jurgen stark : press briefing on new monetary and financial statistics introductory remarks by mr jurgen stark, member of the executive board of the european central bank, for the presentation of four new / enhanced datasets on monetary and financial statistics, frankfurt, 27 june 2011. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i would like to welcome you to this press briefing on monetary and financial statistics, which is dedicated to the presentation of two new and two extended sets of statistics. we are in an environment of continuous financial innovations and changes in the financial landscape. the ecb is determined to keep the monetary and financial statistics fit for use in that changing environment. the extended sets of statistics improve the existing balance sheet and interest rate reporting by “ monetary financial institutions ”, which means primarily banks representing the moneyissuing sector. these datasets are at the centre of our monetary analysis. the new statistics refer to detailed quarterly balance sheet information from financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation, often called securitisation vehicles, and from insurance corporations and pension funds. the new datasets close some gaps in the harmonised balance sheet reporting of the growing sector of euro area financial intermediaries outside the money issuing sector. these improvements and new developments are the result of very significant efforts undertaken by statisticians at the ecb and in the national central banks of the eurosystem. the work was carried out in close collaboration with policy - makers, analysts and the financial industry. in my view, this process brought about a proper balance between the benefits of the data for monetary policy and the burden of collecting it from respondents. as policy - makers, we need timely data, and the data must be harmonised across country borders, so that it can be readily aggregated at the euro area level. the new statistics fit in well with the much used term “ lessons learned from the financial crisis ”. at the same time, the new developments are the outcome of a process that has been pursued pro - actively and with a longer - term view, rather than re - actively and with a focus on the recent crisis. indeed, the development process started before the financial turmoil that escalated into a genuine crisis. the process involved the euro area as well as other eu countries. it was motivated by the need to fill gaps caused by the ongoing financial innovation and by structural changes within financial products and the financial sector. the analysis forming the basis for monetary policy decisions depends crucially on the quality and breadth of coverage of the available statistics

always concern about the balance between politics and economics. in my view for much of our post independent years – i ’ m not putting this on one party or the other party, or one government or the other – but if you look back from 1948, for most of the time, politics has trumped economics. it is our job to convince our politicians that good economics is good politics. we need to, as a central bank, to get away from this cycle of stop – go policies, of creating artificial booms through misaligned policies. we need to set a good framework, as i said, for the economy. we have a representative democracy. the people elected by the people – the government – of course have sovereignty reposed in them. however, the monetary law act sets about some very specific responsibilities for the central bank. and it is up to us to fulfill those responsibilities in a very technocratic, objective and free way. that is not to say that we should be criticizing the government of the day. that is not our business. but there are channels through which we can give independent advice to the government discretely. i am very keen and i have spoken to our leaders too about this, that the central bank does its work independently and in a technical way and discretely advices the government about what we think is the best way forward for those segments of policy and practice for which the central bank has responsibility. so, i need your cooperation. thank you, thank you very much. bis central bankers ’ speeches