only about the immediate impact of the referendum – be it “ brexit ” or “ bremain ”. what will be more decisive over the medium to long term, however, will be to find good solutions to the problem of chronic dissatisfaction with europe ’ s institutions. we have to confront the detected deficiencies in a decisive manner. europe must demonstrate its ability to conduct credible political reforms. this task is necessary irrespective of today ’ s referendum in the united kingdom. should the uk vote to leave the eu, however, one thing is certain : europe ’ s political landscape will be missing a voice of caution and a proponent of stability and the market economy. that is something i would highly regret ; however, it is my hope that britain ’ s known penchant for pragmatism will prevail this evening. thanks you very much for coming, and i would now be pleased to join you in a discussion. bis central bankers ’ speeches

burkhard balz : overcoming the remaining hurdles in cross - border payments speech by mr burkhard balz, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the global payments summit, cape town, 29 june 2023. * * * check against delivery 1 introduction ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, i am delighted to be able to speak to you today about the future of cross - border payments in a town that has played such an important role in cross - border trade throughout its entire history. due to its location at the centre of the trade routes between east and west, cape town has always been at the heart of international trade, right between the atlantic and indian oceans. although trade was significantly slower during the age of sail, when cape town rose to prominence, there was already a need for payments spanning multiple countries and multiple currencies. this is a problem that we still face today, but on a significantly larger scale, because digitalisation, automation and globalisation have made trade faster, more complex, and more global. despite recent geopolitical tensions, global trade and migration are still on the rise. i hope that these trends will not reverse, since fragmentation means a loss of wealth. however, globalisation has put the spotlight on some of the inefficiencies that still affect cross - border payments. compared to domestic payments, cross - border payments remain slower, more opaque, and comparatively expensive. improving cross - border payments on a global scale may seem like an unsurmountable challenge right now, but, to quote the great nelson mandela : " it always seems impossible until it's done. " 2 striving to improve cross - border payments in light of the increasing importance of cross - border payments for the global economy, these inefficiencies prompted the g20 to launch an initiative to enhance this type of payment. as a result of this initiative, a roadmap1 consisting of 19 building blocks with concrete action points was set out in 2020. since then, work has progressed to a point where it is now concentrated on three priority actions. first, regulators around the world have to find ways to harmonise legal, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks. a greater degree of regulatory harmonisation may help to 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches automate cross - border payments further, leading to higher processing speed, and could lower the costs for compliance, which make up a large portion of the costs for these payments.