The Riksbank will continue issuing banknotes and coins as long as there is demand for them in society. It is our statutory duty and we will of course live up to it. Let me also, for the sake of clarity, repeat that the Riksbank has not decided to issue e-krona yet, but to investigate the possibilities. The low use of cash in Sweden means that this is more of a burning issues for us than for most other central banks. Although it may appear simple at first glance to issue e-krona, this is something entirely new for a central bank and there is no precedent to follow. 9 There is a long list of fundamental questions that need to be answered. Let me give you a few examples. E-krona in an account? The first question is whether e-krona should be booked in accounts or whether the ekrona should be some form of digitally transferable unit that does not need an underlying account structure, roughly like cash. If we want an account structure, would the account be with the Riksbank? If not, where would it be? 7 The World Economic Forum has an index, the Network Readiness Index (NRI), which ranks countries’ conditions  for making use of modern communication and network technologies. Sweden has been among the top three countries in the world for the past ten years. 8 The banks have done so with Swish. There is a competing service in SEQR.
Our policy response was conditioned by the concerns of financial stability, assuming that interest rate cuts would speed up deposit withdrawals from the banking system. Bank of Albania took bold and decisive steps to control these problems and restore the credibility in banking system. As the effects of the fiscal stimulus began to phase out and  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  confidence was restored in the banking system, we reduced our policy rate to its historic low in order to provide further stimulus for the economy. More importantly, our supervision of the banking system has been enhanced by establishing a thoroughly new Department of Financial Stability and by bringing financial stability issues in the decision-making process of monetary policy. As a result, the set of tools available to the Bank of Albania has extended to include several macro-prudential measures, which aim to address simultaneously both economic growth and financial stability concerns. I believe that similar steps have been taken by most central banks around the world. Willingly or not, the objective of financial stability is now seen as the central duty of our institutions. It does not matter whether the legal mandate of the central bank is amended to include this new objective or not. What matters is that financial stability is a prerequisite to overall macroeconomic stability and monetary stability.