global players like large card networks or bigtech firms from china and the us. moreover, citizens and businesses should be able to send and receive cross - border payments to and from countries beyond the euro area under the same conditions and with the same ease as within as was highlighted this morning by bundesbank president jens weidmann. clearly, we need comprehensive european answers to the challenge posed by digitalisation while harnessing the benefits it offers. and these answers need to be inspired by a different mindset than before – just as einstein suggested. at the end of the day, it ’ s payees and payers who should ultimately benefit from being the focus of this mindset. as soon as possible, users should be able to send and receive payments throughout europe in a convenient and cost - efficient, safe and secure way. the underlying payment solution should be 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches recognisable as a common brand, enjoy european governance and seek global acceptance. the eurosystem took a first step towards making this vision a reality with its retail payments strategy. 1 today we learned more about the eurosystems ’ reasoning, ambitions and plans to foster payment system development in europe. the european commission recently picked up on this concept in its own retail payments strategy. 2 it is part of a comprehensive range of measures laid out in the so - called digital finance package. this morning it was further outlined by mairead mcguinness how this package will facilitate the digital transformation in financial markets. the bundesbank is fully supportive of these efforts, including during the german presidency. although some details merit further discussion, it became clear today that this package strikes just the right balance between reaping the benefits and mitigating the threats presented by the digitalisation of payments. olaf scholz, rightfully, emphasized the strong political will set on these topic. there ’ s just one point i would like to highlight : sepa instant payments are about to become the “ new normal ” in payments. a number of issues still need to be resolved, though. these include, first, pan - european reach – this is crucial for “ making it ” in the instant world. second, providers have to develop compelling solutions for end - users in all different payment situations : be they mobile, offline or online. ideally, these are seamlessly connected to a comprehensive range of relevant uses cases. introducing biometric authentication could further enhance attractiveness. third, matters of real - time

typically lasts. 4 debt was at a very high level before the most recent crisis, too – which is why many economies are still suffering from the fallout. the more growth through finance dream became the more crises through finance nightmare. excessive credit growth leads to greater vulnerability to crises and their consequences, but it also unleashes yet another negative effect. most recent studies provide evidence that it really is possible to have “ too much of a good thing ” – which is to say too much credit and too much financial market. various analyses show that economies expand more slowly when they arrive at an unsustainable, excessively high credit volume. 5 these studies do not state a universally valid limit. but they do suggest that additional credit growth adversely affects growth when the ratio of total private sector loans to gross domestic product oversteps 90 to 100 per cent. many developed economies exceeded that level before the crisis – and, unfortunately, they still exceed it today. in a nutshell, this means that more lending and the expansion of financial market activities is not unreservedly positive. the effect is better described by an arc. growth can pick up in times of weak economic development ; at later stages of development, a further increase can have negative implications. for developed countries, this means that more financial market alone will do little to advance prosperity. but emerging and developing countries, too, should be careful not to raise finance to unsustainable levels. 5. the task : finance for the future i would recommend all financial market participants and policy makers with an interest in promoting public welfare to heed these findings. but as john maynard keynes once wrote about the influence of academic advice : pragmatic decision - makers who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. the false and outdated assumptions of deceased economists serve, he argued, as the basis for their decisions. at this point i make a turner ( 2015 ), between debt and the devil : money, credit, and fixing global finance, princeton university press. c m reinhart & k s rogoff ( 2008 ), this time is different. eight centuries of financial folly, princeton university press. j l arcand, e berkes and u panizza ( 2015 ), too much finance? journal of economic growth, 20 ( 2 ) : 105 – 148 ; european systemic risk board ( 2014 ), is europe overbanked? report of the advisory scientific committee no