See Mundell, R. (2002), “The Birth of Coinage”, Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series, No 0102–08, Columbia University, New York, February. 3 In ancient Rome, the first form of sovereign money (called “Asse di Bronzo”) was introduced by the King Servius  Tullius in the sixth century BC. See Forzoni, A. (2003), “Le origini della moneta a Roma: la scelta del bronzo e il valore fiduciario dell’asse”, in Milano, L. and Parise, N. (eds. ), “Il regolamento degli scambi nell’antichità”, Laterza, Bari. The “Asse di Bronzo” was a coin made in bronze weighing one “libbra” (one pound). See De Bonis, R. and Vangelisti, M., (2019), “Moneta. Dai buoi di Omero ai Bitcoin”, Il Mulino, Bologna. 4 See Cipolla, C.M. (2001), “Le avventure della lira”, Il Mulino, Bologna. 5 Marco Polo, Il Milione, capitolo 95. 6 Public consultation on a digital euro. 7 Harari Y.N. (2014), “Sapiens. A Brief History of Humankind”, Vintage Books, London, page 201. 8 Privacy-enhancing techniques and auditability are discussed in the fourth phase of Project Stella, see ECB and  Bank of Japan (2020), “Balancing confidentiality and auditability in a distributed ledger environment”, Project Stella, February. Similarly, anonymity vouchers are discussed in ECB (2019), “ Exploring anonymity in central bank digital currencies”, In Focus, No 4, December. 9 Anderton, R., Jarvis, V., Labhard, V., Morgan, J., Petroulakis, F. and Vivian, L. (2020), “ Virtually everywhere:  digitalisation and the euro area and EU economies”, Occasional Paper Series, No 244, ECB, Frankfurt am Main, June.

Caleb M Fundanga: International financial reporting standards for banks and other financial institutions Speech by Dr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, at the official opening of a workshop on “International financial reporting standards for banks and other financial institutions”, organised by the Bank of Zambia in conjunction with the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants, Lusaka, 17 February 2005. * •  The Chief Executive, ZICA  •  Distinguished Resource Persons  •  Distinguished Participants  •  Ladies and Gentlemen,  *  *  I wish to welcome you all to this important workshop on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and International Auditing Standards, (ISAs) organised for finance officers and auditors from commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions and the Bank of Zambia. This workshop is organised by the Bank of Zambia in conjunction with the Zambia Institute for Chartered Accountants (ZICAs) out of the recognition that the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and International Auditing Standards (ISAs) are critical not only to the integrity of our financial system, but also to the Bank of Zambia’s efforts of ensuring effective supervision and regulation of banks and non-bank financial institutions. As you may be aware, three important factors have heightened the relevance of accounting and auditing standards to bank supervisors. These, include: •  First, IFRS and ISAs are a set of high-quality, transparent and globally renowned accounting and auditing standards that the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) has included in its 12 Key Standards for Sound Financial Systems.