one hand, central banks need to boost their understanding of the changes that the industry is now experiencing and how these are likely to impact its present and future structure, and also to identify potential sources of risk for financial stability. enhancing stakeholder engagement appears to be a cornerstone for achieving this objective. furthermore, they must be ready to move ahead in deploying tailored, swift and proportionate responses as needed. a very good example of this is the work that both the bcbs and the fsb are steering in terms of assessing the vulnerabilities of crypto - assets and the potential practical strategies to address them in a cohesive way across borders. in addition, financial authorities may wish to show greater ambition and explore how emerging technology can help enhance the way they fulfil their supervisory, oversight or market conduct tasks, to name just a few. in other words, we should be ready to review our ways of working to the extent of contemplating changes in organisational structures. again, let me refer to a case in point in the area that i am best acquainted with : the ecb ’ s single supervisory mechanism ’ s ( ssm ) suptech agenda. this particular strategy rests on four key building blocks, namely : ( i ) implementing an innovation model based on open collaboration, ( ii ) fostering a shared digital culture among its staff, ( iii ) cultivating an innovation ecosystem that connects stakeholders from within the ssm with start - ups, academia and other institutions, and ( iv ) developing impactful tools and solutions. lastly, central banks may want to take the opportunity to try out new resources such as regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs and to assess their actual ability to foster the development of new ideas, so as to help move them closer to fruition. similarly, central banks must upgrade the infrastructures and services that they themselves provide since these may constrain the type and depth of privately - led innovation that can take place, and will also having a bearing on overall competitiveness and competition across the industry. central bank digital currencies are, perhaps, the most visible illustration of this trend but there are others such as the growing interest in exploring blockchain - based solutions for the settlement of payments and securities and the discussions regarding the issuance of a digital identity. for a deeper insight into these topics, please see fsb ( 2019 ) “ third - party dependencies in cloud services considerations on financial stability implications ”, december. see, eba (

financial and economic integration and the role of sustainable infrastructure and connectivity in fostering regional value chains. allow me to take advantage of chairing the first session of this conference that focuses on the impact of digital finance on the economic and financial outlook to briefly reflect on what are, in my view, some of the key challenges our respective institutions face as a result of the profound and relentless process of digital transformation that the global financial system is currently engaged in. this is certainly a topic that has gained much attention in both policy and academic circles, thus giving rise to a significant amount of research that touches upon the causes and factors underlying the changing landscape, including the extent to which the pandemic has contributed to accelerating this phenomenon. 1 for example, according to a mckinsey & company study, due to covid - 19, businesses ’ digital offerings leapfrogged about seven years in a matter of months during 2020. in their view, this trend is likely to continue in the near future albeit at a slower pace. this study is available at : https : / / www. mckinsey. com / capabilities / strategy - and - corporate - finance / ourinsights / how - covid - 19 - has - pushed - companies - over - the - technology - tipping - point - and - transformed - business - forever. many of these studies emphasise as the most salient features of recent developments : ( i ) the growing role of digital technologies in back, middle and front - office activities, 2 ( ii ) the cross - jurisdictional nature of a wealth of financial services offerings today, ( iii ) the emergence and consolidation of non - traditional competitors, often with a previous universal footprint in the itc field, and ( iv ) the prioritisation of customer - centric commercial strategies in response to what clearly are much less stable and long - term bank - client relationships. banks have been reacting to the challenges of this new environment, and they have done so in manifold ways. for instance, financial intermediaries have been particularly agile in leveraging the opportunities offered by novel services such as cloud computing. they have also pioneered the analysis of how artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can help in both reducing the level of credit defaults and anticipating customer needs. in addition, some of them are actively pursuing strategic alliances with promising fin tech companies in search of business synergies. for this purpose, banks frequently combine cooperation agreements with ex - ante collaboration across potential partners via self -