law laid down exactly what assets the snb was permitted to invest in and what securities were eligible as collateral in lombard business. in future, the national bank will be responsible for making these decisions itself. at the time when the new law enters into force, we shall publish two directives. one will spell out the technical preconditions for our monetary operations ; the other will set out how we shall use our extended investment policy scope. my colleague, philipp hildebrand, in his address will present our first ideas on this subject. the new law vests specific responsibilities in the snb with respect to the oversight of payment and securities settlement systems. up to now, our oversight of the sic interbank payment system was based on a contractual relationship. as from next year, our responsibilities in this domain will be based on the law and will extend to the oversight of all major payment and settlement systems. my colleague, niklaus blattner, will discuss this subject in more detail in his remarks. the new law also provides that the snb shall issue implementing regulations in the area of minimum reserves, statistics and the oversight of payment and settlement systems. the draft of an ordinance has already been submitted to the interested parties for consultation. in the field of minimum reserves and statistics we intend in principle to take up the provisions already existing in the federal law on banks and savings banks and the federal law on investment funds. as regards the oversight of payment and settlement systems, we are advancing into totally new territory, where for the time being only the main principles have been defined. this implies pioneering work in the implementation.

philipp m hildebrand : where is productivity growth in europe? summary of a speech by dr philipp m hildebrand, member of the governing board of the swiss national bank, to the vereinigung basler okonomen, basel, 28 october 2004. the complete speech can be found in german on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * since 1996 the e. u. is lagging behind the u. s. in terms of productivity growth. this phenomenon has become more pronounced since 2001. the growth of gdp per work hour in the e. u. between the periods 1990 - 1995 and 1995 - 2002 is lower by two percentage points per year. this difference amounts to 2, 8 percentage points per year if one compares the periods 1990 - 1995 and 2000 - 2005. differences in gdp measurement account for roughly 0, 5 up to a maximum of 1 percentage point of the productivity growth differential. the remaining difference is caused by two factors. on the one hand, total factor productivity growth has accelerated in the u. s. this was made possible by a wideranging restructuring of the u. s. economy which provided an optimal backdrop for the new information and communication technologies. on the other hand, capital deepening in europe was lessened by employment growth. the productivity of this additional labour input has to be increased through strong educational efforts, open markets and additional investment. labour market reforms remain indispensable in order to enhance the productivity of all workers. product market reforms will be crucial in order to unleash the full productivity potential of the new technologies. increasing productivity is the key to securing our welfare and the stability of our social security systems.