speech embargo 5 september 2019, 6. 00 pm currencies, money and digital tokens 30th anniversary of the wwz and vbo, university of basel thomas j. jordan * chairman of the governing board swiss national bank basel, 5 september 2019 © swiss national bank, zurich, 2019 ( speech given in german ) * the speaker would like to thank oliver sigrist for his support in preparing this speech. he also thanks simone auer, nicolas cuche - curti, matthias gubler, christoph hirter, carlos lenz and alexander perruchoud, as well as snb language services. page 1 / 7 ladies and gentlemen it is a great pleasure, and an honour, to be invited to speak to you today, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the university of basel ’ s faculty of business and economics ( wwz ) and the vereinigung basler okonomen ( vbo ). i congratulate you wholeheartedly on reaching this milestone. there is a long - standing and close association between the swiss national bank ( snb ), on the one hand, and the wwz and the university of basel on the other. many snb economists were trained here and some of our staff regularly give lectures at the wwz. i would like to thank the university of basel and the organisers for inviting me to this special event. i am sure that the ties between our institutions will continue to be close for many years to come. for central bankers, basel is a special place. we regularly meet with our counterparts from all over the world at the headquarters of the bank for international settlements ( bis ), not far from the wwz, to discuss the challenges facing us. these challenges have always revolved around monetary policy and financial stability. the increasing digitalisation of the financial sector opens up another area for discussion. against this backdrop, the bis announced a few months ago that it was launching an innovation hub. the aim of the hub is to study technological developments with the potential to improve the functioning of financial markets and support central banks in fulfilling their mandates. furthermore, it will provide a network for central banks to exchange knowledge on innovations. one of the hub ’ s three regional centres will be in switzerland, and will be operated jointly with the snb. the word ‘ innovation ’ brings me to the subject of my speech tonight. issuers and types of money ladies and gentlemen, how do you pay

##nb is following developments closely, and is actively involved in the debate, not least through its future participation in the bis innovation hub i mentioned earlier. thank you for your attention. page 7 / 7 currencies, money and digital tokens thomas j. jordan chairman of the governing board swiss national bank 30th anniversary of the wwz and vbo university of basel, 5 september 2019 types of money in switzerland currency issuer type cash state banknotes and coins state private private book money digital token money sight deposits held at the snb for financial market participants swiss franc tokens for financial market participants sight deposits held at the snb for all households and companies swiss franc tokens for all households and companies bank deposits stable coins ( value stable against swiss franc ) stable coins ( minimal fluctuations in value against official currencies, e. g. libra ) private crypto tokens ( e. g. bitcoin ) existing types of money 05. 09. 2019 potential types of money currencies, money and digital tokens | thomas j. jordan | © swiss national bank