I. Greetings

 

Good morning Ladies & Gentlemen!

Welcome you

to Korea Fintech Week 2021.

 

First, let me begin with thanks to

(Honorable) 윤관석 Chairman of the National Policy Committee,

(Honorable) ZHOU Liang Vice Chairman of

China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission(CBIRC),

(His Excellency) Michael Danagher Canadian Ambassador to Korea,

(His Excellency) James Kim Chairman and CEO of AMCHAM Korea and the distinguished guests

for being here with us today.

 

I would also like to thank

Philippe Lefort French Ambassador to Korea, and

Hassan Zaman World Bank Regional Director

for their warm and heartfelt congratulatory messages.

 

Korea Fintech Week 2021 offers a wide range of programs.

Fintech companies will promote their businesses

and attract investment.

It will also present many great opportunities

to start-ups

in fintech industry.

Ⅱ. The Growth of Global Fintech Industry

 

Fintech has dramatically transformed

the landscape of the global financial industry.

 

The market capitalization of some fintech companies

surpassed that of traditional financial leaders.

The global investment in Fintech grew eightfold

over a short period from 2013 to 2019.

 

* (example) The market cap of Ant Financial is expected to be 320 billion dollars, bigger than JP Morgan’s 316 billion.

 

Countries around the world

are competing to grow their fintech sector

and gain the upper hand in global finance.

 

Advanced economies, like the US, UK and Japan,

are promoting fintech-driven innovation and

encouraging competition between fintech firms and

traditional financial companies.

 

Emerging economies,

such as China, India, and Southeast Asian countries,

are supporting Fintech industry

to narrow the gap in the global financial market.

 

Meanwhile, we must address

challenges posed by digitalization in finance.

Many governments are making measures

to prevent the side-effects

such as digital divide, abuse of AI,

and growing market power of Bigtechs.

Ⅲ. Government Response and Progress

 

The Korean government has laid

a strong groundwork for fintech innovation.

 

First of all,

we built the infrastructure for digital innovation.

We amended the Credit Information Act last year,

placing Korea’s data regulation in line with global standard

such as GDPR of EU.

Data can now be utilized more flexibly.

New data businesses such as MyData are in operation.

 

We also introduced Financial Regulatory Sandbox in 2019

to support commercialization of innovative fintech ideas.

This program helped to

launch 82 innovative fintech services during 2 years.

 

In the meantime, we have reinforced the foundation

for financial stability,

by securing payment systems; protecting financial consumers;

and ensuring digital security.

 

All these efforts have made meaningful progress.

The fintech industry has scaled up.

Digitalization in the traditional financial sector

has been facilitated.

Ⅳ. Future Plan

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

The Korean government will continue its efforts

to boost fintech growth

and spur digital innovation in finance.

 

We plan to sophisticate

the legal framework to promote investment

in the fintech industry.

 

For financial institutions, we will ease regulations

on the fintech investment process and the scope of companies.

 

This will allow financial institutions to increase

investment in fintech sector.

At the same time, fintech firms would be able to

get enough money to launch innovative services

from financial market.

 

The government will allow fintech start-ups

to operate D-Testbed*,

even at their very early stage.

They will have opportunities to

virtually test their new business ideas

using real financial data.

 

* testbed that enables fintech startups to test their ideas before starting their business

We are also working on the

Guidelines on the use of AI in financial services

to encourage the application of AI technology

in financial services.

 

In the near future,

we hope to see more fintech unicorns in Korea.

 

Financial stability is just as important as innovation.

We will do our best

to enable more people to share

the outcomes of financial innovation

more safely.

 

Ⅴ. Conclusion

 

I’m pleased to see many fintech-leading countries,

the U.S, China, Canada, France, Australia, and Israel,

joining this Korea Fintech Week 2021.

I believe today’s participants

will be able to learn a lot from

the experience of these countries.

I hope the Korea Fintech Week 2021

can serve as an opportunity

to get insights on digital finance

and to discuss continuous promotion of fintech-driven

financial innovation.

 

Thank you.