required post - stress minimum capital ratios. indeed, a comparison with the original 2009 stress test shows the degree to which the 19 firms have improved their capital positions. the actual aggregate tier 1 common ratio of the 19 firms at the end of the third quarter of 2011 ( the beginning of the stress period ) was about 10. 1 percent, nearly double the 5. 3 percent aggregate ratio for the firms at the end of 2008 ( the start of the stress period for scap ). moreover, at 6. 3 percent, the post - stress aggregate ratio under the 2012 test would be higher than that actual aggregate capital ratio at the end of 2008, even assuming all proposed capital actions go forward during the stress period. as to qualitative conclusions from this year ’ s comprehensive capital analysis and review ( ccar ), most of the 19 bank holding companies have made considerable progress in their internal capital planning processes. however, there appears to be room for improvement at virtually every firm, and at some firms the amount of work needed is still significant. 2 this will remain a major focus of supervisory efforts, in next year ’ s capital review, and more generally. the 2012 experience in retrospect the 2012 exercise extended our supervisory emphasis on forward - looking, data - driven, horizontal assessments of the largest bank holding companies. it built upon, and incorporated, lessons learned from prior exercises. but these supervisory tools are still relatively new. just as capital planning and internal stress testing capacities could be improved at every firm, so we intend to consider both substantive and procedural improvements in our use of these tools. to this end, over the coming months we will be consulting extensively with academics, other analysts, and the banks themselves. substantively, the federal reserve will be focusing on potential refinements to supervisory models, such as modifying them to use more granular data. we will continue to pay considerable attention to model validation. among other things, we are forming an advisory group of academics and other experts to advise our internal model - validation team on an ongoing basis. then, later in the year, we intend to convene a modeling symposium to bring a broader array of voices into the discussion. we are, of course, mindful of the statements by some of the 19 participating bank holding companies that certain loss rates produced by the federal reserve ’ s model for the 2012 stress test significantly exceeded their own estimates. we may gain greater insight into the source of these differences as we proceed with the review of our modeling

klaas knot : how capital markets union can bolster monetary union speech by mr klaas knot, president of the netherlands bank, at the 47th international capital markets association meeting and conference, amsterdam, 4 june 2015. * * * mr. chairman, your excellency minister of finance, jeroen dijsselbloem, commissionner lord hill, esteemed icma - members and conference participants, 1. thank you for this opportunity to share my views on the european capital markets union. first, let me express my full support for the views expressed by his excellency, the minister of finance. i, too, very much welcome the initiatives by the commission geared at the further development and integration of european capital markets. i am confident that through the harmonization of regulation and the introduction of common standards we ’ ll be able to unlock important new ways of finance ; productive ways that will increase the resilience of the european economy, going beyond the traditional financing channels of banking. 2. it is true that in the euro area, small and medium - sized enterprises are still very much dependent on financing by banks. this implies that business investment in the euro area also depends on the availability of bank credit. and this creates vulnerabilities to the european economy. for example, when banks need to deleverage in order to strengthen their balance sheets. 3. the european bank - based financial system is often contrasted to the situation in the us, which is presumed to be more market - based. i should note that this difference is a bit more nuanced than is commonly acknowledged. for in the us as well, smes are similarly dependent on bank financing, in particular the smallest of firms. to the extent that smaller firms do access capital markets, this is mostly confined to specific sectors. a well - known example is the silicon valley industry, start - up tech - companies that are able to attract large sums of financing from venture - capitalists. 4. this refinement notwithstanding, in general it has been shown that well - developed access to market financing can complement bank financing. and economic research confirms that this can improve economic performance. the minister has eloquently explained how this would apply specifically to the european economy and set out how the capital markets union relates to the recently established european banking union. in my address, i want to focus on yet another perspective. i will give you my views on why the completion of a true european capital markets union