The institutions that take part in the Riksbank's payment system can then pay by moving money, on behalf of themselves or their clients, between the participants’ accounts. When central bank money is used in a transaction, an asset with counterparty risk is converted into a safe and liquid claim on the central bank. Central bank money is safer than other money, as a central bank can always meet its obligations in domestic currency. It is important for financial institutions to be able to pay in central bank money, as they would otherwise be burdened with counterparty exposures when paying.2 Central bank money and the possibility to make safe payments are thus closely linked. The Riksbank needs to adapt its payment system so that the infrastructure remains safe and cost-efficient as technology develops and the payment market is changing. A growing trend both in Sweden and abroad is that households and companies expect to make payments at any time they like. The payment system we offer today therefore needs to be supplemented with a new system that is open 24 hours a day and adapted to the instant settlement of large volumes of payments. My assessment is that the best way for the Riksbank to attain this target is to make the Swedish krona available on the same technical platform as the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Eurosystem use.3 By taking advantage of the economies of scale that arise here, the right conditions are created for cutting transaction costs for Swedish households and companies.
10 As far as monetary policy is concerned, it is only the participant’s net position with regard to the Riksbank that  is important. If a participant in RIX borrows, say, SEK 10 billion in RIXRTGS and invests the same amount in its account in RIXINST the net position with regard to the Riksbank and thus the participant’s interest expenditure, will be zero. 7 [8]  Using the same technical platforms as most of the rest of Europe will, I believe, make it easier for Swedish payment service providers to establish themselves in Europe. And in the same way it will become simpler for foreign companies to compete in Sweden. It is also probable that it will become easier to make instant cross-currency payments in the future if the central banks use the same technical platform to settle payments. What happens next? During the spring, my colleagues on the Executive Board and I have discussed the Riksbank's future role in the payment infrastructure. My baseline in these discussions was that Sweden – like most other countries – has long had a model where the banks have settled payments in risk-free accounts in the central bank. This has been important in preserving the stability and credibility of the payment system. Now that the payment market is moving towards larger, more numerous and more important payments outside of RIX normal opening hours, the Riksbank needs to modernise the services it offers so that central bank money remains the norm when financial institutions settle payments.