The participants included Chairman Hsu Jan-yau and Secretary Wu Tang-chieh of the TFSR, Vice Chair Hsu Yung-chin of the FSC, Vice Premier Shen Jong-Chin, Vice Chair Jean Chiu of the FSC, and Chairman Wu Chung-shu and President Hank Huang, of TABF (front row L-R), and representatives of foreign commercial offices in Taipei (back row)
The Fintech Taipei Forum 2020, organized by the Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable (TFSR) and Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance (TABF), was held from October 28-29. Representatives from the US, UK, Australia, Israel, Japan, Poland, Canada, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, as well as experts from Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) and Executive Yuan, participated in the exchange and discussion.
Over 3,000 people participated offline and online. 44 distinguished experts joined the discussions, and 50 startups shared their business models. Participants gained up-to-date knowledge of international market trends and best practices for digital transformation.
Chairman Wu Chung-shu of TABF said that 2020 has been a year of momentum for fintech development. Not only has the technology itself continued to evolve, but also its applications in finance have expanded, driven by the pandemic. The first day of the event featured three international forums, while the second day held 16 fintech talks.
Digital transformation in finance
In August, the FSC released a FinTech Development Roadmap, setting inclusiveness, innovation, resilience, and sustainability as goals, and aiming to shape a good environment to promote fintech services and business models. Meanwhile, measures such as social distancing and work-from-home have caused fundamental changes in the economy, accelerated irreversible digital growth, and facilitated rapid development of e-commerce. The forum took stock of these changes in order to anticipate future directions of growth.
The first day featured three sessions, respectively covering digital transformation, cybersecurity, and regtech. In the first session, Jumpei Miwa, Director of the Fintech and Innovation Office of the Financial Services Agency, Japan, discussed Japanese fintech development and practices through a streamed speech. lbert Naffah, General Manager of Payments & the Data Economy of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), shared updates on Australia’s digital transformation, and President Hank Huang of TABF further analyzed the factors required for successful digitalization.
The FSC has also released an Action Plan for Financial Information Security, recognizing the variety of future of threats and calling for innovation and regulatory refinement as solutions. At the second session, Mr. Carlos Recalde, President and COO of Sheltered Harbor, a US trade association, Roy Zwebner, CEO of Gav-Yam Negev Advanced Technologies Park, Israel, and Dr. Yaniv Harel, General Manager of the Cyber Solution Group at Dell EMC, shared their diverse perspectives on cybersecurity.
At the final session, Keiko Ogawa, Partner at Ernst & Young ShinNihon, discussed Japan’s implementation of regtech via online livecast; Brian Teng, Co-chair of the RegTech Committee of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong, analyzed the importance of regtech to fintech. Taken together, the three sessions gave Taiwan a variety of reference points for its own development.
Unicorns provide real application scenarios
The second day of the forum featured fintech startups. ‘Unicorns’ from Japan, Australia, the UK, US, Poland, and elsewhere including Finatext, Afterpay, Rapyd, DataRobot, and Fintek.pl were invited to showcase their businesses. The Japan CEO and Taiwan General Manager of the Japanese Finance-as-a-Service firm Finatext both joined and explained their plans for business during and after the pandemic.
Due to the special circumstances this year, Fintech Taipei Forum 2020 used a combination of online and offline formats to bring together domestic and international experts. Foreign participants, such as members of the Asia Pacific Association of Banking Institutes (APABI), watched via livestream. A Facebook live show was also held prior to the event.
Bloomberg Economics recently ranked Taiwan 5th in the world for economic innovation potential, and 1st for IT deepening. FinTech Taipei Forum 2020 has helped it apply this strength to the field of finance and showcase it to the world.
Website: https://www.fintechtaipei.tw/en/
Contacts:
- Ingrid Zhang (02)3365-3554 ingridcc@tabf.org.tw
- Sue Weihua (02)3365-3552 suweihua@tabf.org.tw
- Tammy Chung (02)2393-2830 tammyc@tabf.org.tw