the suerf, ceps and belgian financial forum conference : “ crisis management at the cross - roads, ” held in brussels, belgium, november 16. loans to consumers too expensive? the tendency by washington to micromanage can harm an economy that desperately needs a competitive, vibrant, sustainable banking system. rule - based regimes on issues of capital and liquidity – even on scope – are inevitably crude and imperfect. and to be effective, these rules would need to reduce systemic risks meaningfully. still, this regime strikes me as superior to one in which our financial firms are micromanaged as quasi - public utilities, subject to the changing preferences of washington and immunized from real competition. the u. s. economy runs grave risks if we slouch toward a quasi - public utility model. i worry that some systemically significant firms may end up willing to accept new, permanent government masters and supplementary public purposes in order to protect their status. apportioning economic rents to appease the official sector may appear rational to some firms. but, it is destructive to the financial and economic system overall. we should not want clients of the state at the core of our financial system. we do not want some new social contract between government and large banks. now more than ever, we need more private firms competing to serve client needs and make markets. conclusion the standing of market - oriented principles is being severely tested. our policy response must be worthy of this challenge, and so should necessarily be broader in scope than some new team of financial regulators with new powers. we need a new financial architecture, one in which improved regulation and supervision play an important but co - extensive role with greater market discipline. the new architecture must stoke competition, allow failure, and reward innovation and success. the new architecture should establish the rules of the game without micromanaging the affairs of private firms. and the new architecture should not give perpetual license to select, incumbent firms to dominate the financial landscape. for in the new regime, no firm should be too big to fail.

john iannis mourmouras : the eu crisis – emu, brexit, the migrant crisis, and greece intervention by professor john iannis mourmouras, deputy governor of the bank of greece, at a panel discussion with former fed chairman paul volcker on the euro crisis, organized by omfif, washington dc, 18 april 2016. * * * views expressed here are personal views and do not necessarily reflect those of the bank of greece. let me begin by saying how delighted and honoured i am to participate in such a gathering of distinguished central bankers and policymakers here at the metropolitan club in washington dc, most pre - eminently among them, former chairman of the federal reserve paul volcker, a giant in the world of central banking and public affairs over the last forty years. for this, i would like to thank david marsh and the omfif advisory board for inviting me. a. on europe 1. on the incomplete architecture of emu i will restrict my comments today to the incomplete architecture of emu, brexit and the migrant crisis and i will refrain from remarks on current european monetary policy since the ecb ’ s quiet period – as i was told last week – applies to deputy governors too ; and coming thursday ( 21 / 4 / 2016 ) the ecb governing council meets in frankfurt. partly as a result of the crisis in the euro area and europe ’ s relative global decline, the eu is currently finding it difficult to manage events even in its own neighbourhood ( see the unfolding migrant crisis ). the fog of uncertainty has become thicker on the other side of the little pond, also due to the migrant crisis and the british referendum. the time has now come for the european union to take bold action. a plethora of policies and reports have been put forward to propose solutions to the euro crisis, from the europe 2020 strategy, the european semester, the six - pack, the recently established “ structural reform support service ” specialised in technical assistance for member states to assist them with implementing growth - enhancing administrative and structural reforms, the introduction of national competitiveness boards or even an advisory european fiscal board and, last but not least, the five presidents ’ report for completing europe ’ s economic and monetary union. of course, these are all very nice acronyms and welcome ideas and proposals, but have yet to be tested in practice. all these initiatives reflect a shift towards more burden - sharing and this is undoubtedly very important and welcome news to me