mandate would be to pursue the overarching objective of financial stability and an additional key objective of continuity in the provision of critical services. in this week ’ s response to the financial system inquiry, the government agreed to progress additional measures in this area. the committee on payments and market infrastructures ( cpmi ) and the international organization of securities commissions ( iosco ). this framework is set out in the fsb ’ s key attributes of effective resolution regimes ( ref ). bis central bankers ’ speeches supporting market functioning in implementing all these reforms, the australian authorities have been careful to intervene only where necessary, so as to preserve appropriate incentives and avoid imposing unnecessary costs on industry participants. this was reflected in the initial preference for industry - led solutions that relied on private incentives. the bank and the other regulatory agencies took the view that an industry - led approach would allow the transition to occur in a measured way, and would avoid unnecessarily interfering with commercial outcomes. the decision, ultimately, to recommend a mandated approach, and the government ’ s acceptance of that advice, were driven importantly by considerations of international consistency. in a number of cases, products had already been mandated for clearing in other jurisdictions, notably interest rate derivatives denominated in the major currencies. the regulators took into account the benefits that could arise in such cases from favourable comparability assessments of the australian regime, and from avoiding opportunities for regulatory arbitrage. these, of course, needed to be balanced against any possible adverse implications that regulatory intervention might have for market functioning. by the time they issued their recommendation in respect of interest rate derivatives in the major currencies, the regulators were confident that the industry had already made considerable progress in the transition to central clearing for these products. the incremental cost of regulatory intervention was therefore expected to be low. by april 2014, when the regulators also recommended that australian dollar - denominated interest rate derivatives be centrally cleared, the australian banks were already well advanced in becoming direct participants of the two licensed clearing services, lch. clearnet limited ( lch. c ltd ) and asx clear ( futures ). during the period since those recommendations were made, the transition to clearing among australian banks has continued to accelerate, even though the clearing mandate has only recently been confirmed and has yet to take effect. our liaison with australian banks reveals that they are now centrally clearing almost all new trades that are eligible for clearing, and have also made considerable progress in backloading

carlos da silva costa : exiting the financial crisis and strengthening european integration address by mr carlos da silva costa, governor of the bank of portugal, at the conference of the portuguese association of insurers “ where is europe going? ”, panel i “ what is the future of the euro? ”, lisbon, 24 october 2013. * * * “ the countries that share this conception should be able to go further together, without excluding the others, since they can still live in a greater community of exchange and co - operation. ” jacques delors introduction the financial crisis began five years ago now, but its effects are still felt today, both in the financial markets and in the real economy. the international financial system has gradually returned to health, but fragilities remain. world economic growth remains weak, with a persistently high level of uncertainty and important vulnerabilities and risks with potentially significant consequences. even though the financial crisis began across the atlantic, the consequences for the euro area were considerable and still persist. despite the latest indicators showing encouraging signs of a gradual resumption of economic activity, unemployment remains historically high ( 12 % ) and varies widely across countries. 1 public debt is above 90 % of gdp, 2 which poses an additional challenge in a context of weak growth prospects. in turn, the financial markets remain highly fragmented, with continuing strong links between banks and their sovereigns. thus we must stay vigilant and work consistently towards making the euro area more balanced and resistant to shocks, anchoring measures taken to a long - term strategy. the crisis has taught us important lessons, including the following : ( i ) the importance of financial stability ; ( ii ) the negative effects of high levels of public debt ; ( iii ) the scale and speed of contagion effects ; ( iv ) the flaws and inconsistencies of the emu ’ s institutional architecture. the challenges brought by the crisis have also served as a catalyst for unprecedented decision - making, which will define a new “ design ” for europe, strengthening integration. the european union of today is not the same as the one of five years ago and surely will be very different from the one of five years hence. as jean monnet wrote in his memoirs, “ nobody can say today what the institutional framework of europe will be tomorrow because the future changes, which will be fostered by today ’ s changes, are unpredictable. ” if we look at the history of european integration we can see that the times of crisis