have been active in supporting the basel committee in its work with the iasb ’ s technical advisory groups to enhance the iasb ’ s standards for financial instruments and bank disclosures and the basel committee ’ s projects with other international groups to promote sound global bank auditing practices. in conclusion, i believe that the european union should be encouraged to continue its program to strengthen and modernize the rules under which financial services firms operate in europe. this can only increase competition, enhance efficiency and contribute to economic growth in the eu and globally. we are pleased that the european commission is broadening its consultation and comment processes on proposals being considered under the fsap. supervisory and regulatory measures benefit significantly from an open and transparent process in which affected companies may participate. we would expect that the european commission and member state national authorities will apply the fsap ’ s measures to u. s. firms on a fair and national treatment basis. u. s. banking organizations are dynamic and more than competitive with the rest of the world. accordingly, we are confident that u. s. firms will benefit from a strengthened and more efficient european market for financial services.

‘ disaster risk financing : the role of insurance in new public - private partnerships ’ speech by luigi federico signorini president of ivass ania insurance high level conference rome, 20 september 2024 ladies and gentlemen, once again we are seeing dramatic images of floods, damages and losses. the images that we just saw in the walk - in video for this conference are surely older, but could have been taken yesterday. our hearts and thoughts are with those that have been hit, not just this time but also in the previous months, some repeatedly. we must hope that human life has been spared this time, although i understand that as of this morning some are still missing. this is another reminder of the seriousness of the climate issue. we cannot be in denial. the accelerating change in the earth ’ s climate has increased the frequency and intensity of river and coastal floods, landslides, droughts and forest fires worldwide. europe, in particular, is warming quite fast ; according to copernicus ( the european satellite monitoring system ), the average temperature for european land in august 2024 was more than 1. 5°c above the 1991 - 2020 average for the same month. in addition to climate - related events, other natural disasters such as earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions and bradyseism can have a dramatic impact on the economy and society. the issue of natural disasters and, more generally, catastrophe risks, once confined to scholars of the ‘ hard ’ sciences, such as physicists and biologists, has become an area of concern for economists, sociologists and lawyers as well. as a consequence, one sees among other things more and more attempts at measuring the economic impact of natural events in a reliable way. the 2023 european state of the climate report estimates the direct damage to property generated in 2023 by floods, inundations and fires ( disregarding, that is, indirect effects ) at more than €13 billion, and the human toll at 151 deaths1. over the past few years, there has also been a growing attention see the european centre for medium - range weather forecasts - ecmwf - 2023 european state of the climate. in international fora2 to natural disasters as a potential source of systemic financial stability risk. the literature on disaster relief suggests that a purely ex - post approach to damage repair and loss compensation is likely to be sub - optimal. prevention is of course necessary at various levels. in my speech, as befits the occasion and