like liquidity ratios and margin requirements. this suggests that macro - prudential policies can support us in fulfilling our mandate. conclusion let me conclude. since the launch of the euro, we have become more interconnected. trade and financial links have deepened further and most companies and many banks have acquired a european perspective. we are, de facto, each other ’ s stakeholders. during the crisis we have seen how what happens in one euro area country, however big or small, reverberates in all others. the crisis has partly reversed some integration but, as shown in the two reports, we are now witnessing a degree of financial market de - fragmentation and reintegration. we are also waiting for more sound research and analysis to come on stream. a deeper understanding of the issues involved is paramount to making further progress on any one of the multitude of fronts that we still need to explore. so, to this end, it is with great pleasure that i now give the floor to our panellists for what i anticipate will be an in - depth and fruitful discussion on the state of financial integration after the experience of the financial crisis. for a review see smets, f. ( 2013 ), “ financial stability and monetary policy : how closely interlinked? ”, sveriges riksbank economic review 2013 : 3. bis central bankers ’ speeches

on - going research is the grounding and calibration of macroprudential instruments. the need for a macro - prudential perspective is one of the main lessons stemming from the crisis. in fact, the whole regulatory reform after the crisis was internationally discussed in basle or in the fsb and the g20, from the macro - prudential perspective. indeed improving the design of financial regulation to ensure a resilient system is the first instrument of macro - prudential policy. i see macro - prudential policy as particularly important for the single currency, as macroprudential tools can in principle allow policymakers to address financial imbalances in a more country - specific and granular way. see fecht, gruener and hartmann, “ financial integration, specialization and systemic risk ”, journal of international economics, vol. 88, 2012. bis central bankers ’ speeches i acknowledge that we do not yet have a large body of evidence on the effectiveness of these policies, especially in advanced economies. that said, the studies that do exist tentatively support the conclusion that macro - prudential policy can be effective in the euro area. assetside measures like ltv, lti and dti in particular have been found to be effective in dampening real estate booms. 10 as this was the sector at the heart of the crisis in several euro area countries, this is encouraging. further research in this area is essential to help us better understand the impact and transmission channels of macro - prudential policies. questions of effectiveness aside, where the ssm represents a major step forward in macroprudential policy, is in creating some centralisation of macro - prudential decision - making. the ssm regulation gives the ecb the power to apply stricter macro - prudential measures than national authorities if it deems necessary. this allows us to take an integrated view of macroprudential policy – spillovers, arbitrage effects – and provides a safeguard against inaction bias at the national level. moreover, the important role of the ecb governing council in macro - prudential decisionmaking allows for interactions between monetary policy and macro - prudential policy to be internalised and synergies to be exploited. to give just one example, several of the nonstandard measures we have adopted during the crisis, such as changes in collateral haircuts or reserve requirements, might in certain cases overlap with macro - prudential measures