Guy Quaden: CashSSP - the cash single shared platform
Remarks by Mr Guy Quaden, Governor of the National Bank of Belgium, on the occasion of signing
the Cash Single Shared Platform contract between Bank of Finland and the central banks of Belgium,
Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Bank of Finland, Helsinki, 16 March 2007.
* * *
Dear Governor, dear Erkki,
Dear colleagues,
First of all, let me thank you for your kind invitation and for organising this event.
The Eurosystem is an entity which has no equivalent anywhere in the world. For me, the creation of
the ECB did not raise any doubts on the usefulness of the NCBs. In fact, the reverse is true.
Luxembourg, the only country which did not have its own central bank, had to create one just before
the transition to the single monetary policy.
Nevertheless, our integration into the Eurosystem has obviously influenced the life of our institutions. I
think on two changes which are not necessarily apparent to the outside world.
The first is due to the fundamental change in the actual role of our NCBs, which now participate in the
management of the world's second most important currency. The decisions taken in Frankfurt are
taken on a collegiate basis by the Governing Council. This means that every governor of an NCB must
be properly prepared to deal with all the issues considered at that level. They concern not only the
single monetary policy but also the Eurosystem's other spheres of activity, such as financial stability
and payment systems.
In recent years, our NCBs have therefore extended and strengthened their analysis capacity. A large
proportion of our staff is nowadays involved at various levels in the preparation of these decisions
"taken in Frankfurt". The investment in resources is substantial, and so is the resulting enrichment of
the job content of our employees.
The second change concerns operational aspects. One of the Eurosystem's basic operating principles
is a high degree of decentralisation. Our NCBs remain the contact points between financial institutions
or economic agents of our countries and the Eurosystem. However, the concept of decentralisation
has evolved since the Eurosystem was first formed.
To quote the words of the Eurosystem's mission statement: "We are committed to good governance
and to performing our tasks effectively and efficiently, in a spirit of cooperation and team work". This is
further elaborated in the Organisational Principles, which state "that potential synergies and
economies of scale shall be identified and exploited to the extent feasible". Furthermore the Council
Task Force of which Erkki is a member has been mandated by the Governing Council "to prepare
proposals for discussion and decision on issues related to the role, objectives, functions and
operational modalities of the Eurosystem". In my view, it has a crucial role to play as an independent
think thank.
Having said that I believe that if the time is not ripe for a top-down decision, there should be room for
NCBs - and in particular for medium-sized NCBs - to initiate voluntary collaboration in the
development of joint projects and the exploitation of synergies following a bottom up approach. I think
also that the long term vision for the Eurosystem calls for a shift from the pure centralisation and
decentralisation models that have been applied in the past towards models of pooling and
consolidation. In my view, the CASH SSP partnership fits perfectly into this framework.
The introduction of euro banknotes provided an excellent opportunity for the NBB to modernise and
reengineer its IT-application for cash handling. The goal was twofold: first of all, to manage cash flows
more efficiently, both within the central bank and between the central bank and its main customers,
financial institutions and cash transport firms; and secondly, to improve the security of these cash
transactions.
The successful implementation of this new cash application inspired the Bank's cash department to
start thinking about the possibility of promoting it to international scale, starting with the neighbouring
central banks. So in 2006 CASH SSP was formally born and the first agreements were signed
between the Dutch central bank, the Banque centrale du Luxembourg and the NBB. Today the
partnership is extended to a fourth partner, which shows that the scope of the business case is larger.
Also on behalf of the Dutch central bank and the Banque centrale du Luxembourg let me warmly
welcome you as a full and equal partner in the group.
We find it very important that standards are being developed, because this shows to the commercial
banks active in several countries, that we exploit a number of synergies of the single currency for cash
handling and maybe, dear friends, could you use your privileged relationship with the Baltic countries
to see whether other central banks would be interested in such type of collaboration.
From our side, we will continue at the NBB to try to play a pro-active role in promoting collaboration
between central banks within the Eurosystem also in other fields like collateral management and
statistics. This also implies that the NBB is open to support or participate in initiatives launched by
other NCBs in other fields of activity.
A last remark. It is often said that "IT should follow the business". I agree, but both sides should be in
permanent contact with each other and look for efficiency gains on the IT side and on the business
side, too. Open communication between business and IT is the cornerstone of the CASH SSP
partnership as it results in transparency and mutual trust between all partners. In the move towards
closer collaboration between Eurosystem central banks, transparency and mutual trust are of utmost
importance in promoting a genuine Eurosystem team spirit. This is something that should be
supported and it calls for an improved governance framework in order to fully realise efficiency gains
for the whole Eurosystem.
Dear colleagues,
The Eurosystem has established itself as a sound system capable of taking well-founded monetary
policy decisions. On the operational level, it is now moving towards more specialisation. Tomorrow,
our central banks will probably not be performing all the same tasks anymore. Some decisions will be
taken following a top-down approach, others will grow from the bottom up. I am convinced that within
the Eurosystem, there is, and there should continue to be, an important role for each and every
member.
Erkki, let me conclude by once again thanking the Bank of Finland for the warm welcome I have been
given here in Helsinki, and that is not just because of the warm winter weather we are having these
days. Let me also thank you once more for sharing the vision that the CASH SSP partnership can
boost collaboration between Eurosystem central banks, building on the expertise and know-how
available across the whole system, something that is fully in line with the team spirit promoted by the
ECB Governing Council.