47 More generally, strong international cooperation in the sphere of risk assessment and crisis management responses is also clearly important. With increased links between infrastructure providers in different centres and the emergence of new cross13 border infrastructures, greater cooperation is also required in the conduct of oversight: not only in terms of assessment of particular overseen cross-border infrastructures against international standards, but also in identifying potential interdependencies between national infrastructures. While existing cooperative arrangements work well, the model needs to expand and continue to evolve. 6. Concluding remarks  48 The resilience of the infrastructure of wholesale payment, clearing and settlement systems to both operational and financial shocks remains a key requirement of financial and monetary stability. But the landscape is changing fast in response to technological change and the financial innovation and globalisation it allows. Cross border and global networks are squeezing our national monopolies and commercial banks are playing an increasing role.
One danger of such developments is that, in the face of a prolonged period of low interest rates, asset managers might be tempted to chase “tail-risks”. This calls both for more market discipline in the form of better monitoring and disclosure of the risks borne by financial institutions and possibly by investors, and for a close supervision of these institutions. Demographic shifts are a key factor in the equation of the future world economy. They are key for economic activity, the fiscal stance, and, maybe less obviously, for the monetary policy stance, given their impact on output gap and financial stability. That is why I found the topic of this session particularly appropriate and timely, and I am sure that your discussions will bring very interesting insights. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches