of the year, to purchase more than €15 billion, if the situation deteriorates? the asset purchase programme remains an integral part of our “ toolbox ". this being said, our monetary policy decisions altogether maintain the current ample degree of monetary accommodation that is still needed for inflation to converge towards our aim. this includes, first, our enhanced forward guidance on interest rates, which we expect will remain at their present levels at least through the summer of 2019 and in any case for as long as necessary, and, second, our very large stock of assets for which we intend to reinvest the principal payments from maturing securities. the reinvestment policy plays a very important role, as the amounts are sizeable. how long will the reinvestments last? we intend to maintain our policy of reinvesting the principal payments from maturing securities for an extended period of time after the end of our net asset purchases, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation. our policy of reinvesting is another instrument at our disposal. regarding a change in interest rates, the ecb guaranteed that it will not take place until “ through the summer of 2019 ". does it mean until the end of next summer? at our last governing council meeting we said that we expect our key ecb interest rates to remain at their present levels at least through the summer of 2019. in any case, they will stay at their present levels for as long as necessary to ensure that the evolution of inflation remains aligned with our current expectations of a sustained adjustment path. our enhanced forward guidance signals that we will remain patient in determining the timing of the first rate rise. the path of very short - term interest rates that is implicit in the term structure of money market interest rates is compatible with our intention of being patient. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches negative interest rates are one of the most controversial points within the ecb ’ s current monetary policy framework. particularly for the banks. what do you have to say to them? you have to look at the whole package of measures that we have implemented. consider, for example, the lines of funding aimed at bank lending to the real economy, known by the acronym tltros. they supported bank lending to the real economy. banks that borrowed from the ecb and lent to the economy more than a pre - specified lending benchmark also benefited from a negative interest rate on their funding

29. 04. 2022 presentation of the action plan against financial fraud * ministry of economic affairs and digital transformation pablo hernandez de cos governor * ienglish translation of the original speech in spanish. first deputy prime minister, state secretary for security, chair of the national securities market commission, authorities, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. the protocol we sign here today stands as a milestone in our efforts to enhance and reinforce action against potentially fraudulent offers of financial products and services. it comes at a particularly opportune time, with several factors giving rise to an increase in financial fraud, most notably growing digitalisation. moreover, it is an excellent example of how a problem for citizens can be addressed far more effectively through collaboration between different stakeholders, be they public or private. in the case of the banco de espana, apart from the evident microprudential and macroprudential concern for the security and resilience of the supervised entities ’ it systems, the impact that fraudulent use of technology may have on the citizens and firms that use banking or credit services has been a concern of ours for some time. such fraud can also come at a high reputational cost to the financial system, the proper functioning of which depends on mutual trust between supply and demand. there are many examples of fraud that undermines said trust, such as identity theft when opening payment accounts, in “ know your customer ” procedures or to arrange and draw loans and credit ; payment fraud, mainly in card transactions, transfers and remittances ; and fraudulent offers of financial operations or services by unauthorised or unregistered operators, which are typically a prelude to actual fraud. more recently, though, new technologies and business models have paved the way for platforms and operators that, engaging in regulatory arbitrage, offer payment, credit or investment services without sufficient safeguards and transparency. here i would specifically mention operators in the crypto - asset arena, which promise handsome rewards via apps, websites and apparently innocuous advertising, and sometimes even embed such offers in traditional payment service chains, making them harder to identify. unfortunately, these practices do not distinguish between social groups, levels of financial literacy or risk profiles, and ultimately take a far greater toll on the more vulnerable groups, in particular young people and even teenagers, which is of particular concern. against this background, and notwithstanding any action that might be taken by the public prosecution service, the courts or law enforcement authorities in relation to criminal offences, our role