德国央行执委 | 掀开支付未来的帘幕

导读： 德国央行执委在演讲中着重讨论了科技巨头、用户支付行为的变化和Libra稳定币对支付的影响。作者指出科技巨头正在彻底地改变金融部门-通过支付作为切入，围绕支付构建多样化的经济活动生态，并且垄断由此产生的数据的价值，利用庞大用户基础的网络效应，形成“赢家通吃”的局面。虽然他们目前与传统金融机构有合作，但倾向于未来构造封闭的体系，并严重剥夺后者的金融中介活动。作者的担忧正是G7工作组在报告中指出的全球稳定币可能会影响金融市场的公平竞争。中国政府对科技巨头如蚂蚁金服和腾讯支付平台的监管经验为应对这种挑战提供了有益借鉴。作者指出用户支付行为的改变推进了数字化和无现金化的进程。中国读者可能会认为这是“少见多怪”，谁让中国已经是目前世界上移动支付最领先的国家呢？中国用户对移动支付的接受程度直接提升了中国的数字化进程和无现金程度。作为央行官员，作者对Libra的创新保持开放态度，但指出一系列担忧，包括谁能监管，如何监管，如何应对反洗钱等核心问题。为应对数字支付的挑战，德国央行也在评估央行数字货币的可能性，但并不确定它是最佳答案，因为可能带来金融稳定性风险。为应对Libra的挑战，德国央行也倾向于来自私营部门的应对方案，例如建立泛欧支付系统的想法，去应对多种场景的支付需求。作者的发言提供给读者了一个快速了解欧洲数字化、支付和央行数字货币等概况的机会。作为对比，中国在移动支付、央行数字货币和数字经济等多个领域不仅有强有力的政策引导也有位于全球领先地位的商业实践。这确实是一个伟大的时代，中国在数字经济领域不再是跟随者而是领跑者。

龙白滔2019年11月7日

文：Burkhard Balz

编译：赵颖钰 龙白滔 袁洪哲

Curtain up for the future of payments: from Bigtechs and Fintechs to Smartphones and Stablecoins

掀开支付未来的帘幕：从科技巨头和金融科技企业到智能手机和稳定币

Roundtable on Digitalisation German Institute for Japanese Studies

德国日本研究所数字化圆桌会议

Introduction

引言

Ladies and gentlemen,

Professor Waldenberger,

女士们先生们，

沃尔登贝格尔（Waldenberger）教授，

Thank you very much for inviting me here to the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo.

非常感谢你邀请我来到这里，位于东京的德国日本研究所。

I have to admit that, compared with the metropolis of Tokyo, my place of work—Frankfurt– feels like a village, to say nothing of my hometown of Stadthagen west of Hanover in charming Lower Saxony.

我不得不承认，相较于东京，我工作的地方法兰克福——就像一个村庄，更不用说我家乡汉诺威以西的下萨克森州的斯塔德哈根。

Tokyo and Frankfurt, or rather Japan and Germany, are some 10,000 km – a 12-hour flight –apart, and they each have their own distinct culture with many special features. At the same time, our two countries share multiple ties and have a high degree of mutual appreciation. I also have the impression that the Japanese and Germans are not that dissimilar in many respects:

东京和法兰克福，或更确切地说是日本和德国，相距约10,000公里——长达12小时的飞行距离——它们各自具有各具特色的不同文化。同时，我们两国有着多重纽带和相互间的高度赞赏。我也认为，在许多方面日本人和德国人并没有那么不同：

1) The Japanese are known for being very thorough and passionate about order, making them very similar to the Germans or even putting them one step ahead of us.

2) Many Japanese love beer. Just like we do …

3) And the Japanese have an affinity for cash – the same is not just said about the Germans, our payment behaviour studies provide research-based evidence of this.

1）日本人以对秩序彻底和热诚著称，这让他们与德国人非常相似，甚至比他们领先一步。

2）许多日本人喜欢啤酒，这和我们一样...

