For example, suppose a CBDC or the digital euro is easily and widely accessible across borders or in countries facing financial instability. In such cases the citizens could substitute local currencies with the digital euro and make the domestic financial situation even worse. This is the scenario we must avoid. UNCERTAINTY Finally, we must all ask ourselves in what kind of financial reality we want to end up in because it could be a world of indirect currency competition pursued by private companies only as a matter of industrial and technological race. But, at the same time, we could end up in a world where payments are safe, easy to use and settled instantly - both domestic and international and with negligible costs. But will we end up in a world where our privacy is protected and our trust in the system is preserved in times of crisis? Are we going to put our trust solely in computers, protocols, artificially generated outcomes or centralized private companies' algorithms with a global reach? Or do we want public institutions to do their job, protect our interests when no one else will, and be there when we need them? CENTRAL BANKS - LEADERS OF CHANGE Our mandate is to continue to provide trust in money in the digital age. To be a vital part of this new digital world, a new reality. We must not stay aside and observe while the "The Times They Are A'Changin'" and external factors move our whole world in a strange direction.
Are we going to see the decline in the dominance of one global currency and its replacement by a new one or the formation of an alliance between currencies? Will it be the dominance of technology companies in providing payment services to the general public? TRUST Whatever the case may be, there is one thing we are certain of: Nothing has changed in our central banking task of maintaining the trust of the public in money and the financial system. Or to quote my colleague banker from the Bank for International Settlements, Mr Augustin Carstens, "The soul of money is trust.". We are still here to pursue monetary policy goals, to preserve the value of money by providing trust in the value of money and to offer money as a payment instrument that is widely accepted, secure, cheap and convenient. Our institutional task is to maintain confidence in the financial system and to serve as an anchor – a digital exchange for all other sorts of money that private issuers offer. To mention at this point – please, don't forget, everything you have today in your digital wallet, mobile banking app or similar is some sort of a payment instrument issued by a private entity. Some of them we supervise, some of them we don't. Whether it's a bank, a payment service provider, a stablecoin issuer or a globally interconnected anonymous network of nodes like Bitcoin, it isn't us you are banking with. But ... this may change.