agenda. among other benefits, this will democratize access to transaction accounts. full participation to the digital payment ecosystem envisioned under the nrps will be within reach. key barriers to account opening will be removed. this will directly benefit low - income and vulnerable sectors of our society as costs of onboarding are lowered and the need to present acceptable identification forms is addressed. philsys can also remove friction points and facilitate powerful use - cases for digital payments like government cash transfers. down the road, it will allow convenient fund transfers with individual philsys numbers as identifiers. the possibilities and prospects are endless. concluding remarks the vision of an ever - evolving central bank in this new digital age is one that comes with 4 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches rewards … but it is also one that demands hard work and decisiveness. in the bsp, we are committed to staying relevant and responsive to leveling up as we deliver on our mandates. we staunchly safeguard price and financial stability and aim to provide a safer and more efficient payments system. we do this in partnership with you, our stakeholders, as we are open to fresh and innovative ideas and to collaboration, cooperation and consultation to drive our economy to new heights. thank you very much. 5 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches

legitimacy to act. inaction based on fear of complications is rooted in the belief that there is no need to change existing arrangements, even when all evidence and analysis point to the need to act. but this complacency is motivated by arguments that often find no support in reality. the setting - up of the european stability mechanism ( esm ), the launch of european banking supervision, the creation of the single resolution fund – all faced opposition on grounds of concerns regarding moral hazard or the appropriate allocation to the european level of competencies previously performed at national levels. in retrospect, euro area governments did not lack courage and they took the key steps at crucial moments. our monetary union is stronger today as a result, and most of the predicted complications did not come to pass. however, the main point here is not that these decisions were validated in hindsight, but that, 3 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches once the need to take action had been substantiated and justified, the courage was found to take decisions, without hesitation, for the benefit of economic and monetary union. the second hurdle that policymakers have often faced when implementing reforms is the opposition from vested interests. in particular, it was clear at the onset of the crisis that several governments needed to enact structural reforms to improve growth prospects and lower unemployment. but structural reforms always create winners and losers, and governments met inevitable resistance from those set to lose out. these governments, however, were able to separate vested interests from the public interest, recognising that many more stood to gain from action – and the benefits are now largely there to see. focusing on the labour market alone, there is evidence that countries that implemented reforms directly after the crisis have seen both cyclical and structural unemployment go down. these reforms have also made employment growth more responsive to gdp growth, which has contributed to the 11 million increase in jobs that we have seen in the euro area since mid - 2013 as the economy has recovered. 9 the third hurdle concerns doubts about the legitimacy to act. this is something that the ecb has faced with several of its unconventional policies, not least its outright monetary transactions ( omt ) programme that was launched in the summer of 2012. initially, there was considerable opposition to omt in some quarters on the grounds that it was not the central bank ’ s job to stabilise the euro area, but rather that of politicians, and that doing so would cross the line into fiscal policy. on