; and it allows advantage to be taken of the resources and management capacity of those savings banks which, on the basis of their greater soundness, have led the various integration processes. other far - reaching measures have been brought to bear in this restructuring process. for instance, there is the reform of the savings bank regulatory framework, which is allowing for their conversion into institutions more subject to market discipline and better prepared to meet the requirements of the new international regulatory framework. and we have the tightening of provisioning arrangements, which has entailed stricter requirements in respect of asset valuation criteria. i would also like to highlight the efforts to reinforce transparency, through the disclosure of exhaustive information on all spanish institutions ’ exposure to assets considered doubtful. the latest measure of significance was the approval in parliament of a royal decree - law ( rdl ), whose aim was to dispel doubts about our banking system. these doubts emerged essentially as a result of the contagion of the mistrust stemming from the sovereign debt crisis in certain euro area countries. three months later, this rdl may be said to have contributed significantly to allaying fears about the soundness of our banking sector and to substantially speeding through the restructuring of our savings banks. the rdl reinforces the solvency of all spanish institutions, requiring of them a core capital ratio of at least 8 %, with a further 2 % required for unlisted banks and those more reliant on wholesale markets, which are those in which the main doubts were concentrated. the rdl also stipulates that institutions receiving public aid should pursue their financial activity through a bank, which will better enable them to obtain funds on markets and will contribute to enhancing their transparency in the face of investors. the process laid down in the rdl is unfolding as scheduled. all institutions that have applied for aid from the frob have sent their recapitalisation plans to the banco de espana, and the work on the valuation of these institutions, which will be set by independent experts, is already under way. of the 13 institutions or groups of institutions that need to reinforce their capital, the four banks will fund themselves on the market, while the savings banks have submitted various strategies, which initially or ultimately include the possibility of obtaining the necessary funds from the frob, which acts as a backstop that assures the markets that all spanish institutions will have a core capital ratio of at least 8 %. now, how and when parliament has decreed, the

luis m linde : profile of professor nicholas bloom – winner of the xii german bernacer prize opening remarks by mr luis m linde, governor of the bank of spain, at the xii german bernacer prize ceremony, madrid, 24 september 2013. * * * ladies and gentlemen it is a great pleasure for me to introduce this award ceremony for the 12th german bernacer prize. first of all, let me once again thank the organizers and sponsors of the prize. they have established an excellent programme to support economic research in the fields of macroeconomics, monetary policy, and financial economics. this is the 10th time that the bernacer prize award ceremony has taken place at the banco de espana. the continued support and backing of this initiative of the observatory of the european central bank by the banco de espana is justified by its conviction of the importance of macroeconomic research, insofar as it concerns the functions to be performed by the european system of central banks. by recognizing the relevance of a prize like this, which has been awarded, in every instance, on the basis of academic excellence, the banco de espana reaffirms its commitment to economic research. as many of you know, this prize commemorates a distinguished spanish macroeconomist who worked at the banco de espana, as director of its research department, during the 1930s. despite the isolation of the spanish economics profession at that time, german bernacer obtained substantial international recognition for his research contributions. in this edition, to the very illustrious list of previous winners of the german bernacer prize, we add, with all due merit, professor nicholas bloom, a british economist, who is today professor in the economics department at stanford university. professor bloom graduated in economics from cambridge university, obtained his masters at oxford university and his ph. d. at university college london. he has been awarded the 2010 frisch medal of the econometric society, is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences and an associate editor of, among other journals, econometrica and the quarterly journal of economics and management science. he has published many articles on economic and management issues in top journals, including the american economic review, econometrica and the quarterly journal of economics. professor bloom ’ s two main areas of research are macroeconomic uncertainty and firm organization and productivity. in the first area, his main contributions are to show that macroeconomic uncertainty increases substantially in the aftermath of significant shocks. he also shows that during