anita angelovska bezhoska : covid - 19 and economic influence on women address by ms anita angelovska bezhoska, governor of the national bank of the republic of north macedonia, at the international conference “ women in foreign policy ”, panel “ covid - 19 and economic influence on women ”, skopje, 15 september 2021. * * * accompanying presentation : bis. org / review / r211208k _ presentation. pdf minister shahpaska, deputy minister isaki, ladies and gentlemen, first, let me thank the organizers for inviting me to participate in this very important event, devoted to a topic relevant for our context in particular. i was asked to speak on covid - 19 and the implications this health and economic crisis had on women. last year, as we all know, we faced one of the biggest crises since the great depression. it started as a health crisis but over time it evolved into economic crisis that in a synchronized way affected all economies in the world and only 27 countries in the world registered positive yet very small growth rates. according to the estimates of the imf, the economic costs of the crisis would have been 3 times higher and stronger in the absence of the monetary, fiscal and financial sector supportive policies. one of the main features of this crisis, which distinguishes it from other crisis episodes, is its disproportionality. in fact, this crisis in a disproportionate way affected different economies, sectors, and age and gender groups, thus increasing income inequality. global data reveal that close to 95 million people during 2020, fell below the threshold of the poverty line, more that it was expected or projected at the start of the crisis. in this context, labor market data clearly indicate that youth, low skilled workers and women particularly in emerging and developing economies, have been hit harder. there is statistics pointing to a global employment rate for men below the pre - pandemic level by about 5 percentage points, while the women employment rate is still 7 percentage points below the prepandemic level. given the nature of the crisis, western balkan region was not shielded from this global shock. economies in the region are small and highly open in trade and financial terms, heavily exposed to external developments. gdp in the region declined by 3. 4 % in 2020, but with intensity that differs across counties in the region, ranging from – 1 % in serbia to – 15. 2 % in montenegro. hence

gertrude tumpel - gugerell : priorities for eu infrastructures and prospects of transatlantic infrastructures speech by ms gertrude tumpel - gugerell, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the eurofi conference, nice, 12 september 2008. * * * question 1 : what are the priorities to develop the competitiveness of eu securities infrastructures? answer 1 : firstly, from a central bank perspective a clear priority for eu securities infrastructures is to overcome the current fragmentation which leads to unnecessarily high costs, especially for cross - border transactions. i see t2s as a good example of this. t2s, as a neutral and borderless shared settlement infrastructure, will yield positive scale effects, and it will promote competition in asset servicing, as csds strengthen their offerings in services other than settlement. secondly, harmonisation, harmonisation will lead to further cost savings, transparency and foster competition in the value chain. we will see significant initiatives in harmonisation efforts throughout the securities life cycle, assisted by the catalytic effect of t2s. the eurosystem, itself, will initiate work of the t2s advisory group together with market participants to develop action plans for harmonising both settlement - related processes and processes related to corporate actions. thirdly, in order for securing the competitive market place of the single market and thereby maintain and attract issuers and investors to europe, we need to re - think the risks to the robustness and resilience of the entire financial system, which includes securities infrastructures. first of all we need a single set of standards consistently implemented in the european union. in this respect, i welcome the request of ecofin to escb and cesr to finalise their recommendations. ( this will also facilitate harmonisation and avoid regulatory arbitrages that can lead to the “ race to the bottom ” ). second, the current financial crisis is showing how fast problems in one market can spread over to other markets. in consequence, the operational processes, risk management policies and procedures of each system are more related to those of other systems. therefore priorities should be made to obtain a holistic and systemic european ( and maybe global ) approach to widening our risk assessment concepts and our coordination with other market participants within the value chain, so that risk and crisis management procedures can be optimised. after the publication of the cpss report on interdependencies, central banks are currently investigating if and if so