As supervisory authority, Norges Bank will follow up efforts in the area of cyber security, in collaboration with Finanstilsynet (Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway). Here, the interests of the authorities and the financial industry coincide. Let me once again encourage the industry to work out satisfactory solutions. A great deal has already been done and collaborative bodies have been established at a national level. However, initiatives in this area are still rather fragmented. There is a need for an even more coordinated and targeted effort to obtain overall control and reduce risks. The system owners must ensure that critical IT providers have established robust contingency solutions and that these are tested regularly. If this is not done, the system owners are obliged to assess alternative solutions, also if they are costly. The responsibility of the system owners is the same, irrespective of whether the entire technical operation or just parts of it are outsourced. Offshoring is increasing. More flexibility, lower costs and a larger pool of persons with requisite skills are good arguments. At the same time, offshoring entails other forms of risk. Norwegian control is reduced. We become dependent on infrastructure and authorities outside of Norway. It would help if, in a crisis, operations can be moved back to Norway at short notice. It is still possible that in the future, critical systems will be required to be permanently operated from Norway. Electronic central bank money Making payments electronically involves the use of deposit money (money deposited in banks).
Fast payment solutions The general public increasingly expects to be able to transfer funds on any day of the week and outside traditional opening hours. They also expect that payees will be credited quickly. In the future, there will have to be a good reason not to credit payees immediately, rather than with a delay, as is the case currently. This means that the payment system must meet new requirements. In Norway, there is a provisional instant payments solution, which an increasing number of banks are adopting. It is positive that the solution is becoming more widely used, but it has its drawbacks. For even though participating banks have entered into a loss-sharing agreement, banks still incur credit risk before payments are settled and the solution cannot be used for certain types of payments. Bits and Norges Bank are therefore jointly developing a better solution, called BRO in Norwegian “Betalinger med raskere oppgjør” (payments with faster settlement). BRO will be an efficient underlying infrastructure that is intended for all types of payments. The solution will be in place by the end of 2019. Norges Bank has initiated an in-house project to make the necessary adjustments to the settlement system. The Bank will do its share to enable banks to settle payments to each other without incurring credit risk. Customers will also be able to make instant payments in larger amounts. Customer services will also have to be modified.