well. such information, and a minimum level of forecasting capabilities, are in fact necessary for the fulfilment of all the tasks of a central bank, particularly for the maintenance of financial stability and the formulation of monetary policy. central banks of accession countries will therefore assume statistical reporting obligations towards the ecb as soon as they become members of the escb, that is upon eu accession, although these obligations are less onerous than those which apply to euro area members. this future obligation should not pose any difficulty for the central bank as the existing legislation already gives it the power to access information directly and to publish it. in addition to these enabling powers, however, the bank must also be equipped with the necessary technological and operational infrastructure and communication facilities to enable it to receive information from reporting agents and to forward it to the ecb. it must also ensure that the relevant information follows the agreed methodology. recognising this future obligation, the central bank almost three years ago established a broad - based representative committee to identify the changes required in the way monetary and financial statistics are classified and reported. this work has been completed and the reporting forms have been updated accordingly. to facilitate the collection of this information, moreover, a common database is being established between the bank and the malta financial services authority. in the meantime, the bank and the national statistics office are working to establish a common direct reporting database which will permit the dissemination of balance of payments related data to the ecb and eurostat. the steady flow of information between the ecb and the national central banks is equally important from the point of view of transparency and effectiveness. the latter requires that ecb decisions be communicated in each member state as early as possible. for this purpose, the central bank ’ s communications facilities will have to be upgraded. in particular, the bank must have an archiving system capable of receiving, storing, retrieving and sending working documents to the ecb. such a system is being developed. conclusion joining a common currency area clearly involves a complex and multifaceted process with implications of both a substantive and technical nature. this has become particularly evident as the emphasis of the bank ’ s preparations has shifted away from legislative issues to the implementation phase. much useful work has already been done, the bank has been considerably strengthened as a result and we are fully in step with the central banks of other accession countries. looking immediately ahead, the bank ’ s integration within the escb now requires it to be represented on all

at €1. 9 billion, equivalent to almost 17 % of resident lending, with households accounting for the lion ’ s share, though these represented 10. 1 % of lending to households. by september, the amount of loans subject to moratoria started to decline, falling to 15. 6 % of resident lending, as some of these borrowers were in a position to resume their loan repayments, signalling a recovery in economic activity. at the same time, around €165. 6 million loans were disbursed under the malta development bank ’ s covid - 19 guarantee scheme, accounting for almost 4 % of the resident corporate loan book to support working capital page | 3 document classification : public requirements of businesses. a further €178 million have been sanctioned but not yet disbursed. such loans were mainly granted to the wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and food service activities, and the transport and storage facilities, which were the sectors that were worst hit by the pandemic. banks worked hard to activate such schemes within a relatively short period of time. the support provided by domestic banks was made possible because of their prudent business models coupled with the implementation of a stronger post - global financial crisis regulatory framework, which over the past years strengthened the overall resilience of the financial system. although, as with other banks around the globe, domestic banks posted significantly lower profits – with a few registering losses in the first half of 2020 – their financial standing remains sound. this has been consistently confirmed by the central bank ’ s latest stress tests aimed at assessing the resilience of domestic banks to the adverse effects of the pandemic. such tests featured extensively in our financial stability report and in the interim report. the resilience of our banks, as the current spread of the pandemic continues to unfold, is truly a testimony that prudence is the best response to the high level of uncertainty created by this shock. as a result of the pandemic, the ecb, national central banks, and the regulatory authorities have all launched a number of measures aimed not only at supporting the economy, but also in part directed at encouraging banks to utilise the capital and liquidity buffers built up in recent years to deal with crisis situations that arise. such measures included : • in order to ensure that banks can continue to fulfil their role of funding the real economy, the ecb allowed banks to temporarily operate below the level of capital defined