fabio panetta : interview in corriere della sera interview with mr fabio panetta, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in corriere della sera, conducted by mr daniele manca on 14 march 2020 and published on 15 march 2020. * * * the question everyone would like to ask of someone following the situation up close, minute by minute, is : are europe and the euro strong? i am not in any doubt about the strength of the euro. during the financial crisis, we were able to overcome difficult situations, thanks to the efforts made by the people of europe. we succeeded by working together and by putting in place policies that were mutually reinforcing. it ’ s important that, at such a difficult time, national governments and european institutions implement common policies in a timely fashion. right now we ’ re working towards tomorrow ’ s eurogroup meeting – there needs to be a joint response to this crisis which, let ’ s not forget, is affecting every country in europe. and the ecb is working with europe to strengthen that response. the stock market fell sharply after the ecb president ’ s press conference on thursday. influential voices joined in with the criticism that followed, and even the italian president got involved. but is the ecb ready to help italy? the decisions we took this week demonstrated that we are ready and able to play our part. regardless of any isolated events that may occur in the heat of the moment, at a time of immense pressure and hard work, the ecb and the national central banks have decided to take strong action and apply all the flexibility needed at present, and we have resolved to adopt further measures if necessary. facts are what count right now, and we will do everything we have to, within our mandate. what concrete action can the ecb take to help italian firms and households? first of all, let me say that the economic consequences of the pandemic will need to be addressed first and foremost by governments. they are the ones that are able to implement swift and decisive measures to support healthcare systems, employment and household income. they are the ones who can take targeted action to help firms, providing public guarantees in order to channel credit and liquidity to companies affected by the crisis. so it ’ s a positive step that european governments are following the example of the italian government and are taking action. and what about the ecb? these actions will reinforce the effects of the measures put in place by the ec

this direction over recent times. these steps include : efforts to simplify prospectus requirements for retail vanilla bonds and ease the personal liability of company directors ; improving market transparency through the rba ’ s publication of new measures of corporate bond yields ; the lengthening of the government bond curve ; and the listing of certain fixed - income securities on the australian securities exchange. these are all welcome developments. conclusion in conclusion, let me try to briefly summarise. bank - based finance remains the dominant form of finance for australian companies. superannuation funds have been prepared to finance banks and have effectively outsourced the credit assessment function for much of the corporate sector. partly as a result, the development of a deep and liquid corporate bond market is still a work in progress. but an equally important observation is that we do have the infrastructure that could support a strong and very active bond market in times of stress or inadequate competition. in this way, this infrastructure provides a form of insurance. we need to make sure that we nurture this infrastructure so that we can continue to be confident that the corporate bond market will be there when it is most needed. given this perspective, i think it is probably better to think of markets and institutions as being complements, rather than as being engaged in some type of struggle for supremacy. thank you very much for listening. bis central bankers ’ speeches