Summary of Discussion of the FinTech Study Group
November 7, 2018
Payment and Settlement Systems Department
Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies
Bank of Japan
The Bank of Japan set up an interdisciplinary study group on FinTech (hereafter, "FinTech Study Group") in 2016. The FinTech Study Group was comprised of professionals in the fields of law, economics, and informatics. It met a total of five times to discuss the impact of FinTech on the financial sector (Secretariat: The Payment and Settlement Systems Department and the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies).
The financial sector is undergoing a technological revolution called "FinTech" in which information technology (IT) is used to create and develop new financial services. While the financial sector has long embraced IT, the recent FinTech revolutions has the potential to bring about fundamental changes to the financial sector through the use of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), the emergence of cryptocurrencies embodying such technologies, diversification of financial service providers, or expansion of financial access via smartphones and other types of mobile devices.
The use of information technologies for payments and other financial services has long been discussed, and studied from the legal, economics and informatics viewpoints. However, the development of new technologies such as DLTs has the potential to bring about fundamental changes to the financial system, and has sparked new debate.
The FinTech Study Group discussed issues, from an academic standpoint, that need to be addressed for the practical use of these advanced technologies for financial sector; i.e., (1) economic analysis of FinTech's impact on the financial system and central bank policy, (2) design of legal and regulatory frameworks, and (3) the robustness of these technologies.
This paper, prepared by the secretariat of the FinTech Study Group, summarizes the main points discussed at the Group's final meeting held on June 12, 2017. Personal opinions expressed in this paper are those of the members of the FinTech Study Group, and do not necessarily represent the official views of the member's organization or the Bank of Japan.
Inquiries
FinTech Center, Payment and Settlement Systems Department
E-mail : post.fintech@boj.or.jp