30.08.2022  Central bank money for the digital age: reflections on the new paradigm Keynote address/ Central Bank Research Association (CEBRA) Annual Meeting Margarita Delgado Deputy Governor  It is with great pleasure that I take up the opportunity of addressing such a distinguished audience tonight with a topic that I very much feel falls within CEBRA’s remit. In that respect, given the turbulent times we are living in, leveraging a space where an open and constructive dialogue between us and the academia can take place is sure to prove even more instrumental now than it has been the case in the past. Yet, over and above the daunting challenges of inflation, climate change, macroeconomic stability and many others which you are touching upon in this year’s conference programme, in the next few minutes I would like to turn my attention on to something very different. I am talking about the so-called central bank digital currencies, one of the most prominent examples of financial innovation. Being digital is no longer a prophecy awaiting realization as Nicholas Negroponte 1 once forecasted in his now renowned examination of the frontiers of digital technology and its effects on the future of our society. Instead, it has already become an all-encompassing phenomenon which the pandemic helped expedite by a few decades. Being digital in the financial industry means new opportunities for incumbents to acquire new clients, to expand their current share of the wallet and to obtain efficiencies unheard of.
The digital euro project faces little chance of success unless it can prove to rely on a solid theoretical foundation. That means one that takes into account aspects such as potential distortions of CBDCs to cross-border capital flows, the prospect of a displacement of international reserve currencies or the degree of fragmentation of capital markets they may introduce due to unresolved interoperability issues. Hence, the time is ripe to ask and encourage you all to actively consider including CBDCrelated topics in your respective research agendas as means to broadly support our efforts in landing at the best possible blueprint for a digital euro: one that helps maximize its benefits while containing its hazards. And having said that, I think it’s about time that we not only feed our minds and souls but our bodies, too. So, thank you very much for listening and bon appétit! 2