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Ladies and gentlemen

Welcome to the Swiss National Bank's Money Market Event. My colleague Thomas Moser and I are delighted that we are able to hold this event in Zurich in person for the first time since 2019.

In recent weeks, the SNB has been active to the full extent of its statutory mandate. At our monetary policy assessment last week, we raised our policy rate by 50 basis points to 1.5%. In doing so, we are countering the renewed increase in inflationary pressure. To provide appropriate monetary conditions, we also remain willing to be active in the foreign exchange market as necessary – for some quarters now, the focus has been on selling foreign currency. At the same time, there has been a loss of confidence in Credit Suisse over recent weeks. In order to avert damage to Switzerland, on the Sunday before last the authorities decided on extensive measures to safeguard financial stability. Within the framework of its mandate, the SNB contributed to this solution, acting as lender of last resort to ensure the stability of the Swiss and global financial system. Today we are talking about another element of our mandate: ensuring a well-functioning system of payment transactions in Switzerland. All three elements – price stability, financial stability and a well-functioning payment system – are important for public confidence in money.

This evening, we will be looking at the future of cashless payments. The payments system is currently undergoing extensive change, both in Switzerland and around the world. The main drivers of this change are the ongoing digitalisation and the increasing use of new technologies such as distributed ledger technology (DLT). These are enabling new forms of money and are fundamentally changing the way we make payments.

The key question we are addressing in our talk today is: How can we harness the potential of digitalisation and new technologies in payments while maintaining confidence in the payments system and in money itself? In other words: How can we innovate while safeguarding the tried and tested?

To achieve this, we first need an effective division of labour between the public and the private sector. The public sector lays the foundation for public confidence in money. This includes a stability-oriented monetary and fiscal policy, a clear regulatory policy framework with sound institutions, financial stability, and a secure and efficient payments system.

The private financial sector plays a key role in developing innovation and employing new technologies to create innovative solutions for its customers. It knows best what companies and end users need and is able to develop effective solutions for them.

The private financial sector and the SNB must work together to take the right steps to ensure that innovation can thrive on a sound basis. This requires a shared vision for the Swiss financial centre – a Swiss Payments Vision, as already set out at one of our Money Market Events two years ago. This vision conceives the future of cashless payments in Switzerland as an efficient, reliable and secure ecosystem. In addition, this ecosystem must be fast and interoperable in terms of new payment solutions, new technologies, and across national borders.

Before we continue looking into the future, let me focus on three principles that are fundamental to confidence in the current payment system, and which will serve as keystones for the further development of Swiss payments.