François Groepe: The fintech phenomenon - five emerging habits that may influence effective fintech regulation

Opening remarks by Mr François Groepe, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, at the Inaugural Intergovernmental Fintech Outreach Workshop, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, 19 April 2018.

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

Introduction

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the inaugural Intergovernmental Fintech Outreach Workshop.

Let us begin with the words of Joseph Schumpeter: "Situations emerge in the process of creative destruction in which many firms may have to perish that nevertheless would be able to live on vigorously and usefully if they could weather a particular storm."

There is no doubt that we are witnessing a wave of disruptive innovation and technology that one can liken to Schumpeter's 'creative destruction', one that will leave no aspect of human endeavour untouched. Financial services in particular are within the eye of the storm of the change as a result of financial technology, or 'fintech'. An elementary Google search on fintech results in no fewer than 35.2 million hits. Investment in fintech over the last three years is estimated to have been well over US$300 billion dollars.