response to an unquestionable substantive need : the downsizing of the spanish banking sector, following the excesses of the growth period prior to 2007. these factors left many institutions facing the challenge of a future far removed from the comforts that had characterised the previous period, namely : strong economic growth, abundant liquidity on international markets, extensive business margins and healthy assets. such comforts were viewed by many as a shield against underlying risks, and in some cases they prompted banks to lower their guard against the problems that were gathering. given the new playing field in place as from 2007, the responsibility of savings banks is clear : to act resolutely to change those structures that can be improved, in full awareness that other parts of the new situation are exogenous and therefore elude their management capabilities. hence the importance of taking decisions aimed at improving efficiency, through merger – or concentration – processes that position savings banks at a new set of size and rationality - based coordinates. faced with this need, the structuring of the new ips instrument ( new, at least, in terms of its current contours ) responds to the need to pave the way so that concentration agreements may be reached between a type of institution – savings banks – which, given its business form and complex governance arrangements, does not have the same flexibility as banks to conclude merger agreements. to smooth these concentration processes, the fund for the orderly restructuring of the banking sector was also created, a fund to which the initiators of the various projects can resort to strengthen their capital. this assistance adds further discipline in respect of compliance with the plans, since the condition imposed by the use of public funds is that the capacity of the banking system should be reduced and its efficiency increased. mergers and ipss are thus two alternatives available to savings banks to concentrate their business and restructure. the two options differ in terms of their legal form, but they coincide fully in their objectives and should be equivalent in terms of their results. let us turn to the second step of the evaluation process. the guiding principle of the design and legal construction of ipss has been the search for a concentration mechanism analogous to mergers in terms of practical results. in this connection, the ips has been structured on three basic pillars. the first entails the relinquishing by all participants to the central body of the ips of the capacity to determine and implement business strategies and internal risk control and management tools, in such a

internalise the social costs of pollution at emitting agents, technological innovations that further reduce the cost of using renewable energy sources and shifts in agents ’ preferences towards more environmentally sustainable goods and services. given the complexity of this matter, an iterative modular approach has been adopted through which the macroeconomic effect of these shocks and policies can be analysed separately, so as to then calibrate the impact of changes in the macroeconomic environment on banks ’ income statements and solvency. the macroeconomic module includes a general equilibrium model with a substantial sectoral breakdown, in which economic agents interact. in this way it is possible to take account of the changes in the sectoral structure of the economy triggered by the transition, with the least pollutant sectors gaining weight to the detriment of the most pollutant sectors, whose emissions decrease. the banking module models the different credit risk parameters ( pds, lgds, etc. ) on the basis of the sectoral and aggregate macroeconomic variables provided by the macro module, enabling projections of banks'income statements to be obtained. this module needs to allow for a substantial sectoral breakdown so as to be able to reflect both the risks assumed by banks and the opportunities opening up in this process. in this context, i would like to mention a problem facing us all : the lack of reliable information. the fact that this aspect is brought up repeatedly is a reflection of its transcendence. it is not a coincidence that there are various references in the conference agenda to initiatives related to transparency and information on sustainability in general. the topics discussed today and yesterday have covered, for example, the directive on non - financing reporting, the register of sustainable funds, the climate benchmarks and the european taxonomy. in this regard, we are assessing the reporting and data requirements needed to perform the analyses i just mentioned. we are also conducting a pilot programme for collecting data in collaboration with major credit institutions and we have the benefit of our central credit register. we can attempt to exploit to the full the data already available to us, but we need to be aware that, without information, it is impossible to make further headway. we are also taking action in our role as portfolio manager. central banks are important investors in the debt markets, both in respect of monetary policy and reserve management. in this area, we have included environmental responsibility and sustainability criteria in the reserves investment policy and we are progressively increasing our own holdings of green bonds. the environmental factor is also