many have identified trusted intermediaries with access to the target group to deliver financial education. this approach can be effective, provided that the goals of the intermediary are aligned with the financial education goals, and that the staff are properly trained and incentivized to provide financial education. countries need to design programs to ensure people can make sound financial decisions, select financial products, which best suit their needs, and know how to use related channels, such as atms or mobile banking. however, more research and evaluation is necessary to further explore the relationship between financial literacy and financial inclusion, and to identify the impact of financial education initiatives on financial inclusion. ladies and gentlemen, with respect to technological advances, digital technologies are important for inclusion, as they enable innovative and lower - cost business models for providing financial services, making it viable to reach the poor. about 260 million unbanked adults in the developing world receive private sector wage payments in cash. switching to digital payments could potentially save significant time and resources for businesses and workers alike. likewise, agricultural payments present another chance to expand access to the formal financial system, as roughly 440 million unbanked adults in the developing world are paid in cash for farm goods. by moving away from cash and using digital payments to distribute social benefits and wages, governments can reduce costs and leakage. in the developing world, about 120 million unbanked adults receive government transfers in cash, according to the world bank ’ s global findex database 2014. at the same time, more than 31 million unbanked adults in emerging countries are paid government wages in cash. digitizing these payments could bring millions of adults into the financial system for the first time. likewise, 355 million adults in developing countries with an account send or obtain domestic remittances in cash or over the counter. further, 1. 3 billion adults with an account in developing countries pay their trash, water, and electric bills in cash, and over half a billion adults with an account in developing countries pay school fees in cash. access to digital payments generates opportunities to provide more convenient and affordable payment options. as we continue to adopt innovative financial inclusion models, we need to be positioned at the forefront of these developments in order to identify and manage the associated risks. more importantly, we need to be equipped with thorough knowledge of innovative business models to develop an enabling ecosystem for innovative financial inclusion to flourish in a safe and stable manner. ladies and gentlemen, allow me now to share with you some of

denis beau : where do crypto - assets fit into our payment system? speech by mr denis beau, first deputy governor of the bank of france, at the bank of france conference, rouen iae, rouen, 31 october 2018. * * * ladies and gentlemen, bitcoin was valued at usd 0. 001 less than a year after its launch in october 2009. today it is worth usd 6, 500, down from a peak of usd 19, 500 in december 2017. the explosion and volatility in bitcoin ’ s price have done much to fuel the media coverage surrounding the growth of the new monetary and financial instruments known as crypto - assets, of which bitcoin is merely the best known. in fact, there are now over 2, 000 of these types of assets worldwide. initially designed as online instruments of exchange, these assets have gradually gained a foothold in the real economy with the development of services that allow them to be bought and sold against currency issued by central banks or financial institutions, to be held, to be used as instruments of exchange against other assets and, with the recent emergence of initial coin offerings ( icos ), to be employed as investment and financing instruments. issued and stored in electronic form, these assets have specific features that us - based comedian john oliver jokingly summed up in his last week tonight show on 11 march 2018, as “ everything you don ’ t understand about money combined with everything you don ’ t understand about computers ”. his comments reflect the fact that crypto - assets have unique financial, monetary and technical features that set them apart from the currencies and payment instruments issued by financial institutions and central banks and which form the foundation of our monetary system in europe. they have no issuer for whom the assets act as a guarantee of value. they do not have a guaranteed fixed exchange rate with the currency issued by the central bank, which forms the basis of our payment system because it is the only one with legal tender status, i. e. which must be accepted by everyone. and they rely for their circulation on blockchain, a decentralised and distributed ledger system using cryptographic techniques. these unique features largely explain the widely varying views that we hear today about the outlook for crypto - assets, keeping in mind that, for now, they constitute a marginal share of holdings of economic agents and within the global economy. at their peak in january 2018, total outstanding crypto - assets represented eur