financial regulation, for example. second, we should not forget that, despite the significant progress made in deleveraging in recent years, our level of debt is still high. moreover, the progress made in reducing the level of debt has not been uniform. while general government debt is still close to its recent high levels ( on which i will have more to say later ), private sector deleveraging has been very significant. 4 / 8 in any event, the net external debt of the economy as a whole remains very high. reducing this debt will require running persistent external surpluses, which would be difficult in a setting of contracting international trade or rising interest rates. insofar as maintaining balanced economic growth is concerned, the low profitability of spanish deposit institutions is certainly a problem. this phenomenon, also observed in other european banking systems, is related to the pressure that the low interest rate environment exerts on the net interest margin, but also to the still - high level of unproductive assets, limited turnover and the competitive environment, in which a growing number of institutions from outside the financial sector are increasingly active in offering services traditionally provided by banks. challenges for sustained economic growth in spain in the long term taking into account these short and medium - term prospects, i will now refer to the challenges facing the spanish economy in the longer term. our report refers to four priorities : combating the effects of population ageing, tackling long - term unemployment, increasing productivity growth and reducing public debt. the consequences of population ageing as in other european countries, we are witnessing a process of strong population ageing, a phenomenon with profound implications in various areas. this development, which has been under way for several decades already, has accelerated as a result of the impact of the crisis on births and migratory flows. people over the age of 65, who in 1970 made up less than 10 % of the population, currently account for 21 % and, according to ine projections, will represent more than a quarter of the spanish population within 15 years. currently, two types of adverse effects of this phenomenon on economic growth can be identified. first, population ageing is leading to a reduction in the number of persons prepared to work or seek employment. second, indirect negative effects of population ageing on productivity, saving and investment decisions and innovation can be identified. as a result, ageing poses enormous challenges for fiscal policy, since a smaller labour force, that is possibly on average less productive, will have

##rs / sr1217. htm. bis central bankers ’ speeches of the financial strength and operational resiliency of the largest and most complex financial institutions, addressing both micro - prudential safety - and - soundness supervisory goals and broader macro - prudential financial stability objectives. specifically, in the comprehensive capital analysis and review ( ccar ), which applies to firms with at least $ 50 billion in total assets, federal reserve supervisors assess whether bank holding companies have sufficient capital to continue operations through times of economic and financial stress, and whether they have robust, forward - looking capitalplanning processes that take into account whatever unique risks they might face. by including forward - looking elements, the ccar complements the enhanced basel capital requirements now being implemented in the united states. in addition, the comprehensive liquidity analysis and review ( clar ), which applies to liscc firms, reviews the liquidity positions and liquidity risk management of large, complex banking organizations, including internal stress - testing practices. finally, the federal reserve does an annual evaluation of the liscc firms ’ options to support recovery and progress in removing impediments to orderly resolution in the supervisory assessment of recovery and resolution preparedness ( srp ). while these evaluations form the core of the supervisory program for large, complex banking companies, they are far from the only important activities pursued by supervisors. day - to - day oversight of individual firms is a critical complement to these cross - firm, horizontal evaluations. there are three key channels that generate insight on firms : 1 ) continuous monitoring through meetings with bank senior management, business line management, risk managers, auditors and others ; 2 ) review and analysis of internal reports ; and 3 ) independent analysis by supervisory teams. these insights guide supervisory assessments and supervisory actions for individual institutions, as well as contributing to the assessments made as part of ccar, clar and other horizontal exercises. we have come a long way since the financial crisis, and the financial sector today is much more resilient as a result of the evolving supervisory framework. however, more work still lies ahead. a key challenge in assessing the effectiveness of supervision is that much of what supervisors do, by necessity, is confidential. this reliance on confidential information and confidential actions can make supervision seem mysterious to outsiders, which complicates the evaluation of what policies may be effective or ineffective. for example, if a bank fails, is this evidence of poor supervision, or instead