alan greenspan : the state of the banking industry statement of mr alan greenspan, chairman of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, before the committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs, us senate, washington, 20 april 2004. * * * chairman shelby, senator sarbanes, and members of the committee, i am pleased to be here this morning to discuss the condition of the u. s. banking system and various related matters. they include improved risk - management practices of banks, the current status and direction of our regulatory efforts to revise capital standards for internationally active banks, deposit insurance, and the ongoing consolidation process within our domestic banking industry. growth in the size and complexity of the largest u. s. and foreign banking organizations, in particular, has substantially affected financial markets and the supervisory and regulatory practices of the federal reserve and other bank regulatory agencies around the world. it has, in part, required authorities to focus more than before on the internal processes and controls of these institutions and on their ability to manage risk. only through steady and continued progress in measuring and understanding risk will our banking institutions remain vibrant, healthy, and competitive in meeting the growing financial demands of the nation while keeping systemic risk at acceptable levels. therefore, the regulatory authorities must provide the industry with proper incentives to invest in risk - management systems that are necessary to compete successfully in an increasingly competitive and efficient global market. when i last discussed the condition of the banking industry with this committee in june 2001, the industry ’ s asset quality had begun to decline, but from a relatively high level, and banks were generally well positioned to deal with the emerging problems. moreover, as early as the late 1990s, both the industry and bank supervisors had begun to address the slippage in credit standards that was one of the causes of the drop in asset quality. by most measures, this was an unusually early stage in the economic cycle to begin addressing such deterioration. today, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the weaknesses i cited then have indeed been mild for the banking system as a whole and that the system remains strong and well positioned to meet customer needs for credit and other financial services. during the past two years, in particular, the industry extended its string of high and often record quarterly earnings. for the full year 2003, commercial banks reported net profits of more than $ 100 billion while maintaining historically high equity and risk - based capital ratios and enjoying brisk asset growth. although the demand for business

financial technology the european commission has already launched a public consultation aiming at update and amendments of the settlement finality directive1. in addition, review of other basic legal acts related to payments as the payment services directive2 and the electronic money directive3 is expected to start by the end of 2021. i wish interesting and fruitful work to the participants in the video conference. directive 98 / 26 / ec of the european parliament and of the council of 19 may 1998 on settlement finality in payment and securities settlement systems 2 directive ( eu ) 2015 / 2366 of the european parliament and of the council of 25 november 2015 on payment services in the internal market, amending directives 2002 / 65 / ec, 2009 / 110 / ec and 2013 / 36 / eu and regulation ( eu ) no 1093 / 2010, and repealing directive 2007 / 64 / ec 3 directive 2009 / 110 / еc of the european parliament and of the council of 16 september 2009 on the taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions amending directives 2005 / 60 / ec and 2006 / 48 / ec and repealing directive 2000 / 46 / ec 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches