revolution. it would also contribute to europe's strategic autonomy, by providing payment service providers a platform for innovation, immediately scalable at european level. moreover, since geopolitical developments make us more vulnerable to power outages and cyberattacks, designing the digital euro as a fall - back option such that it relies on infrastructure rails other to those of noneuropean card - based payments, would enhance the resilience of the european payment ecosystem. following the successful completion of the consultation phase, on the 1st of november 2023, at the governing council of the ecb we approved the launch of the preparation phase, during which we will develop and test technical solutions and business arrangements for our digital currency. the eurosystem will continue this journey with stakeholders and will adjust the digital euro design upon finalisation of the legislative negotiations that are running in parallel. in conclusion, as we navigate through these dynamic times, the euro area is proactively reacting and preparing for the changes ahead. as albert einstein said,'the measure of intelligence, is the ability to change.'let us change before we are forced to do so, and, in this way, proactively shape our future. thank you for your attention. as we approach the festive season, i extend my personal wishes for a merry christmas and a hopeful, and perhaps more predictable, 2024. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches

and the cost of reverting these effects, at a future later date, increases exponentially. to support this transition, the governing council of the ecb decided to adjust corporate bond holdings in the eurosystem's monetary policy portfolios and its collateral 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches framework, to introduce climate - related disclosure requirements and to enhance its risk management practices. a second major challenge is digitalisation and technology. t is crucial for financial institutions to keep abreast with technological developments in an increasingly competitive and saturated environment, in which banks, fintechs, big - techs and third party service providers, co - exist. we must not be against evolution, but certain developments might lead to instability and confusion about what is money and what is not money. for example, the so - called crypto - assets are too volatile to be considered a currency or to act as a means of payment. stablecoins are often not backed by any reserves to be considered as a currency, but rather seek to maintain a stable value through algorithms or protocols. moreover, stablecoins are vulnerable to runs, as evidenced in may 2022 by the collapse of terra, the fourth - largest stablecoin at the time, and in march 2023 by the collapse of usd coin, the second - largest stablecoin at the time. ladies and gentlemen, as bigtechs are further expanding into digital finance, there are risks to our payment system, as well as to monetary and financial stability, especially from a potential issuance of their own currency. this is not mere speculation, as evidenced by the decision of paypal to launch its own dollar - denominated stablecoin. paypal has a user base 1, 3 times bigger than the eurozone's population - therefore such ventures pose challenges in at least three areas : a ) firstly, to the functioning of our payment system. stablecoins are structured as'closed - loop solutions'that restrict payments to users who adopt a particular payment tool. b ) secondly, if citizens prefer to use stablecoins issued by bigtechs instead of money issued by a central bank, then public money could ultimately lose its role as an anchor that has been safeguarding for decades the convertibility of commercial bank deposits or liquidity, into central bank money at par value. c ) thirdly, there could be risks to the financial stability of the euro area, as bigtechs would not be concerned with avoiding disruption