The two trends which I want to highlight today are both rather new, quite fundamental, and they share the key feature of reducing transparency. In a market economy, transparency is a key tool for preserving financial stability. If a high degree of transparency prevails, market discipline can largely replace regulatory intrusion.
Even fervent advocates of electronic money will admit disappointment at its rate of adoption. In this talk I will try to assess the state of the electronic money transformation, here and abroad. I mention some promises, some stumbling blocks and some technological and regulatory issues that will have to be dealt with as electronic money use proceeds.