the best possible solution at the time. no, national accounts were not harmonised. and yes, the data were patchy and incomplete at first. but as imperfect a measure as it was, it enabled progress and was a fundamental step towards lifting economies out of the great depression. fast forward 90 years – and you will find us here, today, facing an even greater challenge than the great depression : climate change. we have got better at collecting information on the consequences of climate change. as patchy as those data may be for now, it will enable progress in climate issues too. and in any case, banks do already have access to enough information to start making real progress. climate change and banking supervision let me give you some background. 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches the ecb has identified climate change as a key risk factor for the european banking sector in 2021. the latest edition of our financial stability review1 suggests that around 80 % of european banks are already exposed to climate - related physical risks. in november of last year, ecb banking supervision published a guide on climate - related and environmental risks. 2 in that guide, we make it clear that we expect banks to take a comprehensive, strategic and forward - looking approach to disclosing and managing all climaterelated and environmental risks – which also include, for example, the risks of biodiversity loss and pollution. 3 we then asked banks to conduct a self - assessment relating to the expectations we set out in that guide, and to draw up action plans for how they intend to comply with them. this supervisory exercise will begin with, but not be limited to, taking stock of banks ’ self - assessments – and it will have important consequences for banks. we are now in the process of benchmarking the banks ’ self - assessments and action plans, and will then challenge them as part of our ongoing supervision. next year, we will conduct a full supervisory review of banks ’ practices for incorporating climate risks into their risk frameworks, as we gradually roll out a dedicated supervisory review and evaluation process ( srep ) methodology that will eventually influence banks ’ pillar 2 requirements. let me clarify that in the context of next year ’ s stress test exercise the reflection of its outcomes will be of a qualitative nature. a possible impact – if any – will be indirect, via the srep scores on pillar 2 requirements. but let me stress as well that this is not the end game. gradually we will start treating climate related risks

fixed - rate full allotment policy is probably the most significant non - standard measure the ecb is implementing. at its latest meeting on 6th october the governing council, in response to a worsening of liquidity tensions in the market, has committed to maintaining the fixed - rate full allotment policy until the middle of july 2012. the fixed - rate full allotment policy has been complemented by 6 - month and 12 - month operations. these operations serve to further reduce the funding risk faced by the banking system over a longer time horizon. they were an important tool following the lehman collapse. whilst in late 2009 it had been decided to phase them out, in august of this year the governing council decided to re - introduce such operations by conducting one 6 - month operation and more recently to allot one operation of approximately 12 - months and one of approximately 13 - months which will reach the beginning of 2013. as a third element of our non - standard measures, the international cooperation of the major central banks has been crucial : especially the swap arrangements with the us federal reserve which have allowed us to conduct fixed - rate full allotment tenders in us dollars which are aimed at repairing impaired money markets in foreign currency. these operations have been instrumental following the collapse of lehman, while during the course of 2010 demand in these operations petered out. as a precautionary measure, the ecb has nonetheless recently decided to re - establish 84 - day fixed - rate full allotment tenders in us dollar, in addition to the 7 - days tenders. finally, our response to the crisis has included an extension of our eligible collateral list. the main aspects of the eurosystem ’ s collateral framework are the following : that we accept a very broad range of eligible assets ; that a broad range of counterparties can participate in our refinancing operations ; that the same type of collateral is accepted in all refinancing operations ; and that we have common eligibility criteria across the euro area, with losssharing in case of a counterparty default. having a framework that already accepted a wide range of collateral before the crisis, which in the case of the euro area is due to the original need to accommodate a very diverse financial system, has served as a key crisis - mitigation tool. especially important is the possibility to increase the liquidity of assets and counterparties in times of stress. it is worth noting that the financial crisis led other major central banks to