I see it as a “strategic square”, the four parts of the system to be solved for delivering a European strategy: i) Cross border payments shortcomings, ii) BigTech’s global projects in the financial sector (including stablecoins), iii) The developing European Payment Initiative and iv) The potential Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). •  Indeed, the current digitalization triggers at least two important risks. o The risk (in red) that BigTechs, leveraging on their global reach, will build private financial 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  infrastructures and “monetary” systems, competing with the public monetary sovereignty since they will position themselves as issuers and managers of a universal “currency”. CBDC could then be issued but at the “backend” of this “currency”. o The symmetric risk (in blue) that some jurisdictions judge that the only way to respond to the otherwise overwhelming private payments’ wave would be to issue and spread on a domestic but also a global basis, “their” CBDCs. This could, if not sufficiently coordinated within the global financial community, set precedents as to the features of the CBDCs and their articulation with the private projects, with no say for other central banks. The way forward for Europe (in green) could be different and could rather disseminate central bank money in a retail form with the intermediation of the private sector and ensure interoperability between EPI and other non-European payment solutions. 2.
2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  ** Since we are in Berlin, allow me to conclude with a European perspective: Europe has not developed global social networks like some important countries. This raises the stakes for the European authorities, if they want a stronger, more autonomous and more innovative European financial sector, to succeed in developing a coherent strategy. We do not have much time to decide this consistent European payment strategy, including EPI and a possible CBDC: one to two years. This makes our today’s discussion still more welcome. 3/3  BIS central bankers' speeches