##s. for example, eiopa must be allowed to create, at its own initiative, cooperation platforms to better supervise entities whose activities mainly involve cross - border transactions performed under the freedom to provide services regime. eiopa ’ s role as a neutral mediator in the internal model approval process at group level must also be reinforced, without giving it direct power in the approval process, which would undermine its neutrality. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches this “ financial eurosystem ” will also require shared infrastructures within the union capable of offering services beyond the confines of the euro area : examples such as t2s and tips, the new interbank instant payment settlement system, both multi - currency services, show us that it is possible. we must also deal with the question of private monopolies in the clearing sector. we must ensure that critical key players do not become “ too big to fail ”. of course, by its very nature clearing is an activity that generates major economies of scale, and thus encourages concentration. but greater competition is absolutely necessary to stimulate financial innovation. fortunately, lch sa will centralise repo transactions at the beginning of 2019. more generally, we would like to see the development in paris of an enhanced and extended clearing services offering in the area of interest rate derivatives. more broadly, brexit represents an opportunity for europe to effectively transform its own savings, in order to enhance its ability to finance the real economy : what i call the financing union for investment and innovation. this involves better steering the euro area ’ s abundant savings to absorb shocks within the euro area more effectively and to meet investment and innovation needs in fields such as digital technology, energy transition and the equity financing of smes. in practice, the creation of a true financing union requires the acceleration of the capital markets union and the completion of the banking union. the second pillar on the resolution of failing banks is more important still than a possible common deposit guarantee scheme. and it is essential to remove barriers for pan - european banks. this was the policy agenda of the francogerman declaration in meseberg in june 2018 : but i insist on the urgent need to make it a reality today. the response to brexit should be the economic and financial strengthening of the euro area : if we remained mired in technical nit - picking with self - satisfaction from some, disparagement from others, and distrust on all sides, we would not only have missed an opportunity, we

international business depend. ” since this sober forecast, the international monetary fund has revised upwards its projection for global economic activity, with stronger growth expected in the united states, united kingdom and the euro area than previously expected. however, the economic recovery is likely to be uneven and output in some countries, including in some of our major trading partners, is not anticipated to reach pre - crisis levels until 2011. the uncertainty about the pace of the recovery requires us to be prudent in our economic management. at the same time, we must position ourselves to take advantage of the recovery when it comes. my remarks, this morning, focus on the issue of productivity enhancement as a mechanism of strengthening that recovery. we rely on our ability to sell our goods and services abroad for our economic success while other countries are at the same time aggressively seeking to sell to us or to set up operations locally. this requires us to be competitive in our domestic market and in our export production. our efforts to enhance our competitiveness are closely linked with improved productivity. we know that factors such as size, the lack of domestic competition and access to finance can retard the pace at which productivity enhancing measures are introduced. however, while these factors may seem to be a disincentive to change, we must not resile from our commitment to pursue productivity enhancements. clearly there is a role for government in creating the enabling framework for productivity improvements, but productivity occurs at the firm level. in this regard, it is important to remember that even for firms operating in the domestic market, competition comes not only from other local firms but also from external entities that are adopting new technologies and deriving the scale economies by exporting to economies that have not. how we achieve gains in productivity is complex since the factors that drive long - term productivity growth are complementary to each other. for example, new investments in capital goods and enhancement to labour skills are often required to take advantage of productivity enhancing new technologies. i wish to suggest that productivity is as important in the public sector as it is in the private sector. we need to ask ourselves whether we can we produce the services we currently provide with no dimunition in quality at a lower cost? conversely can we produce a higher quality of service without increased costs? as a services - based economy, some of our productivity gains can probably be achieved by simply being conscious of the need to maintain a customer focus so that we can understand the customer and provide him with what he wants. our competitive