part of economics or finance in the universities. but we need solid research foundations upon which to build our models ; hence, this situation needs to change. and we at the central banks must play our part in taking this discipline forward. after all, it is in our own interest to be able to assess the financial stability impact of climate change as well as the climate risks posed on our own balance sheets. we need to lead the way. and leading the way is what this conference has always been about. the systemic risk analytics conference has always taken onboard excellent papers that are innovative in terms of their approach and topic. to continue this tradition, i was delighted to see what we have on the agenda at this year ’ s conference. for what i see in the presentations is a lot of novel thinking and new approaches to analysis. these are the kinds of action we need in order to take things forward, which is a necessity, given the tasks ahead. i hope that the presentations in this conference give you ideas on how to extend your thinking beyond the traditional approaches. and i hope this in turn helps you to develop new approaches that might take your own field of research forward. so, i wish you all a fruitful conference. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

erkki liikanen : interview in suddeutsche zeitung interview ( edited script ) with mr erkki liikanen, governor of the bank of finland, in suddeutsche zeitung, conducted by mr markus zydra and published on 7 february 2015. * * * suddeutsche zeitung : mr liikanen, why did the ecb council decide to cut greek banks off from ecb credit? liikanen : greek banks have a counterparty status with the eurosystem. in january, we communicated that the collateral waiver based on which the greek government bonds qualify as eligible collateral to eurosystem refinancing assumes a successful conclusion of a programme review. this could no longer be assumed. so this was a very logical decision, as we have to follow our rules. but the ecb kept greece in the emergency liquidity programme via the bank of greece? liikanen : every case will be treated according to ela rules and procedures. every bank that receives ela must be solvent. the ecb wants to help the euro zone to recover economically. that is why the ecb decided to buy government bonds for 1, 1 trillion euro? many germans resent the decision. what do you tell them? liikanen : this was a decision to deliver on our mandate which is price stability. when inflation and as well as inflation expectations drop clearly below our definition for price stability, and the ecb runs out of traditional monetary policy measures like lowering interest rates, then non - standard measures, such as large scale asset purchases, are needed to maintain our policy target. by the way, the arguments in favor of the decision were also shared by most economists at home. and you have to do it rather sooner than later because if you get in a deflation spiral, it becomes very difficult to get out. of course i understand the german discussion. by the way in finland for example, there is also criticism that we acted too late. the decision was disputed – not only by the german members. how has this dispute changed the working atmosphere in the council? liikanen : there were different opinions among the members of the governing council about the timing. it is a non - standard monetary policy measure, we all agree. the working atmosphere is and has been professional and full of substance. you can justify both, doing it now or buying bonds later, but based among the best information we had, i came to the conclusion that risks