of credit institutions. lastly, we should not overlook the importance of making headway on the agenda of measures for the capital markets union project. in october, the european commission launched a new action plan, identifying 16 areas for action to drive the project forward. i would like to highlight some of the most significant ones : supervisory convergence ; sustainable finance to consolidate european leadership worldwide ; changing the regulatory treatment of securitisations to strengthen banks ’ lending capacity ; or promoting market financing to smes and the development of venture capital markets. in general, progress on these and other key matters, such as the creation of a european safe asset, is a complex task that requires the adoption of measures and regulatory changes in a wide variety of areas, and entails the full implication not only of eu authorities, but also of the member states. it is crucial that the authorities concerned have the firm political will to implement the required measures and do away with barriers and red lines. in short, to avoid a piecemeal approach and the loss of momentum, the utmost political ambition must be mobilised. conclusion allow me to conclude. the pandemic has led to an unprecedented economic crisis, followed by a recovery that is still partial and uneven and subject to a great deal of uncertainty, especially against the backdrop of the second wave of the pandemic that we are currently living through. in this case, there has been a forceful european economic policy response. a common response that encompasses not only monetary and macro and microprudential policy, but see speech by the governor of the banco de espana “ banking resolution : firm foundations for stability ”, october 2020. also new fiscal instruments, such as the recovery fund. a response that must be adapted to the course of the pandemic and its effects. in the case of monetary policy, we have already stressed our willingness to recalibrate in december the tools to deal with the new economic challenges, ensure favourable financial conditions and counter the impact of the pandemic on the inflation outlook. europe ’ s reaction has meant unprecedented support for domestic economic policies and, in particular, fiscal policy, enabling them to act forcefully. the latter is particularly important since fiscal policy has the most appropriate instruments for tackling the effects of a crisis which has had a very uneven impact across countries, sectors, firms and population groups, and for adapting to a shock whose duration is uncertain. however, a common european response should be considered a necessary but not sufficient condition for ensuring a swifter and

build resilience moving forward. it is key for calibrating the levers in our macro - prudential policy toolkit. such as the mortgage measures, which aim to build resilience of both borrowers and lenders. or capital buffers that target lender resilience. the aim of macro - prudential policy is to strengthen the resilience of the economy to adverse shocks, as well as to reduce the cyclical movements in credit and asset prices that have proven so detrimental in the past. rigorous data driven analysis is part of our policy design, assessment and calibration ( central bank, 2019 ). as economists, we are always interested in new data, in looking at a topic from a different angle, or through a different lens. looking forward, the central bank of ireland ’ s central credit register and anacredit are two sources that may be able to add to our analysis of household and firm resilience. we also are also looking forward to new pension fund data coming on stream shortly. pension assets represent the second largest financial asset of irish households. the new dataset will, for the first time, allow us look through to the granular holding within each fund and better understand the risk exposures of households. non - bank financial intermediation the last crisis highlighted the need for better data to understand, and better policy to strengthen, the balance sheet resilience of households and lenders. however we must be careful not to just focus all our resources on the data gaps that were exposed in the past. we also need to develop tools to understand the world as it has changed. one area of growth since the crisis is non - bank financial intermediation, otherwise referred to as market based finance. the eurosystem ’ s household finance and consumption survey ( hfcs ) provides important information on mismatches between the assets and liabilities of individual households, in terms of their size, volatility, interest rate sensitivity and liquidity. many of the questions that can be addressed with these data have parallels with some of the issues facing policymakers regarding market based finance. the central bank of ireland actively employs micro - level data to assess and understand this sector. for example, we use this to assess non - bank financial institutions ’ engagement in credit intermediation, liquidity mismatch and leverage. we also monitor their interconnectedness with other parts of the financial system. and we engage internationally to assess and understand