Fintech has the potential to globalise and restructure financial services, as well as increase financial literacy, develop economic prospects and personalise customer service across the globe, according to Bank of Japan deputy governor, Hiroshi Nakaso.

Speaking on fintech and the future of money at a Bank of Japan joint conference at the University of Tokyo, Nakaso said that developed and developing countries faced similar challenges with innovation across the financial services sector.

“All over the world [we] are now facing the common challenge of how to raise growth potential,” he said in an address translated from Japanese.

“When new technologies reach a take-off stage at which they can be used for business, they have the potential to completely and rapidly change the economic landscape far beyond what could have been expected at the infancy stage of innovation.”

Nakaso said that across the globe, customers expected a rapid innovation in information technology to substantial alter financial services, ultimately making it an ‘information industry’ characterised by its simplicity and technological prowess. There is an issue, however, in that despite many fintech advancements being several years into development, many offerings are yet to be suitably utilised in marketplaces to the degree that customers could feel a benefit.

“Technologies differ in terms of the degree of application to business [and] most of the efforts toward putting technology into practice are still at the experimental stage,” Nakaso said.

“Fintech would have the potential to unbundle and restructure the existing financial services.”

Nakaso noted the potential for financial technology offerings to globalise basic financial services into developing nations and the ability of new technology to deliver customer-centric services.

“Fintech has opened up the possibility of providing basic financial services through new instruments; furthermore, fintech may facilitate personalised financial services – fintech now makes it possible to analyse individual customers by utilising big data,” he said.

“By combining such new tools with analytics methodology, fintech may make it easier for the industry to provide more customised services.”