and because physical cash cannot be used for internet commerce. and small reductions in frictions and small increases in functionality matter, as the shift towards using mobile phones rather than cards at point - of - sale demonstrates. the technologies that are loosely grouped under the broad heading of ‘ tokenisation ’ – cryptography, distributed ledger, atomic settlement, blockchain, fractionalisation and programmability – enable new ways of representing money that allow for greater automation of the transfer of money and the deeper integration of that transfer – the payment – into other processes. while these technologies have been pioneered in crypto - asset markets, they could significantly transform everyday payments in the real economy, as i will discuss later. one cannot of course say with certainty that it will be possible to deploy such technologies at scale for general use in the economy or that users will value and adopt the new functionalities. but it would be very unwise in my view to bet, as some seem to do, that we have reached the end of developments in payments and money – especially given the increasing and rapid digitalisation and automation of the processes of everyday life. and this brings me to the other two areas of action that were accelerated by the announcement of the libra project four years ago – the exploration of central bank digital currencies and the regulation of private sector firms that propose to use those technologies to create new forms of money like stablecoins and new payment systems for general use in the economy. the digital pound first, i will say a little about where we are in the uk on the possibility of introducing a retail cbdc, the ‘ digital pound ’. in february this year, the bank of england and hm treasury issued a consultation paper on the design of a digital pound. [ 18 ] the consultation paper did not propose the introduction of the digital pound. no decision has been taken to do that in the uk. rather, the paper concluded that current trends and technological advances in payments – the trends i have been discussing – made it likely that a digital pound would be needed by the end of the decade. the paper set out and invited comments on the detailed model of the digital pound we proposed to explore and test in the next stage of our work, prior to a decision in two to three years ’ time on whether or not to implement it. we envisage the digital pound as a partnership with the private sector – a so - called ‘ platform model ’. the bank would provide the digital pound and the central infrastructure

addition to the flexible monetary policy strategy implemented by the central bank as of the end of 2010, the prudent measures adopted by the brsa accompanied by the safeguarded fiscal discipline strengthened the central bank ’ s hand. we firmly believe that we will attain very positive results with respect to price stability and financial stability by the end of 2012. along with national macroprudential measures introduced by countries, some international criteria have also been developed for the sake of safeguarding financial stability. for example, the basel iii accords bring about new arrangements reinforcing the capital structures of financial institutions. these arrangements will ensure a more resilient financial sector against unforeseen risks and will contribute to financial stability. the recent efforts clearly point to a consensus among countries on the critical importance of safeguarding financial stability. despite the consensus among policy - makers on the importance of financial stability, the economic literature lacks adequate theoretical and empirical studies on the details of the transmission mechanism from financial stability to macroeconomic stability. at this point, academia is expected to do their share in this respect. the two - day conference will stage parallel sessions, panel discussions and presentations on these issues. banking sector dynamics, macroprudential measures and their impact on macroeconomic stability, systemic risk issue and sovereign debt dynamics are among the topics that will be addressed at the conference. two of our distinguished guests, mr. ricardo caballero and mr. franklin allen, will be delivering speeches. mr. caballero will be presenting a speech on the first day of the conference and mr. allen ’ s presentation is scheduled for the second day. on the second day of the conference, the panel discussion titled “ how did the crisis challenge the central banking as we knew it? what should ( not ) change? ” will be held, at which senior central bankers will be sharing their country experiences. i think this panel discussion will be very interesting and beneficial for all the participants. the studies that will be presented throughout the conference will contribute to better understanding of the factors threatening financial and macroeconomic stability and developing policies to achieve these two objectives simultaneously. i believe that the conference will also serve as a forum for the participants for exchanging views. in this respect, i would like to thank the organization committee for their efforts in bringing these very interesting and enlightening studies under this conference. i wish the conference a complete success and i would like to thank all our guests for their participation. bis central bankers ’ speeches