role. but in many jurisdictions, central banks progressively downgraded the importance of the financial stability goal in the post - war period. the supervision of banks was progressively split off from central banking, and a gap emerged in that, in some jurisdictions, nobody was tasked with looking at the vulnerabilities in the system as a whole. this is less true for emerging markets, including brazil, where central banks tended to keep a strong focus on financial stability even before the global financial crisis. in part, this reflects the fact that financial crises were relatively more common in emerging markets in the late 20th century. there was also an old and important academic and monetary policy debate in the decade leading up to the crisis on whether we should lean against a financial bubble or clean up after it has burst. however, the lack of consensus on this issue resulted, in practice, in a mostly laissez - faire policy stance. bis central bankers ’ speeches today, i think it is safe to say that there is general agreement that proactively maintaining financial stability, by taking appropriate action against the buildup of vulnerabilities, is a proper goal for central banks. the high cost of “ cleaning up ” after the global financial crisis will serve as a reminder against excessive complacency for some time to come. the current debate is about the policy tools for the goal of maintaining financial stability. macroprudential policy is widely seen as the first line of defense against systemic risk, but there is still uncertainty about its effectiveness. there is also disagreement on whether monetary policy should take financial stability considerations into account at all. on this latter issue – the use of monetary policy to deflate potential financial bubbles – there are two views. one is that monetary policy is likely to be particularly effective because it affects all financial markets. another view, that has been stated most forcefully by lars svensson, is that monetary policy is an inefficient and potentially even harmful tool for financial stability, since it is too unfocused and may have counterproductive macroeconomic effects. this is far from a theoretical matter : there is currently a lively debate on whether the current low interest rates in major jurisdictions are leading to “ search - for - yield ” behavior in certain financial market segments, potentially threatening financial stability, and whether this provides an additional motivation for normalizing monetary policy sooner rather than later. the view that seems to be gaining strength, and to which i subscribe, is to use macropr

25. 09. 2020 how central banks can use digitalisation to better serve the public : the case of payments navigating the digitalisation transformation - virtual omfif - banque de france seminar pablo hernandez de cos governor good morning, i would like to start off by expressing my gratitude to both the omfif and the banque de france for organising this very interesting and, certainly, timely event. like many of my esteemed colleagues, i have been vocal about the growing relevance of emerging technologies for the financial system before. in fact, at the banco de espana we are closely monitoring trends in order to fully understand their potential implications and be ready to act quickly, where necessary. yet despite all its recent history and significance, it is now - in the light of the pandemic - that digitalisation has become even more critical and, possibly, also a catalyst for a tectonic shift across multiple dimensions. products, services, business models, distribution channels and touch points all over the industry may, indeed, be closer today to an accelerated reshaping than was the case only a few months ago. if anything, these difficult times have, in my view, proven what a valuable ally digitalisation can be to strengthen banks ’ resilience and secure the necessary flow of funds to society at large. this has been instrumental to mitigate some of the damage caused by the outbreak. more broadly, the virtualisation of our economic activity during the pandemic has further provided a necessary backstop for many businesses that used to rely solely on their physical presence. as such, digitalisation has once again proved to be not a goal in itself but rather a means to serve a much broader purpose, as it offers a novel toolkit to push out the boundaries of what has been possible in the past, allowing us to address well - known and often challenging problems in a convenient and much more effective manner. exploring the pros and cons of issuing a central bank digital currency ( cbdc ) since the previous panel has already covered these covid - related themes quite extensively, i would rather use my time to draw your attention to something different and yet equally important as a reflection of the impact of digitalisation. hence, in the next few minutes i will comment on the way in which this transformational process echoes in a specific context, namely that of a central bank in its role as service provider, and the crosscutting impact this may have on the broader ecosystem. as in other