Skopje, 4 October 2022

“The process of digital transformation of the financial industry, which takes place for several years, significantly accelerated due to the pandemic. Payments become increasingly cashless. According to the World Bank, globally, two thirds of the adult population makes digital payments, 95% in developed economies, and 57% in developing economies. The trend of rising digitalization is also present in our country, more precisely 74% of the adults make digital payments. The National Bank Survey shows that our banking system pays greater attention to investing in new technologies and providing of new payment methods”, said the Governor Anita Angelovska Bezhoska at the opening of the Conference on Payments and Market Infrastructure that started today in a virtual format.

The international conference, which is organized by the National Bank with the support of De Nederlandsche Bank for the fourteenth time, over the years, has developed into a platform for exchanging experiences for the latest development trends in several areas of digitalization. This year, the conference under the title of Flourishing Digital Payments Future covers the challenges and the possibilities for digital payments and the innovations that increase the competition in the payment systems and new forms of banking operations by applying open banking, but also create a need for higher level of security of payments and protection of data, as well as strengthened check on client data. The participants will also discuss the digital currency of central banks, which, according to the latest research of the Bank for International Settlements, is the future in the operations of the central banks around the world in the short or medium term.

Referring to the rapid growth of digital technologies around the world, the Governor Angelovska Bezhoska emphasized the National Bank’s efforts to lay the foundations for the faster penetration of innovations into finance. She emphasized the importance of the new Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems used to create the regulatory framework for encouraging a greater competition and a wider spectrum of payment services for citizens and companies, the Innovation Gateway created in 2019 which is a platform for communication with the fintech sector, as well as the first national Strategy for the fintech sector which will soon be adopted. Moreover, she also pointed to the importance of the medium-term project of the National Bank for investigating the benefits that the digital currency can bring to the Macedonian payment system and beyond, to the overall economy, but also for the risks it can impose on financial stability and monetary policy.

Discussing the new industrial revolution, which is mostly due to the technological progress, faced by financial institutions and central banks, the Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, Jorgovanka Tabakovic, said: "This progress has brought numerous benefits to humanity. As the years go by, new topics emerge, new successes are achieved, and payment services and the network of market infrastructures become increasingly sophisticated. This tells us, to my satisfaction, that we as a society are evolving. Let us be diligent and creative, help each other and work on mutual interest and mutual cooperation and harmony. Nothing is impossible for those who work tirelessly and devotedly. Inspired by the name of the organizer's highway, I wish that we all always walk on the roads of friendship”.

The Director of Payments and Market Infrastructure Division at the Bank of the Netherlands, Inge van Dijk, referred to the necessary cooperation in the future of digital payments, adding:  “What unites us and what we should strive for together while we are moving towards flourishing digital payments future is the maintenance of a strong and safe payment infrastructure in conditions of a greater digital dependence.” Discussing the role of central banks, she says: “We must provide access to payments in an increasingly digital world and finally, we need to strengthen European and global payments in a dynamic international field”.

Today, the conference continues with an afternoon panel discussion of eminent experts from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the National Bank, about the challenges and possibilities of the global wave in using digital payments.