the global level. the financial stability board is currently finalising criteria that global systemically important banks will have to fulfil in future regarding their capital structure. in particular, they will need a minimum amount of loss - absorbing capacity. this will allow for an orderly resolution of those banks and protect taxpayers from having to foot the bill. another major step towards remedying the “ too big to fail ” - problem has been taken with regard to cross - border resolution. recently, 18 global banks and the international swaps and derivatives association agreed to implement new rules on derivatives trading. whenever a large bank fails, these rules will allow authorities to temporarily suspend the rights of other banks to terminate derivatives contracts. this will buy precious time to organise an orderly resolution of the failed bank. while these steps certainly bring us closer to resolving the “ too big to fail ” - problem, there is still further to go. thus, further cooperation on this and on other issues is necessary to make the financial system a safer place over time. international cooperation always starts at the personal level, with personal relations forming the root of successful cooperation. this is bis central bankers ’ speeches where our representatives here in mumbai come into play. their task is to build networks, to share information and ideas, to explain the bundesbank ’ s positions and to facilitate cooperation. for the past four years, thomas notheis has served as the bundesbank ’ s representative here in mumbai. there is no doubt that he has had a challenging job : as he was our first representative in india, he could not draw on existing experience and had to build up a network from scratch. judging from the distinguished crowd gathered here today, he has done an excellent job. i would therefore like to thank him personally and on behalf of the bundesbank for his service here in mumbai. given the excellent job that thomas notheis has done in mumbai, i am particularly happy that he is taking his experience and skills to another post abroad. for the next three years, he will serve as the bundesbank ’ s representative in beijing. but coming back to mumbai, i would also like to take the opportunity to welcome our new representative, alexander sattler. before joining the bundesbank, he previously worked as a policy advisor at giz, the german federal government ’ s agency for international development cooperation. furthermore, with his background in both economics and political science, he worked most recently as an expert in the bundesbank ’ s international monetary

at between 1 and 1. 5 percentage point for the period 2014 - 18. what is more, since 2013 the euro area has created 11 million jobs. you may not like low rates ; indeed the markets anticipate, reasonably in my view, that short - term rates are close to bottoming out. but there can be no doubt about two very real facts that unite us on the governing council. our decisions are guided solely by our mandate of price stability, in the face of inflation that is currently too low at less than 1 %. given the recent slowdown in economic activity – starting with germany – these low short - term rates must and will remain in place : it would undeniably be a mistake to raise ecb rates now. we are all realists here, so we should focus on two issues : - the first is clarifying the definition of the ecb ’ s inflation target, and above all sharing it better with economic agents – businesses and households. this is crucial to allow them to better adjust their inflation expectations ; that is precisely the aim of the strategic focus we are going to launch with christine lagarde. - the second issue is limiting the negative effects of low rates on financial stability, and in particular on banks and insurers. we do not lack the tools to do this – you with your strategic adaptation, and us with our “ macroprudential ” policies. but this brings me to my second part. ii. meeting three major challenges to strengthen euro area banks. i would like to share with you a strong belief : europe needs strong banks. a dynamic economy requires a strong banking industry ; it's true in france, and it's also true in germany. undeniably, euro area banks are stronger than they were ten years ago. as a result of regulations and of their streamlining efforts, they page 5 sur 7 were able to significantly shore up their balance sheets. in particular, their solvency and liquidity have improved, while the weight of npl has drastically declined : their common equity tier 1 ratios ( cet1 ) rose from 9 % at end - 2009 to 14. 6 % in june 2019. in addition, the major german banks themselves have seen their npl amount fall more than twofold over the past five years, sliding from eur 81 billion at end - 2014iii to eur 33 billion at end - march 2019. euro area banks are nevertheless experiencing a serious problem of profitability, which is