3） 日本人喜爱现金——德国人也同样如此，不仅仅说说而已，我们的支付行为研究也提供了基于研究的证据。

And yet, payment behaviour is being transformed by digitalisation, which brings me straight to the subject of my speech.

然而，支付行为正在通过数字化而改变，这让我直接想到了我演讲的主题。

I have been a member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank since September 2018, and have responsibility for payments, amongst other things. My speech is entitled “Curtain up for the future of payments: from bigtechs and fintechs to smartphones and stablecoins”. I would therefore like to proceed by discussing the three aspects mentioned in the title of my speech, since these are key to digitalisation in my area of responsibility – payments – but also in other areas of the financial sector.

2018年9月以来，我一直担任德意志银行执行委员会成员，负责支付等事项。我的演讲名为“掀开支付未来的帘幕：从科技巨头和金融科技公司到智能手机和稳定币”。因此，我想继续讨论我演讲题目中提到的三个方面，因为这些方面是我职责领域（支付）数字化的关键，也是金融部门其他领域数字化的关键。

I will kick off by discussing the challenges posed by new players in the payments space – I am talking about fintech and bigtech firms.

我将从探讨支付领域新参与者带来的挑战开始今天的演讲——我正在讨论的是关于金融科技和科技巨头公司。

Second, I will touch upon the changing user and payment habits – the keyword here being smartphones.

其次，我将涉及正在变化的用户和支付习惯——这里的关键词是智能手机。

Finally, I will wrap up by inevitably talking about what is probably the most discussed payments topic in the world: stablecoins and the challenge called “Libra”.

最后，自然地，我将讨论世界上被讨论最多的支付主题：稳定币和被称为Libra的挑战。

FinTechs and BigTechs: new actors in the payments markets

金融科技公司和科技巨头：支付市场的新参与者

On many fronts, the digitalisation of payments is being driven by new players – fintech and bigtech firms.

在许多方面，支付的数字化是由新的参与者们推动的——金融科技公司和科技巨头。

Fintech players – that is, fledgling start-ups offering innovative technology-enabled financial services – also feel very much at home in the payments market. These newcomers start out “on the greenfield” and are able to build their systems from the ground up in a way that lets them leverage the opportunities offered by the platform economy and digitalisation. One example of this is smartphone banks or neobanks such as N26, which is a highly successful newcomer in Germany’s banking market. Another feature of these banks is that they no longer endeavour to “produce” everything themselves. On the contrary, they regard themselves more as digital platforms that seamlessly integrate the services of third parties – including those of other fintech players.

金融科技公司——即提供创新技术支持的金融服务的初创企业——在支付市场也游刃有余。这些新兴企业从“绿地”起步，从头开始构建自己的系统的方式让它们能够利用平台经济和数字化带来的机遇。这方面的一个例子是智能手机银行或Neobank，如N26-0.N26是德国银行市场上一个非常成功的新兴银行。这些银行的另一个特点是，它们不再努力自己“生产”所有东西。相反，他们更多地将自己视为无缝整合第三方服务的数字平台——包括其他金融科技公司的服务。

In most cases, though, fintech firms (still) cannot pose a serious challenge to market incumbents. Unsurprisingly, then, we are seeing more and more cooperative ventures between credit institutions and fintech players. These allow the former – the banks – to provide their customers with convenient, innovative services within a short space of time. Examples in Germany include customer identity verification by video, or services that make switching accounts more straightforward. The latter – the fintech businesses – get to tap into a large customer base and benefit from the confidence shown in them and from regulatory expertise, amongst other things. So the end result, more often than not, is a win-win situation for both the incumbents and the newcomers.

