a european payment solution that can be used across the entire euro area and that runs on a european infrastructure. added to that, we are seeing new players enter the payments market with innovative business models and convenient applications for users. bigtech firms are leveraging their existing digital platforms with international customer bases to expand into new markets. however, these payment solutions are typically run on non - european payment infrastructures. in addition, they often form a fairly closed ecosystem. this brings us to the legitimate question of whether we want to be heavily, or even solely, dependent on 2 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches a few international players when it comes to an infrastructure as critical as our payment system. the rising geopolitical tensions in recent years have ultimately highlighted the risks that such a dependency can entail. in order to strengthen europe's resilience and independence in payments, it is essential that we start developing our own solutions – made in europe. as ecb president christine lagarde once so aptly put it : ( - ) the best insurance against a more uncertain world is building more resilience at home. with a digital euro, we would have a payment solution in the form of public money for retail payments across the entire euro area – and we would have that under european governance. second, we have been seeing a growing trend towards cashless payments in europe for many years now. this trend has recently accelerated in response to the covid - 19 pandemic. in germany, for instance, the share of cash transactions in consumers'daily payments has fallen to 58 percent, down from 74 percent in 2017. 1 at the same time, ecommerce is booming. cash is currently the only form of central bank money available to non - banks, including the general public. it is public money. all other means of payment for euro area citizens are provided by commercial issuers. public money is a cornerstone of our financial system. it does not only define the unit of account. in combination with regulation, it also ensures that a euro is ( literally ) equivalent to a euro, no matter who issued the means of payment. a digital euro would preserve access to secure central bank money for everyone in the digital world. the third motivation is that a digital euro could promote competition and innovation in european payments. for instance, intermediaries could have the option of offering innovative payment solutions based on cbdc. by providing a programmable and secure digital infrastructure, cbdcs open up a

benjamin e diokno : launch of the first digital financial inclusion awards speech by mr benjamin e diokno, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the launch of the first digital financial inclusion awards, manila, 13 march 2022. * * * citi philippines ceo, mr. aftab ahmed ; officers from the microfinance council of the philippines, inc. ( mcpi ) headed by mr. eduardo c. jimenez ; colleagues in the bsp ; fellow financial inclusion advocates ; and friends from the media : good afternoon. it is my pleasure to be with you today to celebrate another milestone with the launch of the first digital financial inclusion awards or dfia. the inaugural dfia marks a new chapter in the enduring partnership of citi philippines, mcpi, and bsp, which began in 2002 with the citi microentrepreneurship awards or cma. apart from building on the successful run of the cma, the dfia coincides with the launch of the new national strategy for financial inclusion or nsfi 2022 – 2028, which focuses on advancing inclusive digital finance and the financing access of micro, small, and medium enterprises or msmes. the dfia is also a timely awards program that reflects the experiences, insights, and lessons learned from the covid - 19 pandemic and conveys our commitment to ensure that every filipino – every microentrepreneur – has the means to flourish in the new, digital economy. for the bsp ’ s part, we remain steadfast in spearheading digitalization efforts and programs supporting msmes and the microfinance sector, which serve as financial lifelines for our microentrepreneurs. our initiatives include bringing digital payments closer to the people by promoting its use in the most common transaction points for most filipinos — the community markets and local transportation services such as tricycles. as such, we continue to actively support the implementation of philsys, our national digital id system. with its e - kyc functionality, philsys will streamline and enhance the onboarding capability of mfis, making it less costly for both the financial institution and the consumer. we also continue to facilitate capacity building and technical assistance for digitalization initiatives of the microfinance sector. there are also efforts to promote responsible use of alternative data to benefit msmes and unbanked individuals with little