on crossborder payments. first, i will outline some general points about the potential impact and benefits of the introduction of cbdc for processing cross - border transactions. second, i will aim to highlight this topic in the context of the eurosystem's work on a digital euro – the envisaged european retail cbdc. 2 cbdcs and cross - border payments given that there are correspondent banks and fintechs working on digital innovations as well, let me begin with a question. what would be the additional benefits of cbdcs in the area of digital payments? the introduction of cbdcs would facilitate a setup of new infrastructures for digital payments. on the one hand, this makes high initial investment necessary. on the other hand, once a cbdc is established with its new infrastructure, it could catalyse broad improvements in payment systems, including cross - border transactions – by introducing new message standards and shorter process chains, for example. 4 starting on a green field may be one major advantage of cbdcs. experience shows that, in particular, implementing common standards is not an easy task. take iso 20022, for example. 5 the international organisation for standardisation proposed this common standard for financial messages in cross - border payments in 2004. it will be probably more widely used in payment systems on a global level next year – 21 years after the initial proposal. this period feels even longer when you think of all the innovations that have taken place in the meantime – the first iphone was presented in 2007, the concept of a decentralised blockchain in 2008. however, to be able to reap the benefits for cross - border payment, interoperability between cbdcs must be ensured early on. to this end, central banks should already begin to consider the best ways for interaction in the planning phase. in my view, we have a historic opportunity to vastly improve cross - border transactions by making different cbdcs interoperable from the very beginning. indeed, a number of projects are already researching the best ways of making cbdcs interoperable. for instance, the bank for international settlement ( bis ) innovation hub in singapore and a number of national central banks in the indo - pacific region set up project dunbar to explore how a common platform for cbdcs could enable cheaper, faster and safer cross - border payments. 6 i am strongly in favour of a multilateral approach in this area, because this best serves the interests of all participants.

joachim nagel : introducing a digital euro - the cross - border dimension speech by dr joachim nagel, president of the deutsche bundesbank, at the rbi @ 90 high - level conference on " central banking at crossroads ", organised by the reserve bank of india, new delhi, 14 october 2024. * * * check against delivery 1 introduction dear governor das, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, i am delighted to be here with you today, at this wonderful location, visiting this wonderful country – one of the cradles of world civilisation and culture. the reserve bank of india is currently celebrating its foundation 90 years ago. my heartfelt congratulations to all members of staff on this anniversary! last year, indian real - time payment systems processed about 129 billion digital transactions. 1 this means that 84 % of electronic payment transactions took place in real time. during the same period, only about 19 % of electronic payments worldwide were real - time transactions. in my view, this is impressive evidence of the excellent work the rbi has accomplished over the last few years. payment systems and their cross - border interaction are also an important topic at this conference. this is because cross - border payments are an integral part of our globalised world. historically, from the renaissance to modern times, correspondent banks have acted as the bedrock for cross - border payment transactions. 2 however, even today, transferring funds by means of correspondent banking is often slow, involves many steps and may result in high and non - transparent fees. moreover, in the last two decades, correspondent banking has been subject to a downward trend, mainly due to increasingly strict compliance requirements. between 2011 and 2022, the number of active correspondents decreased by roughly one third, while the value of cross - border payments increased by almost 40 %. 3 obviously, this is an alarming trend in terms of market competition. to some extent, technical progress might be able to compensate for a tighter correspondent banking market. in particular, in the last decade, a number of fintech companies have provided new opportunities to streamline cross - border payments using innovative methods like blockchain and digital wallets. the fintech revolution focused 1 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches on private money. however, it now appears there may be another revolution on the horizon – this time involving payments in central bank money : the introduction of central bank digital currencies ( cbdc ). in my talk, i would like to address cbdc developments with a particular focus