strike a balance. full disclosure is neither possible nor desirable. sensitive information must remain confidential, as it could endanger financial stability if revealed. the third pillar is to ensure the legality of supervisory action. there are two elements to this. the first is that there are concerns that tensions could arise from having monetary policy and supervision under one roof. in my view, the clear delineation of mandates in the legal framework and the functional separation of the policy areas mitigate such risks, and i pledge to ensure that the separation principle is fully respected. it ’ s worth 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches remembering that a system - wide perspective is the key advantage of european banking supervision, as it allows us to identify and react to euro area - wide linkages and spillovers. applying national laws, on the other hand, can lead to a fragmented implementation of supervisory rules. the second element is that we have to act within the boundaries of our mandate and respect the law at all times. any supervisory action must remain bank - specific and be taken within the limits of relevant european legislation, which is defined by the co - legislators, i. e. the european parliament and the council, with further specifications from the european banking authority. i look forward to answering your questions. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

mario draghi : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, and mr vitor constancio, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 27 april 2017. * * * 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, which was also attended by the commission vice - president, mr dombrovskis. 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 present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases. regarding non - standard monetary policy measures, we confirm that our net asset purchases, at the new monthly pace of €60 billion, are intended to run until the end of december 2017, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the governing council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim. the net purchases will be made alongside reinvestments of the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the asset purchase programme. our monetary policy measures have continued to preserve the very favourable financing conditions that are necessary to secure a sustained convergence of inflation rates towards levels below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. incoming data since our meeting in early march confirm that the cyclical recovery of the euro area economy is becoming increasingly solid and that downside risks have further diminished. at the same time, underlying inflation pressures continue to remain subdued and have yet to show a convincing upward trend. moreover, the ongoing volatility in headline inflation underlines the need to look through transient developments in hicp inflation, which have no implication for the medium - term outlook for price stability. a very substantial degree of monetary accommodation is still needed for underlying inflation pressures to build up and support headline inflation in the medium term. if the outlook becomes less favourable, or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation, we stand ready to increase our asset purchase programme in terms of size and / or duration. let me now explain our assessment in greater detail, starting with the economic analysis. euro area real gdp increased by 0. 5 %, quarter on quarter, in the fourth quarter of 2016, following a growth rate of 0. 4 %