you concerned? “ there is a fundamental political question here : do we need more or less europe? we created an internal market which is working, it was worth creating. but it has become clear that we had too little europe in crisis management and crisis resolution, to deal in particular with situations where a state is in difficulty. efsf, esm and the banking union are enormous achievements, in that sense. the new institutional set up is still not complete, but it ’ s going to be completed over time. the crisis became so acute in europe because we had too little europe. and now we are addressing some of the major problems we have had to face ”. like with the recent agreement on the srm. we welcome the deal reached by eu finance ministers on the single resolution mechanism, in particular as it allows for swift actions in critical situations. we deem this a fundamental step towards the completion of banking union. but the process is not yet complete and it needs to be finalised soon. bis central bankers ’ speeches in italy there is an alarming tendency to question the euro. what scenario, if a country exits the euro? “ as the president said at the european parliament, there is no point in discussing a plan b. furthermore, now that we have stabilised the euro, this discussion does not reflect the reality that the euro is an irreversible project. but let me say another thing : those dreaming of the world before the euro, tend to forget what it really was, before. you remember the inflation in italy, the repeated competitive devaluations – which were also a consequence of the loss of competitiveness caused by high inflation – the volatility of the exchange rate, nominal interest rates that were in double - digits, and inflation that was persistently higher than elsewhere and eating up the purchasing power of wages and pensions. in italy you should think about that. younger generation maybe don ’ t know that, and older generations tend to forget that. suppose now you want to take the risk of changing the currency : can you imagine all the contracts you have, denominated in euro and signed by the parties becoming uncertain? all your debts, your contracts, at private and public level becoming uncertain? who pays what, in what currency, when? you get you into a nightmare of widespread litigation. and even in a scenario where all people who are parties to a contract denominated in euro are allowed to pay back in new liras, can

yves mersch : the future of europe ’ s financial market infrastructure – the eurosystem ’ s vision 2020 speech by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the sibos conference, singapore, 14 october 2015. * * * ladies and gentlemen, members of the panel, the beauty of innovation is that it never ends. even the best ideas can be enhanced and complemented. the eurosystem, the euro area ’ s network of central banks, has developed two major innovations in the field of financial market infrastructure over the past 15 years : target ( now target2 ) and target2 - securities, or t2s. both platforms have significantly improved the way payments and securities are processed in europe. however, as we look to the future, we see room for further enhancements and consolidation. as we think about where we want to go next, i should stress that our vision for market infrastructure integration is not, nor should be, ours alone. following the success of our collaboration with the market during the development of t2s, we intend to take the same approach going forwards – to work together with the market to identify what its needs are and to draw on the expertise in both the public and the private sectors. through collaboration we will define where european market infrastructure should be heading. as we think about future innovation, allow me to look briefly at past innovations. the digital camera, the mobile phone and the internet were three revolutionary innovations of the last century. but the reason why so many of us now have a smartphone in our pockets is because the innovation did not end there – someone had the idea to combine these tools into a single device. the eurosystem ’ s vision for 2020 is not so different. over the coming years, we will seek to draw on the synergies between target2 and t2s. one idea is to consolidate some components of the technical infrastructure and maybe even form a single platform. this will allow target2 to benefit from some of the state - of - the - art features of t2s, such as the implementation of iso 20022 standards. migration to iso 20022 in target2 was originally planned for november 2017, but upon the banks ’ request, we have postponed implementation and will work together with the market, under the umbrella of our vision 2020, to find the most appropriate method and timing for migration. the enhancements we envisage for europe ’ s financial market infrastructure will benefit users from