these monetary policy decisions need to be complemented by other instruments. sometimes it seemed like you were not exactly among mr draghi ’ s most ardent supporters. i have always supported president draghi. but when you heard him being talked about as the saviour of the euro or the person who had rescued spain, it didn ’ t sit well with you. well, he didn ’ t see it like that either. in spain, we rescued ourselves, off our own backs, with the help of our european partners, including the ecb. mr draghi made a key contribution, but there ’ s no single saviour here. it was a set of circumstances and a matter of everyone carrying out their responsibilities in their individual roles. as vice - president will you continue to appear alongside president lagarde? i have no idea. i suppose it will continue like that. it ’ s an unwritten rule, a tradition. traditions can change, but they can also be of value. brexit, trade and currency wars, geopolitical tensions. all of this in an environment of lower growth, zero rates and stimulus plans. when you were in government you joked that you slept like a baby, in that you woke up crying every two hours. how are you sleeping now? well. very well! i wouldn ’ t wish what happened in 2012 on my worst enemy. the situation now is totally different ; back then we were on the brink of collapse. the spanish economy, the italian economy, doubts about the integrity of the euro … the situation of the spanish banking industry was terrifying and contagion was spreading to the treasury. it was a dramatic situation. i don ’ t think there is going to be a recession in europe, that ’ s very unlikely. but yes, i am worried that we 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches will have two or three years of subdued growth, of below - potential growth. that is what is worrying me at the moment. and that this subdued growth may mean that the price stability objective is not met. monetary policy is not the philosopher ’ s stone, it cannot be used to fix everything. other policies are needed. so do you echo the calls of presidents draghi and lagarde for countries with fiscal space, above all germany, to boost spending and investment? this is important, yes, but my proposal goes further than that. our current system of national fiscal policies and national budgets, with a set of rules like the

speech demystifying wholesale central bank digital currency speech by fabio panetta, member of the executive board of the ecb, at the symposium on “ payments and securities settlement in europe – today and tomorrow ” hosted by the deutsche bundesbank frankfurt am main, 26 september 2022 let me first thank the deutsche bundesbank, and president nagel in particular, for inviting me to speak at today ’ s symposium. i would like to use this opportunity to discuss the implications of rapid technological change for our payment systems. i will focus not on people ’ s daily transactions, but on the infrastructure that underpins the smooth functioning and stability of our financial system. payments have long been an underestimated aspect of the monetary system, running reliably in the background and allowing the smooth implementation of policies in other areas, which took the spotlight. but a burst of creative digital innovation is now breaking this perception. this is most visible in the area of retail payments. the digitalisation of finance has broadened the available payment options. fintech start - ups have emerged. big techs have entered the payments market, capitalising on the networks they operate. the crypto universe has boomed and burst. these disruptions show that we need to preserve – at all times – an anchor of stability for the monetary and payments systems. safeguarding this anchor is what our digital euro project is about. we want to ensure that central bank money remains available for the public to use everywhere in the euro area for their day - to - day transactions – not just in its physical form, but in digital form too. but we are also actively working to modernise the payment infrastructure underpinning our financial system. technologies and preferences are changing, and preserving the role of central bank money as a safe asset at the heart of the system remains key. it strengthens the confidence in the smooth functioning of the financial system. the discussion on the wholesale version of central bank digital currencies – wholesale cbdc for short – is often prone to confusion, however. wholesale cbdc is generally presented as something new, made possible by the emergence of distributed ledger technology ( dlt ). [ 1 ] but wholesale cbdc has existed for decades. and it has provided efficient digital infrastructures for the settlement of transactions between banks in central bank money. the discussion about wholesale cbdc should therefore focus on how existing infrastructures have to be adapted as technologies and needs evolve. today i would like to demystify this concept of wholesale