have already indicated, we are well aware of this. but in my opinion, political backing is an important starting point when it comes to the potential issuance of a digital euro. on our journey, the twelve " stumbling blocks " of the digital transformation recently published by bitkom9 might be useful. one of the obstacles mentioned is the need to understand that change always involves " jumping in at the deep end ". admittedly, this may not be a widely recognised core competence of central banks - however, we should facilitate innovations and actively support them within our mandate to ensure safety and efficiency in the field of payments. 5 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches let me close with the words of the late theodore levitt, a renowned german - american economist and former professor at harvard university : " creativity is thinking up new things. innovation is doing new things. " well, let's do it! 1 bundesbank, payment behaviour in germany, july 2022, https : / / www. bundesbank. de / en / publications / reports / studies / payment - behaviour - in - germany - 738024 2 bitkom press release of 20 october 2022, https : / / www. bitkom. org / presse / presseinformation / kontaktloses - bezahlen - fest - etabliert 3 see, for example, https : / / factsheet. betaalvereniging. nl / en / 4 bitkom press release of 29 july 2022, https : / / www. bitkom. org / presse / presseinformation / unternehmen - spueren - digitalen - wettbewerb 5 brunnermeier, m., keynote speech at the academic colloquium in honour of otmar issing, 29 june 2021. 6 see also panetta, f., " building on our strengths : the role of the public and private sectors in the digital euro ecosystem ", introductory statement at the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the european parliament, 29 september 2022. 7 study by kantar on behalf of the ecb, study on new digital payment methods, march 2022. 8 speech on 7 november at the digital euro conference. 9 https : / / bitkom - akademie. de / news / 12 - stolpersteine - der - digitalen - transformation 6 / 6 bis -

burkhard balz : public - private partnership - key to the success of a digital euro speech by mr burkhard balz, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the bitkom digital euro summit, virtual event, 15 november 2022. * * * 1 introduction ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your warm welcome to today's digital euro summit. where better to talk about an innovative topic like this than at an event organised by one of germany's largest digital associations? as my virtual participation exemplifies, the digital transformation is fundamentally changing countless aspects of our lives. we are living in times where it seems that practically everything is in a state of flux. that is not only a reference to the fact that football world cups are no longer being played in the wonderful summertime, but in the winter months. changes can be observed in the world of payments as well. driven by digitalisation, new payment methods are emerging and, with them, new providers of innovative payment services. these developments are also impacting on central banks'roles as backbone of payment systems, prompting us to find new answers to new challenges. one answer could be to make our currency, the euro, ready for the digital world of tomorrow. these discussions are centred around the concept of central bank digital currency, or cbdc for short. so let me begin by outlining why we are exploring a digital euro. after that, i will present the potential core features a digital euro might have, before updating you on the current project status. 2 why are we considering issuing a digital euro? why are we considering issuing a digital euro? first of all, we have been seeing a trend towards cashless payments for years now – and that trend even accelerated recently. if we look at germany, for instance, the bundesbank found, in its regular study on payment behaviour that the share of cash transactions of consumers'daily payments has fallen to 58 %. 1 the trend is obvious : in a study from 2017, cash payments accounted for 74 %. one of the main effects we saw was the growing popularity of contactless payments – in particular in the form of card payments. while roughly 20 % of smartphone owners have already paid using digital wallets, total mobile payments still account for only 3 % of all daily payment transactions. it was with great interest that i read the recent results of a bitkom survey, confirming the trend towards cashless, and in particular