BIS：如何监管涉足金融领域的科技巨头-9页_685kb

BIS Bulletin No. 45: Regulating Big Techs in Finance

Core Content

This BIS Bulletin examines the growing involvement of big technology firms in financial services and the resulting policy challenges for central banks and financial regulators. The authors – Agustín Carstens, Stijn Claessens, Fernando Restoy and Hyun Song Shin – highlight how the integration of big techs into finance is reshaping traditional regulatory frameworks and raising concerns about market concentration, data governance, and financial stability.

Main Viewpoints

• Big Techs in Finance: Big tech firms leverage user data from their e-commerce and social media businesses to rapidly scale into financial services. This is facilitated by the inherent network effects in digital platforms, creating a "data-network-activities" (DNA) loop that allows them to dominate markets quickly.

• Policy Challenges: The entry of big techs into financial services introduces new challenges that go beyond traditional financial regulation, including market concentration, data governance, and the potential for systemic risk. These issues may affect the central bank's core mission of ensuring the integrity and stability of the monetary system.

• Regulatory Frameworks: The current regulatory framework is based on an activities-based approach, requiring licenses for specific financial services. However, this may not be sufficient to address the unique risks posed by big techs, which often operate as entity-based platforms with broad data and market influence.

• Need for Coordination: The regulatory challenges posed by big techs in finance require close coordination between central banks, competition authorities, and data privacy regulators. This is particularly important as the roles of traditional financial regulators may become blurred in the context of big techs.

Key Information

Big Techs' Growing Footprint

• The retail payment market is a clear example of how quickly big techs can dominate due to the DNA loop.
• In China, two big tech payment firms account for 94% of the mobile payments market.
• Big techs are not only involved in payments but also in lending, insurance, and wealth management.

Market Dominance and Data Governance

• Market dominance by big techs can lead to higher merchant service costs, potentially harming financial stability.
• Data governance is a critical issue, with concerns about privacy and the potential for data misuse.
• Consumers globally tend to trust traditional financial institutions more than big techs when it comes to safeguarding personal data.

Regulatory Approaches

• Activities-based regulation is the current standard, but it may not be adequate for big techs.
• Entity-based regulation is being explored in key jurisdictions such as the EU, China, and the US.
• Examples include the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), China's anti-monopoly guidelines, and the US's antitrust reports.

Central Bank's Role

• Central banks need to consider the systemic relevance of big techs, especially in payment systems.
• They should work closely with competition and data privacy authorities to address the multi-faceted challenges.
• The design of systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) may need to be expanded to include big techs offering critical financial services.

Regulatory Developments

• In China, financial holding companies (FHCs) are being reformed to require licenses for firms holding multiple financial institutions, even if they are not traditional banks.
• FHCs are subject to capital requirements, risk management, and governance rules, ensuring that big techs with significant financial influence have adequate safeguards in place.

Conclusion

The Bulletin underscores the importance of proactive regulation and inter-agency collaboration to address the evolving role of big techs in financial services. It calls for a more comprehensive regulatory approach that considers both the financial stability and data governance implications of these firms, ensuring that the monetary system and payment infrastructure remain resilient and fair.

References

• Armantier, O, S Doerr, J Frost, A Fuster and K Shue (2021): "Whom do consumers trust with their data? US survey evidence", BIS Bulletin, no 42, May.
• Carstens, A (2021): "Public policy toward big techs in finance", speech at the Asia School of Business Conversations on Central Banking webinar.
• Crisanto, J C, J Ehrentraud and M Fabian (2021): "Big techs in finance: regulatory approaches and policy options", FSI Briefs, no 12, March.
• Financial Stability Board (FSB) (2019a): FinTech and market structure in financial services: Market developments and potential financial stability implications, February.
• (2019b): BigTech in finance: Market developments and potential financial stability implications, December.
• Frost, J, L Gambacorta, Y Huang, H S Shin and P Zbinden (2019): "BigTech and the changing structure of financial intermediation", Economic Policy, vol 34, no 100.

All issues are available on the BIS website: www.bis.org.