christine lagarde : welcome address - fifth european central bank forum on banking supervision speech by ms christine lagarde, president of the european central bank, at the 5th european central bank forum on banking supervision " europe : banking on resilience ", frankfurt am main, 30 november 2023. * * * it is a pleasure to welcome you to the fifth ecb forum on banking supervision. ten years ago, on 15 october 2013, the eu council approved the regulation launching the single supervisory mechanism. it was the most significant step in european integration since the introduction of the euro. and there were two main reasons for taking it. first, it would lead to stricter and more uniform supervision – a single supervisor enforcing a single set of rules for a single banking market. that would, in turn, make it possible to establish a true banking union, with a common safety net. and a banking union would strengthen the monetary union by ensuring that bank deposits were seen as equally safe everywhere. as andrea enria eloquently put it, " only unified supervision and an integrated safety net can make sure that one euro has the same value and is afforded the same protection regardless of the member state in which it is deposited ". 1 second, single supervision would help make monetary policy more effective, because a weak banking system can complicate our task of stabilising inflation – in both directions. when central banks are easing policy, a fragile financial sector can impede the transmission of lower rates to the economy, especially if banks are unable to lend. we saw this after the euro crisis when banks were deleveraging as the ecb was cutting rates. at the same time, weak banks can also interfere with rate hikes. if monetary policy gives disproportionate weight to financial stability risks, it might tighten less than it ought to. setting up a single supervisor was a necessary condition to achieve both these goals. but, of course, there was no guarantee of success. it had to be tested by events and shaped by leadership – notably that of andrea and his predecessor, daniele nouy. in my remarks today, i will explain how european banking supervision has brought about key improvements to the supervisory landscape and to the effectiveness of monetary policy. the benefits of single supervision for the banking sector 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches three improvements to the supervisory landscape stand out. first, european banking supervision has led to sounder banks, thanks to supervisors enforcing tougher regulatory standards

jorg asmussen : lessons from latvia and the baltics introductory remarks by mr jorg asmussen, member of the executive board of the european central bank, to the panel “ lessons from latvia and the baltics ” at the high - level conference on latvia, riga, 5 june 2012. * * * dear ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to be here today in riga to discuss the lessons from the baltic recovery. in the hanseatic league, to which riga and other baltic cities belonged, commerce and politics went hand in hand. and history is never far away from the headlines of the day. the ongoing financial and sovereign debt crisis illustrates yet again how closely economics and politics interact – for good or for bad. i would like to structure my intervention around the following three main questions : • what makes the latvian experience so special in the context of the current crisis? • what can euro area countries learn from the baltic recovery? • what can latvia itself learn from its adjustment? i. when good economics coincides with good politics it is said that “ good economics is often bad politics ” and vice versa. the experience of latvia and more generally the baltics is worth exploring precisely because it defied this conventional wisdom – both economically and politically. first, it disproved the frequently made claim that an internal devaluation strategy cannot work. from 2008, latvia was faced with the deepest recession in the world. the cumulative output decline was 24 % ; unemployment peaked at 20 %. compared with this economic collapse, even some of the euro area peripheral countries were faring relatively better. keeping the euro peg was considered by many as a “ mission impossible ”. external devaluation was presented as the only way forward. but latvia did not choose the easy “ quick fix ”. it embarked on a courageous fiscal consolidation path and structural reforms. two years later, the speed of the economic rebound is as extraordinary as the depth of the recession. against all the odds, latvia recorded a real gdp growth rate of 5. 5 % in 2011. while domestic demand was the main driver of growth last year, exports have also recovered very strongly. evidently, latvia ’ s competitiveness has improved, even though many challenges still lie ahead. the economic dynamics behind this swift stabilisation and recovery merit close examination. equally interesting is the political economy of the baltic adjustment. jean - claude juncker once said : “ we all know what to do but we don ’ t know how to get re - elected