For the Riksbank’s part, this means that we need to continue our work on modernising our money so that it is better suited to a digital economy, that is, to continue our work with the e-krona. We also need to update the infrastructure for payments. One should not have to wait several days for a payment to be executed. We will therefore offer what are known as ‘instant payments’, that is, payments that are executed directly, 24/7. We also need to invest more resources in cyber security and crisis preparedness so that the payment system can withstand shocks. It is important not least to continue the international collaboration we have with other central banks and with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). There we are working on simplifying cross-currency payments and analysing digital central bank money (also known as CBDC, Central Bank Digital Currency). It is therefore very pleasing that the BIS’ new Innovation Hub will soon open in Stockholm. These hubs are a means of ensuring that the central banks have good cooperation with one another and keep up to date with the rapid technological developments currently taking place. New participants entering the payment market This development is clearly visible in the payment market. New technology and new legislation has made it easier for other types of company than banks to compete in mediating payments. Consumption patterns are also changing, for instance, in that it is becoming increasingly common to shop online rather than in physical shops.
But in another sense one can say that this is not the case, if the Riksbank – as an independent central bank – says that the purchases are made for monetary policy purposes. Monetary financing does not entail the purchases themselves. Under certain circumstances, purchases of government bonds can be monetary financing, but under other circumstances they are not. This is what makes it difficult to define the concept. It is important to understand that the Riksbank's government bond purchases do not mean that the state's costs of issuing bonds disappear. If the Riksbank purchases some of the government bond stock, then part of the state’s debt will be financed by private agents and another part by the Riksbank with central bank reserves. The state costs of the private part of the debt is the yield on the government bonds. The cost for the part the Riksbank has purchased is different however, and not as obvious. The state’s interest payments on the government bonds purchases by the Riksbank fall to the Riksbank. But the Riksbank is a public authority whose income and expenditure is a part of the state's total budget constraint. The interest the state pays to the Riksbank in other words falls to the state itself, the net cost to the state is therefore zero. However, the Riksbank pays interest – that is, the policy rate – on the central bank reserves that have financed the government bond purchases.