another, as we are in a marathon and not a sprint. across the street from my office, is a large mural of kenya ’ s marathon champion eliud kipchoge with his mantra no human is limited. along with the millions of his fans, i will be rooting for kipchoge on august 8, as he defends his olympic marathon gold medal title against other strong contenders such as the ugandan team led by stephen kiprotich. we may not agree on who is best placed to win the 2020 olympic marathon, but i am sure we will agree that, in as much as no human is limited, the financial sector must and will find a way to bend without breaking in order to thrive in this new age. thank you! 1 schwab, klaus “ the fourth industrial revolution : what it means, how to respond ” january 2016. brynjolfsson, erik and andrew mcafee, “ the second machine age : work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies ” w. w. norton & company, 2014. 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches

, data from surveys conducted for the federal reserve show that the use of checks in our society has now begun to decline. second, data on credit card, debit card, and ach usage show very strong and sustained growth, to the extent that electronic payments now account for about half of the number of all noncash payments. third, through the use of electronic payments, retailers and billers are continuing to seek productivity gains and cost reductions in their transactions with consumers. fourth, data from the federal reserve's surveys of consumer finances show that over time households across most age and income categories have been adopting basic electronic payment instruments, although, as might be expected, younger households are in the forefront. finally, the u. s. government is actively working on new technologies and services to increase the use of electronics in both its payments and collections. taken together, these factors point to increasing use of electronic payments, when and where economic factors press this outcome. public - policy perspective from the perspective of public policy, the key objectives for the payments system have always been economic efficiency and safety as well as confidence. indeed, these broad objectives, which include the goals of integrity, security, reliability, and accessibility, have been endorsed by the g - 10 central banks as international objectives for major payment systems in key reports published by the bank for international settlements and used widely by the international monetary fund and world bank. the challenge is to bring these abstract ideas to bear on particular payments systems issues during this time of transition. efficiency. turning first to efficiency, in the area of check collection, both the financial industry and the federal reserve banks face classic issues involving the adjustment of infrastructure to declining demand. moreover, various programs to convert checks to electronic payments at the point of sale or the lockbox, or to truncate checks early in the collection stream, imply that the pace of decline in the volume of paper - check clearings could well accelerate. however, checks also remain a highly convenient payment instrument with a long and tested history ; they are unlikely to be completely eliminated as a major payment instrument any time soon. as a result, the financial industry and the federal reserve banks face the prospect of declining demand for paper - check processing, but also significant uncertainty about the extent and timing of the decline. nevertheless, we know that over time the efficient use of resources will require reductions in excess production and processing capacity as the market demand for checks and check processing declines. in addition to managing resources to meet declining demand,