months – especially under the irish presidency – in its construction. however much remains to be done. announcement of action to build a banking union combined with the firm commitment of the ecb has contributed greatly over the past several months to the gradual but clear restoration of confidence in euro area financial markets. while it is not appropriate for me to touch on monetary policy issues today ( ahead of the ecb governing council meeting ), it is evident that ( with some exceptions ) sovereign spreads have generally declined in the stressed economies, not least in ireland, and this trend has held, even through the cyprus situation. the financial markets are counting on the completion of banking union. we must avoid that any easing of tensions in the markets leads to a slackening in the pace of reform. banking union, shifting supervision of banks to the european level, combined with a single resolution regime and a common system for deposit protection will reassure citizens and markets that a common, high level of prudential regulation is being consistently applied. together with greater fiscal and economic coordination it will help build the necessary trust bis central bankers ’ speeches between member states which is a pre - condition for the introduction of common financial arrangements the irish presidency has given top priority to the banking union files. at the central bank we have been heavily involved and a large number of my colleagues in the bank have been assisting in the discussions and negotiations around the large body of legislative reform that is associated with banking union. first the irish presidency brokered final agreement on the capital requirements directive and regulation ( crdiv ). this will greatly strengthen the capital and liquidity provisioning of europe ’ s banks and improve governance and remuneration practices. it is now expected to apply from january 2014. agreement has also been reached, following the informal ecofin held in dublin in april, on the single supervisory mechanism for banks in the euro area. this will transfer bank supervisory tasks to the european level and will provide strong and consistent supervision. preparations are well advanced within the ecb to take on this task as early as july 2014, depending on the formal implementation date. it has been a remarkable success to obtain agreement on this proposal within 7 months of its publication. attention is now focused on negotiations to agree a bank recovery and resolution directive. this would ensure that authorities throughout europe would have the means to intervene decisively when problems occur and that the costs of dealing with failing banks fall in a clearly defined order on the owners and creditors. ministers will discuss this text on may 14th and there

gabriel makhlouf : the macrofinancial outlook for ireland - risks, resilience and policy opening remarks by mr gabriel makhlouf, governor of the central bank of ireland, at the launch of the financial stability review 2019 : ii, dublin, 4 december 2019. * * * introduction good afternoon, thank you for joining us for the launch of the second edition of the financial stability review ( fsr ) for 2019. i know you are all particularly interested in the decision on the mortgage measures. so let me say straight away : the mortgage measures are working, and because they are working, we are not proposing to change them. but before i go into that in further detail let me set the scene a little. the central bank ’ s mission is to serve the public interest by safeguarding monetary and financial stability and by working to ensure that the financial system operates in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy. that sentence may be a mouthful. but it has already started to roll off my tongue. it tries to encapsulate a very broad mandate and today i will focus on two components : financial stability and the operation of the financial system. a stable financial system is one that can provide services to irish households and businesses, both in good times and in bad. in the end, all this comes down to building resilience. and it matters, not because of the specific banks, funds or investment firms that are in it, but because a stable and resilient financial system is one that can meet the needs of people whether they are families that want to borrow money to buy a house or a car, or businesses that want to invest to expand or hire new staff or people who just want some peace of mind that their savings are safe. a stable and resilient financial system is one that absorbs shocks, rather than amplifies them. and our job is to ensure that the system serves the people, the families and the firms that make up the irish economy. the financial stability review sets out the main risks on the horizon as we see them, along with our assessment of the financial system ’ s resilience to those risks. and it also sets out some of the policy actions that we think are necessary to make sure the financial system continues to operate in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy. so in my introductory remarks, i will highlight some of the key risks, give our assessment of resilience and explain our policy actions