by the payments council on future payments : http : / / www. payyourway. org. uk / wp - content / uploads / 2012 / 10 / pay - your - way - 2025 - future - ofpayments. pdf bis central bankers ’ speeches as a result of the digitalisation of information, communication and commerce, payments – and in particular remote payments – are no longer perceived on a stand - alone basis. rather, they have become part of some increasingly long and complex value chains. users will above all want these value chains to seamlessly integrate e - commerce, social media and retail payments. in e - commerce, buying and paying with one click is easier than having to navigate from the merchant website to the bank online application and entering payment data, passwords, tans and so on. interestingly and unsurprisingly, the companies that dominate the digital world – the internet “ big five ”, namely apple, google, microsoft, amazon and facebook – are all offering payment services or considering doing so. 2 these payment services are incorporated seamlessly into their digital ecosystems and thus potentially have a global reach. their business case is clear. they provide the services free of charge to retail clients ( but not to merchants ), expecting to achieve indirect returns through increased customer loyalty, acquisition of customer data ( big data ), analysis of purchasing behaviour and personalised advertising. this is the big challenge for the incumbents in the market. however, the market pie in retail payments innovation in europe has not been sliced up and shared out yet. incumbents can still have an impact, provided they are far - sighted enough to realise that the challenges of digitalisation cannot be met by merely considering the internet and the smartphone as an additional channel for retail payments. while the new service providers and competitors should not be underestimated, let ’ s not forget the comparative advantages that banks can offer. data and operational security is one. many users are worried about some practices of the international providers in the digital sphere. confidence in the security of transactions is – and will remain – the basis for any kind of relationship between payment service provider and user. believe it or not, payment service users still trust their banks. against this background, the role of the regulators in general and central banks in particular has not changed that radically. the main concern of central banks is to maintain confidence in money by fostering safe and efficient retail payment systems. however, the issues that need to

##economic stabilisation and lasting economic prosperity. in order to reap the full benefits from our monetary policy measures, other policy areas must contribute more decisively to raising the longer - term growth potential and reducing vulnerabilities. 1 i thank danielle kedan for her support in preparing this speech. 2 for further discussion on the phases of the crisis, see praet, p. ( 2016 ), “ the ecb and its role as lender of last resort during the crisis ”, speech at the committee on capital markets regulation conference on the lender of last resort – an international perspective, washington dc, 10 february 2016. 3 for further discussion of the implementation and effects of the app, see hammermann, f., k. leonard, s. nardelli and j. von landesberger ( 2019 ), “ taking stock of the eurosystem ’ s asset purchase programme after the end of net asset purchases ”, economic bulletin, issue 2, european central bank. 4 see coenen, g., m. ehrmann, g. gaballo, p. hoffmann, a. nakov, s. nardelli, e. persson and g. strasser ( 2017 ), “ communication of monetary policy in unconventional times ”, working paper series, no 2080, european central bank. 5 see praet, p. ( 2018 ), “ challenges to monetary policy normalisation ”, speech at the suerf conference entitled “ sustainable policy responses : eu and us perspectives ”, new york, 20 september. 6 for further discussion, see praet, p. ( 2018 ), “ maintaining price stability with unconventional monetary policy ”, speech given at the council of the european union, brussels, 29 january 7 see praet, p. ( 2017 ), “ maintaining price stability with unconventional monetary policy measures ”, speech at the mmf monetary and financial policy conference, london, 2 october and praet, p. ( 2018 ), “ assessment of quantitative easing and challenges of policy normalisation ”, speech at the ecb and its watchers xix conference, frankfurt am main, 14 march. 5 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches