a way to access public money in the digital sphere? or, to paraphrase ecb president christine lagarde, " don't we all need to have access to public money in the digital age? ". before i give you my answer to this question, let me briefly touch upon the question of the risks of introducing the digital euro and the potential downsides of its deployment. risks first, and this is something central bankers are concerned with the most - the potential of the digital euro for disintermediation. the story goes like this : if we deprive banks of their funding sources in the form of deposits and people then move those deposits with us instead, aren't we going to destabilise the system, suppress credit activity and eventually cause the decline of the economic activity? the ecb and the central banks first identified this risk in 2020, and now we believe there is a solution to it. with the right design of the digital euro that places a limit on the amount of digital euro per holder, we can successfully mitigate that risk and not allow the digital euro to become a source of instability. another risk is a potential for market distortion that lies in the introduction of the digital euro when a public institution enters the private market, disrupts it and even competes with both current and future market participants. why do that when we already have an innovative and well - functioning payment system in the eu? and isn't it that the markets always do things better and more efficiently driven by the invisible hand, with the regulators'task being only to level the playing field by providing an adequate legal framework? the answer here is that the digital euro payment infrastructure will coexist with the current one and offer an additional option. in a growing market for electronic payment, there is room for such a new solution with previously mentioned built - in limits. at the same time, private sector participants will continue to play a key role in developing digital euro functionalities. the role of central banks will be to provide basic back - end infrastructure while everything else will be left to the industry to find the best solutions and innovate. and the third risk is connected with the international dimension of the digital euro. here, in general, every cbdc at first seems like a win - win solution. the current system of international retail payments is full of friction. it is slow, expensive and opaque, and the cbdc could play a significant role here to make it cheaper,

central banks : observers or leaders of change? published : 9 / 3 / 2023 speech by deputy governor sandra svaljek at the money motion 2023 conference on 9 march 2023 dear guests, i remember when governor vujcic stood here on lauba stage in december 2020 at the time of covid restrictions... today, there are so many more speakers and participants here, many of you from abroad and i would like to congratulate organizers on that, and for bringing together banking, financial and fintech representatives all in one place. moreover, having both challengers and incumbents here means there may even be a chance for a few of them to engage in coopetition. the times they are a - changin'in recent years, we have seen many negative global developments, such as lockdowns, restrictions, supply chain bottlenecks, aggression in ukraine, oil price shock and sanctions. on the positive side, technology is constantly changing and evolving, revolutionising how we live and work owing to pronounced advancements in computing power, ai and machine learning, 5g technology and cloud computing. it all profoundly affects how we perceive money. so, the name of this conference - money motion - precisely depicts the evolving and shape - shifting nature of money due to these developments. while the diffusion of technologies is accelerating as well, it is precisely in the area of payments where it is the most rapid. we are still determining what this will bring and which form the money will eventually take. are we going to see the decline in the dominance of one global currency and its replacement by a new one or the formation of an alliance between currencies? will it be the dominance of technology companies in providing payment services to the general public? trust whatever the case may be, there is one thing we are certain of : nothing has changed in our central banking task of maintaining the trust of the public in money and the financial system. or to quote my colleague banker from the bank for international settlements, mr augustin carstens, " the soul of money is trust. ". we are still here to pursue monetary policy goals, to preserve the value of money by providing trust in the value of money and to offer money as a payment instrument that is widely accepted, secure, cheap and convenient. our institutional task is to maintain confidence in the financial system and to serve as an anchor – a digital exchange for all other sorts of money that private issuers offer. to mention at this