jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec source : dmo and bank calculations. past values adjusted for inflation ( april 2020 equivalents ). moment 7 : central banking on the home front table 1 and chart 15 summarise the scale of the bank ’ s recent balance sheet operations : a balance sheet that has expanded by almost a third in three months, and will reach nearly 40 % of annual uk gdp by mid - year. to deliver that, we are doing more than ten times the number of weekly operations than in the pre - covid19 period ( chart 16 ). this is eye - popping by itself. but, more extraordinary still, virtually all of it has been done remotely – hundreds of billions of pounds worth of operations delivered from peoples ’ bedrooms, attics and kitchens, whilst isolated on their own, or caring for children and other relatives. the bank has long embraced home working as part of its flexible working arrangements – but the sheer scale of what has been done – what we have had to do – would frankly never have been contemplated by choice. preparation began early – and the all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches technology that enables all of our critical operational functions, and the operational and risk controls that go with them, were quickly re - configured to support working from home. by the time of the mpc ’ s first policy package on 11 march, we were already operating on a fully - live split - site basis. and by the time the ccff and the mpc ’ s second round of asset purchases got under way in earnest, the uk - wide lockdown was underway – and nearly all of us were working from home. table 1 : the bank ’ s operations since 1. 3. 20 funding schemes asset purchases liquidity facilities gbp bn ( as at 27 may ) change stock since 1 outstanding march chart 15 : the bank ’ s balance sheet ( % gdp ) peak stock level since 1 march iltr + 21 1 & 3 month ctrf + 6 usd swaplines + 23 apf gilts + 121 apf cbps + 5 ccff + 19 tfsme + 12 tfs ( closed ) 107 - fls ( closed ) 2 - total per cent banknote covid - 19 convertibility to gold crisis reinstated amalgamation of treasury and bank note issues failure of lehman brothers banknote convertibility south to gold sea suspended bubble ww1 ww2 + 207 source

luis m linde : “ the financial system ahead of the banking union ” opening speech by mr luis m linde, governor of the bank of spain, at the 5th edition of the expansion – kpmg financial forum, madrid, 23 may 2014. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is for me a pleasure to open this fifth edition of the expansion – kpmg financial forum and to introduce ms sabine lautenschlager, member of the executive board of the european central bank and vice - chair of the supervisory board of the single supervisory mechanism. sabine lautenschlager – i hope my german pronunciation is approximately correct – is a very well known and respected european expert in banking supervision and central banking. after graduating in law at the university of bonn, she joined the german federal financial supervisory authority, bafin, in 1995, where she held relevant positions, serving as chief executive director of banking supervision. she was also a member of the basel committee of banking supervision and of the european banking authority ’ s management board. in 2011 she joined the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank as its deputy president. let me turn now very briefly to the topic of this event, namely the financial system ahead of the banking union. it is indeed a very timely issue as the ecb is currently immersed in the preparatory work to assume its new banking supervision functions, within the framework of the single supervisory mechanism ( ssm ), on 4th november. the entry into force of the ssm will really mark a major milestone on the road to the completion of the economic and monetary union and to the construction of europe. it will contribute to fostering financial integration and to breaking the loop between banking and sovereign risk : in sum, it will strengthen financial stability in europe. in the run - up to assuming supervisory functions, the ecb and the national competent authorities are conducting together a comprehensive assessment, to check the soundness of the 128 banks that will be under the direct supervision of the ecb. the ultimate aim of this exercise, which began in october 2013, is to build confidence as to the soundness of the banks under the ssm by two means : transparency and, if needed, recapitalisation. as it is well known, the assessment consists of two pillars : an asset quality review and a stress test. the first pillar, the asset quality review, began in february and will conclude in august. it examines the asset side of bank balance sheets as of 31 december 2013.