The Government has launched a variety of technology initiatives. It set up a $ billion dedicated Innovation and Technology Venture Fund. It injected $ billion into the Research Endowment Fund of the Research Grants Council. And it is funding the Hong Kong Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park, which will enable Hong Kong to tap the supply chain capabilities and talent pool across the border. 33. The administration has boosted incentives for the Fintech industry by increasing the tax deduction for R&D expenditure. And government support has also helped seven local universities launch Fintech undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. 34. In particular, I would like to mention that in collaboration with the HKMA, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks will set up a new Fin+Tech platform to organise accelerator programmes and hackathons. There will also be a new Innovation Hub at the governmentfunded InnoCentre, where the HKMA will host its latest proof-of-concept studies. These two initiatives will provide open platforms for different stakeholders to collaborate on Fintech development. Bracing for New Trends 35. I hope I have outlined what all of us in different sectors in Hong Kong have achieved in developing Fintech in Hong Kong, under the joint effort as “Hong Kong Inc.”. I would like to wrap it up with you some thoughts about three macro trends that I believe will influence the future of Fintech. 36. First, financial services will increasingly integrate with social platforms and other lifestyle channels.
Are we headed in the right direction? Have we made any wrong turns – and what have we learned from them? This is a new journey for everyone, and after riding on this super highway for the last few years, I have three reflections that I would like to share with you. Technology adoption is a bumpy road 10. First, we must bear in mind that technology adoption is a bumpy road. It is definitely not a smooth and straight path. To innovate, we have to do things that others have not done before – or have attempted, but failed at. We have to go through processes of trial and error, and make adjustments along the way. We might run into dead ends at times, because some really exciting ideas may simply be unfeasible. We might run into problems even when adopting mature technologies, whether from a programme glitch or a clash with established work processes. 1/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  11. This is certainly our experience. Soon after the launch of the FPS in September last year, we started to see a few fraud cases coming in. These have nothing to do with the security design of the FPS itself – it’s about creative fraudsters exploiting the speed and convenience of the system. They stole money from bank accounts using fake e-wallets opened with stolen identity documents of victims.