for japanese financial institutions. the city of london does not depend on the currency used by the uk. financial activity will be carried on where it can be carried on most conveniently, profitably and efficiently. the city thrives on deep and liquid markets, regardless of currency. measured in these terms, we have, over the last few years, seen the euro as an opportunity for london, not a threat. and the city has been taking advantage of this opportunity, since the euro's launch, by innovating and setting standards of excellence in the euro markets. helping to develop deep and liquid euro markets is arguably the main contribution that we in the uk can make to the success of the euro from the'outside '. and in this sense, the uk has been making a positive and constructive contribution. deep and liquid euro markets have become well established in london. they have replaced the previous, more segmented, markets in the old national currencies ( like the deutsche mark and the french franc ). as a result, the european union has begun to achieve one of its objectives in introducing a single currency in place of the old national currencies. the city is pioneering the changes in the euro markets the volatility in the euro exchange rate has diverted attention from the structural changes taking place in the euro markets. yet these changes are of fundamental importance. they will affect all businesses using the euro - japanese businesses as much as uk and euro area businesses. i would like briefly to mention five of these structural changes. it is of course important to recognise, as i do so, that while the euro has been the catalyst for these changes it is not the only cause. but in each case, the city of london has been playing a leading role as a centre of innovation and excellence. the first change is the growth of euro issuance - particularly in the private sector, as the financing needs of euro - area governments are limited by fiscal discipline and special influences, such as the proceeds of mobile phone auctions. the flow of corporate euro bond and equity issuance has grown significantly, though it is important to keep this in proportion : the stock of issuance outstanding in both cases is still - by some margin - lower than the us. ( domestic debt securities in the euro area, taking governments and corporates together, amount to the equivalent of around $ 6 trillion, compared with some $ 14 trillion in the us. and the equity market capitalisation of companies in the euro area amounts

dramatically : from an almost 9. 4 percent growth rate in 2008 q3 to a most likely significant decline in 2009 q1. the monetary and fiscal policies will be resorted to with a view to adjusting to the new environment. in face of the crisis, the relatively large stock of private foreign debt and the increased market volatility made some economic agents believe that the early adoption of the euro could supersede the need for economic policy adjustments. yet this is not a viable option, as adopting the euro prior to having achieved the main stages of convergence with the eu might pose serious threats in the future. the adoption of the euro today would mean to relinquish monetary policy before having ensured convergence sustainability, namely before removing all the imbalances we are facing today. the outcome would consist in monetary policy being designed by the european central bank ( ecb ). but the ecb policy might prove inadequate from the standpoint of the specific problems facing the romanian economy. the risk might occur that, in face of relatively high volatility of output and inflation, we run out of instruments to tackle the issue. i consider this as a strong enough reason not to adopt the euro prior to eliminating all major imbalances in the economy and before having made enough progress on the path to achieving convergence. we stand committed to implement the pre - announced calendar of the euro adoption. we intend to join erm ii on 1 january 2012. after the minimum two - year stay in this mechanism, the joint decision on entering the euro area will be made in 2014 and ( likely to ) become effective as of 1 january 2015. mention should be made that this is the calendar considered by most rating agencies and foreign investors, hence any large deviation ( postponement ) from this calendar would be negatively perceived and penalised accordingly. * * * i believe there will also be other lessons for countries to learn from the current financial crisis. they will learn the manner in which a banking system can be restructured so as to cope with a global financial crisis, particularly what is the impact of a so - called " bad bank " on real life. i trust countries will learn that central banks'resort to unconventional instruments bears certain costs. yet, regardless of the number of lessons learned, the experience of financial crises indicates that the social memory of crises is of short duration and that the possibility of repeating the same mistakes should never be ruled out. let me conclude my speech with the words of ivy baker priest, former