On the other hand, the deployment of innovation hubs and accelerators, which takes me to the last part of my address, may successfully contribute to maximising and better understanding the benefits of new technologies for society. Hence, they could encourage financial innovation and/or increase the adoption of these technologies by the supervisory authorities in their functions. Indeed, regulatory sandboxes try to find a balance between these two objectives: they are defined as controlled and delimited environments in which technology-based financial innovations can be tested and monitored by the supervisors, while minimising the risks to the financial system and  5/6  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  consumers. This is the main tool adopted by Spanish financial authorities since 2020 to respond to the emergence of new technologies in finance. The Spanish sandbox has opened up new ways for supervisory authorities to engage and cooperate with the fintech sector, whose players frequently do not have at their disposal other ways of interacting with financial authorities. More importantly, the sandbox has increased the participating firms' understanding of regulation and supervisory expectations and improved their regulatory compliance through their close interaction with the supervisor. The sandbox has also enhanced the supervisors' understanding of both the new technologies applied by the financial sector and their underlying benefits and risks, as well as of the potential regulatory barriers faced by innovators. Four cohorts have been run up until now, and the Banco de España has already published reports with the conclusions of six projects.
05.05.2022  Opening remarks 112th Meeting of Central Bank Governors of CEMLA Pablo Hernández de Cos Governor  Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon: It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here today in Seville at the opening of the 112th Meeting of Central Bank Governors of CEMLA. Having been obliged to hold this event virtually in the past two years it is particularly gratifying to be able to meet in person, although we cannot consider the pandemic to be fully over just yet. It is a great honour for the Banco de España to organise this meeting jointly with CEMLA. I should like to take this opportunity to thank Governor Villar, Chair of the Governing Board of CEMLA, and Dr Ramos Francia, Director General of CEMLA, for their invitation to hold this event in Seville. This is the second time, after the 2003 edition, that the meeting will take place here in Seville, which, as the former president of Columbia César Gaviria recalled, Octavio Paz described as the most American of Europe’s cities. At a time when international cooperation is more important than ever, CEMLA stands as a magnificent example of a multilateral institution that fosters such cooperation.