不过，在大多数情况下，金融科技公司（仍然）无法对市场在位者构成严重挑战。因此，我们看到越来越多的信贷机构与金融科技公司合作也就不足为奇了。这让前者（即银行）可以在短时间内为客户提供方便、创新的服务。例如，在德国这些服务包括通过视频验证客户身份，或者能够使转账更加直接的服务。后者—金融科技企业—可以利用庞大的客户基础，并受益于对它们的信心和监管专业知识等。因此，最终结果往往是在位者和新来者双赢。

By contrast, bigtech firms are a different kettle of fish altogether. These are the global tech businesses and platforms such as Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook from the United States, as well as Alibaba and Tencent from China.

相比之下，科技巨头公司完全是另一回事。这些是来自美国的全球高科技企业和平台，如苹果、亚马逊、谷歌和Facebook，以及来自中国的阿里巴巴和腾讯。

Bigtech players are transforming the financial sector and particularly the world of payments far more radically than the up-and-coming fintech firms ever could. You see, they can leverage a large existing customer base, technological expertise and sizeable financial resources.

科技巨头们正在改变金融部门，尤其是支付的世界，其改变程度远比新兴金融科技公司所能做到的更彻底。你看，他们可利用的有现有的庞大客户基础、技术专长和可观的财务资源。

For instance, Apple Pay and Google Pay were launched last year at the point-of-sale in Germany. The dominant force in e-commerce in Germany has, for a long time now, been the US group Amazon – which also offers a payment service of its own. Another US-based payment service – PayPal – is very widespread in e-commerce. Recent figures indicate that roughly 40% of sales by the top 1,000 online retailers in Germany, excluding Amazon, are paid for using PayPal.

例如，去年苹果支付和谷歌支付在德国销售点推出。长期以来，德国电子商务的主导力量一直是美国的亚马逊集团，该集团也提供自己的支付服务。另一个总部设在美国的支付服务—贝宝—在电子商务中非常普遍。最近的数据显示，在德国排名前1000的在线零售商中，不包括亚马逊，大约有40%的销售额是通过使用PayPal支付的。

China offers a very vivid example of how far bigtech services can penetrate people’s day to-day lives:

中国提供了一个非常生动的例子，说明科技巨头的服务能在多大程度上渗透人们的日常生活：

WeChat and Alipay (which belongs to the Alibaba Group) can be used not only as a payment method, but also to directly order food, buy cinema tickets or call taxis – all services united on a single platform …

微信和支付宝（属于阿里巴巴集团）不仅可以作为一种支付方式，还可以直接订餐、买电影票或叫出租车—所有服务都集中在一个平台上…

Without a doubt, this is all very convenient for consumers and retailers, since everything can be taken care of “under one roof”, so to speak. This development, however, is not without its problems from the point of view of the consumer, as well as from the perspective of regulators and established banks.

毫无疑问，这对消费者和零售商来说都是非常方便的，因为可以说，所有的事情都可以在“一个屋檐下”解决。然而，从消费者的角度，以及从监管机构和老牌银行的角度来看，这种发展并非没有问题。

If bigtech firms expand into an increasing number of business areas, there is a risk that monopolies arise. Moreover, if the data generated are analysed and consumers are offered matching products and services, they will lose sight of the alternatives. In the markets of the internet economy, usually “the winner takes it all”.

如果科技巨头公司扩张到越来越多的商业领域，就有出现垄断的风险。此外，如果对所产生的数据进行分析，并向消费者提供匹配的产品和服务，消费者们不会看到其他替代品。在互联网经济的市场中，通常“赢者通吃”。

From the consumer’s perspective, we should remind ourselves of the business logic of many bigtech firms: Many of the services they offer – such as payments – might be provided purely as a way of obtaining data, the key raw material for their business model. Consequently, many services are only seemingly free for consumers, since they are paying for them with their personal data.

从消费者的角度来看，我们应该提醒自己许多科技巨头们的商业逻辑：他们提供的许多服务—例如支付—可能纯粹是作为获取数据的一种方式，而数据是他们商业模式的关键原材料。因此，许多服务对于消费者来说似乎只是看起来免费，因为他们用自己的个人数据付费。

For banks, meanwhile, there is the danger of losing the battle for the customer in payments. The risk is that the bigtech players place themselves at the customer interface, leaving the banks merely as interchangeable settlement actors in the background.

