These short and medium-term challenges must not allow us to overlook the need to address the structural challenges that the banking sector was already facing before the onset of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In particular, the need for capacity adjustment, as well as the growing competition from technology firms and the potential negative effects associated with climate risks. Lastly, crypto-assets, which are digital representations of value and rights based on distributed ledger technology, are an area of financial innovation that is growing fast. Despite their potential for offering lower transaction costs, greater interoperability and greater competition, and although they are still small and their degree of interconnectedness with the more traditional financial markets is still limited, their rapid development poses significant risks if it is not conducted safely within a regulatory framework that will mitigate the potential risks. These notably include market, liquidity, operational, reputational and, above all, conduct risks vis-à-vis users owing to the lack of transparency and regulation in this field. Bear in mind that an upscale in these markets could pose systemic risks. Therefore, as a matter of urgency and in coordination with the international community, a regulatory framework should be designed that allows us to mitigate and supervise these risks. Conclusion I will finish by recalling that the Spanish economy is immersed in a highly uncertain environment, the structural challenges ahead are enormous, and that the fact that these challenges are closely interconnected signifies that a comprehensive strategy of ambitious and lasting reforms is required.

Tackling this challenge is especially important at the current juncture, given the confluence of an intense digitalisation of economic activity, marked population ageing and various factors that may require a profound cross-sectoral reallocation of activity. In this regard, given the current changes in the demand for training, which are likely to intensify in the years ahead, the education system should be flexible and provide a decisive response. To absorb the rise in demand for vocational training, the RTRP aims to provide 200,000 more vocational training places in the coming years. Furthermore, the Organic Vocational Training Bill fosters the accreditation of skills — not only for students, but also for adults — and promotes tools to increase collaboration between training centres, universities and firms. In addition, harnessing the opportunities of digitalisation calls for increasing the population’s digital skills, especially in the case of the older generation, those with lower educational attainment levels and those on lower incomes. A comprehensive skill recycling strategy throughout the life cycle is also key in a setting in which society finds itself faced with marked population ageing and, at the same time, the need to extend people’s working life. Active labour market policies are also vital to limiting the loss of human capital stemming from job losses. A recent Banco de España paper shows that job displacements in a 16  collective dismissal lead to a sharp reduction (of 16 pp) in Spanish workers’ employability five years later.