and a total of €54 billion was invested in housing. of the total invested in financial assets, 40 % was accounted for by assets other than cash and deposits, most notably net purchases of investment fund units ( €33 billion ). the high rates of inflation observed from late 2021 have prompted growth in nominal consumption, which, as i have said, reduces household savings. new lending to households remained very robust in 2022, essentially due to buoyant lending for house purchase. this marked a continuation of the trend observed since early 2021, although a clear slowdown has been evident in the last few months, shaped by the tightening of financial conditions. the net acquisition of financial assets declined sharply in 2022, although we do not yet have data for the final quarter. looking at the breakdown by instrument, in the first three quarters of last year households continued to increase their cash holdings and deposits at a good pace, with new investments in these liquid instruments amounting to €33 billion. by contrast, households divested €22 billion from other financial instruments. this may owe to the weak performance of financial markets in 2022. lastly, repayments of outstanding debt increased over the course of 2022, driven by the repayment of loans for house purchase, possibly as a result of higher interest rates increasing the debt payments made by households with floating - rate loans. some of those with surplus savings may have used part of these to pay down debt, at a time when high inflation is eroding the real value of cash holdings and deposits. to sum up, in 2020 the bulk of the savings built up – mainly by higher - income households – was put into liquid assets. in 2021, residential investment began to gain upward momentum, while a larger share of net financial asset acquisitions took the form of investment funds and cash holdings, and deposits represented a lower relative share. lastly, in 2022 ( albeit in the absence of data for the full year ), the acquisition of financial assets declined as savings levels dropped. further, we will have to wait and see how investment decisions are affected by rising interest rates, both in terms of the type of financial product ( investment funds, debt securities, etc. ) and in terms of residential investment, which is slowing somewhat due to a tightening of financial conditions. as i have said, the extraordinary savings accumulated during the pandemic were concentrated among higher - income households, whose portfolios are also more diversified. according to the 2020 spanish survey of household finances, real

around this objective will also be patent. another key aspect is what monetary policy instruments we should have. in the setting described, asset purchase programmes and liquidity - providing operations for banks should be part of the normal “ toolbox ”. moreover, we should equip ourselves with sufficiently flexible instruments to head off fragmentation dynamics that may compromise the proper transmission of monetary policy euro area - wide. finally, allow me to voice some thoughts on the main challenges in the banking sector regulatory and supervisory area. the crisis has but highlighted the importance of a healthy banking sector, with sufficient buffers to absorb unexpected losses. we must ensure that the sector ’ s resilience remains in place for new risks that may emerge. a reminder, too, that the basel iii global reforms have still to be implemented. the aim is to homogenise the calculation of risk - weighted assets across institutions and, to achieve this, a key element is the so - called output floor. essentially, a floor is set on the reductions banks can obtain using internal models to calculate minimum capital requirements instead of the standardised approach. this objective remains wholly in place. indeed, after having delayed implementation by one year, all the members of the basel committee on banking supervision it is my privilege to preside have committed to fully implement this reform on the new date. at the national level, the coordinated supervision of risks to financial stability has been strengthened with the creation of the spanish macroprudential authority ( amcesfi ). in parallel, new macroprudential instruments have been made available to the banco de espana, increasing our capacity to act ahead of episodes of excessive or inappropriate credit growth. aside from these improvements, it would be worth reflecting on our institutional financial architecture. in the wake of the previous international financial crisis, some countries changed their models, generally moving to more integrated models involving a greater role for central banks. among these, we have witnessed the separation of the responsibilities for preserving the financial soundness of all financial institutions irrespective of their nature ( banking, insurance, securities, etc. ) and for overseeing the conduct of their relations with customers, assigning such responsibilities to different authorities ( to the banco de espana and to the cnmv, respectively ). this is, in my view, an optimal institutional arrangement for managing potential clashes between both responsibilities and for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the supervisory activity. as i said, it will be important to respond to the new risks that emerge, which include most