The Institute of International Finance ("IIF") welcomes the continued efforts of the organization for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ("PEC") in promoting economic growth and cooperation throughout the region. This is an important function, and one that increasingly has the emerging digital economy at its center.

To this end, the IIF wishes to highlight the criticality of regulatory and policy considerations for digital finance. Indeed, policy-makers, regulators and supervisors have a difficult but critical task in ensuring a resilient and stable financial system, providing a level playing field for all participants, and fostering an innovative, secure and competitive financial market and investment climate that fully supports capital formation, economic growth, and job creation.

Our comments relate to informed consumer and investor choice, financial stability, and the need for an efficient regulatory structure for cross-sectoral and cross-border competition in the FinTech ecosystem. We have focused on four aspects: consistent regulatory and supervisory frameworks; data quality, integrity, and protection; regulatory cohesion, especially regarding cyber-security; and incumbent firms' adoption of new technologies.