the euro as an international currency. furthermore, with regard to the greek issue, there was genuine consensus within the eurogroup that greece had to respect the rules of the game of economic and monetary union ( emu ). the crux of the debate chiefly concerned the tension between the democratic legitimacy of an elected government and that of its european creditors, which also need to be accountable to their citizens regarding the fate of their loans or in granting a new support package. an agreement was signed in august and it is important for the new greek government to implement it in a forceful way with a view to quickly re - establishing confidence and enabling the greek economy to recover. that said, the greek crisis also highlighted the need to simplify the governance of the euro area. this experience demonstrated, for example, that decision - making by simple majority within a common institution such as the ecb is more efficient and faster than intergovernmental decision - making and that it is necessary to strengthen the convergence of the euro area economies and facilitate the completion of economic and monetary union in the spirit of the “ five presidents ’ report ” published in june this year – editor ’ s note : composed of donald tusk ( european council ), martin schulz ( european parliament ), jean - claude juncker ( european commission ), jeroen dijsselbloem ( eurogroup ) and mario draghi ( ecb ). bis central bankers ’ speeches to what extent can the ecb contribute to strengthening the international status of the euro? while the prospect of seeing the euro play a substantial international role alongside the dollar may have been considered by some as a motivation for its creation, its promotion does not feature anywhere in the treaty. likewise, on monetary issues, the ecb ’ s primary mandate is to maintain price stability. we neither encourage nor discourage the international role for the euro, which continues to be essentially determined by the markets. that said, progress towards a genuine financial union, with better connected capital markets, could indirectly support their depth and liquidity and, in doing so, the international role of the euro. even if this strengthening of the euro were not an aim in itself, it would attest to the continued confidence of the rest of the world in the single currency, but also to the success of the european union in completing emu. bis central bankers ’ speeches

yves mersch : prospects of islamic finance – the view of a central bank in europe closing keynote address by mr yves mersch, governor of the central bank of luxembourg, at the islamic finance conference, frankfurt am main, 18 november 2010. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to talk to an audience of such distinguished financial specialists. before i embark on what islamic finance means for central banking in europe, i will have a look at the growing importance of the phenomenon, its characteristics in the context of financial stability in general and its performance during the financial crisis in particular. finally, i will present the achievements within my own constituency to overcome the obstacles for an accelerated and safe spreading of islamic finance in europe. islamic finance : growing importance the development of modern islamic finance roughly started more than four decades ago. at the very beginning it occupied a small niche visible in islamic countries. in malaysia the pilgrim fund ( tabung haji ) was established in 1969 as an islamic savings institution. more recently islamic finance has expanded out of this niche. worldwide, the assets of islamic finance institution have grown at double - digit rates for a decade. even some conventional banks have embarked into the provision of shari ’ ah compliant financial assets reaching an estimated 509 billion usd at the end of 2007 according to moody ’ s 1. today, there are at least 70 countries that have some sort of islamic financial services. almost without exception, the major multinational banks offer some kind of these services. with the rise of the importance of sovereign wealth funds ( swf ), islamic finance was pushed further. about a decade ago, many emerging countries started to accumulate huge foreign exchange reserves, most of them benefiting from rising oil, gas and other natural resources ’ prices, being supported by favorable macroeconomic policies. with assets under management of an estimated 3, 000 bn usd in 2009, swf represent twice the wealth of hedged funds. muslim countries, oil exporters in particular, account for more than 50 % of all swf ’ s assets – not all of which are islamic finance products, though. while islamic banking remains the main form of islamic finance, islamic insurance companies ( takaful ), mutual funds and islamic bonds ( sukuk ) have witnessed strong global growth. the sukuk markets in particular have gained importance. in recent years, the issuance rose from less than 8 bn usd in 2003 to 50 bn usd by mid - 2007. 2 after a sharp decline during the financial crisis, private