If we do not have financial stability, then monetary policy will not function as it should and the payment system risks failing. If the payment system does not function, this leads to risks for both financial stability and monetary policy. If we do not have price stability, there will be consequences for both financial stability and payments. 1 I would like to thank Hanna Armelius and Magnus Jonsson for their help in writing this speech and Elizabeth  Nilsson for help in translating it into English. I would also like to thank Emma Bylund and Petra Frid for help with data and diagrams and also Meredith Beechey, Frida Fallan, David Farelius, Gabriela Guibourg, Jesper Hansson, Iida Häkkinen Skans, Jens Iversen, Stefan Laséen, Pernilla Meyersson, Cecilia Roos-Isaksson, Åsa Olli Segendorf, Marianne Sterner, Ulf Söderström and Anders Vredin for their valuable comments. 1 [35]  Over the past 10-20 years, technological developments, globalisation and various reforms have changed the financial environment. The financial sector has become an increasingly important part of the economy. New actors and new services have emerged. FinTech companies have contributed new financial innovations. The changes are essentially positive and contribute to a favourable economic development. But the new environment also entails new risks and challenges for society. New challenges in a new financial environment. The Riksbank’s task is to promote a smoothly-functioning financial system and this means maintaining price stability and promoting a safe and efficient payment system. We therefore need to adapt our activities when the financial markets change and develop.
One question that many nevertheless ask in the light of today's relatively large balance sheets, is whether we should expect them to be large in the future. 44 There are many indications that this is the case. A short-term policy rate will always be an important monetary policy tool, but my assessment is that bond purchases will play a bigger role than before. As I said, the balance sheet is very large at present. This means that even if we wanted to reduce it rapidly, it would take a long time before it is back at the levels that applied prior to the global financial crisis 2008-2009. But there are also a number of economic reasons why the central banks’ balance sheets should be large going forward. 45  General low level of interest rates in Sweden and abroad If interest rates continue to be as low as now, the policy rate will hit the lower bound more often. Monetary policy will thus automatically become more dependent on other instruments to be able to affect interest rates and access to credit. Extensive asset purchases will thereby become a more important instrument, but other measures, such as forward guidance, and interventions on the foreign exchange market, could also become relevant. The Riksbank has already been using a form of forward guidance since 2007, in that we have published a policy rate path.