A speech by Greg Medcraft, Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission ASIC Annual Forum 2016 (Hilton, Sydney) 21 March 2016

Welcome

Thank you, Minister O'Dwyer for opening our Forum today and for setting the scene for what we are about to talk about over the next two days.

I am very excited about the theme of our conference this year, which is ‘Culture Shock’.

I am looking forward to the journey we will go on together in exploring the ideas around culture and what this means for individuals, for business, and for regulators.

This year we have a line-up of fantastic speakers who will contribute to what will definitely be an engaging and thought-provoking two days.

Introduction

I would like to start off today by giving you my thoughts on ‘Culture Shock’ and what this means to me.

I want to consider the pace of technological change – the ‘shock’ factor – and what this means for culture.

Five years ago we generally weren’t thinking about digital disruption.

While innovation is not a new phenomenon, its scale, breadth and potential – now underpinned by technology – has certainly increased dramatically.

Technology is traveling at a faster pace than ever.

Technological innovation is rewriting almost every industry including, of course, the financial services industry.

We are seeing innovative business models in financial services including marketplace lending, crowd funding, robo-advice, payments and the potential of blockchain technology.

Technology and innovation is disrupting and reshaping the world we live in.

So in particular today, I would like to talk about three things:

• what innovation and digital disruption means for ASIC
• some examples of how ASIC is responding to digital disruption, and
• why culture matters – not only for regulators, but for business – and why it is especially important when we consider the impact of digital disruption.

Read the full speech (PDF 86KB)