the conditions for effective supervisory harmonisation. all in all, the ssm significantly improved resilience of, and confidence in the european banking sector. it forcefully demonstrated its ability to prevent crises – notably in 2023 after the bank failures in the united states and the forced takeover of credit suisse. basel rules and european macroprudential policies have also served our financial system well. together, these elements have effectively protected the euro area – throughout the pandemic and then the sharp rise in 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches interest rates. now is the time for regulatory stabilisation. european supervisors and legislators are determined to ensure a level playing field between different jurisdictions and, consequently, a fair application of basel iii everywhere. with this in mind, the commission envisages a one - year delay for implementing the frtb ; but we strongly hope the us authorities will transpose basel 3 in a full and consistent way and in the not too distant future. coming back to the ssm, its supervisory practices are now sufficiently mature to make processes leaner, in order to enhance risk - based supervision and make use of the full supervisory toolkit – notably by focusing on qualitative measures. that was the main conclusion of the wise persons report in april 2023i. fernando restoy is also with us today, and i would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to this collective work. this report paved the way for the improvement of the existing supervisory review and evaluation process ( srep ) and the launch of several new projects and initiatives. last month, the supervisory board decided on concrete measures to incorporate a more risk - proportionate approach into the ssm's methodologies, processes and tools, starting in the second half of 2024 as recently stated by claudia buch. ii let me highlight a few complementary upcoming improvements in the srep. first, the reinforcement of the multi - year approach to better plan and spread the detailed analysis over time and, provided there is no material change in a bank's risk profile, the possibility to update srep decisions every two years instead of yearly. second, a greater focus on key expectations and results, with a better use of the escalation ladder should deficiencies remain non - remediated for a long time. overall, we will have a shorter srep process, with decisions to be sent to the majority of banks by the end of september, compared with december as currently the case. all these measures are

facebook messenger allows peer - to - peer payments in 3 countries and a facebook wallet is reportedly in preparation. moreover, bigtechs like the gafa companies have competitive advantages in terms of expanding their activities further in this area, including massive financial resources to strong brand recognition, a worldwide customer base and privileged access to cutting edge technologies. therefore, bigtechs more than fintechs have the potential to fundamentally redefine financial intermediation : not to recreate the universal banking model, but rather to integrate the entire landscape of financial services into their own digital ecosystems. this does not mean that banks will be disintermediated ; but rather that banks may be interfaced by bigtechs ’ platforms. such a move is already gaining considerable traction in china. so, to conclude on the new players emerging in the digital era and their impact on financial intermediation, digital finance may not lead to a more decentralised system as the centripetal forces of network effects may benefit large conglomerates the most. rather than eliminating intermediation, if left on its own, digital finance will more likely lead to reshuffling the cards, with the most digitally - agile incumbents and the most financially - able challengers becoming the new dominant ( and potentially systemic ) intermediaries. ( b ) beyond native digital intermediaries, we have also witnessed the steady growth of the asset management industry in the wake of the great financial crisis. the asset management industry plays a key role in the economy by channelling savings towards investment, both for companies ’ and governments ’ capital needs. in other words, asset managers play an important intermediary role in the financial system. in 2008, assets in the fund industry amounted to about eur 13 trillion. ten years later, the outstanding amount of assets is more than 3 times higher at eur 42 trillion. half is located in the united states and about 35 % in europe. 1 the asset management sector is the largest component of non - bank financial intermediation defined by the financial stability board as “ credit intermediation involving entities and sources : efama, international statistical reports 4 / 9 activities outside the regular banking system ”. it ’ s true that in many respects, investment funds have bank ‑ like financing activities : they don ’ t collect deposits but they do collect funds, they carry out liquidity and / or maturity transformation and, in certain cases, they perform their intermediation with leverage. and like banks