the fixed - exchange - rate regime is still a cornerstone of danish economic policy. the policy framework implies a clear division of responsibilities in the economic policy. monetary - policy interest rates are reserved for keeping the krone stable and do not take factors such as growth, employment and house prices into account. these considerations are addressed by other economic policies. in particular, fiscal policy plays an important role in ironing out economic fluctuations. page 4 of 9 2 spill - overs from monetary policy in the euro zone an exchange - rate peg can only be maintained if one is willing to implement the same monetary policy stance as the anchor country. this is a precondition in a world with international capital mobility. a strong spillover from the ecb's monetary policy to danish financial conditions is therefore to be expected. [ chart 5 : monetary policy rates in dk and ecb ] indeed, as we can see from this chart, the key monetary - policy rate of danmarks nationalbank tends to track that of the ecb very closely. usually we announce interest - rate changes within a few hours of the ecb's announcements. the exceptions are in situations with volatility in foreign - exchange markets and large capital flows. in those situations, unilateral interest - rate changes might be necessary. i have already talked about one such occasion – the surge in capital inflows in early 2015. in normal times, the euro - area monetary - policy stance is summarized by the short - term interest rate set by the ecb. when the ecb wants to loosen policy, it reduces its key interest rate. and when it wants to tighten, it increases it again. since the great financial crisis of 2007 - 08, many things have been far from normal. in response to persistently weak demand and low inflation, central banks across the globe have reduced their monetary - policy rates to levels close to their effective lower bound. in that respect, switzerland and denmark are actually on the forefront. in the beginning of 2015, we both reduced our monetary - policy rates to - 0. 75 per cent. with interest rates close to their effective lower bound, central banks have deployed a host of unconventional measures to achieve the desired amount of monetary accommodation. of these measures, the most prominent one has been to engage in purchases of financial asset on a massive scale – often referred to as qe. for more than two years, the ecb has been purchasing assets worth between 60 and 80 billion euros per month.

that could cause a hangover if we are not careful. that is why danmarks nationalbank assesses that the conditions for activating the countercyclical capital buffer are in place. the purpose of this buffer is to reduce the economic downturn in the event that households'and firms'access to credit is tightened disproportionally in periods of stress in the financial system. when the buffer is released, the institutions gain access to capital which they can use to keep up their lending capacity. to increase the probability that the buffer has been built up before a period of financial stress occurs, it must be built up in good times like the present – while it is easy to do so. the systemic risk council can submit a recommendation to change the buffer rate to the minister for industry, business and financial affairs. at its december meeting, the council will consider whether to activate the buffer. page 2 of 7 * * * exactly one year ago, we launched the shared vision that the danish financial sector is to be " best in class " in europe in terms of combating cybercrime. that work is now well underway, and i would like to express my appreciation of the good cooperation we have had the first year. a couple of weeks ago, danmarks nationalbank held the first nordic cyber conference in copenhagen. there was widespread agreement that denmark is among the most digitised countries, but also that denmark may not be in the top league when it comes to the degree of cybersecurity. we must continue our journey towards increased cybersecurity. so in 2018 danmarks nationalbank will conduct a survey similar to that carried out in 2016 to see whether cyber resilience has increased, and we will also establish an " intelligence - led red - team testing programme " for the financial sector. i think this programme will be useful for the individual actors and for the sector overall. i also see it as a necessary step towards realising our vision of being best in class. slide 4 : cbdc denmark is one of the most digitised countries in the world. does that mean that we should also have central bank digital currency as a supplement to cash and deposits in commercial banks? in the near future we will publish an analysis of this topic, but i can already today disclose some of the conclusions. the short answer is no, danmarks nationalbank should not offer retail banking services to all danes. an important thing to keep in mind when discussing central bank digital currency is that it