07. 07. 2022 1st banco de espana conference on the spanish economy – welcome address banco de espana pablo hernandez de cos governor good morning and welcome to the first banco de espana conference on the spanish economy. let me announce in advance that our intention is for this conference to take place on an annual basis and for it to be our flagship conference in relation to the spanish economy. let me first elaborate on the motivation behind the organisation of this conference and i will then focus briefly on the topics that have been chosen for discussion this year. the main aim of this conference is to bring together leading scholars and policymakers to discuss frontier research on the challenges facing our economy and the policy options to address them. the rationale for doing this is our understanding of the importance of the interaction between economic policy and applied research as a crucial tool to support the design and development of economic policies, as well as the evaluation of their effects. indeed, high - quality research is an indispensable tool for advising on and adopting sound policymaking decisions. this is generally well understood in the central banking community, where research produced by central banks plays an important role in policymaking and the interaction with the academic community is usually very strong. at the banco de espana this is indeed the case, including first by promoting research within the institution. this is something we have tried to further enhance during the last years. hence, according to the ideas - repec citation index, when our entire research activity is considered, the banco de espana currently ranks second among spanish economic research centres. and among our central bank peers worldwide our research production ranks very high as well as within the eurosystem. our collaboration with other researchers and institutions is also very strong. for example, the banco de espana has been organising an annual research conference since 2017, assembling leading scholars and policymakers to discuss cutting - edge research on relevant topics at the global level. past editions of this conference have covered topics such as the way forward for emu architecture, tax and transfers systems ( jointly with the institute of fiscal studies ), and the measurement, causes, and consequences of market power in the digital era. our ties with cemfi are also crucial in this regard, not only as we provide the financing for this top - ranked institution but also as they ensure close contact among the researchers at both our institutions. a third dimension of our research activities is based on our conviction that high - level research relies critically on the availability of detailed and accurate statistics

30. 08. 2022 central bank money for the digital age : reflections on the new paradigm keynote address / central bank research association ( cebra ) annual meeting margarita delgado deputy governor it is with great pleasure that i take up the opportunity of addressing such a distinguished audience tonight with a topic that i very much feel falls within cebra ’ s remit. in that respect, given the turbulent times we are living in, leveraging a space where an open and constructive dialogue between us and the academia can take place is sure to prove even more instrumental now than it has been the case in the past. yet, over and above the daunting challenges of inflation, climate change, macroeconomic stability and many others which you are touching upon in this year ’ s conference programme, in the next few minutes i would like to turn my attention on to something very different. i am talking about the so - called central bank digital currencies, one of the most prominent examples of financial innovation. being digital is no longer a prophecy awaiting realization as nicholas negroponte 1 once forecasted in his now renowned examination of the frontiers of digital technology and its effects on the future of our society. instead, it has already become an all - encompassing phenomenon which the pandemic helped expedite by a few decades. being digital in the financial industry means new opportunities for incumbents to acquire new clients, to expand their current share of the wallet and to obtain efficiencies unheard of. nonetheless growing digitalization also entails the emergence of new competitors and value propositions that will likely erode their status quo in the industry. technology certainly holds a significant transformational power enabling promising developments but, per se, technology is by no means the ultimate answer to existing risks in economics and finance, as my colleague sir jon cunliffe recently pointed out 2. against this light, it makes more sense for central banks to consider the need for a speedy action. this action need to be based on the exploration of a wide set of tools that help to ensure the safeguarding of financial stability as well as the preservation of the critical role of money in the economy. while many responses are indeed possible, there ’ s no denying that introducing a new form of public money appears to be gaining traction, at least from a more conceptual point of view. in fact, one of the reasons why we, at the eurosystem, are looking into cbdcs in depth is to evaluate their potential to ensure easy