Statement - 2026 Innovation Financial Forum
Statement by Ms Karina Karaivanova, Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, at the 2026 Innovation Financial Forum, organised by the Bank of the Year Association, Sofia, 2 June 2026.
Bulgaria has recently joined the euro and is now a member of the Eurosystem, prompting a new question: how the country will utilize this financial architecture to build trust, competitiveness, and resilience. This comes at a time of significant complexity, with energy and geopolitical shocks, fragmentation, and technological transformation.
Stability requires more than automatic reactions; it demands judgment, scenario planning, and discipline. The digitalization of finance is evolving beyond automation and electronic channels, moving towards a fundamental change in the infrastructure of money, payments, settlement, and financial assets. Digital innovations such as the digital euro, distributed ledger technology (DLT), asset tokenisation, electronic money, and artificial intelligence (AI) are interconnected aspects of a broader transformation, prompting a fundamental question: how innovation can boost efficiency without compromising stability and trust?
The single currency of the euro area plays a crucial role, with the digital euro aiming to ensure the accessibility of central bank money in the digital economy, enhancing payment system trust. DLT and tokenisation present new challenges for financial markets, potentially altering the issuance, transfer, collateralisation, and execution of financial instruments.
While tokenisation offers benefits like faster settlement and greater traceability, it also raises concerns about interoperability, reliable settlement, and the need for central bank money as a complementary asset. The Eurosystem Pontes programme seeks to connect market DLT platforms with a secure public settlement asset (the TARGET system).
Distinctions must be made between various digital money forms, including electronic money, stablecoins, tokenised deposits, central bank money, and central bank digital currency (CBDC). Each form serves distinct purposes, and a sustainable system necessitates clear understanding of risk distribution, exchange guarantees, reserve management, consumer protection, and trust preservation.
Public and private money must coexist within a framework that maintains trust. AI is emerging as a key technology, transforming the interaction between customers, employees, documents, regulations, and internal systems. However, it also necessitates data management, transparency, accountability, cybersecurity, and human oversight.
Banks will play a vital role in the digital euro distribution, tokenised money models, and the link between public and private money. The future of finance hinges on creating an infrastructure where digital money, tokenised assets, DLT platforms, AI tools, and the banking sector operate in a compatible and reliable manner. The ultimate challenge lies in preserving trust, the foundation of finance, as the future unfolds.
Written by urgent.news from BIS Central Bank Speeches's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
