and this applies in both directions : the people of the euro area should be protected against any spurt in inflation and against deflation. over ten years ago the ecb defined price stability as an annual inflation rate of below, but close to, 2 % in the medium term. for this year, however, we can expect price increases of only 0. 6 %, for 2015 only 1. 1 % and for 2016 only 1. 4 %. this clearly shows why our current very accommodative monetary policy stance is not only economically appropriate, but also a necessary measure to fulfil our treaty obligation. the governing council is unanimous on this point. at the heart of this accommodative strategy is undoubtedly the fact that the ecb has steadily cut the interest rate on the main refinancing operations to its lowest possible point in recent years. however, the still existing functional deficits of the financial markets are hindering an optimal transmission of the monetary policy signals coming from this very low interest rate. small and medium - sized enterprises in particular still aren ’ t feeling enough of the monetary policy accommodation. we call this an impaired transmission mechanism. that ’ s why the governing council unanimously adopted in june a series of measures which will improve the transmission of our monetary policy : first, we decided to continue to conduct our main refinancing operations as fixed - rate tender procedures with full allotment for as long as necessary, and at least until december 2016. banks will therefore receive as much liquidity as they need as long as they can offer adequate collateral. second, we have reduced the interest rate on the deposit facility to below zero for the first time and cut it further last week. by the way, this is not to punish the banks, as i have often read. rather, we are giving them an incentive not to park liquidity at the central bank, but to pass it on in a productive way to the real economy. in an environment in which it is already difficult for businesses to gain access to capital for their own investments, it is important that banks also provide sufficient funds for profitable projects. third, we have decided, within a framework of eight targeted longer - term refinancing operations, to make available long - term liquidity to banks for a period up to 2018 – in proportion to their credit volume relative to the real economy. thus, banks are encouraged to bis central bankers ’ speeches lend to enterprises in the euro area. at the same

months. last year, we focused on increasing the industry ’ s adoption of the financial industry competency standards ( fics ). the fics is a comprehensive framework for continual development of our financial professionals. we reached an important milestone in july 2007 with the appointment of 5 lead providers. since then, over 35 programmes covering an additional 17 job families have been accredited. in the coming months, the accredited providers will roll out over 100 programmes covering 38 job families, including compliance, anti - money laundering, risk management, trade finance, product control, deal processing & settlement, investment advisory, private equity and general insurance underwriting. we now have 93 certified competency - based assessors, who can provide the assessment of candidates. on the demand side, 470 individuals have undergone the fics accredited programmes. a total of 49 financial institutions have benefited from the fics accredited training or assessment programmes. apart from sending staff or programmes run by the lead providers, i am pleased that several financial institutions have adopted fics for their in - house programmes. i encourage more financial institutions to make use of the fics framework and the grants available to step up their training. last year, ibf introduced an additional set of standards on life insurance – relationship management. ibf will continue to review and expand the scope of the standards when new needs are identified. please let us have your suggestions. another important milestone was also reached when we appointed the pioneer batch of 11 financial industry certified professionals ( ficps ) in october 2007. our ficps are professionals who exhibit high standards. i am delighted that so many of our top professionals have stepped forward for this accreditation. you will serve as role models for our young. attracting talent into the financial sector to increase the flow of talent into the financial sector, ibf has also been reaching out to our institutions of higher learning. under the financial sector seminar series, ibf and our industry partners have delivered a series of talks at our universities and polytechnics to highlight the dynamism and the diverse career opportunities in the financial sector. these talks attracted a total audience of over 1000 participants. to increase the supply of job - ready graduates, ibf spearheaded intensive finance preparatory programmes ( fpp ) for jobs in high demand. the first batch of students for the fpp in global banking and securities operations, which was introduced in july 2007, will be completing their programme next month. ibf is currently exploring the need for fpp in insurance. these programmes will continue to attract