Opening of a new temporary exhibition at the Museum of the Bank of Greece
11/06/2019 - Press Releases
On Monday 10 June, the Governor of the Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras inaugurated a new temporary exhibition at the Museum of the Bank of Greece, entitled “e-Payments: a roadmap”
His address follows below:
“The Bank of Greece is constantly seeking to encourage and promote financial innovation, ensuring a balance between potential risks and emerging opportunities. Given the technological developments that have also penetrated several sectors of the economy, it is with pleasure that we inaugurate today the new temporary exhibition at the Bank’s Museum, which is dedicated to electronic retail payments.
Electronic payments have become an essential part of our everyday life, and this exhibition allows visitors to discover all the possibilities that these have to offer, making use of technology and the internet, in a secure environment. Security is not just a need; it is a right, just like innovation. Being well-informed about the ways we have at our disposal to carry out something we do on a daily basis is not just necessary, it is indispensable. Especially in times when technology is galloping and developments are very rapid: the more familiar we are with the new tools, the more effectively we can use them to our advantage.
Even though e-payments are given centre stage in the exhibition, visitors will not just stand there. They will also go backstage to see the invisible side of payments: the mechanisms and systems operating behind them. The exhibition offers a bird’s eye view of the processes involved in the handling of electronic payments, which is no other than the perspective of the country’s central bank, which regulates and oversees such processes. Thus, visitors can gain insight into the role that the Bank of Greece plays in their own daily payment transactions, something that they probably had not even imagined.
Our people who designed and curated the exhibition, both from the Payment and Settlement Systems Department and from the Museum and Collections Section of the Centre for Culture, Research and Documentation, sought hard to turn the standardised and somewhat bleak processes into something interesting and interactive for the public. Certainly, we should not forget the contribution of the Information Systems Department and the Technical and Administrative Support Department to the whole preparation.
So, at the exhibition, visitors can find a roadmap featuring the path of transactions, educational videos, a smartphone application (the first of its kind, developed by the Bank’s Information Systems Department), quizzes and virtual payments. All these elements make up a pioneering environment that guarantees a pleasant visiting experience, while at the same time visitors’ personal involvement ensures that they will learn firsthand the possibilities available to them, but also the unseen path that payments follow towards their completion.
Naturally, all these go hand in hand with the Museum’s permanent exhibition, which displays a collection of traditional means of payment, i.e. banknotes, coins and other historical instruments. The parallel display of both exhibitions brings them together in a dialogue, highlights the present and foretells – to the extent possible amid a rapidly changing landscape – the promising future of financial technology.
This dialogue prompted the Greek Mint (IETA), which is actually the Banknote Printing Works Department of the Bank of Greece, to produce a collectable medal on which a cutting-edge minting method was tested for the first time, whereby a different motif appears on the same side of the medal under a different viewing angle: either the Museum's logo or IETA’s mintmark, a palmette. This collectable medal featuring a latent image, i.e. an innovative technique used for the first time in Greece, will be gifted today to all the visitors of the exhibition.
So, welcome to our Museum’s temporary exhibition on electronic payments! Thank you very much.”
Photos from the inauguration:
Photo 1 – Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras inaugurates the exhibition
Photo 2 - Left to right: Manos Kordakis, Head of the Museum and Collections Section; Yiorgos Korfiatis, Head of the Funds Transfers and Infrastructure Study Section; Michail Michalopoulos, Director of the Payment and Settlement Systems Department; the Governor; and Panagiotis Panagakis, Director of the Centre for Culture, Research and Documentation
Photo 3- General view of the event
Photo 4 - General view of the event
Click here for more information about the new temporary exhibition of the Museum of the Bank of Greece.