administer their small business loans on a “ pooled basis, ” similar to the way they manage most small personal loans. the new accord will permit aggregate exposures to a single business borrower of up to €1 million to be treated as retail exposures. because retail exposures enjoy a preferential treatment under both the standardised ( reduction of risk weights by 25 percentage points, from 100 % to 75 % ) and irb ( a different risk - weight curve ) approaches to credit risk, banks making such loans may face lower capital requirements than are currently applicable. moreover, for those who have monitored our work closely, the committee recently eliminated a controversial requirement governing the “ granularity ” of such loans. in plain language, the rules will no longer require that retail portfolios contain exposures to a minimum number of unrelated parties. instead, national supervisors will determine whether such portfolios qualify for retail treatment. although the media has not reported on this change widely, it is quite important because it will help more banks to enjoy the preferential retail treatment for their smallest business credits. · finally, the new accord will recognise a far wider range of collateral and guarantees than the current rules do. when borrowers pledge eligible collateral or guarantees, and thereby reduce the potential loss on an exposure, banks will be able to hold less capital against that exposure than the 1988 accord stipulates. this change is especially pertinent to sme lending, since national supervisors will be able to recognise several of the types of collateral and guarantees that smes provide. results of qis 3 how do we know that these adjustments will help smes? to ensure that we ’ ve got it right, the basel committee has conducted a series of “ quantitative impact studies ” with the active support of many commercial banks. our most recent study, under the name “ qis 3, ” was the most comprehensive, involving an extremely detailed survey of how capital requirements will change for over 350 individual banks in more than 40 countries, including in all eu countries. qis 3 demonstrates clearly that the new rules will not increase the capital required for banks ’ credit exposures to smes if we compare the new proposals to the current solvency rules. in fact, our studies show that, on average, banks ’ capital charges on loans to smes included in the corporate portfolio will remain largely stable for banks using the standardised approach to credit risk and will decline by an average of between 3 % and 11 % for banks on the irb

a positive – but very close to zero – inflation rate. the risk of deanchoring medium - term inflation expectations does not seem imminent, but even so, the tendency in recent months is once again somewhat worrying. the phenomenon of inflation - free growth we are experiencing is one of the most noteworthy features of global economic developments in recent years, and a subject of debate and analysis by international economic organisations, academics and experts. the course of energy prices and globalisation are undoubtedly explanatory factors, but the phenomenon is admittedly one that poses many questions and, consequently, difficulties for economic policy. ecb measures for several years ecb monetary policy has striven to resolutely support economic recovery through standard and non - standard measures. after exhausting the standard measures, in september 2014 the ecb announced its quantitative easing programme with two new components : the asset - backed securities ( abs ) purchase programme and the covered bonds purchase programme. subsequently, in january this year an agreement was reached to extend the programme to include public securities. as at 30 september 2015, the assets acquired by the eurosystem under the expanded purchase programme amounted to slightly more than €475 billion, a substantial amount of which ( almost 72 % ) comprised government bonds. the programme has helped enhance monetary policy transmission, by reducing the fragmentation of european financial markets, and provided for lower borrowing costs for households and firms. the depreciation of the euro has also contributed to easing financing conditions. at its meeting on 3 september 2015, the governing council of the ecb expressed its readiness and ability, if required, to allow for more accommodation in its monetary policy stance. to this end, it could – if considered necessary – use the flexibility already embedded in the purchase programme to increase its size and extend its duration or modify its composition. the spanish economy to conclude, i would like to briefly discuss the spanish economy and its outlook. during 2015 the spanish economy has been in what we could call a “ virtuous triangle ”, by simultaneously meeting three conditions : robust inflation - free growth, job creation and an external surplus. in 2015 we are going to achieve gdp growth of more than 3 %, a negative average annual inflation rate, a current account surplus of more than 1 pp of gdp, and growth in employment and social security registrations, prompting expectations of an unemployment rate of less than 20 % of the labour force by end - 2016. however, the degree of uncertainty in economic projections has widened notably in recent months