anita angelovska bezoska : let's get digital speech by ms anita angelovska bezhoska, governor of the national bank of the republic of macedonia, at the nbrm ’ s 11th conference on payments and market infrastructures “ let's get digital ”, ohrid, 6 - 8 june 2018. * * * distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 11th edition of the conference on payments and market infrastructures hosted by the national bank of the republic of macedonia. the organization of this conference has been traditionally supported by de nederlandsche bank for which we are very thankful and over time, this initial bilateral cooperation attracted involvement of other central banks and ifis. in this context, i would like to extend our appreciation to banco de portugal for its contribution in the past editions, as well as to the bank of italy, the national bank of belgium and the national bank of serbia for their contribution to this conference. also, particularly valuable is the continued participation of the european central bank, the bank for international settlement and the european commission given the prominent role these institutions play in the payments area. this year ’ s conference focuses on digital transformation, a process that is heavily penetrating across all segments of our business and private lives and will take even greater significance in the years to come. the digital transformation in finance has been rapidly evolving with the emergence of fintech sector. according to the ernst & young ’ s fintech adoption index, one - third of consumers utilize at least two or more fintech services and they are becoming increasingly aware of fintech as a part of their daily lives. the fintech adoption index for services offered by fintech organizations under five broad categories – money transfers and payment services, financial planning tools, savings and investments, borrowing and insurance, indicates that money transfers and payment services are continuing to lead the fintech change, with adoption standing at 50 % in 2017 and 88 % of consumers anticipating of doing so in the future. thus, the global payments industry is currently undergoing a paradigm shift driven by rapid advances, the influx of new technologies and evolving consumer behavior as digital generations come of age. the emerging fintech enhances the transformative power of digital payments via innovation. the irruption of digital payments relates to its many opportunities. embracing payments digitalization has the potential to substantially reduce the costs, increase the efficiency and enable broader access to payment services. with the rise of new payment digital technologies developed by

’ s chairman of the board. global investor. with regard to the specific topic of my lecture this evening, i expect the gic to demonstrate leadership in the coming months to help shape an agreement with the governments of the most important mature countries on a set of guidelines for swfs that will hopefully help to address the challenges i discussed this evening. to summarise, swfs have become an important source of capital flowing from the periphery to the core of today ’ s global economy. as such, they can play a constructive role in mature markets. at the same time, swfs pose a challenge to the international community. the challenge is to preclude an outcome where the activities of swfs trigger policy responses in mature markets that ultimately lead us down the path of financial protectionism. it is in the interest of mature markets and developing countries alike to avoid such an outcome. a set of guidelines addressing the threat of politically driven investment decisions and resurging state involvement in the global economy represent the best currently available option to respond to the challenge of swfs. let me close with a broader swiss perspective. switzerland has in absolute terms the sixth largest current account surplus in the world. last year, foreign investments by swiss companies and swiss individuals generated net income receipts equivalent to 12 per cent of our gdp, or approximately chf 60 billion. in other words, we are experts at making profitable cross - border investments. this means that we have as strong an incentive as virtually any country in keeping global financial markets open. references bernanke, benjamin s. 2006, " global economic integration : what's new and what's not? ", speech held at the federal reserve bank of kansas city's thirtieth annual economic symposium, jackson hole, wyoming, august. coeure, benoit, 2007, " faut - il avoir peur des fonds souverains? ", forthcoming, les cahiers, le cercle des economistes. cox, christopher, 2007, " the role of governments in markets ". speech at harvard on 24th october 2007 ( http : / / www. sec. gov / news / speech / 2007 / spch102407cc. htm ). genberg, h., mccauley, r., park, y. and persaud, a. 2005, official reserves and currency management in asia : myth, reality and the future. london, centre for economic policy research. gourinch