demographic trends remain intact, this will inevitably have significant and, unfortunately, adverse consequences for the entire lithuanian economy, including its real estate market. another important factor is access to credit. another important factor is access to credit. this year, we continue to observe a trend of a year - on - year decrease in new bank loans to the real estate sector. approximately half of the construction companies surveyed by the bank of lithuania reported that their loan or refinance applications had been rejected, which was the highest share of rejections compared to other sectors. access to finance for real estate developers has been far from encouraging too, with one out of three applications rejected. 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches financial market participants engaged in lending to businesses admit that, as far as real estate developers are concerned, tighter curbs have only been applied to lending to accommodation and public catering enterprises, which have taken a severe hit from the pandemic. financial institutions likely hedge themselves against the pandemic - induced uncertainty and too farreaching ambitions of their customers. however, sudden funding cuts may entail additional risks for builders and developers. therefore, it is particularly important that funding sources for real estate undertakings and construction companies grow in range and diversity. and we can already see this happening – businesses increasingly tap other sources, such as non - financial corporations, non - banking financial institutions and funds. dear colleagues, our today ’ s event is a good opportunity to assess the potential fallout from the pandemic on the real estate market, to discuss the challenges that are currently emerging or will appear in the near future, as well as potential preventive measures to reduce likely imbalances. by joining this conference, you have confirmed that you are interested in the real estate market environment and look for credible information and well - founded answers. we aim for the same goal. i very much hope that the eighth conference will be as successful as the previous ones. i wish you fruitful discussions that will help better understand the prevailing threats and risks as well as discover solutions to the most pressing issues. 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches

‘ disaster risk financing : the role of insurance in new public - private partnerships ’ speech by luigi federico signorini president of ivass ania insurance high level conference rome, 20 september 2024 ladies and gentlemen, once again we are seeing dramatic images of floods, damages and losses. the images that we just saw in the walk - in video for this conference are surely older, but could have been taken yesterday. our hearts and thoughts are with those that have been hit, not just this time but also in the previous months, some repeatedly. we must hope that human life has been spared this time, although i understand that as of this morning some are still missing. this is another reminder of the seriousness of the climate issue. we cannot be in denial. the accelerating change in the earth ’ s climate has increased the frequency and intensity of river and coastal floods, landslides, droughts and forest fires worldwide. europe, in particular, is warming quite fast ; according to copernicus ( the european satellite monitoring system ), the average temperature for european land in august 2024 was more than 1. 5°c above the 1991 - 2020 average for the same month. in addition to climate - related events, other natural disasters such as earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions and bradyseism can have a dramatic impact on the economy and society. the issue of natural disasters and, more generally, catastrophe risks, once confined to scholars of the ‘ hard ’ sciences, such as physicists and biologists, has become an area of concern for economists, sociologists and lawyers as well. as a consequence, one sees among other things more and more attempts at measuring the economic impact of natural events in a reliable way. the 2023 european state of the climate report estimates the direct damage to property generated in 2023 by floods, inundations and fires ( disregarding, that is, indirect effects ) at more than €13 billion, and the human toll at 151 deaths1. over the past few years, there has also been a growing attention see the european centre for medium - range weather forecasts - ecmwf - 2023 european state of the climate. in international fora2 to natural disasters as a potential source of systemic financial stability risk. the literature on disaster relief suggests that a purely ex - post approach to damage repair and loss compensation is likely to be sub - optimal. prevention is of course necessary at various levels. in my speech, as befits the occasion and