31.05.2018  “Banks’ traditional funding sources: opportunities for capital markets” Keynote address at 50th ICMA Annual Conference Javier Alonso Deputy Governor  Good afternoon. I would like to thank ICMA for its kind invitation to take part in this special day: ICMA’s 50th Annual General Meeting and Conference. It is a pleasure to be here and to speak to such a large audience of professionals from such varied backgrounds, representing, among others, issuers, intermediaries, investors, capital market infrastructure providers, regulators and supervisors. Capital markets being at the heart of this event, and banks being at the heart of my day to day work, what I would like to do in this speech is to highlight some developments related to banks’ funding sources that I think may offer new opportunities for capital markets. I would also like to briefly touch upon Brexit, an event that is generating great uncertainty and for which careful preparation is required. All of it, from my perspective as Deputy Governor of the Banco de España and as member of the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, which explains why my speech will be focused on developments in the European Union. New opportunities Let me start with what appear to me to be promising developments for reactivation of the markets. Firstly, the renewed political commitment reached at the Euro Summit on 15 December 2017 to press ahead with improvements to euro area governance provides new opportunities to accelerate progress in areas where developments so far have been somewhat sluggish.
Fintech, as it is known, seems to be the next big thing. It’s true that, in continental Europe, fintechs still account for just a small share of the markets for banking, payment services and asset management. Still, over the past years, they have received a lot of attention and a lot of funds. Fintechs are on the rise. They have entered the markets, and they are competing with banks – at least in some parts of the value chain. The question is: where will this innovation take us? Is it the end of banking as we know it? Will it create new risks? As I said before, it is hard to guess how innovations will evolve and easy to get it wrong. That said, let us take a very brief look at some potential futures. Scenario one: banks might embrace the digital trend and team up with fintechs. For banks this would be one of the more benign outcomes. And it seems to be happening right now. Scenario two: fintechs might break up the value chain of banking. Banks would end up losing revenue, market share and direct contact with clients. The result might be a more fragmented market where some players operate outside the scope of regulation and supervision. Scenario three: banks might still end up being crowded out. At the same time, however, the fintechs could be swallowed up by big tech companies, such as Google, Amazon and Facebook. The market would become more concentrated, less competitive and less diversified.