is important to their institutions. It enables banks to achieve higher quality risk management and compliance outcomes. It reduces costs. It frees up staff from repetitive manual tasks for more value-adding work. The use of Cloud-based Regtech technology, for example, gives banks the flexibility to adapt to changes in regulation and risk management, while maintaining superb quality in risk management and compliance activities. 6. Secondly, Regtech benefits customers: In our “Path Forward” panel, Mr Deniz Güven from Mox Bank spoke of how Regtech had significantly speeded up the bank’s end-to-end account opening process. Mr Victor Lam also cited how iAM Smart, a personalised digital services platform in Hong Kong, can support Regtech use cases such as remote onboarding. That was echoed by Mr Tat Lee of WeLab Bank and Mr Werner Schlossmacher of Credit Suisse in the “Pulse of Regtech” session. They talked about how banks can leverage alternative datasets to improve the loan application process and enhance the evaluation of product suitability. We also heard how they have designed solutions that put customer experience at the centre – by respecting customer needs, eliminating duplication, offering the most suitable products and, most importantly, keeping customers protected. The use cases discussed in those sessions showed that Regtech offers exciting opportunities that go beyond a compliance tick-box exercise and greatly improve customer experience and satisfaction. 7.