However, with Italy the epicentre of European trade, you could still run a proper business facilitating transactions only. Later, the House of Medici and its peers took banking as well as bookkeeping to the next level. Around the same time, the famous Knights Templar were also chipping in with innovations in payments and banking. They provided services for long-distance payments, one of them a system akin to international cheques. Europeans involved in the Crusades were faced with a long and dangerous journey to the Holy Land, where carrying valuables was risky. Instead, the Knight Templars offered their clients to deposit their belongings at home against a letter. This - the cheque, basically - could be presented to other Templars upon arrival to ‘withdraw funds’. The Templars also provided loans to various nobles and monarchs. The most heavily in debt was King Philip of France, who was one day denied further borrowing to finance the Hundred Years War against the English. Infuriated, and jealous of the wealth of the order, the king accused the Templars of heresy and ordered their arrest. Ultimately, this led to the latter’s downfall, with many Templars being burnt at the stake. Although we sometimes disagree, we can all appreciate that today’s public-private sector relationship is more stable and civilised. Despite new banking services, the problems with the coin system were not resolved. In 1609, in Amsterdam, a trade centre with many currencies in circulation, the city council decided enough was enough and set up Amsterdamsche Wisselbank.
My congratulations go to the four winners, as well as to the other participants for some brilliant ideas in response to the four problem statements. I am truly impressed by all the solutions, and I hope to see our banking community benefit from similar solutions in the near future. Maybe the HKMA should also explore the use of some of those solutions as well. 15. Apart from the Global Regtech Challenge, the HKMA has launched multiple initiatives to grow Regtech in Hong Kong. Some of those include the Fintech Supervisory Sandbox, the Fintech Career Accelerator Scheme, and a Regtech skills framework that we will be releasing in the coming months. 16. Industry associations also play a key role in promoting Regtech adoption in Hong Kong, because they help foster greater industry collaboration and communication. It was good to hear in our ‘Path Forward’ panel that following the publication of our Regtech white paper in November last year, there has been a higher level of engagement with Regtech-related associations in Hong Kong. We will continue to maintain close dialogue with the industry associations. Working together to achieve our Regtech 2025 vision 17. Looking ahead, we expect the demand for Regtech solutions to continue to grow. The HKMA will provide more guidance to the industry by issuing the Regtech Adoption Practice Guides, developing a Regtech skills framework, and building a Regtech knowledge hub. 18. But we will only achieve our Regtech 2025 vision if the Regtech ecosystem works together towards the same goal.