Thanks to various payment systems, we can avoid this inconvenience. This not only has a value in making our everyday life easier; there is also a  BIS Review 75/2001  1  large economic value, as we are able to use our time for other things rather than queuing to pay bills. The Government Inquiry on the future of the financial sector presented last year estimated the value of this at more than 7 per cent of GDP, which corresponds to approximately SEK 150 billion. This indicates the importance of properly functioning, stable payment systems. Mutual fund investment plays an important part in the financial system's other role. This concerns converting savings into investments. Without financial markets each investment would have to be financed by the actual investor, whether it was a question of buying a house or starting up a company. The financial markets' economic contribution here is that they make it possible to distinguish between the decision to save and to invest, so that the investor does not need to save all the necessary money before making the investment. This enables the implementation of many projects that would not otherwise see the light of day. However, the financial sector does not merely make it possible to distinguish between these decisions; it also makes it possible to solve the conflict of interests that often prevails between the saver and the investor. A saver often wants to be able to get his money back quickly if the need arises.

The NGFS was founded five years ago on the recognition that climate-related risk is a threat to the financial system and that the financial sector can play a role in enabling the transition to a low-carbon economy. We number 140 members and observers now, comprising central banks, financial supervisors, and international financial institutions from across the world. Nature-related risks have material macroeconomic, macroprudential, and microprudential consequences. Central banks and supervisors therefore cannot afford to ignore nature and biodiversity loss. The NGFS has produced three research papers on biodiversity and financial stability, together with the International Network for Sustainable Financial Policy Insights, Research, and Exchange, or INSPIRE. The research shows that nature-related shocks can transmit to the financial system. Corporate dependencies on natural capital pose market and credit risks to individual financial institutions' portfolios, which can potentially aggregate into systemic financial exposures. The NGFS has thus created aTaskforce for Biodiversity Loss and Nature-related Risks, to help mainstream nature-related financial risks across our work on supervision, financial stability oversight, and monetary policy. The Taskforce will develop a comprehensive framework to identify the transmission channels from nature-related risks to central banking and supervisory activities. For its part, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has published environmental risk management guidelines for banks, asset managers, and insurers operating in Singapore. The Guidelines set out the expectation that financial institutions should manage environmental risks such as those arising from biodiversity loss. Finance can be a powerful force for helping to bend the curve of nature degradation.