与此同时，对于银行而言，在争夺客户的支付战中有失败的危险。风险在于，科技巨头们将自己置身于客户界面，让银行仅仅成为可更换的结算行为体。

For now, the bigtech firms still rely on cooperative ventures with banks for the settlement of payments in Europe. A payment made using Apple Pay or Google Pay is mostly settled via the credit card stored in the account, which is issued by a bank. However, Apple, for one, has already started issuing its own credit cards (currently still in cooperation with Goldman Sachs).

目前，这些科技巨头仍然依靠与银行的合作企业来结算欧洲的支付。使用苹果支付或谷歌支付进行的支付大部分是通过账户中存储的信用卡进行结算的，信用卡是由银行发行的。然而，苹果已经开始发行自己的信用卡（目前仍与高盛合作）。

A next step could now be creating closed payment systems that no longer need any established payment instruments to carry out payments. And indeed, Facebook is of course already planning its own payment system which is independent of any bank: Libra – I will come back to this a little bit later …

科技巨头们的下一步可能是建立封闭的支付系统，不再需要任何已有的支付工具来进行支付。事实上，Facebook当然也已经在计划自己的支付系统，它独立于任何银行：Libra——我稍后会回到这一点……

Smartphones: changes in user and payment behaviour

智能手机：用户和支付行为的变化

It is not just the newcomers that are disrupting the payments space – consumers’ user behaviour is having a transformational impact, too. The use of cashless payment methods is growing rapidly, as confirmed by our annual payment statistics. For example, the number of cashless payments in the euro area increased by almost 8% last year alone, due, no doubt, in part to the growing trend to go digital.

扰乱支付领域的不仅仅是这些新来的——消费者的用户行为也产生了变革性的影响。正如我们每年的支付统计数据所证实的那样，无现金支付方式的使用正在迅速增长。例如，仅去年一年，欧元区无现金支付的数量就增加了近8%，毫无疑问地，其部分原因是日益增长的数字化趋势。

For now, though, cash reigns supreme as the undisputed number one means of payment for the German general public. They still go delving into their wallets for coins and notes and settle three out of four payments in cash. That is one of the key findings from the payment behaviour study which the Bundesbank conducts every three years, most recently in 2017. German people quite simply like paying in cash.

不过，现在对于德国公众来说，现金是德国公众无可争议的第一支付方式。他们仍然在钱包里寻找硬币和纸币，并用现金支付四分之三的支付。这是德国央行每三年进行一次支付行为研究的重要发现之一，最近一次研究调查是在2017年。德国人就是喜欢用现金支付。

As mentioned at the start, Japan and Germany are very similar in this respect. Figures vary from one source to the next, of course, but I have read that cash is used in between 62% and 80% of transactions in Japan – and that is not too far off the German figures.

正如一开始提到的，日本和德国在这方面非常相似。当然，不同来源的数据各不相同，但我了解到日本62%至80%的交易使用现金—这与德国的数据相去不远。

Yet, the picture is also changing in Japan. For instance, your Prime Minister has announced plans to increase the share of cashless payments to around 40% by 2025.

然而，日本的情况也在发生变化。例如，你们的（日本）首相已经宣布了到2025年将无现金支付比例提高到40%左右的计划。

Particularly popular in Germany are proving to be contactless payments using a debit card. Although most of these transactions are still settled in the traditional way with a physical card present, tech-savvy individuals, and frequent and keen smartphone users are increasingly using their phones to pay at the point-of-sale. The topic of mobile payments is gaining more momentum by the day in Germany, and there is little doubt that it will also reduce the use of cash further.

