and quickly adopt them. as you can see, there is a great deal to do and central banks, governments and other public institutions play a major role here, because the past has shown that without their input no major and sustainable improvements can be achieved. let me draw to a close here. payments and payment systems, although often remaining unnoticed, inevitably affect everyone. they will always be driven by innovation and despite huge geographical distance, we face similar challenges when it comes to digitalisation in the financial sector. ultimately, the same holds true for both brazil and germany : a digital economy needs efficient, quick and competitive digital payment methods. thank you for your attention. 1 1. quote in the context of an event with febraban ( brazilian federation of banks ) in december 2019. see www. latinamerica. tech / 2019 / 12 / 12 / the - president - of - the - central - bank - of - brazil - highlighted - the - importance - oftechnology - in - a - meeting - with - the - brazilian - federation - of - banks / 2 2. fis / worldpay ( 2021 ) : global payments report. offers. worldpayglobal. com / rs / 850 - joa856 / images / 1149143 _ gpr _ digital _ all _ pages _ singles _ rgb _ fnl8b. pdf 3 3. lincoln, a. ( 2021 ) ; a look into brazil ’ s booming fintech www. forbes. com / sites / forbestechcouncil / 2021 / 08 / 09 / a - look - into - brazils - booming - fintech - scene /? sh = 27845aa672b0 scene. 4 4. furquim, c. ( 2019 ) : brazilians are more likely to choose electronic payments and here ’ s why. labsnews. com / en / articles / business / adoption - of - electronic - payments - in - brazil / 5 5. bloomberg ( 2021 ). brazil ’ s central bank built a mobile payment system with 110 million users. www. bloomberg. com / news / articles / 2021 - 10 - 06 / pix - mobile - payment - how - brazil - s - central - bank - launchedplatform 6 6. this refers to girocard, a national debit card system. 7 7. z. b. 8 8. scene. bargeldloses zahlen – girocard - zahl

speaking for the euro area, it would under no circumstances replace cash, but rather supplement it. a cbdc would expand the existing choice of payment methods. it could contribute to financial inclusion and ensure that less digitally savvy groups of the population also have access to digital payments. in addition, depending on the design choices, it could offer the opportunity to exploit technical innovations like dlt and thus enable, for example, payments embedded into programmable applications. in europe, when it comes to cbdc we aim to be “ ahead of the curve ” as ecb president christine lagarde put it, 12 while, at the same time, taking the utmost care to evaluate the design options for a digital euro. its development is a balancing act between two key risks. the first risk is that being too ambitious could lead to a crowding out of private payment solutions and a potential disintermediation of the banking sector. the second is the risk of creating an unattractive product that would not be accepted by consumers and enterprises. in october 2021, the ecb launched what it refers to as the investigation phase of the project. this is designed to ensure that the eurosystem stands ready to offer a functioning digital euro, should the decision be made to introduce it. until then, we will carefully investigate the risks, the 5 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches functional and technical design options, monetary policy independencies as well as financial stability implications. last but not least, we are holding lively discussions with all relevant stakeholders to identify key features that would add value for the potential users of a digital euro. the primary goal is to maintain the accessibility of central bank money in a digitalised economy. to fulfil this function, the digital euro must be accepted throughout the european union and adopted by its citizens. we are therefore fostering a dialogue with european businesses and citizens. the ebc recently published the findings of the responses by focus groups. 13 these give us additional insights on the payment needs of consumers and merchants and specific use cases of a potential digital euro. most importantly, participants in the focus groups preferred payment methods with paneuropean reach, speed, high convenience and universal acceptance in physical shops and online. in addition, privacy protection is of high importance. participants also valued the possibility of instant and contactless person - to - person payments. here, brazil ’ s instant payment system pix can serve as an example, showing that consumers have a demand for such services