Jean-Pierre Danthine: The Swiss National Bank’s 2012 Financial Stability Report Speech by Mr Jean-Pierre Danthine, Vice Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Media News Conference of the Swiss National Bank, Berne, 14 June 2012. *  *  *  Introductory remarks by Jean-Pierre Danthine I, too, would like to welcome you to this news conference, which for me is also the occasion to present the 2012 edition of the Swiss National Bank’s Financial Stability Report. The report contains the SNB’s assessment of the risks to the stability of the Swiss banking system, and of the need for action. This promotes risk awareness among Swiss banking sector agents, thereby contributing to financial stability. Introduction Economic and financial conditions for the Swiss banking sector have deteriorated since the last Financial Stability Report. The sovereign debt crisis escalated, threatening to spill over from peripheral euro area countries to the core countries of the euro area. In addition, global economic growth lost momentum and tensions grew in the international banking system. There was, likewise, no easing of tension on the Swiss mortgage and real estate markets. The momentum observed in real estate prices and mortgages continued. As my colleague, Thomas Jordan, has already mentioned, under its baseline scenario the SNB expects a gradual improvement in economic and financial conditions over the next 12 months. Although this is considered to be the most likely scenario, the risk of a renewed deterioration in the environment remains high.
Anita Angelovska Bezhoska: Payments in the digital era - inside out Speech by Ms Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia, at the 13th Conference on Payments and Market Infrastructures, jointly organised by the National Bank of North Macedonia and the Netherlands Bank, Ohrid (digitally), 9 December 2021. * * * Dear Governor Knot, Minister Besimi, Dear speakers and participants It is my great pleasure to welcome you to our traditional conference on Payments in the Digital Era: Inside Out, hosted by our central bank together with the Dutch Central Bank, for which I express my deep gratitude to governor Knot and his colleagues. Our lives are becoming increasingly digital as a result of the proliferation of new technologies that transform public and private services making them more convenient and accessible to consumers. As our lives have gone digital, so have our payments. The digitalisation of consumer payment behaviour, which has been going on for years, has been accelerated by the pandemics that shifted it in a higher gear. Globally, last year cash payments declined by 16%, while the number of non-cash transactions increased by 6%. The pandemics has particularly accelerated the shift towards real time/instant payments that grew by 40%. In the euro area, according to the ECB survey on payment attitudes (2020)1, 40% of the respondents stated that since the onset of the pandemic they have used less cash and more cards (contactless in particular).