jan smets : the future of central banking keynote address by mr jan smets, governor of the national bank of belgium, at the conference " ten years after the start of the crisis : contours of a new normal ", organised by the belgian financial forum and suerf, brussels, 14 september 2018. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to address this conference organised by the belgian financial forum and suerf on the impact of the crisis and how it may have shaped a new normal for the economy, for the financial system and for central banks. i thank the organisers for having invited me to share with you some of my thoughts on the future of central banking. i will not surprise when i say that it is good to first look back before being able to fully understand where we stand now, and, eventually, give insights on where we may go from here. indeed, the future finds its roots in the past, and the present is precisely what brings both together. so, my plan is to first walk with you through time, starting on 14 september 2008 – the day on which lehman brothers failed, now exactly ten years ago and which marked the start of the global financial crisis. i will then say a few words on where we stand in the euro area at the current juncture and seize the opportunity to briefly explain the monetary policy decisions the governing council of the ecb took yesterday. finally, i will devote the remainder of my talk to the challenges for central banks going forward : what is the future of central banking and to what extent will it be different from central banks ’ past? as i said, exactly ten years ago we saw the start of the global financial crisis and some of its repercussions are still felt today. not that there had not been worrying signs before. on the contrary, already back in august 2007 banks started to hoard liquidity and on 9 august 2007 the ecb was the first central bank which had to inject liquidity in the money market. be assured, i am not going to give you every single detail of the actions we undertook since then. i just want to stress that by then many observers were impressed by the sheer size of the liquidity injection – namely €94 billion - which by now is really small compared to the almost €3. 5 trillion increase in the balance sheet of the eurosystem we have seen in the meantime. indeed, the worst still had to come and in september

; it has to be built, and maintained, on a daily basis. while technical know - how of experts is of course essential, on its own it is not enough. the stability of money is a common good and deserves a quasi - constitutional status. in other words, it is a deep and precious fundamental which must be safeguarded under all circumstances, as a prerequisite for welfare, but also for freedom and fairness. therefore, it has to rest on strong societal underpinnings and be shielded from the volatility or even arbitrariness resulting from short - termism. thus, it is fully justified to allocate this goal to institutions which have this stability as their primary task and which are accountable for achieving it. that is precisely the mission of central banks, also in the future. i thank you for your attention and i wish you a pleasant stay at this conference. 6 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches