In this regard it is worth mentioning the activities of the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) in Spain as a key provider of venture capital, either directly or indirectly, through FOND-ICO Global, a “fund of funds” whose goal is to promote the creation of private venture capital funds that invest in Spanish companies. At the European level, the European Investment 6  For recent evidence in the euro aera, see ECB (2018): “Investment in intangible assets in the euro area”. ECB Economic Bulletin, Issue 7/2018 7 C. Corrado, J. Haskel, C., Jona-Lasino and M. Iomni (2018), “Intangible investment in the EU and US before and since the Great Recession and its contribution to productivity growth”, Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, Volume 2 Issue 1. 8 Cotec Foundation for Innovation-Ivie (Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas). Intangible assets: database for Spain and its autonomous communities (1995-2014). April 2017. Database available at: http://informecotec.es/activos-intangibles/. 9  Brown, J. R., Fazzari, S. M. and B. C. Petersen (2009): “Financing Innovation and Growth: Cash Flow, External Equity, and the 1990x R&D Boom”, The Journal of Finance, Vol. LXIV, No. 1 4/6  Bank Group also supports innovation through different instruments such as guarantees, SME loan securitisation and venture capital. The public sector can also play a relevant role in supporting innovation through the education system since a key element of innovation is the supply of high-skilled workers. An improvement of the quality and functioning of the education system can therefore have a positive contribution to innovation.

The existing voluntary agreements for crisis management in the EU have proven not to be extremely helpful. Concrete and binding arrangements are instead needed in order to achieve better preparedness and co-ordinated crisis responses. Luckily, this time policymakers around Europe eventually realised that a coordinated crisis response was a necessity. Partly because of this experience, the EU has initiated work to review how the EU’s supervisory framework can be reformed to better cope with the financial market integration. Exactly what this work will include is still unclear, but it is highly welcome that the issue has been placed on the agenda. However, I would like to add that – because of the close interaction between crisis prevention and management issues – it will not be sufficient to deal only with supervisory issues. Arrangements for deposit guarantee schemes and other crisis management tools need to be considered within the same international context. Of particular interest is the sensitive issue of how to distribute the burdens associated with managing cross-border crises, which will inevitably be brought to the table if proposals for supranational supervision enter the debate. After all, who would like to share crisis management responsibilities without getting any supervisory powers in return? Implications for the central banks’ work on analysing financial stability and systemic risks I will now say a few words about the central banks’ work on analysing financial stability and systemic risks. Given the current conditions one may ask if such analysis is at all meaningful.