investisseurs et des marches, et se sont reveles efficaces. il s ’ agit la d ’ un atout inestimable que nous devons preserver avec le plus grand soin. * * * en conclusion permettez - moi de souligner trois points : d ’ abord, en ce qui concerne la banque centrale europeenne et le systeme europeen de banques centrales, j ’ aimerais proposer une metaphore qui pourrait eclairer mon propos. il y a une equipe monetaire europeenne composee de douze joueurs, la bce et les 11 banques centrales nationales. c ’ est toute l ’ equipe monetaire des douze qui joue sur le terrain, avec un seul “ esprit d ’ equipe ”, qui constitue un des atouts inestimables de l ’ europe. deuxiemement, le gvii de samedi a bonn nous a permis de faire de nouveaux progres dans le renforcement de ce que l ’ on est convenu d ’ appeler l ’ architecture financiere internationale. on a parfois un peu trop tendance, a mon avis, a insister sur les differences de sensibilite qui se manifestent ici et la. ce qui est beaucoup plus important, c ’ est que la communaute internationale est en accord profond sur de tres nombreux points. qu ’ il me suffise de mentionner ce dont nous sommes convenus samedi dernier : importance des “ bonnes pratiques ” en matiere de politique sociale, renforcement de la surveillance des institutions a hauts risques, y compris les “ hedge funds ”, creation du forum de stabilite financiere, organisation de deux seminaires en mars et avril avec les pays emergents, reunion de preparation du comite interimaire. je voudrais particulierement souligner un point, a savoir les dangers specifiques qui sont associes au “ comportement moutonnier ”, ce que les americains appellent le “ herd instinct ” des operateurs,

size. under this new model, banks originate loans but sell them to structured investment vehicles ( often set up by themselves ) to be repackaged and subsequently sold as asset - backed securities ( abss ). in principle, this business model is attractive for banks since it provides them with a new source of financing to expand lending ( thereby mitigating their funding liquidity risks ), while also allowing them to economise on costly capital requirements. from the point of view of the economy as a whole, the “ originate to distribute ” model could be viewed as having many advantages. first, capital requirements are costly, thus the ability to sustain a given level of credit supply with a lower volume of capital enables the banking sector to reduce the costs of financing for borrowers. moreover, it may be seen as representing a step towards more complete credit markets, thereby contributing to enhancing the efficiency of the economic system. in addition, the securitisation of loans in principle could reduce a secular source of vulnerability of the economies, by taking risk concentrations associated with loan portfolios away from the banking sector and spreading them more broadly across other sectors. as a result, the “ originate to distribute ” model may potentially diminish the likelihood of the credit busts and banking crises that have historically been a major source of macroeconomic and see for instance lamfalussy, a. ( 2003 ), “ creating an integrated european market for financial services ”, cass / iea financial services regulation seminar series. financial instability in many economies. i will come back to this point later on when talking about the implications of financial developments for financial stability. following a relatively slow start compared to the us, the european market for structured finance products has grown rapidly during the last 5 - 10 years, often at double - digit rates. this development has been even more pronounced in the euro area compared with other regions due to a variety of factors, including the introduction of the single currency, further financial market integration through the use of credit derivatives and related financial instruments, and an innovative financial industry. 9 growth in structured finance products has also been fuelled by high demand from investors stemming from the search for yield, in an environment of relatively low yields, and diversification opportunities. securitisation has also been positively affected by the general move towards a more market - based financial system. nevertheless, the volume of issuance of abss relatively to the size of the economy for the euro area as a whole remains lower than in the