we have moved into line with the european average. also, the excessive dependence on external financing has been corrected ; specifically, the spanish economy ’ s net debtor position has declined from accounting for almost 100 % of gdp in 2014 to 77. 1 % of gdp in 2018. the consolidation process, which began in 2009, has entailed a reduction of more than 30 % in the number of institutions. the most striking impact has been on the former savings banks, of which only two have survived, although another seven have converted into banks. also paradigmatic is the change in the number of bank offices, which have fallen by more than 40 % ( 20, 000 fewer ), and in staff numbers, which are down by more than 30 % ( around 90, 000 fewer workers ). against this backdrop of substantial business adjustment, banks have managed to improve their solvency and the quality of their balance sheets. the average tier 1 capital ratio has risen from 8. 1 % in 2008 to 13. 4 % late last year. banks have also been active in the disposal of their non - earning assets, and non - performing and foreclosed loans, which has allowed volumes to be reduced most considerably. this divestment of non - earning assets has come about against a background of economic growth, which, undoubtedly, has helped the process. but i believe it is important to stress that supervisory pressure has also notably influenced this improvement. the chart shows clearly how the volume of npls has fallen almost exclusively over the past two years. to my understanding, the publication of the ssm guidance in march 2017 and of its addendum a year later have had a lot to do with this. 4 / 15 as regards results, once the 2012 downturn was behind us, banks showed returns on assets and on equity moving around 0. 55 % and 7. 22 %, respectively. as a result of all these efforts, spanish banks are in a much sounder position and currently have unquestionable strengths compared with their european rivals, essentially as regards their profitability and efficiency. as can be seen, profitability, measured both in terms of roa and of roe, is above the european average. if we analyse average efficiency, we see that spanish banks clearly have lower management expenses in relation to their revenue than their european competitors, particularly those in the core euro area countries. regrettably, these strengths do not change our position relative to the comparative average levels of solvency. admitted

banco de espana is stepping up the efforts it devotes both to monitoring technological innovation and to anticipating its potential consequences. through a crossdepartmental working structure, various matters are being addressed in order to contribute to constructing an informed opinion and helping define the central bank ’ s strategic positioning. subjects under analysis are, for instance, the implications of the provisions of the new directive on payment services, known as psd2, whose partial transposition in spain is imminent, under the government ’ s annual regulatory plan, and to which i shall shortly refer. and there are also other topical matters, such as distributed ledger technology, “ cloud ” computing and the phenomenon of sovereign digital currencies. 3 / 8 against this backdrop, the aim of my address is to offer some observations as to how the new technologies are changing the traditional bank - customer relationship, and to highlight the need for banks and customers to responsibly manage this new scenario. likewise, i wish to stress the importance of financial education in this new scenario. customers have more options, but also more responsibility, and it is essential they should be aware of this. returning to the origins of the concern for the rights of bank customers. to set these observations in perspective, we might recall that concern in spain to safeguard customer rights arose in the 1980s, as a consequence of the liberalisation the industry underwent and which enshrined freedom of contract – of interest rates and commissions – at the core of its workings. accompanying this process, legislators adopted a series of measures aimed at boosting competition among banks, including most notably the enhanced comparative information with which banks must provide their customers, so that they may know the content of their rights and obligations before and once they have given their consent. however, this concern for customer rights came into being and developed in a context of maximum customer confidence towards banks and, most importantly, towards bank employees, which, in short, led to a high degree of customer loyalty to banks. during the 1990s and in the first half of the last decade such loyalty was negatively and slowly impacted by growing competition and the subsequent need to improve net interest margins. and the crisis unleashed as from 2007 saw the culmination of this deterioration and led to a significant loss of confidence by customers in banks, giving rise to a new scenario. against this background of public mistrust in banks, and the weakening of the aforementioned degree of loyalty, the new technologies add additional challenges for the industry when it comes to tending to