mario draghi : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, and mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 10 april 2019. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. we will now report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting of the governing council. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. we continue to expect them to remain at their present levels at least through the end of 2019, and in any case for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. we intend to continue reinvesting, in full, the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the asset purchase programme for an extended period of time past the date when we start raising the key ecb interest rates, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation. the governing council stands ready to adjust all of its instruments, as appropriate, to ensure that inflation continues to move towards the governing council ’ s inflation aim in a sustained manner. details on the precise terms of the new series of targeted longer - term refinancing operations ( tltros ) will be communicated at one of our forthcoming meetings. in particular, the pricing of the new tltro - iii operations will take into account a thorough assessment of the bank - based transmission channel of monetary policy, as well as further developments in the economic outlook. in the context of our regular assessment, we will also consider whether the preservation of the favourable implications of negative interest rates for the economy requires the mitigation of their possible side effects, if any, on bank intermediation. the information that has become available since the last governing council meeting in early march confirms slower growth momentum extending into the current year. while there are signs that some of the idiosyncratic domestic factors dampening growth are fading, global headwinds continue to weigh on euro area growth developments. the persistence of uncertainties, related to geopolitical factors, the threat of protectionism and vulnerabilities in emerging markets, is leaving marks on economic sentiment. at the same time, further employment gains and rising wages continue to underpin the resili

are provided by the same organisation. examples are account management, product development and infrastructure. the internet puts pressure on this integrated organisational structure. an important aspect of internet technology is that its development requires very high initial investment, but that the marginal costs of use are low. this raises the possibility that new, specialised suppliers are able to carry out certain specific activities more efficiently than the banks themselves. on the one hand, this situation offers the banks the option to outsource some of their operations to others, thus achieving cost reductions. on the other hand, it could bring unwanted pressure on parts of the banks ’ value chain, and ultimately lead to deconstruction of the chain itself. a practical consequence of this trend is that banks are developing into network organisations by way of alliances and cooperation with both financial and nonfinancial institutions. for example the cooperation between abn amro and kpn in relation to the launch of the ‘ money planet ’ internet site. a third consequence is that new suppliers can enter the market more easily. in the virtual world, barriers to entry are significantly lower. there is no longer a need for an extensive branch office network, for example. lower entry barriers mean more suppliers in the market, which intensifies competition. these suppliers may take different forms. they may be existing banks originating from other countries. these banks can use the internet to bring about a rapid internationalisation of their activities. various institutions have already set up electronic subsidiaries, which offer banking services on an international scale under a new brand name or under the name of the parent bank. examples include the bank of scotland ’ s electronic subsidiary eubos, which offers mortgages on the internet in this country, or ing direct, ing ’ s electronic offshoot, which is active in canada and elsewhere. new suppliers can also be pure electronic banks, or institutions from the non - banking sector. pure electronic banks are not linked to an existing physical bank. although they do not have the high fixed costs of a branch network, they do have to invest heavily in building up their reputation. it is interesting to note that the current market share held by such banks is still very small. the principal reasons for this are probably the lack of confidence resulting from the lack of a physical presence and the high cost of marketing the brand name. newcomers from the non - banking sectors can be existing non - financial institutions that offer a limited range of financial services through electronic channels. volkswagen in germany is one example. they offer