principle of liability and the primacy of foreign exchange policy. otmar issing made it clear in an interview : " whoever voices concerns about the spread of centralism and interventionism is branded a bad european. but the reverse is true. " 2 economic prosperity and a stable currency are key to ensuring backing for the european project. and a europe that can find the answers to the burning questions of the hour – a europe that can add real value to the lives of its citizens – will also find backing and support. i would like to go into a little more detail about this outlook with you today. in particular, i will highlight globalisation and technological progress, international trade policy and competition with china as current challenges before moving on to discuss the role of the eu and reform steps for 1 / 10 bis central bankers'speeches the euro area. but i ’ d like to start by taking a brief look back. 2 ten years after the financial crisis over the past few days and weeks, a slew of media reports have reminded us of the events of ten years ago, when the financial crisis came to a tumultuous head with the collapse of lehman brothers. many observers regard this as the climax of the crisis, which was followed by a global recession in 2009. in terms of severity, there was no precedent for such a downturn in post - war history. in the euro area, the financial crisis later coalesced with the sovereign debt crisis. what ’ s more, the unemployment rate peaked at 12 % in mid - 2013. the rate has since fallen to 8. 2 % – but this is not a value that we can content ourselves with. the member states hit especially hard by the crisis have made huge strides : they have reduced new government borrowing, cut their current account deficits, improved their competitiveness and implemented structural reforms. take greece, which, in 2008 - 09, had a vast current account deficit and a gaping hole in its general government budget – both of which reached 15 % of gdp. last year, however, the current account was broadly balanced and a surplus was even recorded in the general government budget. all in all, five countries received financial support via assistance programmes with conditions attached. a month ago today, greece was also the last of these five countries to cast off the status of " programme country ". greece ’ s exit from the adjustment programme marks an important milestone. but it would be premature to think of the crisis as over and done with. as i

yves mersch : securitisation revisited keynote speech by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the euro finance week, frankfurt am main, 16 november 2017. * * * today i would like to come back on an issue that has found some of our attention in the recent past : securitisation. what has happened : is it part of cmu agenda? it is not helping banks to sanitize their balance sheets more rapidly when there is such a great need? simple, transparent and standardised ( sts ) securitisations let me start with some good news. the european framework for simple, transparent and standardised or ‘ sts ’ securitisations was formally adopted by the european parliament on 26 october. the adoption by the council is expected soon and will lead to the conclusion of a process that has taken many years of hard work. the sts regulation is one of the cornerstones of the capital markets union ( cmu ) project to build a single market for capital in the eu. some basic beliefs : at the outset i still consider the great financial crisis heaving at its origin excess built - up of leverage especially short term debt. we should however not condemn wholesale all debt carrying instruments. while we must tackle the stock of legacy debt, the flow of new credit to the economy should not be hampered as it fuels the economic recovery. therefore, a differentiated assessment of financial instruments is required. let me elaborate on the reasons why the ecb is interested in this particular market segment : first, the abs market acts as one of the transmission channels of our monetary policy, facilitating the provision of credit to the euro area real economy and, thereby, helping us to achieve our monetary policy objective. second, abs are an important component of the collateral framework of the eurosystem. third, securitisation, when used well, can transfer risk away from the banking sector, which may support monetary policy as it can help banks free up bank capital, allowing them to extend new credit to the real economy. the reputation of securitisation or asset - backed securities ( abs ) has been severely tarnished by the financial crisis, reflecting both the prominent role of abs involving complex, opaque structures with poorly underwritten loans and the misuse of derivatives. moreover, the market was over - reliant on a highly leveraged investor base depending on shortterm wholesale funding. although these practices were more prevalent in the us, the european