in the light of these developments, it would be criminally negligent for banks and savings banks to simply adopt a wait - and - see attitude : other industries have seen new technologies become the standard in no time at all. examples include digital photography, the advent of smartphones and online media. once digital technology has established a foothold, banks will no longer be able to put the genie back into the bottle. with regard to online and mobile payments, german banks have, in the meantime, seen the writing on the wall and have developed their own in - house solution, known as paydirekt. the frustration felt by many bank clients over the mounting negative headlines on banks in the past few years – with customers and the real economy being far removed, in many cases, from the centre of banks ’ interest – certainly explains some of the rush to embrace the digital newcomers. that is why fintech companies have little in common with banks : their staff do not wear ties, and their websites have been purposefully designed to be “ minimalist ”. i therefore see the interest in fintech companies and new service providers as an indication of the beating the banking industry ’ s image has taken in the past few years. digitalisation therefore highlights customers ’ desire for fair treatment and transparent bank services. however, even in the area of digital applications, confidence is fragile : an algorithm which acts as a financial decision - making aid needs to actually help, and not to manipulate, its user. the use of “ big data ” analysis makes sense only if it does not abrogate human selfresponsibility. after all, confidence is not programmable. i therefore do not wish to fan the flames of a dispute between innovative and economically promising new competitors and presumably ageing, tottering banks. on the contrary, i do not believe that the financial system can be fully broken down into individual digital processes and services. there is much more to good financial services than simply assembling a collection of clever algorithms. the financial industry needs to demonstrate broad experience with the economy and financial products and to constantly refresh its insights. and i agree with mr gerke that customers won ’ t want to use a separate bank or fintech for each different financial service they need. this favours one - stop - shop banks. in addition, new business ideas need to pass the acid test first – statistically, a large percentage of new ideas end up failing. no one single digital banking business model is superior to all

platform, both sets of parties can obtain access to one another quickly and relatively inexpensively. paypal, google wallet, applepay and others are providing innovative payment solutions. automated investment tools are also available online for investors. their growth has been impressive : across the globe, fintech companies are now collecting around us $ 1 billion per month in capital, and there are many pioneering companies, particularly in the united states. banks simply have to be in a state of high alert – not only because of the threat of a redistribution of profit margins, but also out of the knowledge that, in a fast - moving digital world, they could fall irrecoverably behind if they fail to respond quickly enough with competitive products. to put it differently : the banking industry cannot put their collective heads in the sand but have to rise to the challenge. and this is due not only to fintech companies and shrinking profit margins. what are termed “ disruptive technologies ” are playing a decisive role here. technologies are disruptive if they not only make individual processes more efficient but also render entire business models obsolete. once music started to be spread over the internet as compressed files, a whole value - added chain was suddenly rendered superfluous – from the cd pressing machine to the record store. smartphones, with their highly developed lenses, are currently putting pressure on the camera industry. the financial industry, too, needs to come to grips with these “ destructive ” technologies. mobile payment methods, for instance, could erode payment structures that have evolved over years. “ blockchain ” technology is credited with having a particularly sobering impact on banks. by using the global computer network, this technology is enabling all transactions conducted in the world of finance to be documented in a presumably forgery - proof, near - real - time and, above all, decentralised manner, ie potentially without central securities depositories or banks. any individual and any company could therefore settle money, securities or any other type of asset and liability directly with other financial market agents – thus obviating the need for the existing, unwieldy settlement infrastructure used by banks, csds and central banks. as a solution for the entire financial system, this technology is thus raising fundamental questions – including regulatory questions. banks are currently researching ways of using this new technology internally, especially for cross - border transactions. the us nasdaq stock exchange is already using blockchain technology for some of its services. bis central bankers ’ speeches