benefits received and contributions paid, a point that has been underscored from the outset in the toledo pact recommendations. regarding the various options available, i shall refer to some already deployed by european countries and which, therefore, have been tested to some extent. i reiterate that these are not proposals of the banco de espana ; the aim of my institution is to help this committee in its work by setting out the measures applied in other countries. taking first some of the measures that affect pension spending, some countries have opted to raise the legal retirement age. measures here have been on three fronts. firstly, early retirement conditions have tended to be tightened. and this is where the complement to the aforementioned structural reforms is greatest : pension system rules should generate the right incentives to remain in the labour market, and it should also be sought to maximise this permanence through continuous employee training and wage flexibility, tailoring wage rises to productivity. there have also been incentives to continue working beyond the legal retirement age. and finally, decisions have been made to put back the legal retirement age, although only a small number of countries have admittedly adopted this measure. this is so in germany, where a gradual increase in the retirement age from 65 to 67 has recently been approved. the various simulations available indicate that this is a measure with a strong effect in terms of reducing pension spending. secondly, and continuing on the expenditure side, other countries have opted to raise significantly the number of years of contributions used to calculate the amount of the pension ( the " regulatory base " ). here, the application of a similar measure in spain would draw us closer to other european countries. specifically, france has recently lengthened the period for calculating the pension entitlement from 10 to 25 years, while austria has extended it from 15 to 40 years and a significant number of countries ( finland, poland, portugal and sweden ) have extended it to cover the entire working life. this reform would be in line with the recommendations of the toledo pact and would increase the system ’ s proportionality, i. e. the relationship between pensions received and contributions made. connected to this issue, there would be a possibility in spain of furthering the reforms in recent years aimed at bringing the different social security schemes onto a more equal footing, so as to ensure that the contributions made under the different schemes are similar. thirdly, some countries have lowered the income replacement rate, defined as the net pension divided by net income prior to retirement, by reducing

. a too - rapid adjustment of monetary policy could trigger the materialisation of some of the risks mentioned. a too - gradual adjustment may ultimately force policy to be tightened more rapidly to contain overheating, thus giving rise to the “ snap - back ” scenario. by the same token, the persistence of very easy financial conditions and very low volatility extends the “ search for yield ” behaviour of investors and the build - up of vulnerabilities in the financial system. in this regard, effective communication by central banks throughout the monetary normalisation process will be key to helping anchor financial conditions, despite the threat of heightened volatility. second, in this complex environment, it is particularly important to emphasise the role played by one of the major policy innovations generated during the financial crisis, namely the development of macroprudential policy frameworks. the proper and timely use of the new macroprudential tools, together with the regulatory and supervisory overhaul of the global banking system undertaken in recent years, should help to contain the build - up of financial imbalances. however, given its novelty it ’ s difficult to know ex - ante how effective these new macroprudential tools will be. in addition, multiple new challenges remain and need to be dealt with. let me mention a few of them : ( i ) the reinforcement of policy measures to address bank - like risks stemming from the activities of non - banks, which have significantly increased in recent years ; ( ii ) the emergence of new risks, such as those derived from financial technology or cybersecurity ; 4 / 5 ( iii ) the strengthening of sustainable finance to address environmental risk, and ( iv ) the creation or expansion of global and regional backstops. i am certain that our speakers in this conference will address these and other interesting matters. indeed we will have the opportunity to explore this subject in depth through nine selected articles by prominent researchers. actually, we are most privileged to have with us two distinguished keynote speakers, ricardo reis and torben andersen, who will no doubt illuminate us on these important matters. this two - day conference is organised in four sessions : the first will address certain money and market - related aspects. during the second session we will try to shed some light on the propagation of shocks when considering higher - order statistical moments of economic and financial variables. the third session will deal with two issues related to risk which are important for central banks, namely the credit risk associated with monetary policy