{ "title": "Opening Remarks by Deputy Managing Director Bo Li: Managing Technology in Finance: Global Approaches for the Digital Age", "publication": "IMF News, November 10, 2021", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance", "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance", "overlayPath": "/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance/index.md", "summary": "Opening Remarks by Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director: Managing Technology in Finance: Global Approaches for the Digital Age", "publishDate": "2021-11-10", "sections": [ { "heading": "Overview and framing", "content": "- Technological change is a long-standing driver of progress in finance, from double-entry book-keeping to ATMs and modern payment systems.\n- The digital age has accelerated trends through:\n - Massive capture of detailed data from activities, transactions, and behaviors as the Internet Of Things and mobile connectivity have expanded.\n - Huge increases in computing power enabling Artificial Intelligence (\"AI\") to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.\n - Frequent incidents of hacks and resulting loss of service and personal data reported in the news.\n- Core regulatory challenge: how to reap benefits (financial inclusion, efficiency, risk management, oversight) while managing financial stability and integrity risks." }, { "heading": "Findings from IMF workstreams (three recent papers)", "content": "- General finding:\n - Strong complementarities exist across data, AI, and cyber risk issues, pointing to the need for adapted policy approaches and enhanced cross-border cooperation.\n- First workstream — digital economy and data:\n - Data is a valuable, globally portable good.\n - Cross-border data movement requires coherent policies that build trust.\n - Absence of global principles risks deepening digital fault lines and isolating massive data pools, which would be especially costly for smaller and lower-income countries.\n - Recent G7 announcements of key principles for cross-border movement of data are noted as a positive initial step.\n - Benefits: data can power open finance and AI to boost productivity, growth, employment, and finance.\n - Risks: data capture without effective consent by large platforms can create new monopolies and stability risks; balancing individual privacy with protection from cyber attacks is challenging.\n - Implication: these challenges affect growth, stability, and the international system, requiring global cooperation.\n- Second workstream — AI and machine learning:\n - Rapid and far-reaching adoption in finance can:\n - Increase efficiency.\n - Improve client experience.\n - Strengthen risk management.\n - Support regulators in prudential oversight and implementation of monetary and macroprudential policies.\n - Enable applications such as more efficient supply chains and lending to previously unbanked small businesses.\n - Risks include opacity, bias, and potential new sources of systemic risk from greater interconnectedness.\n - Policymakers need to confront these issues; the full extent of strengths and weaknesses is not yet completely understood.\n- Third workstream — cyber risk:\n - Expansion of data and digital platforms increases opportunities for malicious cyber activity and widens the attack surface, especially in finance.\n - Recent prominence of supply chain attacks and ransomware.\n - Cyber risk is among the top concerns for governments, businesses, and consumers.\n - In finance, threats to data confidentiality and integrity and to the smooth functioning of information systems pose threats to financial stability.\n - Financial systems vary in readiness to manage cyber attacks; international response is fragmented.\n - IMF analysis has identified major gaps which, if addressed, could considerably reduce cyber risk and help safeguard global financial stability." }, { "heading": "Policy implications and recommendations (implicit and explicit)", "content": "- Adapt domestic and international policy frameworks to address:\n - Data governance and cross-border data flows.\n - Regulation and oversight of AI and machine learning in financial services.\n - Cybersecurity resilience across financial systems and supply chains.\n- Promote enhanced cross-border cooperation among countries and regulators to address risks that transcend national boundaries.\n- Build capacity in jurisdictions, with attention to smaller and lower-income countries disproportionately affected by data isolation and weak cyber defenses.\n- Consider global principles for managing data to prevent digital fragmentation and safeguard inclusion, competition, privacy, and financial stability." }, { "heading": "Closing", "content": "- The speaker looks forward to discussing these topics with the panel of experts during the event.\n\nSource: Opening Remarks by Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director, \"Managing Technology in Finance: Global Approaches for the Digital Age\", November 10, 2021.\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- Bo Li\n- Speeches\n- PRESS CENTER\n- Cyber Risk and Financial Stability: It’s a Small World After All\n- Towards a Global Approach to Data in the Digital Age\n- Powering the Digital Economy: Opportunities and Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Finance\n- Fintech and the IMF\n- https://www.imf.org/en/home\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance" } ], "bullets": [ "[Markdown version](/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance/index.md)", "[Structured JSON version](/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance/index.json)", "[Bundle manifest](/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance/bundle-manifest.json)", "Published: November 10, 2021", "Technological change is a long-standing driver of progress in finance, from double-entry book-keeping to ATMs and modern payment systems.", "The digital age has accelerated trends through:", "Core regulatory challenge: how to reap benefits (financial inclusion, efficiency, risk management, oversight) while managing financial stability and integrity risks.", "General finding:", "First workstream — digital economy and data:", "Second workstream — AI and machine learning:", "Third workstream — cyber risk:", "Adapt domestic and international policy frameworks to address:", "Promote enhanced cross-border cooperation among countries and regulators to address risks that transcend national boundaries.", "Build capacity in jurisdictions, with attention to smaller and lower-income countries disproportionately affected by data isolation and weak cyber defenses.", "Consider global principles for managing data to prevent digital fragmentation and safeguard inclusion, competition, privacy, and financial stability.", "The speaker looks forward to discussing these topics with the panel of experts during the event.", "[Bo Li](https://www.imf.org/en/About/senior-officials/Bios/bo-li)", "[Speeches](https://www.imf.org/en/news/searchnews)", "[PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)", "[Cyber Risk and Financial Stability: It’s a Small World After All](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2020/12/04/Cyber-Risk-and-Financial-Stability-Its-a-Small-World-After-All-48622)", "[Towards a Global Approach to Data in the Digital Age](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2021/10/06/Towards-a-Global-Approach-to-Data-in-the-Digital-Age-466264)", "[Powering the Digital Economy: Opportunities and Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Finance](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Departmental-Papers-Policy-Papers/Issues/2021/10/21/Powering-the-Digital-Economy-Opportunities-and-Risks-of-Artificial-Intelligence-in-Finance-494717)", "[Fintech and the IMF](https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/fintech)", "[https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)" ], "alternates": { "markdown": "/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance/index.md", "json": "/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance/index.json", "bundleManifest": "/en/news/articles/2021/11/10/sp110521-opening-remarks-by-dmd-bo-li-managing-technology-in-finance/bundle-manifest.json" }, "generatedAtUtc": "2026-09-26T00:45:47.413Z" }