standard today, as a result of this commitment to quality. this means that the snb is not under any pressure to roll out a new banknote series quickly. the new series must meet very high security, quality and technical production standards – and will have to do so for at least 15 years after its first release. so it is worth taking the time to ensure that the new security features, which are complex, technologically innovative and have never before been applied to banknote design, can also stand up to the rigours of industrial production processes. a number of tests are currently being carried out. the first denomination in the new series – the 50 - franc note – will not be issued until 2015 at the earliest. we will announce the exact issue date as soon as production of the first banknote denomination has been completed. bis central bankers ’ speeches

this year, among other things, makes facilitating out - of - court settlements easier while also making in - court see ecb bank lending survey, july 2014. bis central bankers ’ speeches settlements more effective. court approved refinancing agreements now have lower majority requirements and permit the extension of maturities on bank loans, negotiating haircuts and arranging debt - for - equity swaps. ireland and portugal have also introduced various measures targeted at enterprises, smes and households. in most cases, however, restructuring and insolvency regimes could be made more efficient still by adopting best practice more broadly. this would include, inter alia, strengthening measures to facilitate out - of - court settlements for viable firms ; introducing centralised guidelines for voluntary debt workouts coupled with independent intermediation for larger companies ; and establishing standardised voluntary workouts for smes. the deleveraging of european firms is however not only about reducing debt ; it is first and foremost about raising equity. we have in fact already seen a significant decline in debt - toequity ratios for larger euro area corporates since end - 2009 due to valuation gains in equity markets, supported by low interest rates. 12 to the extent that our new monetary policy measures affect the relative supply of financial assets and initiate further portfolio rebalancing, we may see further spillovers to equity markets that continue this trend. for smaller firms, however, these channels are less powerful as equity markets are largely underdeveloped. raising equity therefore has to be more proactive process. one way to achieve this is to use debt - for - equity swaps ( fostered possibly through tax incentives ) to facilitate private debt workouts. another is for eu investment funds to be distributed in the form of equity as well as debt, as the european bank for reconstruction and development ( ebrd ) and international finance corporation ( ifc ) already do in many countries, and as i called for in a recent article. 13 a third, more medium - term aim is reduce fragmentation in european venture capital markets to increase the depth of private equity markets. this last point is another example of where advancing towards a single market in capital would be beneficial for the euro area – it would not only help strengthen capital markets relative to banks, but also help strengthen equity funding relative to debt. this would also have positive structural effects for the euro area : cross - country integration through equity improves risk - sharing and, as it is harder for investors to “ cut and