you can see that a lot can be done already. some measures might also be taken without huge or difficult legal changes. could you give us an example? our collateral framework, our platform where we are an operator, we have our payment systems, we are in the midst of discussing european framework for ccps — these are all areas where there is still time and where a certain amount of legislation is still under review, so we could add it. would you be ready to abandon your tips initiative in favor of a blockchain / dlt based solution? the conclusion to your stella project with boj says “ dlt - based solution could meet the performance needs of current large value payment systems ”? tips is 10 seconds, 0. 2 cents. dlt transactions are at best 30 euros and take at least one hour. why would we abandon tips? we have a mandate for efficient payment systems, and we go for efficiency. we are not bound to a technology, we are bound to results, and i think it ’ s the result that counts. as to the technology of dlt, we are testing it but there are so many unsolved questions in terms of governance and legal certainty in dlt. we are looking to what extent we could overcome these legal barriers, but we are at a very early stage. there seems to be a certain change of tone in how you and your colleagues now speak about digital currencies. in the past some of your colleagues largely dismissed it as, for example, tulip mania with no immediate consequences for the central bank. what prompted this bigger sense of urgency that something needs to be done right now? as long as it was negligible it was not considered a priority, but since this hype accelerated at the end of last year it has moved higher up on the agenda. if you see how fast something can develop, it can very quickly reach dimensions of past bubbles that also had negative effects on the economy. that we cannot ignore. the valuations are not at a level where you would now jump from your chair and say “ you need to forbid this thing ”. we are not there. but what i do not like is the public hype driving this thing. also the amount in icos is rather small. but this is market integrity, this is protecting the consumer. here you can ’ t say it ’ s also affecting monetary policy. one thing to remember is also that we target asset bubbles if they are a risk for financial

the need for more forceful global response? since i have heard from different locations of similar concerns, we are all working at home, looking at what could be done. but it ’ s at a very premature stage because we don ’ t want to overdo it. we are in an open society, where people are free to lose money as they like. it ’ s a phenomenon that affects central banking, payment systems, banks and financial market infrastructure. by definition those activities become cross - border so a cross - border response is always preferable to a fragmented national one. in many jurisdictions there is a very high concern about money - laundering and terrorism financing. what needs to be decided here as a superpriority has to do with the level of political responsibility rather than the level of individual agencies. therefore the g20 where you also have the government side coming is a welcome forum. the second in the list of priorities is to have more information because it ’ s very difficult to have access to what is happening and where it ’ s happening. we need more information and that ’ s why for me one obligation would already be to force the unregulated platforms to report transactions in a harmonized way to repositories so that we would have access to information also in order to create a better response. i hear often that there are concerns of criminal activity and the amount of hoaxes in this virtual world is rather high. so the main concern is the absence of proper information and the absence of traces so you could track the transactions. so this is certainly something that specialized staff in different member states will also look into. your colleague benoit coeure said recently that the ecb expects g - 20 meeting in march to focus on coordinated response to the growth of digital currencies and urged leaders to come up with a regulatory answer. what are you expectations about this meeting in buenos aires? you should not think of a meeting as being a switch. it will launch a certain amount of studies, it will probably task a certain number of existing institutions to dig deeper and then we will start the work. but in the meantime we already prepare in - house. whatever happens, we want to be prepared. what can you do until this coordinated response is ready? 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches we have on the one hand our existing toolbox. it always is useful if you look at the toolbox again in terms of what is possible from the point of view of a new application. then