. so, looking at my fellow central bankers here tonight, i must ask : what will we do? shall we sit quietly? i don ’ t think so. no, the job for the central bankers among us is clear. like on the painting, we will rise up, fiercely spread our wings, and protect our eggs from the menacing mongrel of inflation. hence the ecb ’ s recent move – to raise interest rates by 75 basis points. as my central bank colleagues gathered here tonight will confirm, this major transition in monetary policy was a necessity. at current inflation levels – levels that are threatening our european prosperity – we need to rapidly transition away from a highly accommodative monetary policy to interest rate levels that will support a timely return to our inflation target of two percent over the medium term. and i anticipate further rate hikes over the coming months, to be specified meeting by meeting, based on data, and guided by our objective of price stability. but we know that, even with our recent, major changes to monetary policy, it will take time for these changes to take effect in the economy and actually bring inflation down. that is why i am grateful to be here. however much i like preaching to the monetary choir in this room, being here gives me the opportunity to address the full efc, including member states ’ finance ministries, the european commission and related agencies. hence, an opportunity to re - emphasise the value of working together. in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, after 2008, monetary and fiscal policy were each fighting their own battles. partly due to this, and with the benefit of hindsight, economic recovery was slowed down. more recently, a mere two and a half years ago, the dog in the water was the corona virus. in the meantime, however, we had learned valuable lessons from the past. so when the pandemic hit us it was a swift and balanced cooperation between monetary and fiscal pandemic hit us, it was a swift and balanced cooperation between monetary and fiscal policy that gave our economy wings to fight back. and that is what we need to do now as well : to jointly work towards our common goal – a secure and prosperous europe. needless to say, each within our own mandate. but i would also like to express a word of caution though : fiscal measures that are aimed at compensating households for high inflation might themselves become inflationary when they further increase the imbalance between

consider whether to apply sanctions next year. bis central bankers ’ speeches i am sometimes asked “ exactly how strict is dnb going to be next year? ” my answer to that is quite simple : “ strict ”. the next question then is “ but are you going to be thorough? ” my answer to that question, too, is simple : “ of course we are ”. if i then put on my other hat – that of the catalyst – it means looking at the issue from the typical dutch polder perspective and switching to my role as chairman of the nfs national forum on sepa migration. that role means working with everyone to make sure we take account of all the interests at stake and arrive at optimal solutions for us all. here, too, we regularly have to be strict. the overseer ’ s hat then comes in handy as there are times when we also have to take decisions. and not every decision is equally welcomed by everyone. the nfs is the sepa variant of what we are doing on a broader scale in the national forum on the payment system ( or mob, as it is known in dutch ). i often have to explain to colleagues from abroad that this forum works on the basis of equal participation by representatives of providers and users of payment systems. and, if you ’ ll forgive me this reference to water after what i said earlier : before we start work on, say, a project to build water defences, we first put up a coffee hut at the site. setting up the coffee hut is not our main task, but we would not want to be without it as that is where we agree who is going to do what during the project. this is also a model that could prove useful in a european context. as you may know, there is a sepa council at a european level, and i have attended its meetings on various occasions. but the sepa council still has too few powers to make a real impact. however, and despite all the good aspects of the polder model, we also have to admit, in the current climate, that not everything can be done in an atmosphere of cooperation and consultation. not everything can be voluntary. with the exception of our new sepa task, dnb ’ s oversight task is still based on a voluntary agreement, and that is no longer appropriate for the times we live in. the payment system has become far too crucial for society to allow oversight of the relevant players to remain entirely voluntary. we really need