s task to maintain price stability. price stability is an important prerequisite for sustainable economic development. people and companies can focus on innovations and creating wellbeing, instead of wasting their energy protecting themselves against inflation. with regard to financial stability, the bank of finland ’ s task is to ensure the credibility and efficiency of the financial system and to participate in its development. the central bank is the bankers ’ bank. the services that the central bank provides are a platform for interaction between banks. the central bank and the financial supervisory authority also participate in setting common ground rules. the ultimate role of ground rules – and regulation in general – is to create for the interaction of the various economic actors a setting in which a stable financial system contributes to promoting growth and wellbeing. an important characteristic of a platform is that it brings different actors together to interact with each other. that ’ s why the bank of finland has convened the payments forum today, for the tenth time. its aim is to promote cooperation between finnish actors and the formation of a shared vision on the development of payments. digitalisation in the financial sector digitalisation also facilitates completely new kinds of operating practices in the financial sector. are we now at an inflection point where digitalisation will change much of, or even the whole, sector decisively? to assess this, it ’ s worth looking back in time. banks invested heavily in information and communications technology in the 1980s. in this, finnish banks were in the vanguard of development. internal processes were modernised and atms appeared everywhere. in the second half of the 1980s, deregulation gained momentum. capital imports were liberalised. bank lending increased sharply and the indebtedness of citizens and businesses grew. then the bubble burst and was followed by a banking crisis. among other things, it forced the bloated banking sector to increase its productivity rapidly. utilising the ict investments made under the protection of regulation, operations were rationalised, the branch network was pruned and productivity was increased. shortly after the banking crisis came the breakthrough of the internet. customers began to access online banking services from home. banks provided services in branches, via atms, by telephone and with online banking. finnish banks soon succeeded in persuading their customers to use online banking services, and as a result the number of bank branches in finland is now low by european standards. bis central bankers ’ speeches what are the effects of digitalisation today? the smartphone, open apis,

erkki liikanen : digitalisation – old game, new rules or an entirely new game? remarks by mr erkki liikanen, governor of the bank of finland, at the payments forum, helsinki 10 may 2016. * * * digitalisation and the economy digitalisation means wide - ranging use of information and communications technology in the renewal of business models. digitalisation is a technological change that both enables new ways of doing things and introduces new instruments to all the sectors of the economy. long - term economic growth and the rise in the standard of living are based on improvements in labour productivity. digitalisation can be an important factor in this equation. productivity growth means that we achieve more with the same resources. digitalisation may also help create entirely new products and services in which productivity is higher than before. at the same time, new players will challenge traditional ones. that is precisely why digitalisation and related innovations have great potential. there are positive expectations associated with digitalisation, but also concerns. on the one hand, it is expected that digitalisation will increase productivity and improve competitiveness. on the other hand, there are fears that digitalisation will increase income disparities and inequality. among economists, there are two prevailing views on the opportunities and significance of digitalisation. the pessimists consider that digitalisation ’ s accelerating effect on economic growth is already fading. the best is already behind us. the optimists, in turn, predict that new technologies will trigger a sharp increase in productivity in the near future. they point out that development often pleasantly surprises us in the long term. why would we now be on the threshold of a new breakthrough in digitalisation? after all, we have been using computers and digital technology for a long time now, and the financial sector has already experienced a revolution as a result of digitalisation in the 1990s. we are living in a very different technological environment than a decade ago. use of information and communications technology, or ict, has increased massively and the price of communications has plunged as a result of competition and technological development. ict has become such an inseparable part of everyday life that it is often difficult to notice the speed and scope of change. a decade ago, one quarter of finns had never used the internet. today, the corresponding figure is a few per cent. in 2003 40 % of finns used the internet daily. last year, over 85 % of them were doing so. 1 use of smartphones and tablets