a reliable store of value, and their global use as a means of payment remains marginal. nevertheless, they have demonstrated the potential of the blockchain technology behind it. the technology is now being studied and tested by many financial market participants. central banks are no exception, primarily testing the possibility of adopting the technology in financial market infrastructures and payment systems. even considering the short and medium term outlook, it is impossible to say with certainty how the landscape of the financial services sector will evolve. digitalisation and fintech, as well as the possibilities offered by big data and artificial intelligence are attracting new providers to the market and fostering the introduction of novel business models. the new payment services directive ( psd2 ) has initiated a shift in the way payment services are offered and by whom they are offered. the increased competition between fintech firms, bigtechs and banks contributes to the disaggregation of the established value chains. these developments can clearly have a disruptive impact on the payments market. when discussing the ample opportunities of payments in the future, we should not forget the challenges that arise concerning regulation and supervision. the increasing digitalisation and technological advancements pose more complex risks, particularly in terms of cybersecurity, financial crimes and data protection. there is a fine line between stifling innovations by regulating too early and failing to protect the customers by regulating too little and too late. a balanced approach is needed to ensure a level playing field for all market participants, at the same time remaining technology - neutral. closer cooperation between industry participants and regulators across different sectors could be the answer for ensuring the challenges brought about by the digital world are handled in the best possible way. i ’ m sure that there are other keywords besides “ secure ", “ instant ” and “ cashless ” that will characterise the payments of the future. however, we have an excellent keynote speaker and two fantastic panels of experts, therefore i would now like to hand over to them to explore further the domain of payments. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches i wish us all a day full of interesting presentations and fruitful debates. thank you very much for your attention! 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

completed. today instant interbank transfers can be executed within a matter of seconds 24 hours a day 7 days a week. the 28th of august 2018 marks one year since latvijas banka became the first euro area central bank to introduce the instant payments infrastructure based on sepa inst. scheme. this is an infrastructure for commercial banks and other payment service providers, which have the task of providing this service to their customers. the eurosystem will launch the target instant payment settlement ( tips ) service on the 30th of november 2018, enabling payment service providers to offer fund transfers in real time and around the clock, 365 days a year in secure central bank money. at the same time today ’ s conference is about much more than instant payments. today we would like to discuss the key trends shaping the industry and understand what the path forward is. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches the conditions for new developments are very favourable, especially in the payments market. on the one hand, consumers are increasingly looking for fast, convenient and affordable services that suit their changing habits. on the other hand, the advances in technology facilitate the creation of innovative solutions with the potential of causing fundamental digitalisation - led changes in the sector. it will result in a significant switch to contactless, mobile and instant payments solutions available around the clock in the near future. latest generations of smartphones offer several options to access payments applications using biometrical identity : fingerprint, eye screening and face recognition technologies. innovations such as distributed ledger technology, cloud computing and artificial intelligence will transform the marketplace over time. it is clear that in the future further improvements in payment services will not be about speed anymore. in a few years ’ time, when the completion of payment transactions within seconds will have become the new standard, for all practical purposes further improvements in speed are unlikely to be of importance. instant payments are now being implemented at pan - european level. it is equally clear that payments continue to migrate away from cash and become less visible to the customer as consumers shift purchases to online and mobile channels. while we are unlikely to move to a 100 % cashless society in the near future, the incompatibility between cash and digital marketplaces or digital platforms means that payments will continue to move towards cashless solutions. an overview of payment trends would be incomplete without mentioning crypto - assets, even though they remain controversial and are still being debated. the high volatility of crypto - asset value shows that they cannot be