yves mersch : translating a shared vision into a winning story closing remarks by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the t2s launch celebration, milan, 2 july 2015. * * * we chose to call this t2s launch celebration “ translating a shared vision into a winning story ”. listening to the speakers for the past two hours i believe the name was just right. we have heard how the t2s community transformed the shared vision of an integrated securities settlement landscape into a winning story, culminating in the launch of t2s on 22 june. stimulating views have been shared tonight and i would like to thank the speakers for presenting their perspectives on the capital markets union. it is evident that t2s, post - trade harmonisation and the csd regulation are among the elements that will be pushing this agenda forward. looking around the room i am happy to see so many familiar faces. faces of people who have been part of the project since the idea of t2s was born in 2006. the journey over the past nine years has been an inspiring one. there have been some bumps in the road, some twists and turns, but with the launch of t2s we have achieved a monumental milestone. we made the vision of a single securities settlement platform for europe a reality. i want to thank you all for your support, trust and commitment, which has enabled us to reach this first step towards an integrated, more efficient, and harmonised post - trade market in europe. in particular, i would like to take this opportunity to thank the national communities, namely the national central banks, the securities depositories and their clients, for their involvement and cooperation. moreover, i would like to thank the 4cb ( composed of banque de france, deutsche bundesbank, banca d ’ italia and banco de espana ) for developing and now also running the t2s platform. let me also acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the people at the ecb who coordinated the implementation of the project. in particular, i thank jean - michel godeffroy, who steered the t2s ship through sometimes stormy waters for many years, and marc bayle, who brought the ship to a safe harbour on 22 june 2015. and a special thanks to ms tumpel - gugerell, who was the ecb board member in charge during the project ’ s inception. a popular saying is that “ two heads are better

many cases weightier determining factors than solvency requirements themselves for financial institutions. it is thus necessary to harness the ongoing revision of european legislation and the subsequent re - definition of the policies to be pursued by the resolution authorities so as to fine - tune demands in a way that provides for the orderly adjustment of the industry to the new regime. as earlier discussed, adding flexibility to some requirements and setting transitional arrangements for others may be of help here, while also reinforcing the authorities ’ ability to manage crises in the short and medium term. all told, institutions should be mindful that the new resolution framework will require those banks that exceed a certain size and are liable to generate systemic risk to ensure that their balance sheet structure allows their resolution at the expense, essentially, of their shareholders and creditors. they should, therefore, ensure that their business model is compatible with the issuance of loss - absorbing instruments on the capital markets and that their income statements allow for the remuneration of the supplementary risk that the new resolution regime entails for holders of bank debt. it thus seems likely that several institutions will face objective difficulties adjusting to the recently established resolution framework. these new regulations, therefore, contribute to reinforcing the perception of excess capacity in the sector and, foreseeably, they will contribute to promoting a change in the industry structure that will correct such excess by means of consolidation processes giving rise to banks more capable of comfortably complying with the new demands. the supervisor ’ s role essentially consists of setting in 9 / 10 place the means needed for this seemingly inevitable adjustment process to unfold in as orderly a fashion as possible. 10 / 10