( smes ) access to finance, the report also analyses how financing patterns differ across large, medium and small enterprises. finally, the report discusses the recent trends observed in the corporate finance landscape of the euro area over the past few years and how they have influenced the availability of external finance for firms. let me briefly summarise some of the results contained in the report : first, firms ’ financial structures are relatively homogeneous across euro area countries. still, even after taking into account the average firm size and sectoral composition across countries, some crosscountry differences remain which may be explained by the remaining differences among legal and institutional frameworks. second, regarding smes, the report indicates that several of the differences in the financial position of firms according to size which had been identified in previous studies are driven mainly by the relative weights of smes and large firms in the various sectors, and also to some extent by the relative weights of smes in the various countries. at the same time, the report also highlights that some differences across size classes remain regarding the reliance on bonds and the share of financial to total assets – which is lower for smes – and in terms of the reliance on bank loans and cash – which is higher for smes. the latter may point to the need of keeping liquid balances to finance future projects. small and medium - sized firms tended also to be in a somewhat weaker financial situation as indicated, for example, by their higher indebtedness. finally, concerning the role of financial intermediaries in providing finance to firms, a two - tiered process has been identified. firstly, bank lending has become even more prominent in the last two or three years. secondly, the link between the banking sector and the markets has been strengthened significantly, with commercial banks shifting from acting as traditional financial intermediaries to functioning as credit risk originators and sellers as a result of securitisation processes and the increasing use of credit derivatives. from the point of view of monetary policy, four main conclusions can be drawn. first, the growing importance of structured finance and increased competition between banks and other financial intermediaries may provide corporations with easier and cheaper access to external finance. second, as credit granted is evaluated on a more mark - to - market basis and the banking sector becomes more and more competitive, the speed of transmission of monetary impulses to bank interest rates is expected, ceteris paribus, to quicken. third, it is likely that credit

by the excellent contributions to this conference. drawing from these contributions, i will now turn to the themes you have discussed. are financial statistics good enough to capture globalisation? globalisation stems from economic interlinkages, which are statistically reflected in the balance of payments and international investment position statistics and in the “ rest - of - the - world ” accounts of the national accounts framework. in a world of increasing financial integration, statistics on cross - border transactions and positions also gain in importance. however, at present the analysis of international economic inter - linkages is hampered by the fact that, for all pairs of countries, bilateral transactions statistics do not mirror each other ; this is the asymmetry problem. related to this, the sum of the financial transactions in the balance of payments typically does not match the sum of the non - financial transactions, the difference being called “ errors and omissions ”. to eliminate both types of discrepancy, it seems best to employ a multi - pronged strategy. at least, it would be expedient if the legal framework protecting statistical confidentiality were to allow the exchange of such confidential information among the compilers concerned, for the strict purpose of statistical quality improvement. globalisation can only be analysed in a meaningful way if the concepts, definitions and classifications underlying the statistics are standardised. fortunately, this is largely the case, as these standards are laid down in, for example, the 1993 system of national accounts and the imf fifth balance of payments manual. these global guidelines are being updated and the ecb attaches particular importance to the reinforcement of their mutual consistency and to the outcome of this process in general. for instance, it is of key importance that these statistical standards prescribe a faithful representation of economic reality as reflected in monetary transactions and do not impute an artificial price to non - monetary transactions or recognise assets and liabilities that are not viewed as such by the economic actors. it should then also be acknowledged that welfare cannot be adequately captured by any single statistic, including gdp. the revised statistical standards should also reflect the fact that modern economies are knowledge economies, in which the quality of the labour force is the key success factor. this requires the regular compilation of disaggregated labour accounts as an integral part of the national accounts. this, in turn, would substantially enhance the analysis of productivity growth and shed a better light on the evolving global distribution of labour, in which skill levels play a crucial role. in