actually being implemented and is limited to short - term maturities, in this way containing the duration of risk exposure of the ecb to any given bond issuer. see e. g. swanson ( 2014 ). see e. g. born et al. ( 2014 ). see e. g. bacchetta et al. ( 2014 ). bis central bankers ’ speeches conclusions let me conclude. novel and effective nonlinear techniques allow us to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of highly policy - relevant issues. we believe that these methods will be further incorporated among the tools routinely used also by central bankers as valued sources of policy advice. i wish you a stimulating and productive conference. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

luis de guindos : deepening emu and the implications for the international role of the euro speech by mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, at the occasion of the joint conference of the european commission and the european central bank on european financial integration and stability, brussels, 16 may 2019. * * * it is a great pleasure to be speaking today at the joint european commission and ecb conference on financial integration in europe. the choice of the international role of the euro as the guiding theme represents a change in focus in the discussions on economic and monetary union ( emu ) reforms, from a post - crisis response to a broader agenda. at the same time, europe is facing new challenges, not least a return to fragmentation at the global level and the united kingdom ’ s departure from the eu, amid heightened political uncertainty. in this context, i would like to give an overview of where we are in terms of european financial integration and draw lessons for the concrete policy actions that would promote integration. where do we stand on financial integration in europe? at the ecb, we analyse two dimensions of financial integration : price convergence across the euro area and quantity - based integration via cross - border activities. 1 the great financial crisis caused fragmentation along both of these dimensions. since then, we have made great progress thanks to measures to reform emu and the announcement of our outright monetary transactions. these actions, together with a wide range of policy measures taken in the years that followed, put us back on the path towards greater integration. however, this process has stalled somewhat in the last two years. on the capital markets side, most of the recent positive developments in terms of financial integration have been driven by an overall reduction in price dispersion, rather than an improvement in holdings of non - domestic assets, or cross - border holdings. going beyond the aggregate figures, however, we see that the investment fund sector makes a positive contribution to integration by allowing investors to spread and diversify their asset holdings across countries. in 2017, investment funds held roughly 78 % of all their holdings in bonds issued outside their own domicile. 2 this is important because more cross - border holdings are needed to support consumption smoothing in the face of shocks and to enhance crossborder risk - sharing. in banking markets the picture is also mixed. in general, we have seen a reduction in the crosscountry dispersion of banks ’ funding costs and lending rates, pointing