The Banco de España will host the 10th conference of the Roda de Berà (Tarragona province) on Mediterranean Central Banks . Spain’s central bank announced this on 1 October 2026. The theme is “Digital currencies, payments and reserve management: implications for the Mediterranean Central Banks”. Governors, deputy governors and other senior officials from central banks in 13 countries are expected, along with representatives of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Instituto Europeo del Mediterráneo and multilateral institutions.
An opening address by José Luis Escrivá, Governor of Banco de España, is scheduled for 9.15 am on 2 October. The working sessions will focus on three areas: the design and governance of digital central bank currencies; the efficiency and resilience of cross-border payments; and the implications of changing international currency and reserve structures for central banks in the Mediterranean region.
According to the host, the meeting brings together academic researchers, representatives of national central banks and representatives of financial sector institutions. The conference continues a series established in 2014 to deepen professional dialogue between central banks in the euro-Mediterranean region. Locations and themes have varied in recent years; in 2026, Banco de España will host and coordinate the event. It is therefore responsible for setting the framework and coordinating the programme with the participating institutions.
The selected themes concern core central bank functions: payment systems, the provision of secure central bank money and the management of foreign reserves. In the Mediterranean region, where many central banks are closely connected through trade and capital flows, robust arrangements for cross-border payments and sound rules governing interaction between public infrastructure and the private financial sector are particularly relevant. Representatives of the OECD, Instituto Europeo del Mediterráneo and multilateral institutions will contribute comparative perspectives and practical examples to the professional dialogue.
The conference is significant for Spain in two ways. First, it offers a forum for bringing views on digital currencies and payment systems into a regional professional debate. Second, it enables coordination on resilience requirements and reserve management against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions. Such conferences do not aim to produce binding decisions, but to facilitate information exchange, convergence towards common standards and the preparation of bilateral cooperation. The dates, content and participants are based on Banco de España’s announcement of 1 October 2026. Assessments of the aims and possible course of the discussions should be understood as contextual analysis of the format.
Editor: Daniel Mayer (Article created with AI assistance).