rmb funds. settlement between banks is real - time, and hong kong is one of the few jurisdictions achieving real - time settlement in a retail payment infrastructure. both banks and svfs can participate in fps. this creates a retail payment ecosystem that facilitates money transfers among users of banks and svfs. the full interconnectivity of all payment participants is, again, likely to be one of first in the world. in addition to fps, the hkma is leading a working group to work on a common qr code standard for retail payments. a common qr code standard will facilitate merchants, especially smes, in using one single qr code to accept different payment schemes. this would certainly help promote the wider use of mobile retail payments in hong kong. 3 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches ( b ) supervisory sandbox 2. 0 the hkma will upgrade the existing fintech supervisory sandbox to sandbox 2. 0. there will be three new features in this enhanced version. first, we will set up a fintech supervisory chatroom that would engage the stakeholders at a much earlier stage of project development. the chatroom will be manned by experts from our fintech facilitation office and banking supervision department. the chatroom will provide speedy and timely feedback when new technology or solution is being contemplated, thereby reducing the risk of abortive work by the parties concerned and expediting the rollout of new fintech applications. second, tech firms may have direct access to the sandbox. tech firms may test out their innovation by seeking feedback from the chatroom without necessarily going through a bank. third, we understand that our fellow regulators in hong kong, the securities and futures commission ( sfc ) and the insurance authority ( ia ), will shortly be launching their own sandboxes. following discussion among the hkma, sfc and ia, we have agreed to link up the three sandboxes through a common interface so that there can be a single point of access by the stakeholders for fintech solutions covering more than one sector. ( c ) facilitating virtual banking we believe that the time is ripe for hong kong to try out virtual banks. in some jurisdictions, it has proved to be technically feasible and commercially viable for virtual or branchless banks to operate. a virtual bank operates on a different model of service delivery and may help promote financial inclusion as they normally target small customers, be they individuals or smes. our view is that the emergence

mario draghi : interview with the financial times interview with mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, in the financial times, conducted by messrs lionel barber and ralph atkins on 14 december 2011 in frankfurt, and published on 19 december 2011. * * * financial times : we are now more than four years into the financial crisis. what lessons would you draw so far? what has gone right and what has gone wrong? mario draghi : we have to distinguish two stages. first was the financial crisis, with its repercussions for the real economy. i think we learnt the lessons that we need a more resilient financial system, a system where we would have less debt and more capital. there has been substantial progress in designing new regulatory policies and some progress in implementing this new design. the second stage of the crisis is really a combination of, i would say, a challenging political phase, where euro area leaders are reshaping what i called the fiscal “ compact, ” and a situation where banks and countries, face serious funding constraints. these challenging funding conditions are now producing a credit tightening and have certainly increased the downside risks for the euro area economy. action is proceeding on two fronts. at last week ’ s european union summit you saw a first step towards fiscal rules that are not only more binding, but actually are of a different nature. they would be binding ex ante, which is an entirely new quality, and written into the primary legislations of the member states. the second line of action is a set of meaningful, significant decisions taken by the ecb last week. we cut the main interest rate by 25 basis points. we announced two long - term refinancing operations, which for the first time will last three years. we halved the minimum reserve ratio from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. we broadened collateral eligibility rules. finally, the ecb governing council agreed that the ecb would act as an agent for the european financial stability facility ( efsf ). will the three - year refinancing operations give banks an incentive to buy “ periphery ” eurozone bonds? not necessarily. of course banks also have capital difficulties, and these measures don ’ t necessarily help them on that side. the objective is to ease the funding pressures that banks are experiencing. they will then decide what the best use of these funds is. one aspiration is to have them financing the real economy, especially small and medium sized enterprises