事实证明，使用借记卡进行非接触式支付在德国尤为流行。尽管大多数交易仍以传统的方式进行，并展示物理卡片，但精通技术的个人，以及频繁而热衷使用智能手机的用户，正越来越多地使用手机在销售点进行支付。移动支付的话题在德国日益受到关注，毫无疑问，它也将进一步减少现金的使用。

Alongside Google Pay and Apple Pay, the German savings banks and cooperative banks have also launched mobile payment methods of their own, for use primarily in peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and as a digital debit card.

除了谷歌支付（GooglePay）和苹果支付（ApplePay），德国的储蓄银行和合作银行也推出了自己的移动支付方式，主要用于P2P支付和作为数字借记卡使用。

The topic of smartphone payments, then, is being pushed by both bigtech firms and banks. And this is certainly a wise move – after all, smartphones will be more indispensable still among the customers of the future – that is, the younger generation. And precisely for that reason that all providers need to attach particularly high importance to the aspect of security.

因此，大型科技公司和银行都在推动智能手机支付的话题。这无疑是一个明智之举——毕竟，智能手机在未来的消费者—也就是年轻一代—中将更加不可或缺。正是出于这个原因，所有提供者都需要特别高度重视安全方面。

Stablecoins: the challenge of Libra

稳定币：Libra的挑战

Both banks and central banks are following the plans for the “Facebook coin” Libra with great interest.

银行和中央银行都怀着极大的兴趣关注着Facebook的Libra计划。

You may recognize that I prefer not to refer to Libra as a currency, as one can often read in the press. In Germany, as in the euro area, only the euro is legal tender – whereas Libra would be privately issued, of course. That is why I would call it a new means of payment.Libra is scheduled to be a “stablecoin”. These often peg their value to an existing currency or a currency basket. Furthermore, their value is backed by suitable collateral. In the case of Libra, the money which customers use to buy Libra in exchange for legal tender is invested in bank deposits and short-term government securities. The value of Libra is pegged to the value of the reserve built up in this way.

你或许意识到我不喜欢把Libra视作一种货币，就像人们可以经常在报纸上读到的那样。在德国，和欧元区一样，只有欧元是法定货币—但是Libra却是私人发行的。这就是为什么我将之称为一种新的支付方式。Libra被归入“稳定币”。稳定币的价值通常钉住目前流通的货币或是货币篮子。此外，稳定币的价值还有适当的抵押品作为支撑。就Libra而言，客户用来购买Libra的资金以法币的形式存储在银行和投资短期政府证券。Libra的价值与按此种方式建立起来的储备价值挂钩。

As central banks, we are generally open to innovation, but the safety and efficiency of payments must be ensured. In fact, a G7 working group recently already reported to the G7 finance ministers on the potential risks of Libra. However, there is still an extensive list of questions which needs to be answered by the Libra Association before final assessments can be made.

作为中央银行，我们通常对创新持开放态度，但必须保证支付的安全性和效率。事实上，七国集团的一个工作组最近已经向七国集团的财政部长报告了Libra潜在的风险。然而，在做出最终评估之前，仍有大量的问题需要Libra协会回答。

Right now, though, there is still not enough known to really assess how safe the Libra vehicle would be and how such a global system could be effectively supervised and by whom. Neither the technology, nor the business model, nor the exact rights and obligations of members and users have been determined. Moreover, there are unanswered questions relating to combatting money laundering.

然而，目前没有足够的信息去真正评价Libra实现的安全性，以及这样一个全球系统如何得到有效监管并由谁来监管。无论是技术，还是商业模式，还是成员与用户确切的权利和义务都没有确定。此外，有关反洗钱的问题也未被答复。

There are plans for Libra to be issued by an association comprising not only Facebook but also, when it was announced, 27 other enterprises. Though this network appears to be crumbling a little, the financial firepower of those who are still on board and the reach they command with their existing networks would suggest that policymakers as well as central banks and supervisors would be well advised to take these plans very seriously.

