risk – for example, the long - term interest - rate risk posed by 30 - year fixed - rate mortgages. it is also difficult for investors who do not do the underwriting themselves to take long - term idiosyncratic credit risk. securitization backed by a predictable level of government support has a useful function in facilitating the allocation of these different risks to different sets of investors through the to - be - announced or “ tba ” market. i think the tba market will be key to ensuring americans ’ continued widespread access to the 30 - year fixed - rate mortgage. the tba market is also important to the role of small banks and lending institutions in a competitive housing finance system. ensuring an easy, predictable path to securitization of standardized mortgage products is essential to making mortgage credit available throughout our country – in traditionally underserved rural areas and urban areas, and to all sorts of current and potential homeowners, provided by financial institutions of different sizes in different locations. a strong regulator whose primary focus is the housing finance system can also help ensure fair access to smaller institutions. in summary, it is my personal belief that housing finance reform must incorporate an explicit government backstop accompanied by significant sources of high - quality first - loss private capital. thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. i look forward to your questions. bis central bankers ’ speeches

democracy, encompassing areas as important as privatisation, the labour market and social security reforms, and the liberalisation of numerous markets ; notwithstanding, as i shall indicate later, that there is still considerable work outstanding in this area. an excellent example of these reforms is the transformation the spanish financial system has undergone. here, the efficiencies generated by liberalisation contributed to all players, in general, turning in a sound performance : bank and savings - bank managers, trade unions and employers'associations, governments and the financial supervisor all thus helped bring about an industry which is today held in worldwide esteem. nonetheless, although these macroeconomic and microeconomic policies no doubt brought their weight to bear, it would be very difficult to explain what has happened in spain without turning to other more structural causes. one essential factor of growth in recent decades has been the change in the level of spanish educational achievement in the 70s and 80s, which meant that those joining the labour market in the 90s had a far higher level of educational attainment than that of previous generations. and as well as higher education, these new entrants were also much greater in number than their predecessors. this indigenous population growth has been reinforced in recent years by the phenomenon of immigration, and has been an essential explanatory factor of our recent growth. in addition to the foregoing causes, which can be quantified, there are others that are more difficult to measure since they refer to qualitative aspects, but which are equally relevant. thus, for instance, spanish trade unions have progressively adopted a bargaining strategy more in keeping with the requirements stemming from spanish euro area membership and with the challenges posed by globalisation, and that has been conducive to employment generation and the growth of the spanish economy in recent years. something similar may be said of the substantial continuity over time of the broad thrust of economic policy, irrespective of the different governments that have successively been in power. such continuity has also impregnated the natural debate under democracy between the various policy options. underpinning this debate has been a degree of agreement on the importance of stability - oriented macroeconomic ( fiscal and monetary ) policies and the microeconomic policies geared to improving the workings of markets. and this is not something that is found in all developed countries. specifically, continuity in privatisation and market liberalisation policies, which has placed spain in a leading position in continental europe and has contributed significantly to the growth in the past 20 years