New concepts in various facial or voice recognition techniques could be demonstrated by the developers in the Fintech Innovation Hub to gather feedback from potential users and to receive regulatory guidance from supervisors at an early stage. This should help shorten the time-to-market of useful industry-wide solutions. Second, I envisage that the Fintech Innovation Hub will also benefit the HKMA. In this place, we could explore with innovators options and possibilities of using new technologies, such as Big Data Analytics and other “regtech” initiatives, to achieve our objectives  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  more effectively without creating undue risks or burden for our internal systems or databases. Fintech Supervisory Sandbox 16. Meanwhile, there is also a quite commonly-held perception that the development of Fintech in the financial services sector in Hong Kong has been slow. I do not subscribe to this view, at least insofar as the banking sector is concerned. In the past few months, banks and stored value facility operators have already launched new payment facilities built on smart phones and Near Field Communication technology. These facilities have the potential of altering fundamentally the way consumers make payments. Many banks have also reported to the HKMA their intention to roll out very soon new technology with a view to providing more secure and efficient services to customers. I mentioned earlier biometrics authentication technology involving voiceprints and fingerprints. This is indeed something that many banks are planning to roll out.
In this regard, I am pleased to say that Hong Kong has done reasonably well so far. Within a few years, Hong Kong has become the global hub for offshore RMB businesses, with the largest RMB liquidity pool and being the largest offshore RMB bond issuance and asset management centre in the world. As for the Belt and Road Strategy, Hong Kong as an IFC is uniquely well positioned to play a crucial role. However, since it is a new strategy aiming to cover markets that are less familiar to most of us, there will unlikely be too many “low hanging” fruits. Putting it bluntly, Hong Kong must work doubly hard to get into the game and stay ahead of the others. In this connection, the launch of the Infrastructure Financing Facilitation Office (IFFO) by the HKMA in early July is a concrete step to help Hong Kong capture the business opportunities that may lie ahead. This is only the beginning of a challenging process to build Hong Kong as the preferred platform for implementing the Belt and Road Strategy. Please rest assured that the HKMA stands ready to collaborate with the industry and the practitioners on this important mission. The first panel of today’s Summit will discuss Hong Kong’s value proposition in the Belt and Road Strategy, including the facilitating role to be played by IFFO. Technological advancement and financial services 10.