22 Of course, it is crucial to evaluate policy and require it to be effective, whether the policy is state contingent or time contingent. 23 My impression is that the issue of whether fiscal policy should play a more active role and whether the fiscal frameworks should be reviewed is starting to be raised more and more in the economic policy debate: see, for example, Calmfors (2021) for Sweden and Ubide (2021) and Lane (2021) for the euro area. This is also underlined by the fact that the ESO, the Expert Group for Public Economics, is planning a study in this field; see https://eso.expertgrupp.se/pagaende-projekt/. However, it should be pointed out that this study will only refer to the interaction between monetary policy and fiscal policy in times of crisis, which I do not think is sufficient. A month ago, representatives of the government parties also argued, in a newspaper article, that the review of the fiscal policy framework planned for 2025 should be brought forward (Svenska Dagbladet, 2021). In the Statement of Government Policy on 30 November, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson argued that Swedish public finances are so strong that shifting from a surplus target to a balance target is justified. There are also, of course,  12 [17]  To be even more concrete, one idea could be to give the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council, or some other body, the task of continuously evaluating whether fiscal policy is keeping to the announced plan and delivering the expected results.

Innovations indeed move the world with financial technology, transforming the financial services industry as we know it – moving it towards the digital arena. In such an environment, building and maintaining close cooperation becomes essential for sustaining financial stability and protecting consumers from security threats. The Conference will cover various topics related to the latest developments at global, European and national level. The emergence of FinTech – financial technology marked the global developments in recent years by attracting financial institutions attention to its implementation for improving the present financial products and new products development. On the other hand, FinTech companies started offering their own financial services, thus entering into competition against banks. Moreover, digital technologies pose challenges to financial institutions, including the central banks, in the context of digital banking and digital transformations. Implementation of Distributed Ledger Technology, particularly Blockchain, could cause disruption to financial market infrastructures and furthermore, to worldwide financial system. Theoretically, it could facilitate cross-border payments, improve the efficiency of back-office operations, eliminate the need of data reconciliation, facilitate financial inclusion and information sharing, but also, it could reduce the need or completely replace some financial market intermediaries. DLT strongly emphasizes the questions about effective regulation, prudential supervision, oversight and cyber security issues, but it could also catalyze the issuance of digital currencies backed by the central banks and facilitate the implementation of monetary policy. In the European context, the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) is fundamental part of the European payments regulation and significant step towards single digital market in Europe.