. discussions are ongoing on how to leverage the resources. various solutions are being studied. i won ’ t go into detail here but will simply say that it is important to realise that the size of the backstop has to be proportional to the systemic risk we may face. the political authorities, and the taxpayers to whom they report, have to understand that if this risk materialises, and the euro area fails to provide a convincing answer, all parts of the union will be severely affected, even those who currently seem safe. the impact will even spread beyond the euro area, as our g20 partners have repeatedly said. ensuring the stability of the euro area is thus a responsibility which goes beyond our borders and affects the global economy. this leads me to the fourth issue, which is the case of greece. this in itself would require a separate speech. all policy - makers involved, including governments and parliaments, should learn from the experience so far, in particular the fact that apparently easy solutions for taxpayers may turn out to be much more costly. greece needs an overhaul of its economy, and that will take several years. a long - term solution should be found, bringing about sustainable public finances and a stronger economy. the sustainability of the debt should be ensured over time, looking not only at the level of the debt at a given point in time but also at its trend and interest burden. pressure should continue to be exerted on the greek government and parliament to stick with the programme. putting wealth to work the challenges mentioned above raise an additional issue which i would like to address now, namely the shortage of public funds. for several countries, borrowing money to backstop the financial system or to help other countries is unfeasible, given the level of outstanding debt. what ’ s the solution? i would like to elaborate on a concept which is often forgotten by analysts, especially those who look at the current situation from the perspective of emerging markets ’ experiences in the past. in most euro area economies the state itself holds a large amount of wealth, some of which is marketable. according to oecd statistics, in 2010 government financial assets amounted to 33 % of gdp in greece, 43 % in ireland, 34 % in portugal, 26 % in spain, 28 % in italy, 37 % in france and in germany. 2 before entering into catastrophic scenarios such as those depicted by doomsayers, countries should be able to put their wealth fully to work. there are various ways of doing this.

macroeconomic climate. after all, an economic slowdown might also be accompanied by a renewed rise in credit risk. one of the side - effects of ultra - accommodative monetary policy is that the longer the lowinterest - rate environment persists, the greater the strain on banks becomes. an abrupt rise in interest rates would then take a particularly heavy toll on banks ’ earnings – such is the finding of our low - interest - rate survey that we, together with bafin, conducted once again last year among the banks that we supervise. the survey also revealed that small and medium - sized german banks and savings banks plan to expand alternative sources of income – commission business, say – as a result of shrinking margins in interest business. in addition, they want to roll out cost - cutting measures. on balance, however, most of the institutions are expecting their annual profits to contract further on average until 2021. this also means that, within the scope of their own planning, they have less leeway to further build up their capital buffers, should they need to. 4 / 8 bis central bankers'speeches as the majority of institutions are currently well capitalised, they will be able to withstand many of the future stresses and strains arising from a potentially protracted spell of low interest rates. nevertheless, the longer the low - interest - rate environment persists and the quicker monetary policy then has to be normalised, the greater the provision banks will need to make. 4 use positive economic climate as an opportunity for reform ladies and gentlemen the economy may be booming right now, but that should not blind us to the fact that there is still a need for action – and that doesn ’ t just apply to fiscal policymakers and the banks. it is true of other policy areas as well. the recent improvement in the economic situation is largely a cyclical phenomenon. long - term growth prospects have not improved. according to the latest calculations from the european commission, potential growth will remain lower over the next years than it was prior to the onset of the financial crisis. relying on monetary policy to move the euro area economies up to a persistently higher growth path would be a risky undertaking, as monetary policy holds no sway over long - term growth. only governments can put economies back on a path of persistently higher growth – and they do so by setting the proper gears in motion in labour market, competition and social policy. this is why the ecb governing council frequently points out that the highly expansion