Masayoshi Amamiya: Central banking in the digital age

Concluding remarks by Mr Masayoshi Amamiya, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan, at the IMF-JFSA-BOJ Conference on FinTech, Tokyo, 16 April 2018.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the participants. It was a great pleasure for us, the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Services Agency, and the Bank of Japan, to hold such a large conference on financial innovation in Asia. Indeed, this conference symbolizes how the world has changed in this decade.

IT innovation and Changes in Finance and Economy

Looking back on 2008, a decade ago, the biggest challenge to the IMF and financial authorities all over the world was how to tackle the global financial crisis. Smartphones were still in their very early stage. Crypto-currencies had not yet appeared.

Since then the world economic landscape has dramatically changed. The global economy has overcome the crisis and regained its growth momentum. With the rapid innovation of information technologies, the movement described as the "information revolution" or "data revolution" has developed globally, bringing new growth opportunities for financial services and economic activities. Asia has been particularly influenced by such IT innovation.