26 Cryptocurrencies have been banned in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador and Morocco. 10  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  10  In this spirit, the EU and the US are requiring crypto exchanges to meet the same anti-money laundering and counter the financing of terrorism standards as other financial institutions. 27  Conduct and market regulators are considering how to classify crypto-assets, in order to secure market integrity and determine the appropriate type and level of investor protections. In my view, holding cryptoasset exchanges to the same rigorous standards as those that trade securities would address a major underlap in the regulatory approach. And as the SEC and FCA have argued forcefully, so-called initial coin offerings will not be allowed to use semantics to avoid securities laws designed to protect retail investors in particular. Prudential regulators, like the Bank’s PRC, are in the process of clarifying how the existing regulatory requirements – including for capital – which institutions at the core of the financial system must meet, apply to any future crypto-asset activity undertaken and exposures acquired. Recently in the US, the regulated exchanges CME and CBOE have started to offer Bitcoin futures. Having derivatives traded and cleared on exchanges could, in time, raise standards in them and mean that regulators have better information about how the underlying markets function. The discussions at the FSB and the G20 will be valuable given the diversity of possible approaches and the decentralised and cross-border nature of crypto-assets.

To highlight the most significant improvements, the Stability Law firstly sets minimum reporting requirements for regional and local government, including monthly revenue and spending outturns for regional governments, and quarterly ones for local governments, along with the information needed to calculate the budget outturn in National Accounts terms. Moreover, since June 2012, the IGAE (National Audit Office) has been regularly publishing quarterly accounts of all general government sub-sectors in National Accounts terms, on an individual basis for regional government and in aggregate terms for local government. Also, since October 2012, the monthly regional government accounts have been regularly published in budgetary accounting terms and, since March 2013, in National Accounts terms. Further, from last March, monthly National Accounts figures on Central Government and on the Social Security System began to be released, complementing the monthly State data in National Accounts and cash-basis terms, and the monthly Social Security System data in cash-basis terms that have been published for more than three decades. Apart from these reporting improvements, the Stability Law includes mechanisms to correct slippage in budget outturn. The Independent Fiscal Responsibility Authority, whose creation is scheduled for the end of this year, will complete this new governance framework. The pension system The sustainability of the pension system is pivotal to the medium- and long-term soundness and stability of public finances and to the very credibility of any consolidation programme for total public spending.