- prudential stance and supervisory priorities as the national macroprudential authority, the central bank is mandated to implement measures to prevent excessive credit growth and leverage at a system - wide level. in line with this mandate, the central bank recently activated the counter - cyclical capital buffer, which is expressly designed to manage cyclical risks. by requiring additional capital buffers during cyclical upswings, the banking system will be better prepared for future downturns. in particular, in the event of an adverse shock, this capital buffer can be released, thereby mitigating the damaging pro - cyclical withdrawal of credit supply under adverse conditions. in relation to new mortgage lending, our borrower - based measures that impose ( flexible ) ceilings on loan - to - income ( lti ) and loan - to - value ( ltv ) ratios have built - in features that limit pro - cyclical dynamics. in the absence of such ceilings, cyclically - strong economic conditions might otherwise drive mortgage market dynamics towards more aggressive lti and ltv ratios due to 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches upward revisions ( by lenders and borrowers ) in projections of future levels of house prices and incomes. in addition, by limiting the risks of over - borrowing by households and over - lending by banks, household and bank balance sheets should be more resilient in the event of a future downturn. in relation to supervisory priorities, the current upturn in the european economy also provides an opportunity to address legacy issues such as the excessive stock of non - performing loans ( npls ) that accumulated in the wake of the crisis. in terms of timing, benign economic and financial conditions make it easier to identify feasible solutions for troubled loans in terms of the repayment capacity of debtors, the value of collateral and the market appetite for loan portfolio transactions. while the tackling of npls is a pan - european supervisory priority, it has particular importance in countries such as ireland that experienced the most severe increases in troubled loans in the wake of the crisis. while the direct restructuring of troubled loans by banks plays a vital role ( and, indeed, has been extensively deployed in the irish banking system in recent years ), the sale of loan portfolios is also an important element in macro - financial risk management. in particular, the reduction in the size of bank balance sheets ( especially through holding a lower stock of npls ) limits financial stability risk in the event of a future downturn, in terms

indeed, as the ecb ’ s functions have expanded, statistics have had to follow. and of course, as we have found ourselves needing more data to do our job, banks have found themselves having to report not only more data, but also more granular data. we try at all times to be mindful of the 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches reporting burden that banks have to bear. regular merit and cost procedures are applied to new data collections. more recently, we have started to hold public consultations on proposed new statistical reporting requirements. this will help to ensure all stakeholders have the chance to express their views. cooperation also helps us to make reporting more efficient, which in turn reduces the burden on banks. and here, we have worked on two fronts. with the escb integrated reporting framework, we aim to aggregate and harmonise banks ’ reporting requirements. with the banks ’ integrated reporting dictionary, the bird, we support banks in organising their data with a view to reporting it more efficiently. towards this end, experts from national central banks work with experts from commercial banks to define the data and data transformations needed to comply with the reporting requirements for anacredit and the securities holdings statistics. so, banks that choose to participate are being helped to do a job they would otherwise have had to do on their own. cooperation with institutions beyond the escb has also been vital. the members of the escb and the european statistical system partnership have worked closely to ensure the production of complete and coherent european statistics. we – central banks and statistical institutes – have been doing this with remarkable results in the committee for monetary, financial and balance of payments statistics since 1991. and since 2013, we also meet in the european statistical forum to discuss topics of strategic cooperation with the heads of national statistical institutes. keeping pace it ’ s clear that cooperation is key to getting our job done. but these days, a job well done requires much more than it used to. central banks need to keep pace with a world that is changing at an ever - faster pace. how do we do that? how do we keep pace? well, for one thing, we need to be open to new ways of doing things. on this front, i am sure the two words on everyone ’ s minds are “ big ” and “ data ”. it ’ s true that we central bankers have not exactly been at the forefront of the big data revolution. after all, we are a bit cautious by nature. and we know