they head to the shops for their groceries. they could have used their cards at the terminals but obviously the choice of payment is still predominantly cash. our statistics revealed that we have an estimated share of banknote of $ 1, 500 per capita, by value – this is fairly high but expected in a cash based economy like solomon islands. so, i think we are not seeing yet the demise of cash in solomon islands. perhaps not in the next decade or two. obviously, the key observation from the numbers is that we all use cash in our daily transactions. that being the case, we need to know a little bit more about our notes and coins, how to handle them and the important roles that we all perform in the cash cycle in our various capacities. in that context, ladies and gentlemen, let me now touch a little bit about our new $ 5 banknote. our new polymer $ 5 banknote our new polymer $ 5 banknote is the last in our existing note series to be reformed. the proposal to reform the $ 5 note received the board ’ s approval in 2016 and, subsequently a currency tender committee was established and tasked to tender the project to note suppliers in a closed tender process. note printing australia was successful in the tender process, and that began our journey with npa in the production and supply of our new polymer $ 5 note, up until its delivery in early april this year. and i am pleased that the ceo of npa ( and his main man behind this project ) are here with us to witness this launch. looking back, i am amazed by the amount of work and time that went into the project from inception to delivery of the products. i can still recollect the many exchanges of emails, onsite visitations, training workshops conducted by technical experts from npa for our currency team – nuwan and brian are here and they can attest to this. importantly, the whole process involved numerous checks and balances, compliance to ensure the job meets international standards in note printing and satisfaction of in - house quality controls. indeed, it was not an ‘ easy walk through the park ’ job. why the polymer substrate? the $ 5 denomination is currently the lowest in our family of banknotes. it is the most used banknote for low value transactions. currently, in terms of volume, we have about 2 million pieces of $ 5 notes in circulation. this is equivalent to 4 pcs per capita or $ 20 per person, by value. since the

but also for supervisors. we should not stifle the innovative power of fintechs, yet we need to keep an eye on potential risks to financial stability. to quote felix hufeld, the head of the german financial supervisor, " it is not a firm's'coolness factor'which is decisive, but the type of business it conducts and the risks it takes in doing so. " ladies and gentlemen there is no question that banks are currently facing major challenges. however, i have no doubt whatsoever that banks will also continue to play a crucial role in the european financial system going forward. since the economic structure features a large number of small and medium - sized enterprises, the financial system will remain primarily bank - based. bis central bankers ’ speeches 5. conclusion i would like to conclude with a few remarks. at the beginning, i quoted a journalist who, at banking conferences, always heard all those words ending in " - ing " and " - ation. " as you will have noted, my speech, too, was teeming with nouns ending in " - ing " and " - ation " i started with monetary financing of the public sector, continued with fiscal consolidation and interest rate differentiation, the disciplining effect of the markets and the restructuring of sovereign debt, the finalisation of regulation, the " deprivileging " of government bonds, and i ended with digitalisation. the canadian - born economist john kenneth galbraith, who passed away nearly ten years ago, is credited with the caustic remark that " meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything. " with regard to the finance forum liechtenstein, that's most certainly not a view that i would espouse. quite the opposite, in fact – exchanging views and refreshing contacts is certainly doing something, and will ultimately also benefit your firms. i would therefore like to wish you a rewarding conference and thank you for being such an attentive audience. bis central bankers ’ speeches