called a “ multipolar international monetary system ”. 4 the european citizens can remember this period when looking at the image of europa, daughter of the king of tyre, which is featured in the new series of euro banknotes. 5 economies of scope suggest that these functions tend to reinforce each other. but an international currency does not need to fulfil all of them necessarily. for instance, the use of the chinese renminbi as a store of value, i. e. in official foreign reserves and private financial holdings, or as a funding currency in international debt markets, remains limited to date, but it is already significant in the invoicing of international trade transactions. 6 several determinants buttress the international status of a currency. one such determinant is inertia. in international currency use, inertia effects may have a variety of causes, including habit formation, sunk costs, network increasing returns or a lack of credible alternatives. the idea that these effects may be important rests, in turn, on an observation based on the work by robert triffin, according to which there was a lag of more see cohen ( 1971 ) and krugman ( 1984 ). see elayi and elayi ( 1993 ). a phoenician coin depicting europa riding a bull was unearthed in 2012 by a british museum team in saida, lebanon. the renminbi ’ s role as an international invoicing and settlement currency for china ’ s international trade grew rapidly from essentially nought in 2009 to 25 % at the end of 2014. bis central bankers ’ speeches than 70 years between the united states overtaking britain as the largest economy ( in 1870 ) and the us dollar overtaking sterling as the leading international currency ( in 1945 ). 7 a number of recent studies have challenged this conventional wisdom, however. they use new data to show that the us dollar had already overtaken sterling in the mid - 1920s. this suggests, in other words, that inertia effects are less strong than previously supposed and that the advantages of incumbency are not insurmountable. 8 another determinant is economic size. the currencies of the largest economies in global output and trade, with the deepest and most liquid financial markets, tend to be used internationally. this is also what the historical record suggests. sterling was the leading international currency in the 19th century when the uk was the world ’ s largest economy and the city of london the dominant

that this first report will play an important role in bringing a greater level of transparency to the market, and providing data to support evidence based decision - making. better data on insurance claims can inform the policy debates in government, in the oireachtas, in the firms and in wider society as well as informing our own work in the central bank. and now coming back to where we started, on household finances and the need for data, i want to finish with some thoughts and challenges for the network going forward. the hfcs is uniquely positioned to answer questions that will shape policy going forward. issues such as demographics and how they affect our macro models will benefit from micro foundations ( lane, 2019 ). also the role of financial innovation and households, the rise of non - bank finance, the disruption of traditional banking services by technology based service providers is well under way. how will these changes affect households, affect our economy, and our policy? and of course beyond data, we also need to push the boundaries in how we analyse, how we model and estimate. this includes using behavioural economics, which provides insights on how people actually make decisions in the real world, and the factors that affect those decisions, to gain new perspectives on a diverse range of topics such as mortgage switching or differential pricing for example. by constantly developing our analytical approach we can gain greater insight and understanding of the world around us. but more detail on that is for another day. let us continue with the excellent research and analysis we see already. but we must always be on the lookout for new areas and challenges where our resources, our skills and our knowledge can contribute – in short, where better data can make better policy. [ 1 ] i would like to thank my central bank colleagues who contributed to my remarks across the range of topics. leblanc, j., & lydon. r., 2019 “ indebtedness and spending : what happens when the music stops? ”, central bank of ireland, research technical paper, vol 2019 no. 14. ibid, page 30. ibid, page 3. as of 2019q2, per capita consumer spending was 3 per cent below pre - recession levels ( 2007q2 ). central statistics office, 2019. quarterly national accounts, quarter 2 2019, ( table 3, personal consumption of goods and services ) central bank of ireland, 2019. quarterly financial accounts, q1 2019 moll, b., 2017. “ distributional