benoit cœure : interview in barron ’ s interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in barron ’ s, conducted by mr pierre briancon on 5 february 2019 and published on 7 february 2019. * * * why did the european central bank both warn against increased risks for the eurozone economy and choose to do nothing at its last meeting? at this stage, we don ’ t think that we have enough elements to conclude that we ’ re facing a lasting and serious slowdown of the eurozone economy. that said, we have a duty of transparency, we have to communicate on the way we see the economy. forward guidance implies that you ’ re being honest on the risks ahead. hence our conclusion that risks have moved to the downside. and these elements are? the slowdown itself is not a surprise. growth in 2017 – 18 was fast, boosted by world trade and somewhat artificially by the us fiscal stimulus, and we knew this was not sustainable. what we ’ re seeing now is that the slowdown may be broader and longer - lasting than originally forecast. that ’ s mostly due to the uncertainty linked to a possible slowdown of emerging economies, especially china, and another source of uncertainty created by the tense trade relationship between the united states and china, and in general between the united states and the rest of the world. we don ’ t see increased risks mainly coming from within europe at the moment. if the risks are piling up, why not act more aggressively? you must remember that the mere fact of changing our communication by itself triggers some monetary easing. because we changed our vision of the risks ahead, markets drew their conclusions and the eurozone yield curve is flatter than it was in december. markets that were anticipating our first rate hike in january now see it coming in may / june 2020, whereas we have said that we expect our rates to remain at their present low levels at least through the summer of 2019. so communication is in itself a monetary policy instrument. if we have to do more, it will have to be based on data. is what you call your “ tool box ” of monetary instruments complete now? or would you have to invent new ones? we are now well equipped to face many different types of situations. as of today, we have interest rates at the zero level, or even negative for our deposit facility. our net purchases of bonds stopped in december but we will keep reinves

vitor constancio : accounting, governance for central banks financial reporting and corporate opening remarks by vitor constancio, vice - president of the ecb, at the third conference on accounting, financial reporting and corporate governance for central banks, frankfurt am main, 4 june 2012. * * * good morning, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the executive board of the ecb, to the third conference on accounting, financial reporting and corporate governance for central banks. we are indeed pleased that so many eminent speakers in these fields are present to lead the discussions. given the current circumstances, and particularly with regard to the financial crisis, the issues of financial strength and accounting practices of central banks have moved into the focus of public attention. high quality accounting and reporting frameworks are essential in policy objectives. our aim for today and tomorrow is to compare notes on recent accounting developments from a central bank perspective and in that way to learn from each other ’ s experiences. i am therefore delighted to see that – once more – there has been such a strong response to our invitation. the conference is structured around a number of presentations on three interrelated parts, each of which is dealt with in a number of presentations from different perspectives. the first part deals with the impact of international accounting developments on central banking, with particular focus on the interaction between accounting and financial stability. in my remarks i would like to focus on the tension between these two fields of expertise. the turmoil on international financial markets over the last years has revealed a number of shortcomings in the area of accounting these shortcomings are to a large extent underpinned by the current accounting paradigm and the dominance of the shareholder value approach. the shareholder value approach typically adopts a short - term perspective and aims to determine the value of a particular reporting entity as if the owners were to sell the entity today in an arm ’ s length transaction. the short - term perspective in turn builds upon the illusion of efficient markets, rational investors and complete information. i would like to highlight that the outcome of such an accounting paradigm is often misleading for investors and detrimental to financial stability. from the perspective of financial stability considerations, let me briefly recall two specific examples where the current accounting paradigm may be detrimental : first, the extent to which the application of fair value accounting may provide adverse incentives regarding management and investment decisions. the crisis has largely confirmed the scepticism that fair value is not the most relevant measurement for