thought of? integrating two competitive offerings and giving the best product with portability to a customer would lead to a demand driven initiative for the retail payment system providers. for interoperability to happen, standardization is a pre - requisite. convergence of any payment instrument into the mainstream acceptance infrastructure is the need of the hour. in india, the prepaid payment instrument ( ppi ), popularly known as “ e - money ”, is also issued by non - banks and accepted on their own infrastructure. if these instruments have to be accepted on the existing pos infrastructure, it presupposes adherence to internationally accepted standards of form factor and connectivity. is the industry geared up for this? significant changes will, therefore, be required in the technology and business model of non - bank ppi issuers. thinking of financial inclusion while innovating a retail payment system we are all aware that financial inclusion has served as an important driving force for innovations in many countries either under a government mandate or because of the new business opportunities opened up by an untapped market. but how many companies are betting on innovation beyond the return on investment ( roi ) concept, given the fact that the bottom of the pyramid is very sensitive to costs? moving away from the single economic roi to an integrated economic, social and environmental approach would bring in the desired results of financial inclusiveness. non - banks in retail payments – need for a status the role of non - banks in retail payments has increased significantly, owing in part to the growing use of innovative technology that allows non - banks to compete in areas not yet dominated by banks. the working group on non - banks in retail payments firmed under the aegis of cpss is also attempting to understand the challenges and the advantages of non - banks in the payments space. the increased role of non - bank entities in payment system is linked to their potential to change the payment system landscape as they can leverage on their product offerings with latest technological features to cater to wide segment of the market. regulators ’ effectiveness as catalysts, overseers and / or operators of payment systems as regulators, you will agree that the most defining moment is to be effective as a catalyst without compromising on the regulatory concerns. it is like a parent having to know when to be a friend of the child and when to be a parent. monitoring and assessment of innovative retail payments by central banks calls for engaging appropriate skill - sets regularly updating with technological developments and having a machinery to gauge the need and

years, it has slightly exceeded the euro area average. this rise is driven almost entirely by mortgage debts, which, with an outstanding amount of 275 billion euro, represent 54 % of gdp. accis conference hosted by the nbb – 14 june 2022 4. according to a survey by the national bank, almost three - quarters of belgian households live in a property that they own. this would not be possible without borrowing : about one third of all households have a mortgage loan, most often contracted to build or buy their main residence. yet, credit is not equally available to everyone. households with lower income and wealth levels or those where the family head is unemployed or not working for other reasons than being retired, are more likely to face constraints in obtaining credit. both loan providers and regulators should also try to avoid a situation where households become over - indebted. over - indebtedness is very disruptive and distressing for a family or an individual. on a macro - economic scale, it can also aggravate a financial or economic crisis, with serious impact for entire economies. but while household debts have gone up in the aggregate, on average there doesn ’ t seem to be a higher risk of over - indebtedness in belgium. nevertheless, some pockets of risk remain. younger households have higher debt levels relative to the value of their assets and they need to spend a bigger share of their income on servicing their debt. indicators of vulnerability are also higher for households with lower incomes. the same goes for single - parent households and adults living on their own. for these reasons, one of the most important challenges for a central bank in its role as prudential supervisor, is to find a way to limit risks for the financial system without restricting people ’ s access to credit, especially younger households. closing remarks now i could go on for a very long time about the measures that we ’ ve imposed on banks to ensure financial stability while at the same time safeguarding access to finance for consumers and companies, but i see that enrique is already looking anxiously at his watch. so, i ’ ll leave it there : - ). all that's left for me to do now is to say that i hope you have a pleasant and instructive day. but seeing the topics and the speakers on today ’ s programme, i ’ m absolutely convinced that you will. thank you! accis conference hosted by the nbb – 14 june 2022