burkhard balz : bolstering confidence, high - quality financial development promoting a chinese path to modernization keynote speech by mr burkhard balz, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the tsinghua pbcsf global finance forum " bolstering confidence, high - quality financial development promoting a chinese path to modernization ", beijing, 20 may 2023. * * * 1 introduction ladies and gentlemen, i am delighted to be able to speak to you today here at the tsinghua pbcsf global finance forum in beijing. as a central banker, i can certainly relate to the conference title, " bolstering confidence ". you see, confidence is a central bank's most valuable asset when it comes to fulfilling its tasks to the best of its abilities. none more so than in times of turbulence, when trust and confidence provide an essential basis. and we are living through turbulent times, there is no doubt about that. rarely has the immediate future been as incalculable und unpredictable as it was over the past three years. following on from the coronavirus pandemic, russia's war of aggression against ukraine has sparked deep uncertainty and sent anxiety levels soaring around the globe. the war poses potentially a threat to the tried - and - tested system of international cooperation and is placing a strain on the global economy. but surely everyone must grasp that the major global challenges we face in our time – first and foremost, climate change – can only be overcome if we pull together. and there are other developments as well which are putting many countries to a stiff test – the digital transformation is just one topic i could mention here. but true to the upbeat conference title of bolstering confidence, let me begin with some comparatively cheery news from germany. 2 economic activity and inflation germany's economy has weathered the fallout from the pandemic and the war better than had been feared for a time. true, the braking effect of higher energy prices in particular made itself felt for a while, and german economic output contracted by 0. 5 % in the fourth quarter of last year. but the current quarter is now expected to see a moderate rise ; real gdp is likely to increase somewhat on average in 2023. the german economy has proven itself to be more resilient and more adaptable than it is often believed to be. but what's far too high right now is inflation. measured in terms of the hicp, consumer

mr. hartmann reports on the driving forces behind current changes in payment and settlement systems speech by mr. wendelin hartmann, a member of the board of the deutsche bundesbank, delivered at the 6th annual conference on international payment systems in london on 20 / 4 / 98. there are several driving forces behind current changes in payment and settlement systems. as a political factor, we are all aware of the start of stage three of european monetary union ( emu ) on january 1, 1999 with the introduction of a single currency and a european monetary policy. change is also being caused by developments in the highly liquid and mobile markets. volume and value of transactions in these markets are still increasing and markets ’ liberalisation and interdependence is continuously growing. last but not least, technological advances are leading to an improvement in communications technology and a lowering of costs. the internet is likely to become universally comparable to the telephone nowadays. let us now take a look at the current situation in international payment and settlement systems. the use of correspondent relationships is customary for the execution of cross - border payment orders. this results, for example, in larger banks having hundreds of correspondents in europe. one cause of this can be seen, for example, in the fact that banks mutually attend to credit customers and to large - value payments between third countries ( such as japan and hong kong ). but this variety of relationships may lead to a complicated liquidity management and high costs. european cross - border retail payments could almost be said to be still in the “ middle ages ” : they are characterised by high fees, long execution times and very little transparency. this situation led to the eu directive on cross - border credit transfers ( transparency directive ) coming into force early 1997, the outcome of which has, up to now, regrettably been mediocre. as an example, if we compare the cost and time taken for a credit transfer of frf 5. 000 from frankfurt to paris, the fee charged by the different german banks varies - according to a german newspaper from dem 20. 00 to dem 60. 00 and the processing time takes between two and 14 days. the statistical reporting requirement of cross - border orders cannot be construed as an adequate explanation for this. on the contrary, the european market will require considerable improvements in this field. another obstacle is, for example, the lack of a common european bank - code number, branch identification and account number. the european committee for banking standards