13 Trade repositories provide a comprehensive overview of the transactions in the markets they serve, which contributes to better risk management, public supervision and oversight as well as market discipline. The ECB actively supports the current work to develop such a central database for the EU repo market. 14 It could be established in a joint effort by public authorities and the financial industry. b)  Collateral optimisation  Let me now turn to the second point on collateral optimisation. As recognised in the CPSS report, the “efficient and flexible use of collateral facilitates market participants’ collateral management and can contribute to the development of liquidity and smoothly functioning repo markets”. This was considered to hold true for repo markets in normal times as well as allowing an enhancement of the resilience of repo markets in times of stress. The need for efficient and flexible use of collateral facilities has even become  12  See, for instance, D. Duffie and H. Zhu, “Does a Central Clearing Counterparty Reduce Counterparty Risk?”, Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2011. 13  Trade repositories are central databases that compile and aggregate data across various execution and clearing venues. 14  See Vítor Constâncio, Introductory remarks to the ECB workshop – Repo market and securities lending: towards an EU database, 3 December 2012, see https://www.ecb.int/press/key/date/2012/ html/sp121203.en.html. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  greater in the past couple of years, taking into account the generally increasing demands for collateral assets coming from various quarters.

This gap is especially pronounced in the upper echelons of decision-making structures where women make up 28% of board membership and a third of senior management with limited participation beyond marketing positions; 2. The number of borrowers was dominated by men. The number of men with loan accounts in every 1,000 adults was 27 at the end of 2014 compared to 12 for women; 3. When it comes to paying back of loans, women had better repayment behaviour than men. The percentage of non-performing loans for women averaged 4.3% compared to 4.9% for men. Further, women-owned small business accounts exhibited the lowest percentage of nonperforming loans, which ranged between 1-3% during this period. This is, on average, 17 percentage-points lower than that of men. This showed that women and women-owned businesses are more prudent borrowers than men and men-owned businesses; 4. Few financial institutions, offered gender- focused products and services. These products and services were mostly tailored for individual women and women smallholder businesses; 5. Most financial institutions’ Information Management Systems are unable to provide sex2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  disaggregated data. Of the 64 institutions surveyed, only 25 institutions (mostly banks and microfinance institutions) had information management systems that can generate reports based on the sex of account holders, such as the number of women-owned and male-owned accounts, and the number of male and female borrowers; and 6. The number of digital wallets, or e-wallets, has been on the increase. It rose steadily in both number and value.