Ida Wolden Bache: Digital currencies and real-time payments – the road ahead

Speech by Ms Ida Wolden Bache, Deputy Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the Finance Norway's Payments Conference, 4 November 2021.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Accompanying charts to the speech. 

Please note that the text below may differ from the actual address.

Good afternoon, and thank you for inviting me here today.

Norway has an effective payment system, which is of benefit to us all. But we cannot sit back and relax. The payments landscape is evolving and did not stop evolving during the pandemic. Quite on the contrary.

New technology is changing how we make payments. The number of mobile app payments and contactless card payments has soared. New technology is also opening up opportunities for new types of payment systems and new types of money. New cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are being launched every day. Many central banks are considering introducing central bank digital currencies, and some have recently done so.

At the same time, scale and network advantages are clearly driving mergers and acquisitions and globalisation among market participants. Norway's payments market appears to be attractive to global tech and payment companies.