Pablo Hernández de Cos: Global imbalances and capital flows in the era of new technologies

Opening remarks by Mr Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain and Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, at a conference co-organized by the Bank of Spain and the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee, Madrid, 10 September 2019.

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

Central bank speech  | 
10 September 2019

Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to welcome you to this conference on global imbalances and capital flows in the era of new technologies. The Banco de España is particularly honoured to be co-organising it in collaboration with the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee on the 75th anniversary of the Bretton Woods agreements.

Indeed, an anniversary to celebrate, and a unique opportunity to praise the merits and achievements of the rules-based system set by these agreements. But it is also high time to reflect on the challenges facing our current framework of global economic governance inspired by the agreements.

The core values of multilateralism and international cooperation that guided the Bretton Woods agreements in the past, are at least as necessary today as, with hindsight, they were 75 years ago. Admittedly, the world has changed rapidly and profoundly. In such an evolving context, some "tailoring" to update international economic governance may be warranted, precisely to ensure that the core values that have promoted international cooperation will continue to do so in the future.