jean - claude trichet : announcement of basel ii opening remarks of mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank and chairman of the g10 governors and heads of supervision, at the press conference announcing the publication of basel ii, bank for international settlements, basel, 26 june 2004. * * * on behalf of the g10 central bank governors and heads of bank supervisory agencies, i am pleased to announce that we endorsed the publication of the revised framework for capital adequacy known as “ basel ii ” at our meeting today. this work, which was conducted by the basel committee on banking supervision, represents a landmark achievement. in particular, its comprehensive approach to risk management and bank supervision ensures that capital regulation will remain a cornerstone of safety and soundness for banking in the twenty - first century. in the same vein, basel ii will enhance banks ’ safety and soundness, thereby strengthening the stability of the financial system as a whole. that, in turn, will improve the ability of the financial sector to serve as a source of sustainable growth for the broader economy. i am pleased to offer this revised framework to the international community. today marks the culmination of nearly six years of challenging work. during those years, the basel committee sought to develop significantly more risk - sensitive capital requirements that are conceptually sound. at the same time, the committee wanted to be sensitive to the characteristics of markets and supervisory systems in numerous countries. for such an effort to be successful, the committee undertook a careful review of the existing rules and of the recent advances achieved in the industry. it consulted widely and publicly with industry representatives, other public authorities, and outside observers. the governors and heads of supervision believe that the committee ’ s efforts and dedication have been fruitful and invaluable, and we appreciate the dedication that all committee members demonstrated. basel ii builds on the solid foundation set out by the 1988 basel capital accord. indeed, the new framework will preserve key elements of the existing capital rules. this includes retaining the definition of eligible capital components ; maintaining the general requirement that banks should hold total capital equivalent to at least 8 % of their risk - weighted assets ; and continuing the basic structure of the capital requirements for market risk that are outlined in the committee ’ s 1996 market risk amendment. the new framework marks a substantial step forward in creating incentives for banks to improve the quality of their risk management. one of the most significant innovations of the new framework is that it will allow banks to make

christine lagarde : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by ms christine lagarde, president of the european central bank, and mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 7 march 2024. * * * good afternoon, the vice - president and i welcome you to our press conference. the governing council today decided to keep the three key ecb interest rates unchanged. since our last meeting in january, inflation has declined further. in the latest ecb staff projections, inflation has been revised down, in particular for 2024 which mainly reflects a lower contribution from energy prices. staff now project inflation to average 2. 3 per cent in 2024, 2. 0 per cent in 2025 and 1. 9 per cent in 2026. the projections for inflation excluding energy and food have also been revised down and average 2. 6 per cent for 2024, 2. 1 per cent for 2025 and 2. 0 per cent for 2026. although most measures of underlying inflation have eased further, domestic price pressures remain high, in part owing to strong growth in wages. financing conditions are restrictive and our past interest rate increases continue to weigh on demand, which is helping push down inflation. staff have revised down their growth projection for 2024 to 0. 6 per cent, with economic activity expected to remain subdued in the near term. thereafter, staff expect the economy to pick up and to grow at 1. 5 per cent in 2025 and 1. 6 per cent in 2026, supported initially by consumption and later also by investment. we are determined to ensure that inflation returns to our two per cent medium - term target in a timely manner. based on our current assessment, we consider that the key ecb interest rates are at levels that, maintained for a sufficiently long duration, will make a substantial contribution to this goal. our future decisions will ensure that our policy rates will be set at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary. we will continue to follow a data - dependent approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction. in particular, our interest rate decisions will be based on our assessment of the inflation outlook in light of the incoming economic and financial data, the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission. the decisions taken today are set out in a press release available on our website. i will now outline in more detail how we see the economy and inflation developing and will then explain our assessment