sabine lautenschlager : interview in the wall street journal interview with ms sabine lautenschlager, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in the wall street journal, conducted by mr brian blackstone, mr christopher lawton and mr hans bentzien on 7 march 2014 and published on 10 march 2014. * * * wsj : the financial markets interpreted thursday ’ s ecb decision to keep policy unchanged as suggesting the bar is high to additional stimulus. is that an accurate assessment? the correct interpretation is : we ’ ll act if it is necessary. but there was no strong reason to act : last week we, the governing council, found our baseline scenario broadly confirmed. we ’ re receiving some positive signals from incoming data, for example economically with a modest recovery trend and financially with improving funding conditions for banks. moreover, inflation expectations are still firmly anchored in the medium term. wsj : but inflation is way below the ecb ’ s target. when assessing the current inflation rate you always have to take into consideration all underlying reasons. there are some global factors to take into account. the drop in energy prices has a very strong impact, for example. structural reforms that are being implemented in member states of the euro area influence prices too. the output gap we acknowledge by our forward guidance : interest rates will remain at the present level, or even lower, over a longer period of time and well into the recovery. wsj : the u. s. central bank has reacted more aggressively to disinflation risks. is the ecb being complacent? even by your own forecasts inflation will only be 1. 7 % by the end of 2016. i reject it if someone says we are complacent. we will act should we observe rising concerns about medium - term price stability. and we were not complacent in the past. we used standard and non - standard measures to implement a very accommodative monetary policy stance. we not only cut rates and moved to a fix rate full allotment mode but also introduced ltros and changed the collateral requirements, so that a wider range of assets became acceptable in our portfolio. beyond that, i don ’ t think you should compare the situation in the euro area with the u. s. or japan because the underlying factors are different. wsj : mario draghi mentioned thursday a catalogue of options including facilitating the abs market, funding for lending

and liquidity constraints, particularly in dollars, have prompted certain groups to deleverage. it has undertaken an in - depth analysis and published studies on developments in household credit as well as the reallocation of households ’ financial investments, particularly between bank savings products and insurance savings products. ii ) 2011 – and this is my second point – was a year that saw the reinforcement of the methods used in prudential supervision. it was above all the year in which the process of merging banking and insurance supervision was completed. having been set up in the midst of the crisis that we are going through, the acp continually reviews the methods it uses to deal with new challenges. on the one hand, the traditional activities of on - and off - site inspections have been enhanced by taking the best procedures and practices from each of the two sectors, leading to improved quality and comparability in the assessment of the situation of the different institutions being inspected. during the year, the acp thus developed a more cross - functional mode of operating, thereby responding to the intention that led the government to merge the former authorities in 2010. the acp ’ s college has set out priorities for the supervision of each of the two sectors in a coordinated manner, and the acp has set up an autonomous and cross - functional research directorate. on the other hand, in line with international and european initiatives, the acp ’ s supervisory methods are complemented by the “ stress test ” approach to ever more complex scenarios and by the monitoring of the systemic nature of certain institutions. organised by the european authorities ( the eba for banks and the eiopa for insurance companies ) and the basel committee respectively and implemented concretely in france by the acp, these approaches supplement the individual supervision of banks and facilitate the macroprudential supervision of the financial system. the acp ’ s supervision methods have also fully taken on board its remit with respect to consumer protection, which is an essential condition for maintaining consumer confidence in the french financial sector. the acp ’ s mandate is to promote, in coordination with the amf – the report of our joint unit will be presented to you shortly – the sound conduct of market players ’ commercial practices bis central bankers ’ speeches without hampering responsible financial innovation that is suited to each category of customers. in 2011, the acp thus took a whole range of measures, of which i will only mention the main ones. the acp has put in place a system for monitoring