besides the master and phd programmes, organised in collaboration with the universidad internacional menendez pelayo, the cemfi provides other valuable services, such as a summer school that brings leading academics to teach courses in relevant areas to participants – among them a large number of central bankers – and a highly valued summer internship programme for top undergraduate students. and it also collaborates with the banco de espana in various research activities, including the organisation of workshops and international conferences. the banco de espana is very proud to have created cemfi 35 years ago and to have supported it since then. i believe in the rigorous evaluation of activities, and in this sense cemfi has been exemplary, commissioning regular independent external evaluations. the last one was conducted in 2021 by three distinguished economists, marianne bertrand and raghuram rajan, of the university of chicago, and nobel laureate jean tirole, of the toulouse school of economics. the report started with a bold statement : “ cemfi is a remarkable adventure, both on the research front and in terms of educational achievements. a relatively recent introduction in the landscape of european higher education in economics, cemfi has succeeded in establishing itself as one of the premier research centers and postgraduate schools ( in europe ). ” the report contained a number of recommendations for further improvement. and, as a testament to our commitment to excellence, the cemfi board of trustees has taken steps to implement these recommendations with the financial support of the banco de espana. in fact, following the presentation of the evaluation report to the banco de espana ’ s governing council, we issued a press release stating that “ cemfi is an exemplary institution, whose activities provide an important service to the spanish economy and society in general and to the banco de espana in particular. the governing council therefore supports the implementation of the ambitious objectives described in the evaluation report. ” in terms of the broader service to spanish society we have just mentioned, let me remind you that three cemfi faculty members currently participate in the council of economic advisors of the spanish ministry of economic affairs, two have recently been appointed members of the advisory committee of the ministry of inclusion, social security and migration, one is a member of the advisory board of the spanish independent agency for fiscal responsibility, and another one is chair of the scientific committee of the spanish state research agency. in addition, last december, cemfi signed an agreement with the ministry of inclusion, social security and migration to collaborate in the evaluation of 34 pilot

projects to improve the design of poverty reduction policies. cemfi will participate both in the design and the evaluation of the projects, and researchers will be able to use the data generated by these evaluations for the production of papers publishable in scientific journals. carrying out these evaluations will allow cemfi to take a qualitative leap forward, positioning itself as an academic institution of reference in the evaluation of public policies in spain. i would like to thank samuel bentolila and monica martinez - bravo for leading this important initiative. i would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate cemfi newly recruited faculty member, federico kochen, for winning the 2022 young economist prize of the european central bank earlier this week in sintra for his paper " finance over the life cycle of firms " and specially manuel arellano for being awarded the prestigious premio de economia rey de espana prize for all his contributions to the development of highly influential econometric tools in a ceremony presided by king felipe vi. all these personal and institutional achievements have taken place under the highly effective leadership of the cemfi director, rafael repullo, to whom i am particularly grateful. to conclude, let me specifically address the students of the class of 2022. you are about to enter a challenging stage of your lives. regardless of whether you continue studying for a doctoral degree or embark upon a professional career, i am sure that the knowledge and experience you have acquired during the master in economics and finance will prove to be extremely valuable. use your human capital wisely and productively, for your own benefit, but also for the benefit of those surrounding you. you can make a difference to make a better future. i wish you every success in your careers. thank you very much.