a rapid decrease in the use of cash is not without problems. this is only a few of the aspects that may be debated in the second session. the third topic is the future and we all want to know what it will look like. will the banks be reduced to mere suppliers of infrastructure and account holding services while other actors, the non - banks, have most of the end - user relation - ship? or will the banks win by knock - out? will the non - banks become banks over time as their activity expands? will payment services be delivered to us by apple? google? facebook? alibaba? what about bitcoin and its peers? will we simply have payment services provided by an anonymous network? in addition to having all these kinds of issue debated among representatives for market actors and authorities, we will also have the pleasure of listening to the academic perspective of professor charles m. kahn from the university of illinois. i ’ m really looking forward to learning more about all these topics today. bis central bankers ’ speeches

examples of such firms. a concrete example of such a case is m - pesa, the mobile payment service launched by safaricom in kenya. initially intended for person - to - person payments, it quickly became a success and a platform for a number of financial services. non - banks can also act as suppliers of services to the banks, e. g. payment switches routing the payment information or the outsourcing of back - end services such as the operation of large it - platforms, etc. these are all essential inputs for payment intermediation. because non - banks can enter the payment process in so many places, we have longer and more complex payment processes with more actors involved. banks, at least for some type of payment services, have less direct contact with the end - users. this development, whether we like it or not and depending on who we are, is a reality that we have to relate to. in this structural development in the payment market, there will be several challenges for commercial players, as well as for those of us working on the public side. evolvement is seldom a gradual and smooth process. this gives rise to a number of interesting issues that we have the chance to address here today. it also explains the conference agenda. three topics for the conference the first topic concerns the current development. how do the different market players view the evolving ecosystem? are the banks hurt or do they benefit from the entry of non - banks as a result of an increase of payment traffic through their systems and between their accounts? are all market players a big happy family where everyone cooperates with everyone else or is it razor - sharp competition, a dog - eat - dog market? who, if anyone, is gaining the upper hand? i ’ m looking forward to learning more about this type of issue in the first session. the second topic concerns the regulatory environment. the central role of the retail payments market for social welfare ensures that the authorities will want to promote an efficient outcome. how to balance cooperation and competition? how to ensure a level playing field and how to protect consumers? for example, is the current supervision bis central bankers ’ speeches sufficient or will we have to sharpen it in the future? central banks have an additional stake in this game. cash is one of our main products and an increased supply of services from non - banks is likely to reduce its usage. on the one hand, central bank should embrace the development from an efficiency point of view. on the other,