mr gunnarsson touches on a number of topics including developments in the icelandic economy, the financial system and financial supervision presentation by mr birgir isleifur gunnarsson, governor and chairman of the board of governors of the central bank of iceland, to the iceland finance forum held in islandsbanki hf on 22 october 1999. * * * mr chairman, ladies and gentlemen, i am honoured to have the opportunity to address such a distinguished gathering of financial professionals and i congratulate islandsbanki for having brought you all together in reykjavik. in my talk today i will touch on developments in our economy, developments in the financial system, the monetary policy of the central bank of iceland, financial supervision and the implications of developments in europe. economic developments a strong upswing has characterised the icelandic economy in recent years. we are now in the fourth year of more than 5 % real growth of the economy. in the early phase of the upswing, growth was driven to an important extent by a strong recovery in foreign direct investment in iceland, particularly in the so - called power intensive industries. later on, rising domestic consumption became the driving force of economic growth. from the early part of the decade, inflation was very low. for a number of years it was in fact consistently lower than the average for the oecd countries. the rapid growth of recent years has brought the economy to full capacity, the unemployment rate has fallen below 1½ %, resulting in substantial wage pressures in certain segments of the market. the sharp expansion has resulted in a rising rate of inflation. in the 12 months to the beginning of october, consumer prices rose by 5. 3 %. the central bank issues inflation forecasts every three months. the latest forecast was issued in july and it envisaged a 3 % average rate of inflation in 1999 and a 4 % inflation rate from the beginning to the end of the year. a new forecast will be issued in the beginning of next week. the deficit on the current account of the balance of payments has risen. in 1998 it equalled roughly 5½ % of gdp. it is expected to be lower in 1999. during the upswing, the central bank of iceland has followed a restrictive monetary policy as reflected among other things in the fact that at present the differential between icelandic and trade weighted foreign money market rates is well in excess of 5 %. the yield on 3 - month treasury bills in the market is currently above 9 %, and the so - called repo rate

fernando restoy : forging a new financial system – reforms outstanding and ongoing opening address by mr fernando restoy, deputy governor of the bank of spain, at a conference at complutense university of madrid, madrid, 27 october 2014. * * * let me first thank the organisers, in particular professor carmen alonso ledesma, a fellow sufferer on the banco de espana governing council, for their kind invitation to participate in this conference. looking at the programme, the topics to be discussed in the various papers and roundtables, and the expertise of the speakers, i harbour no doubts that this conference will prove enormously useful in enriching the knowledge of all those present about the reforms undertaken and the challenges still pending for the financial system. a good number of these reforms and challenges are linked to the flaws identified in the functioning of the sector as a result of the international financial crisis that broke in 2007. in particular, the crisis has highlighted considerable structural shortcomings – which led to an incorrect evaluation and management of key risks by financial institutions – and major limitations to the prevailing crisis - prevention and management systems. in the euro area, as you know, the perverse link between the vulnerability of the credit sector and the weakness of public finances precipitated an institutional crisis which jeopardised the very continuity of the monetary union. the consequences of the financial crisis have been very adverse. it plunged many economies into recession, considerably weakened public finances in many countries and, generally, entailed considerable losses in well - being. fortunately, and this is a positive message worth emphasising, the authorities ’ response was generally correct. in a relatively short time, sweeping regulatory changes – which you will be able to review in detail in this conference – were ushered in. moreover, the euro area has managed, at unprecedented speed, to launch an institutional reform, namely the banking union, whose scope cannot be overstated and which entails the strengthening of the monetary union. in spain, i believe the work done in reforming our financial system has had very satisfactory results. international agencies, in particular the imf and the european commission, have repeatedly testified to these results. so too have the markets, where there have been significant increases in the valuation of instruments issued by spanish banks. and, most recently, there was further acknowledgement in the comprehensive assessment of the european banking sector by the ecb and the european banking authority. given the importance of this exercise, as a prior step