growth returning and the price of oil has fallen, as has the exchange rate of the euro. and now monetary policy is sufficiently expansionary. all of the lights are green : 2015 could see significant growth and our surveys show that banks are passing on the reduction in interest rates to their customers more than they did in the past. monetary policy is even more effective when it is not leaning against the wind. bis central bankers ’ speeches even without national reforms? here at the ecb, we are absolutely convinced that whatever we do, it will not have as strong an impact if it is not accompanied by reforms. asset purchases are not an excuse not to implement reforms. the effectiveness of the purchases depends on these reforms. that said, the programme was designed to work and it is big enough to work. even though the amount of risk - sharing is very small – 20 % – with the rest staying with the national central banks? this is fully consistent with a single monetary policy because all decisions will be taken by the governing council. moreover, it has to be said that the fact that we have greatly limited the level of risk - sharing reflects the philosophy of the maastricht treaty : a centralised monetary policy with national fiscal responsibility. we have acknowledged the fact that the euro area is not a fiscal union. there are those who say we could have taken the first step in this direction. but this is a political decision which is for the governments to make, not us. at what point will qe stop? we will make purchases from early march until at least september 2016, i. e. 19 months, and shall continue until there is a sustained improvement in medium - term inflation. when it will end is therefore not an urgent issue, it will be assessed based on a range of indicators, including inflation expectations. could it end before september 2016? it will end only once we get a strong sense that inflation is converging towards 2 %. in germany, it is a widely held belief that last thursday, the ecb changed its monetary policy paradigm, that it is no longer the orthodoxy of the bundesbank, as promised at the time the euro was created. the german audience should acknowledge that it is not a question of a different monetary paradigm. we need to deliver on our primary mandate, which is price stability in the medium term. this is a strategy which we inherited from the bundesbank. only the instruments are new. this could not have been foreseen in 1992,

. s. was a different one. the u. s. banks had many problems in the beginning, in 2008, because of the huge amount of toxic assets on their balance sheets. the problems some european banks had to face, the perceptions we are fighting against, are stemming from 2008 and from the sovereign crisis of 2012. wsj : do you think a lot of banks will fail as a result of the aqr and the stress test? shall we define fail? fail means for me not to meet the targets of 5. 5 % capital in the adverse scenario or the 8 % on the baseline scenario of the stress test. well, i think there will be some banks, which will need to improve their capital situation. i won ’ t tell you a number because i do not know a number. but what is the objective of the exercise? it is to boost confidence. if we do this correctly and confidence in the system improves, then i am pretty sure that these banks will not have many problems to improve their capital situation. wsj : there is a perception that the bundesbank and the ecb are constantly in conflict. you have been at the bundesbank. you are now at the ecb. what ’ s your experience? there are sometimes different opinions, quite normal when important topics with a lot of consequences are discussed. and journalists do not like to write about decision taken in agreement. and i do remember many instances where bundesbank was supportive of measures taken by the eurosystem. wsj : you are the only woman on the ecb governing council. why haven ’ t women been more represented on the ecb board and do you see that changing? well, there were 24 men and now there are 23 men and one woman, so it has changed. i think central banking in europe is an area where women have been underrepresented, that was certainly the case in the 1970s. and even though today there are more women, it will take several years to get them to the top. bis central bankers ’ speeches