provide new innovative services, reduce costs and give consumers more choice. however this can only happen if standardised access to the payment account is provided. i would therefore call upon stakeholders such as banks, standard setting organisations and, third party providers to work together to ensure a single standard is developed for payment account access. the competition introduced by the revised payment service directive can also provide an opportunity for incumbent banks but only if they act urgently to implement instant payments. it is crucial that banks invest to upgrade their legacy batch systems to enable real - time processing and offer end - user solutions for instant payments. these solutions can provide them with a strong tool to face the upcoming competition. the recent experience with contactless payments shows that banks, in cooperation with other stakeholders, are well capable to roll out payment innovations that can quickly take off and improve end - users ’ payment experience. virtual currencies it is my view that future innovations in retail payments will be based on instants payments in combination with account access provided by the psd2. i would like stress this point especially in view of the ongoing public debate around the alleged innovation brought by private virtual currency schemes or tokens. while we have seen a substantial increase, albeit from low levels, in the value of some of the virtual currencies lately, we should not forget that their usage as a settlement asset is marginal 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches and the overall user acceptance as a means of payment is negligible. in fact, retail payment traffic in europe alone is orders of magnitude higher than the global transaction volume of virtual currencies. in view of the speculative market environment for virtual currencies and for other types of virtual financial assets, one should bear in mind that these are by definition virtual : they do not constitute a claim on an issuer and do not formally qualify as currency. their purchasing power fluctuates wildly and depends solely on the market activity of speculators. it remains to be seen whether these virtual currencies can be considered as a payment alternative for consumers – except in extreme case like in failed states - and to what extent they can compete with the solutions market players will be able to develop in the safer and more efficient european retail payments market. the ecb continues to monitor these developments, not only from a market infrastructure perspective, but also as regards monetary policy, financial stability, and prudential supervision. and while we continue to fully meet the increasing demand for safe and efficient banknotes we shall

– as an instrument to gain competitiveness at the detriment of the others. this may fuel reaction and fuel protectionist pressures, also within the eu. little attention has been paid so far to the risks incurred by the single market in current times, as compared to the speculations about the single currency. third, some countries in the euro area have experienced a divergence in terms of growth, price dynamics and public finances. the divergence was partly a consequence of the strong economic growth over the last few years. however, this convergence might have been based, in part, on unsound fundamentals, so some correction was inevitable. correction will be needed particularly in areas related to labour market functioning, public expenditures and financial markets. some observers have said that these corrections could be made more easily if the countries in question were outside the euro area and could devalue their currencies. this conjecture is not only questionable from a theoretical viewpoint, it is irrelevant from a practical perspective. conclusions the next ten years will be quite demanding for the euro, possibly more so than the first ten. adolescence is generally a more tempestuous time than infancy. there is a saying in italian : “ bambini piccoli, problemi piccoli … ”. it means “ small children, small problems … ” implying that as children grow older the problems tend to increase. the founding fathers of the euro knew this. yet, we know from psychology that the first seven years of a person ’ s life are the most important ones and critically influence how he or she will behave as an adult. judging from the first years of the euro, we can be confident that our currency will be up to the challenge. thank you for your attention.