##desbank – and which has even grown in recent years. we at the bundesbank have been paying particular attention to younger people for some years now, as it ’ s in that part of society where interest in central banks and central banking topics tends to be on the low side. all the more important, then, have been the many events and initiatives to promote economic education run by this regional office and its president in schools, universities of applied sciences and universities in bremen, lower saxony and saxony - anhalt. mr von stenglin, in all of this you never lost sight of the fact that a president of a regional office is not only an external representative of the bundesbank but is also the head of an organisational unit of a public sector agency. you cultivated a direct connection to your staff. you listened to them, treated them with respect, acted as a mentor. that is what “ good management ” looks like. and that is what made you so well esteemed here, not far from your lower saxony roots in celle. but prior to your taking up the mantle of president at this regional office, you spent 25 years working in the field of international economics. you were one of the voices of stability - oriented bundesbank stances both at home and abroad. after completing the bundesbank ’ s civil servant training programme you first worked in international relations, dealing with imf ( international monetary fund ) related matters. the bank then soon seconded you to the imf ( international monetary fund ) to serve as advisor to the german executive director. at that time, many former soviet republics were applying for imf membership. current events are showing us just how important international organisations can be for countries applying for membership. after a brief interlude at your home base, the bundesbank ’ s central office, you were posted abroad again from 1995 to 1999, working as financial attache to the german embassy in rome. at that time, preparations were under way for the third stage of economic and monetary union. in march 1998, the crucial convergence report was presented to the council of the european union. it formed the basis for the introduction of the euro in the first eleven countries at the beginning of 1999. your contribution lay in providing expertise about italy. this was followed by several years back at central office in frankfurt and another stint at the imf ( international monetary fund ) in washington, this time as alternate executive director for germany. while posted there during the financial and economic crisis, you

hamper innovation and progress, maybe even of humanity, if you will. bigtech companies can ’ t be properly regulated at the national level. google and amazon are perfect examples of this ; and the issue only becomes more complicated when bigtech companies enter the arena of financial services. the regulatory issues associated with diem serve as just one example. regulators across the globe are struggling to get a grip on bigtech companies – be it in the eu, the united states, australia or even china. 2. cross - border regulation of digital innovation is in its infancy, but a start has been made. harmonisation within the eu is a good example. take the general data protection requirements, or gdpr – whether or not you are a fan – or the eu ’ s new digital operational resilience act ( dora ) – a legislative initiative which also addresses material ict third party risks for banks. 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches for the libra association ’ s diem project, the swiss regulator finma set up a college of supervisors from all over the globe. this is a good example of international cooperation in regulating digital innovation. 3. getting a grip on the risks of digital innovation will be difficult and complex. it will take continuous work and international cooperation. in tech, the big issue is of course : can regulation ever keep pace with digital innovation? we can see that legislators are trying to accompany the digital transformation in a forwardlooking manner, by providing legal certainty for innovative developments and by appropriately addressing risks. to do this, it is necessary to keep abreast of current developments, to actively seek out dialogue, and to accept that regulation has to evolve regularly. regulators need to be agile and proactive in order to swiftly implement the lessons learned from crises. that is true at a national and international level. that is no easy task for international cooperation, i am afraid. harmonisation should be our common goal. perhaps even a g7 or g20 mandated body could be an option to establish such standards and risk management ; we could call it a “ digital bcbs ”. 5 closing remarks ladies and gentlemen, let me recap the “ journey ” of my short presentation : first, international standard - setting by the bcbs works and is quite successful, but it is a marathon, not a sprint. second, international regulation brings a lot of benefits for supervised entities, supervisors and the financial system as a whole. but it also has its downsides. third, global