of technical innovations and the speed of european integration. as far as the cross - border use of debit cards is concerned, a commendable start has been made here, and these efforts have been successful. perhaps we are therefore justified in thinking that progress will soon be made in the other areas for which solutions have not yet been found such as the interoperability of e - money systems. such progress would be desirable in achieving a standard european direct debits system as well. different national legal frameworks, customs and experience naturally do not make it easy to achieve common standards. even the security systems in payment transactions are still largely nationally oriented. in the end, the absence of common standards, and not just for retail payments, results in a de facto isolation of national payment systems. in the long run that certainly cannot be in europe ’ s interest because for the participating banks and their customers it can only compound the problem of segmented markets with little transparency but with relatively high prices and a low degree of efficiency. what conclusion are we to draw from all of this? the status quo of standardisation in europe ’ s cross - border payment systems is hardly satisfactory. there is no doubt that what we require is a simple, that is to say, a standardised, form of access to the national systems within the eu from other countries. the european central banks, and the banking industry, have shown that it is possible to build bridges in the first instance to link national systems to each other. bridging standards reduce the national conversion cost to the cost of using this standard instead of a large number of national ones. i am thinking here of the interlinking system in target and, with respect to retail payments, of, for example, tipanet of the cooperative bank sector or s - interpay of the savings bank sector. further progress could then be achieved, for example, by stepping up the consistent use of international standards and the ecbs norms, which are not dependent on specific formats, for the national side of settling cross - border payments, that is to say, by using them in the country in which the principal is domiciled and in the country of the ultimate beneficiary. in my opinion, there is an urgent need for action in the field of retail payments. i very much prefer a market - oriented approach. as far as possible, the banking industry and the central banks should reach voluntary agreements on efficient cross - border payments. these agreements can be

give the economy some additional room for non - inflationary growth beyond what we are assuming today. today ’ s forecast suggests that the economy will likely use up its excess capacity somewhat earlier than we predicted in january – sometime in the second half of 2017. however, as i said, there is more than the usual degree of uncertainty around that timing. for example, we are taking a conservative approach in assuming that only some of the legacy effects of the past several years – such as reduced labour force participation by young people – will be reversed over the next few years. this would add back to economic potential some of what has been lost. however, we will need to monitor carefully data on investment, labour force reentry and new firm creation to update this judgment over time. in sum, recent economic data have been encouraging on balance, but also quite variable. the global economy retains the capacity to disappoint further, the complex adjustment to lower terms of trade will restrain canada ’ s growth over much of our forecast horizon, and households ’ reactions to the government ’ s fiscal measures will bear close monitoring. we have not yet seen concrete evidence of higher investment and strong firm creation. these are some of the ingredients needed for a return to natural, self - sustaining growth with inflation sustainably on target. in light of all of these considerations, governing council agreed that the current level of our policy rate remains appropriate. with that, carolyn and i are ready to take your questions. bis central bankers ’ speeches