有一个协会发行Libra的计划，该协会不仅包括Facebook，在它被宣布时，还包括27家其他企业。尽管这个网络似乎有所松动，但仍在其中的成员的金融实力与利用其现有网络的影响范围表明，政策制定者以及各国央行和监管机构都被建议要严肃认真地对待这些计划。

From a central bank perspective, I can assure you that we will apply the complete spectrum of existing rules. Depending on how Libra is designed, it may also be necessary to adjust the current regulatory framework.

从中央银行的角度来看，我可以向各位保证，我们将应用一系列完整的现有规范。根据Libra的设计方式，调整当前的监管框架或许也是必要的。

This would then also be a matter for policymakers, because we follow the principle that the same business and same risks need to be supervised according to the same rules.

这对政策制定者来说同样也是有必要的，因为我们遵循的原则是，同样的业务和同样的风险需要根据同样的规则进行监督。

At the same time, however, the Libra initiative has touched a nerve in today’s payments landscape. By this I am mainly talking about the shortcomings in cross-border payment transactions. Costly and slow, cross-border payments still have not really arrived in the digital era. And worldwide, around 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked. This is another challenge we need to tackle with even greater rigour than hitherto.

然而，与此同时，Libra的倡议也触动了当前的支付领域的神经。现在，我主要谈谈跨境支付交易的缺点。高成本且速度缓慢的跨境支付尚未真正进入数字时代。在全世界，大约有17亿成年人没有银行账户。这是我们需要以比迄今为止更加严谨的态度来应对的另一个挑战。

Possible answers and conclusions

可能的答案和结论

How do we respond to the challenges presented by digitalisation in payments in general, and in particular to the growing importance of bigtech firms, the Libra project being just one example?

我们如何应对支付数字化带来的挑战，尤其如果应对越来越重要的科技巨头公司，Libra项目就是一个例子？

Calls for central bank digital currency have been increasing of late. Various central banks are analysing the opportunities and risks of central bank digital currency for the general public.

近来，对央行数字货币的呼声日益高涨。各国央行都在分析央行数字货币对公众的机遇和风险。

China’s central bank has apparently already decided to introduce a digital alternative to cash soon, even if some of the technical features are still unknown.

中国央行显然已经决定，很快它们推出一种现金的数字替代品，即使一些技术特点仍不得而知。

In Europe, Sweden is currently investigating various aspects of a potential launch of a digital currency – the e-krona. It would still be a Swedish krona, only in digital form.

在欧洲，瑞典目前正在研究推出数字货币—e-krona各个方面的可能性。它仍然是瑞典克朗，只是以数字形式存在。

One key motivation here, it would appear, is that physical banknotes are gradually disappearing from economic life in Sweden and sometimes are not even accepted in shops any more.

这里出现的一个关键动机是，物理钞票正逐渐从瑞典的经济生活中消失，有时它甚至不再被商店接受。

As a member of the Eurosystem, the Bundesbank is following these developments very closely, and we have been investigating what central bank digital currency really could achieve by assessing its opportunities and risks.

作为欧元体系的成员，德国央行正密切关注这些发展，通过评估数字货币机遇和风险我们一直在研究央行数字货币能够真正实现什么。

A distinction must be made here about what is intended. Should central bank digital currency only be issued to current monetary policy counterparties or to the general public as well? Besides the question of why the introduction and issuance of digital central bank currency is necessary or advisable in the first place, there is also the matter of the possible implications. The main thoughts that spring to mind here are the possible effects on the banking system, financial stability and monetary policy.

这里必须区分目的是什么。央行数字货币应该只向货币政策对手方发行，还是向公众发行？除了首先为什么需要引入或发行央行数字货币这一问题外，还有可能产生影响的问题。这里首先涌入脑海的是，对银行体系、金融稳定和货币政策可能产生的影响。

Currently, we simply know far too little to be able to single out central bank digital currency as an appropriate answer to the challenges that lie ahead in the payments space.

