dividend income from equity participations has generally become much more important, indicating an increase in the importance of the profit generated by non - bank subsidiaries. beside the establishment of non - bank subsidiaries, there have been other strategic and organisational changes that have resulted in banks strengthening their securities - related activities. in particular, significant motives behind the recent merger trend seem to include the desire to increase bank size and hence to be able to operate efficiently in wholesale securities markets as well as to be able to cater for the needs of large international corporations for investment banking services. the trend towards securitisation can be regarded as one of the reasons for the structural changes in the banking system that appears to have accelerated recently. there have naturally also been other reasons why banks have sought to merge, predominantly the need to cut capacity and to reduce costs. these cost - driven mergers have taken place primarily among smaller banks. 6. conclusion in my remarks today, i have referred to a number of changes and market initiatives in the euro area financial landscape. these developments point to the increasing importance of the fixed income and equity markets that many expected in stage three of economic and monetary union ( emu ), providing new opportunities for borrowers and investors and causing pressure to adjust for financial institutions. in this respect, i should like to mention the importance of removing the remaining regulatory barriers to the further development of the securities markets. to this end, the european commission has recently published an action plan of regulatory changes to improve the single market for financial services that would certainly – when implemented – boost the integration and market - driven development of the european securities markets. finally, i should like to conclude with some remarks about the role of the eurosystem ( the term that we use to mean the ecb and the 11 national central banks of the member states participating in stage three of emu ) in the developments in the financial sector in europe. first of all, the eurosystem contributes to developments in the financial sector by providing it with a stable and credible monetary policy. with a strong and credible commitment to its primary objective, price stability, the eurosystem has created a situation in which the financial sector can concentrate on those issues that are of the greatest relevance to its activities. the eurosystem does not play a direct role in structural developments in the financial sector. with its single monetary policy framework and target in particular, the eurosystem has created an infrastructure that has proved to be useful for the establishment of an integrated money market in

mario draghi : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, and mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 25 october 2018. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. we will now report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting of the governing council, which was also attended by the commission vice - president, mr dombrovskis. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. we continue to expect them to remain at their present levels at least through the summer of 2019, and in any case for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. regarding non - standard monetary policy measures, we will continue to make net purchases under the asset purchase programme ( app ) at the new monthly pace of €15 billion until the end of december 2018. we anticipate that, subject to incoming data confirming our medium - term inflation outlook, we will then end net purchases. we intend to reinvest the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the app for an extended period of time after the end of our net asset purchases, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation. incoming information, while somewhat weaker than expected, remains overall consistent with an ongoing broad - based expansion of the euro area economy and gradually rising inflation pressures. the underlying strength of the economy continues to support our confidence that the sustained convergence of inflation to our aim will proceed and will be maintained even after a gradual winding - down of our net asset purchases. at the same time, uncertainties relating to protectionism, vulnerabilities in emerging markets and financial market volatility remain prominent. significant monetary policy stimulus is still needed to support the further build - up of domestic price pressures and headline inflation developments over the medium term. this support will continue to be provided by the net asset purchases until the end of the year, by the sizeable stock of acquired assets and the associated reinvestments, and by our enhanced forward guidance on the key ecb interest rates. in any event, the governing council stands ready to adjust all of its instruments as appropriate to ensure that inflation continues to move towards