I have been talking a lot about our efforts to promote diversity and innovation through a level playing field. That reflects our supervisory role. Equally important is our role in fintech market development. This market development mandate is the context for our new data strategy. Let me give you some background. Data and the next era 17. Hong Kong businesses and people are embracing technology. They’re ready for the future. With more data and more analytical tools at our disposal, we should ensure that our data infrastructure continues to improve. Let’s consider where we are today. 18. To begin with, valuable and rich data are scattered across different sectors and entities. It’s often hard to access these data – and it’s hard to verify their validity. 19. What is more, information moves between data providers and banks via a whole host of bilateral, one-to-one connections. Those connections lack compatible protocols and standards. That makes data sharing inefficient and difficult to scale. 20. All of this makes it hard for bankers to collect holistic information from customers about their business or financial activities when they want to provide credit or related services. And that creates real impediments to banks’ ability to better serve their customers. 21. Impediments for banks often mean painful consequences for customers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. When banks can’t perform credit assessments based on up-to-date business data, they may instead require collateral such as property before making a loan. This is a longstanding problem with SME financing. 22.
Eddie Yue: What’s next in our fintech journey Keynote speech by Mr Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority at the Hong Kong FinTech Week 2020, Hong Kong, 2 November 2020. * * * Good morning everyone. Welcome to Hong Kong FinTech Week. 1. I’ve always wanted to speak to you from a virtual stage, especially given the nature of this event. 2. This year, thousands of you are joining virtually from around the world. This surely reflects the extraordinary energy in Hong Kong’s fintech sector. 3. The rise of fintech has led some people to ask whether it will replace banks one day. I tend to think about it a bit differently: I’d like to know how technology can make banking better. Technology won’t replace banking; it will make it better. 4. There are three core principles that will always be the bedrock of good banking. These hold true for tech companies coming into finance and for traditional banks embracing technology. I’m talking about good service, customer trust, and efficient capital management. These principles have endured through the eras of the abacus, the ledger, and the first computers. They are timeless. 5. We can compare this to food – one of our favourite subjects in Hong Kong. You can eat in a Michelin-starred restaurant or a dai pai dong. You can buy food in the market and cook it yourself. You can order a take-out and have it delivered. You can eat a thousand different ways.