sabine lautenschlager : state of play in the european banking sector speech by ms sabine lautenschlager, member of the executive board of the european central bank and vice - chair of the supervisory board of the european central bank, at the iif annual meeting, washington dc, 13 october 2017. * * * it is quite difficult to present my views on the state of the euro area banking sector in such a short statement – there are more than 100 large and medium - sized banks in 19 countries, with substantial differences between them. but what i can say is that the banks are in a better position than they were. they are better capitalised and have improved their liquidity situation and their governance. they are making slow but steady progress in tackling all the well - known challenges and adapting their business models. still, supervisors are paid to demand more. so we want quite a few banks to adapt more quickly to the new environment. digital technology is rapidly gaining traction in the banking world. it brings new opportunities but also new competitors for each and every bank. and we are seeing more and more banks incorporating a digital dimension into their strategies. however, they are doing so at varying speeds and we are not always satisfied with their progress. all banks need to focus on transforming their services more quickly. interest rates are still low, weighing on the profits of many banks. this situation makes it imperative for them to adjust their business models. some banks still need to diversify their sources of income, manage their costs more diligently and become more efficient. legacy assets, such as non - performing loans, are still high in some parts of the banking sector in europe. they depress banks ’ profits and curb their ability to finance the economy. the good news is that we are seeing some progress here. the proportion of non - performing loans in the euro area fell from more than 7 % in the second quarter of 2015 to below 6 % at the beginning of 2017. still, i think the banks need to be more ambitious. we are not satisfied with the strategy of each and every bank. some need to act more decisively – and we will push them to do so. and finally, brexit is on the horizon, and will have a major impact on the banking sector. most of all, it will affect those banks which access the european market from the united kingdom and vice versa. they have to prepare themselves for other forms of market access – and quickly. all this

, maybe it is no coincidence that they and romania have folk songs called doina and daina, respectively, included in the intangible unesco heritage. romania is a mostly greek - orthodox christian country, the same as greece, cyprus and bulgaria. by the way, let me congratulate our bulgarian friends on the 140th anniversary of the establishment of their central bank! the legal and political systems of modern romania were inspired by the french ( i limit myself to just mentioning the napoleonic code ). this is also the case with modern romanian culture : prominent romanian artists such as constantin brancusi and george enescu achieved international recognition in paris. coming back to the legal system, the first constitution of modern romania in 1866 took after the belgian one. in addition, the nbr was founded based on the constitutive principles of the belgian central bank. the report to parliament underlying the establishment of the national bank of romania in 1880 saw belgium as – and i quote – “ a small but happy country ”, which developed rapidly with the assistance of its national bank, rendering it a suitable model for the institutional set - up of romania. as regards the neighbouring netherlands, the name of romania ’ s domestic currency – the leu ( meaning lion ) – comes from a dutch silver coin very popular in this part of europe in the 17th and 18th centuries : the lion - thaler. crossing the channel, our most beloved queen marie was the granddaughter of queen victoria of the united kingdom. it was her son, king charles ii, who reconstructed this royal palace. moving west again, let us not forget that the irish writer bram stoker took vlad the impaler as an inspiration for his famous novel dracula, creating a myth that romania is frequently associated with. returning to romania ’ s monarchs, under whose reign the country saw a remarkable modernisation, they belonged to the german house of hohenzollern - sigmaringen. as for the economic ties with germany, i would mention the fact that the name of the street where the old palace of the national bank of romania is located, i. e. lipscani, derives from leipzig ( lipsca in romanian ), the place where long ago local merchants used to bring their goods from. going further back in time, the saxons ( originating also in the luxembourg area ) settled in transylvania, which they called siebenburgen ( seven fortified towns ). one of these towns is sibiu or hermannstadt, where romania ’ s