目前，我们知道太少，无法单单挑出央行数字货币作为应对支付领域未来挑战的最佳答案。

Consider, for instance, that competition with central bank digital currency might make customer deposits a more expensive source of bank funding and thus continue to squeeze banks’profitability, with potential implications for bank lending. Or the concern that the introduction of central bank digital currency for the general public would create a safe store of value, making it easier for people to “flee to safety”.

例如，考虑与央行数字货币的竞争可能使银行融资途径之一的客户存款变得更加昂贵，因此继续挤压银行的盈利能力，从而对银行放贷产生潜在影响。或者，人们担心，为公众引入央行数字货币将创造一个安全的价值储备，使人们更容易“逃到安全地带”。

Depending on the concrete design, in times of crisis economic depositors might feel tempted to quickly shift large volumes of deposits into safe central bank digital currency, in a move which would ultimately have the same effect as a bank run and could thus put financial stability in jeopardy.

根据具体设计，在经济危机时期，储户可能会倾向于迅速将大量存款转换为安全的央行数字货币，此举最终将产生与银行挤兑相同的效果，因此可能威胁金融稳定性。

Furthermore, it is also worth considering how we can improve upon our traditional payments set-up as a way of eliminating the shortcomings in global payments I mentioned earlier on. One idea that springs to mind is that keeping the national payment systems open around the clock might remove some obstacles. And given that innovative instant payment systems are already being set up in many parts of the world – why not think about maybe linking them up or using them for cross-border payments?

此外，还值得考虑如何改进我们传统的支付设置，以消除我前面提到的跨境支付方面的缺陷。我想到的一个主意是，国家支付系统全天候开放可能会消除一些障碍。鉴于全球许多地方已经在创建创新的即时支付系统—为什么不考虑将它们连接起来或将它们用于跨境支付？

At the Bundesbank, we would prefer to see the response to the challenges presented by Libra and bigtech firms come from the private sector. After all, it is clear that there is mounting demand for customer-friendly and widely useable payment services.

对德国央行而言，我们更希望看到对Libra和科技巨头公司提出的挑战的回应来自私人部门。毕竟，很明显，对客户友好且可广泛使用的支付服务的需求在不断增长。

That is why there are ongoing deliberations in Europe regarding the creation of a European payment solution. Financial institutions in Europe – with backing from the central banks – are sketching out ideas for a pan-European payment system that can be used in a wide variety of payment situations – from the point of sale to the online checkout.

这就是为什么欧洲一直在考虑关于欧洲支付解决方案的创建。欧洲的金融机构—在各国央行的支持下—正在勾画出一个泛欧支付系统的想法，该系统可用于各种各样的支付场景——从线下销售点到在线结账。

After all, one thing holds true in both Japan and Germany: a digital economy needs efficient, quick and competitive digital payment methods. And if one day machines are able to pay autonomously, it is safe to say that they won’t (Tonne) be using cash, payment cards or traditional online banking.

毕竟，日本和德国都适用一件事：数字经济需要高效、快速和有竞争力的数字支付方式。而且，如果有一天，机器能够自动付款，那么就可以肯定地说，它们不会（成吨）使用现金、支付卡或传统的在线银行业务。

And coming back to the similarities between Japan and Germany I spoke about at the beginning of my speech, the creation of more efficient, safer and user-friendly digital payment methods might further reduce the importance of cash in both Japan and Germany.

回到我在演讲开始时谈到的日本和德国之间的相似之处，更有效、更安全和用户友好的数字支付方式的创建可能会进一步降低现金在日本和德国的重要性。

That said, I am certain that the passion for beer will probably endure, even in a digital future.In closing, I now look forward to exchanging ideas with you and to an enjoyable end to the evening here at the German Institute for Japanese Studies.

话虽如此，我确信，即使在数字的未来，对啤酒的热情并不会改变。最后，我期待着与你们交换意见，并在这里德国日本研究所度过一个愉快的夜晚。

Thank you for your attention.

感谢你的关注。