a further area where work is needed is in the governance of the fiscal policy of the member states. there has been tension between reliance on market discipline and budgetary rules. however, the dichotomy between rules and market discipline is overstated. both are needed. at best, rules and market discipline support and complement each other. the obvious lesson is that the institutions and incentives have to be designed so that they help orientate the market forces to meaningful directions – you may call it ‘ market discipline by design ’ – an idea that immediately brings to mind the economic thinking of ludwig erhard, the architect of the german social market economy. so we need fiscal rules, and they should be well designed. the european union fiscal framework can be amended to emphasise national ownership of fiscal rules and to avoid forced pro - cyclical fiscal policy. * * * this analysis of the institutional challenges brings us into the realm of democratic politics and the development of the eu as an organization. the eu is a union of democratic states. it is the citizens ’ preferences and trust that count when the future of the monetary union is decided. today, the enlightenment values, which underpin the european societal model, are challenged, both politically and socially, both from the inside and the outside. politically, a populist and nationalist agenda is tempting to many. socially, the values of tolerance, social market economy and inclusivity are increasingly under threat. on the other hand, let us recall that the europeans value their single currency. according to a fresh eurobarometer survey1, as many as 77 % of euro area citizens support the monetary union and the euro. this is the highest figure since 2004. only 18 % of the citizens of the area say they are against. in finland, the percentage of those “ for ” was even higher, altogether 80 per cent ; in germany as high as 83 %. 4 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches this support for the common currency is of course conditional. it depends on the stability of the euro and its performance. moreover, in any member state, the support for the euro also depends on how successful the economic policy in that particular country is in adjusting the economy to the requirements of life within the monetary union. there is a reason why eurozone reform is anything but a technical matter. it is linked to the overall future of the eu. first and foremost, we need a monetary union that is capable of delivering on the promises made to our citizens — promises of financial

, those platforms help poor households sell their agricultural products to everywhere. fintech also strongly supports our fight against covid - 19. since its outbreak, financial institutions rapidly optimized their mobile apps and other on - line services. they provided safe and convenient ‘ at home ’ financial products, to make sure basic financial services remain available. many institutions offered online fast tracks, which greatly enhanced service efficiency and effectiveness, and supported rapid economic recovery. second, the experience and lessons of fintech. the developments of our laws, rules and regulations on fintech were just like “ feeling the stones while crossing the river ”. we met someproblems, learned lessons and gained experience. here i would like to mention four cases. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches the first case is the p2p. it was originally supposed to be just an information intermediary. however in practice, many p2p platforms engaged in lending and wealth management. for the past 14 years, the total number of p2p was over 10 thousand in china. at the peak, there were over 5000 companies operating at the same time. the annual trading volume were about 3 trillion yuan. the npls and losses were very high. by mid - november, all the operating p2p platforms have been closed down. the second case is the third - party payment platforms. in the past, some third - party payment companies provided investment service for customers ’ online shopping reserve funds. the yield was much higher than banking deposits, and money could be redeemed anytime. therefore, it greatly rattled the banking deposits and asset management business. such investment was very much like money market mutual fund ( mmmf ) products, but was unregulated to the same extent. thus, it might violate laws, rules and even potentially engage in money laundering. now, those payment companies have been asked to deposit the reserve funds with the central bank, and the related investment has been put under supervision. the third case is the internet financial companies. some of them tended to induce overspending through various scenarios and over - marketing of loans or overdraft. they even offered loans to students without repayment abilities. when default occurred, they pursued coercive loan collection, which caused many social problems. hence, we insist on applying unified regulation by business activities, and stand firmly against regulatory arbitrage. the fourth case is the data privacy. some tech companies used their market advantage to improperly collect, use and