industry ’ s discussion regarding the usage of dlt would be welcome. after all, we should not forget that financial markets are a network industry. we need to make sure that useful innovations, i. e. innovations that are proven to improve safety and efficiency, do not lose momentum because market participants fail to coordinate their efforts. moreover, as an overseer, the eurosystem needs to arrive at a common understanding how the adoption of dlt could potentially affect the overseen entities and their business models. the emergence of new market actors requires reflection on issues such as how to ensure a level playing field for newcomers and long - established players, as well as an appropriate level of protection for the users. last but not least, the effects of digitalisation and new technologies such as dlt also need to be studied in the context of cyber resilience. on the asset side, access to the dlt network for the central bank ’ s oversight or supervisory function could be used to cover the data requirements of the overseer and ease the reporting burden of the overseen entity. it goes without saying that when accessing the dlt network, the right level of access and data protection requirements have to be respected. overall, for the eurosystem, the main objective continues to be the proper transmission of monetary policy and the support to financial stability. safe and efficient market infrastructures are key in this respect. conclusion dlt has a disruptive potential in the financial market. like the hammer that shatters glass yet can forge steel, it may bring advantages to some actors and disintermediate others. bis central bankers ’ speeches from a central bank perspective, in the context of our strategic reflections on the future of eurosystem ’ s market infrastructures, we are certainly open to new technologies and, like many market players, have launched some experimental work with dlt. bringing our eurosystem market infrastructures on dlt automatically means bringing central bank money on dlt. this may have implications on the central bank functions which go beyond the operational and technical sphere. it is therefore important to structure the discussion along the lines of who could access the central bank ledger. we very much welcome the industry ’ s efforts to work on standardisation and interoperability both in the payments and in the post - trade domain. it is clear that we have a lot of more thinking to do on dlt - related questions and their policy implications. before wielding the hammer we have to make sure that we have a strong

international currency. this encompasses the use of the euro for official reserve holdings and as a reference currency for exchange rate arrangements. statistics related to official reserves were published in the most recent international monetary fund annual report, and indicated that the share of the euro was around 13 % at the end of 1999. this is comparable with the weight of the legacy currencies one year earlier. the fact that stability is prevailing is consistent with the notion that central banks tend to be conservative in managing their reserve holdings. remaining in the sphere of international official reserves, the international monetary fund has recently decided on a new valuation method for the special drawing rights ( sdrs ), which comes into force on 1 january 2001. the sdr basket traditionally comprised five currencies of individual countries, including the deutsche mark and the french franc. the weight of each currency in the basket was determined on the basis of trade and financial data of these countries. in order to reflect the new economic area resulting from the introduction of the euro, the sdr basket will henceforth include the euro, instead of the deutsche mark and the french franc. its weight will be based on the importance of the euro area as a single economic entity. similarly, the euribor will be substituted for the german and french national interest rates in the determination of the sdr ’ s interest rate. these modifications underscore how the official international financial community is gradually adjusting to the new reality of the euro. as a last point, let me deal with the use of the euro as a reference currency for exchange rate regimes adopted by third countries. today, over 50 countries are managing exchange rate arrangements that include a reference to the euro. this involves a variety of regimes, ranging from very tight pegs ( ie currency boards ) to managed floating policies. geographically, these countries are located on the european and african continents. this is a difference with the us dollar, which is also used by a few countries outside the western hemisphere. the intensive trade and financial links with the euro area are the main factor behind the choice of the euro in the definition of exchange rate policies. for some countries, the european union accession process provides an additional impetus to select an exchange rate arrangement based on the euro. i should highlight that the choice of a euro - based exchange rate arrangement is a unilateral decision, and does not involve any commitment on the part of the ecb. however, this use of the euro as a reference currency may be seen as a sign