Innovations from bitcoin and crowdfunding to robo-advisers and social investment networks are testing the agility of officials and forcing them to learn new skills that could, for example, help them oversee the algorithms that influence financial decision-making. Greg Medcraft, who chairs the International Organisation of Securities Commissions, the umbrella group of regulators that will gather in the South Korean capital, says legal frameworks need to become more adaptable given the pace of change and so do the officials who oversee them. “If you want to be good at this you need to be ahead of the game,” he says. “When crises have occurred they have been when a regulator has failed to keep up.”

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