As Facebook Inc., Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd., and bigtechnology firms march deeper into the financial system, theworld's top central bankers say new restrictions may be needed toensure they compete fairly with traditional lenders.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), known as the bankfor central bankers, said in a report on Sunday that regulatorsshould take a more comprehensive approach and extend their focus tohow tech companies can exploit customer data in anti-competitiveways.

“Big techs are still a fairly small part of thefinancial-services industry at the moment, but they have thepotential to spark rapid change,” said Hyun Song Shin, economicadviser and head of research at the BIS, which is based in Basel,Switzerland. “Big techs raise concerns that are more thetraditional domain of competition authorities and data-privacyregulators, and to make that coordination there would need to bemore of a concerted effort on the part of our politicalleaders.”

The report from central bankers comes only a few days afterFacebook rolled out an ambitious plan for its own cryptocurrency.Facebook's Libra coin is still months away from being used, butregulators are already beginning to scrutinize the project andwarning that rules must be applied.

The BIS said big tech firms' troves of data on their massiveuser bases suggest the need for privacy rules to level the playingfield with banks. Without safeguards, technology companies couldsell their own products at low costs while charging steep fees tofinancial firms wanting to pitch similar services on the techplatforms.

While large banks have plenty of data, their ability to competeis hampered by outdated technology and restrictions, the BIS said.Big tech firms, meanwhile, can amass data more cheaply, growfaster, and keep costs low, all of which could help providefinancial services to customers who have trouble accessingconventional banks, the BIS said.

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