to do anything for competition in banking? it will and we very much hope it will. the psd2 as it ’ s called – second directive on payment services, psd2 – it is a competitive shock for banks. that ’ s good because competition leads to innovation. so allowing access to payment services, to payment service providers is the same kind of shock that we had, say, in the telecom sector some 20 years ago. it ’ s good for the consumer and it ’ s good for innovation. now, of course that comes with two caveats, two maybe conditions that we want to see. first, banks have to be strong enough to cushion that kind of shock. so it makes it even more needed for banks to be profitable and to have credible nonperforming loan strategies because that ’ s an additional shock they will have to cushion. it ’ s for them to prepare for that. second, we want to be sure that it comes with safety and with protection of individual data privacy. so together with the commission and with the european banking authority we ’ ve been very careful to design a framework that protects data and a framework that does not create risk to the safety of customer data. that will be something that we will follow very carefully in the future. final question for you, benoit coeure, there ’ s a lot of discussion as you know about the future of europe going on at the political level. but there ’ s also some bits of europe that haven ’ t been fully put together yet. looking ahead to this year of 2018, from the ecb point of view what two or three things would you like to see politicians decide on to start moving on this future of europe agenda? so the simple answer is we just want it to happen, right? so we want them to start moving. we very much believe that the eurozone should be stronger and we don ’ t want the ecb to be the only game in town when the next crisis hits. for that you need a stronger eurozone, so in terms of short - term priorities : that means strengthening banking union ; moving – finding steps towards a single deposit insurance scheme in the eurozone ; strengthening the single resolution fund ; 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches achieving more convergence, more harmonisation within the banking union. that also means being serious about the capital market union. i think that ’ s something that ireland has a very strong interest in and will benefit from. capital market union is a very

the political process as ecb. the ecb is not doing the political negotiation ; that ’ s for leaders and that ’ s for monsieur barnier. we hope it can reduce the cost. that said, we have to prepare for possible adverse consequences. in terms of financial sector, financial services, financial stability that means that we have a duty to prepare for possible negative outcomes, hoping that it ’ s not going to happen, but it ’ s also our duty to prepare. but also in terms of economic management and in particular for ireland that means that the economy has 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches to be as strong as possible, as resilient as possible, meaning growth has been very robust but it could be more balanced. buffers have to be built for the future, including fiscal buffers, so that ’ s how the economy can best prepare to weather possible negative shocks. but buffer building up will take a bit of time ; we don ’ t have time, obviously, with the brexit process. it could be quite sudden, within a year. so when it ’ s comes to the financial stability consequences, that ’ s something that we are monitoring very closely together with all national central banks – and certainly together with the central bank of ireland among others. if there would be any financial stability concern, the ecb would take it very seriously, so that ’ s something we ’ ll be very active monitoring. it would presumably be better handled than the last financial crisis, would it, because you ’ ve got time to prepare? it ’ s a totally different kind of shock. it ’ s something that goes together with significant changes in the structure of the industry with banks as we know are relocating, moving around. so that ’ s a different kind of preparation. on the supervisory side we also have quite intense work to make sure that any bank relocating to the eurozone would do it in a way that is sound and safe in terms of the prudential standards. here, i am sorry to tell you, but the ecb will have no preference whether they go to dublin or to paris or to luxembourg because it ’ s all eurozone. so that ’ s not for us to opine on. one of the things that ’ s often expressed by the irish central bank is that more competition in banking would be good for consumers and particularly on costs and so on. we ’ ve seen this month the start of the second payment services directive. is that going