zdenek tuma : consolidation before expansion summary of a speech by mr zdenek tuma, governor of the czech national bank, for the conference on " modernising germany - gaining competitiveness for europe ", berlin, 1 june 2006. * * * do we really face the dilemma of choosing between consolidation and expansion? we should look at the integration process from both the political and economic perspectives. from the economic point of view, deepening and enlarging are both primarily spontaneous processes, but this does not necessarily hold for the political aspect. unfortunately, these two perspectives are often confused, which can lead to misleading conclusions. let me consider the economic perspective first. as a recent eu newcomer i can confirm that we observed spontaneous integration with the eu well before the timing of our accession had even been mentioned. therefore, i do not expect the expansion of the eu to end just because there is a lack of political will for enlargement. market forces will keep the surrounding countries “ in the game ”. the political and institutional framework can encourage or discourage this process, but it can hardly stop it. on similar ground, the deepening of the already integrated area is quite spontaneous from the economic point of view. for instance, we are seeing dynamic integration of the financial architecture and a growing number of cross - border mergers in both the financial and non - financial sectors. here, too, an appropriate institutional framework would help, but the consolidation process is going on even without it. therefore, my first conclusion is that from the economic perspective the dilemma between deepening and enlarging is rather imaginary. in fact, both these processes are going on around us at every moment, and the authorities have a limited ability to choose between these two aspects of integration. the political dimension makes the question much more complex. despite the aforementioned conclusion that economic integration is relatively independent of political will, an appropriate institutional framework is undoubtedly important for the pace of integration and the future shape of european markets. but politicians are caught between their vision of an integrated europe and pressure from many of their voters to defend their current positions. their inability to explain the benefits of integration to the electorate is a source of frustration and puts limits on any further political deepening and enlarging of the more and more economically integrated area. this may lead to a temptation to use the argument of an imaginary choice between deepening and enlarging. but businesses will not ask politicians for permission to move to balkan countries or turkey, or to continue concentrating

philipp hildebrand : current state of the financial system in switzerland introductory remarks by mr philipp hildebrand, vice - chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the half - yearly media news conference, berne, 20 june 2009. * * * introduction this time last year we reported that the overall market environment had calmed somewhat. however, we also stressed that it was too early to sound the all - clear, and that there was considerable uncertainty about the future development of the crisis. our concerns at that time proved more than well - founded. indeed, the actual events outstripped our expectations. if i may, i will start with my conclusion : the state of the swiss and international financial system is – and remains – vulnerable overall. consequently, we are still maintaining close contact with the big banks and with swiss and foreign authorities, and are monitoring further developments with great attention. in addition we are continuing our intensive efforts at national and international level to improve the regulatory framework. given the scale of the crisis, the swiss national bank ( snb ) is convinced that although the measures taken so far in this area are heading in the right direction, some of them do not yet go far enough. i will therefore begin by briefly assessing the situation of the financial system, and then present the issues to which the snb attaches medium to long - term priority with regard to reform of the banking sector operating environment. in the short term, however, the main focus is on overcoming the crisis. situation in the banking sector as our financial stability report published today describes in detail, the situation in the swiss banking sector deteriorated considerably in 2008. the turbulence in the money and credit markets that had erupted in mid - 2007 worsened in 2008, also spilling over to other areas. the two big banks, in particular ubs, were hit hard by these negative developments. as you know, together the two institutions recorded a total loss of some chf 30 billion in 2008. 1 they took extensive measures to strengthen their resilience. in addition to reducing risky positions, they raised sizeable amounts of private capital. the resilience of ubs was further strengthened by the package of government measures announced by the federal council, the snb and the then swiss federal banking commission ( sfbc, now finma or swiss financial market advisory authority ) in october 2008. owing to all of these measures, the big banks ’ capital situation at the end of 2008 improved slightly compared to the end of 2007,