creation of banking union and the concentration of supervisory powers in the ecb. creating banking union, setting up the single supervisory mechanism ( ssm ) and simultaneously conducting a comprehensive assessment of banks was an extraordinary undertaking and i am deeply grateful to all those who contributed to it. many among them are italian, and the banca d ’ italia was one of the key players in this process of change. the ecb also played another role – to contribute to the design of monetary union over the long term – which took concrete form in what is known as the presidents ’ report. this was also important. our decision - making process was made more transparent, too ; for the first time, we decided to publish the minutes of our meetings. bis central bankers ’ speeches i ’ d like to touch upon your famous speech in london, in which you said that you were ready to do “ whatever it takes ” to save the euro. the speech had a huge impact on the markets. to assuage my curiosity may i ask whether you expected it to have such an impact, or did you feel it was a sort of last - ditch attempt at a time when the situation was worsening rapidly? is the risk of a euro area break - up now definitively over? it ’ s clear that at the time, that speech provided information which highlighted the seriousness of the situation. since then, things have improved overall. the risks of fragmentation and redenomination have diminished considerably, if not disappeared. it should be pointed out that the euro area countries took action as well, launching a series of structural reforms and gaining credibility in fiscal policy. although much has been achieved, much still remains to be done, also in terms of the future shape of the european union. we must be able to propose a way forward to the citizens of the european union and, of the euro area. we have attempted to do this with the five presidents ’ report. i ’ m not saying that it has to be followed in its entirety, but it seems to me that this is the perspective that our leaders and our governments should also take, bearing in mind that the horizon is not cloud - free. we need only look at the newspapers to see that. however, the greek crisis has led to a breakdown of trust and caused severe damage to the euro area. i would not say that. fundamentally, trust has been rebuilt, primarily by the greek government, which today is in talks with the european institutions in an atmosphere of close collaboration

( srep ) [ 4 ] and provide valuable insights for broader financial stability analyses based on granular information. over the last five years, cooperation between micro - and macroprudential authorities has increased in all phases of the stress - testing process. today, micro - and macroprudential supervision complement each other by building on their respective knowledge of the banking system to provide a sound and credible assessment of banks ’ resilience to stress. for instance, during the preparatory phase, supervisors and regulators discuss in detail the stress test methodology and the calibration of the adverse scenario. in the execution phase, supervisors conduct thorough quality assurance of banks ’ bottom - up stress tests by challenging banks ’ own figures, also using results from macroprudential top - down models. the top - down models are not only employed by supervisors to gain a macroprudential perspective ; they can be used more broadly to understand the aggregate implications of banks ’ dynamic responses to stress. the major advantage of these models is that they account for the propagation and amplification of shocks across the banking system and the real economy. today ’ s stress - testing framework, with its micro - and macroprudential elements, is the result of sustained improvements since the financial crisis thanks to the ongoing involvement of all stakeholders. the continued importance of stakeholder involvement is already apparent – discussions about the design of the long - term stress test strategy in europe are under way within both the ecb and the european banking authority. without pre - empting future discussions about this strategy, our experiences so far have shown the benefits of including top - down approaches in supervisory assessments, and of considering the wider, macroprudential dimensions of stress - testing in particular. looking ahead, i believe that top - down stress test models could play a more important role in disciplining banks and reducing their incentives to systematically underestimate vulnerabilities. countercyclical macroprudential policy these models will also help micro - and macroprudential authorities to address challenges in the current macro - financial environment. over the past few months, we have observed a deteriorating global economic outlook and increasing uncertainty. this environment might put pressure on banks ’ profitability and hamper their intermediation capacity as margins become squeezed and the flow of new business slows down. under these conditions, it is particularly important that banks remain resilient and can withstand adverse shocks. since the financial crisis, the resilience of euro area banks