to put it in the context of captain cook : we need a captain ; and we need to make the tasks of this captain clear before the end of 2009. we can learn from the experience of the payments council in the uk. the governance of the european retail payment market also entails a more social, strategic and political dimension to retail payments, which, by definition, cannot be handled by a selfregulating body of banks or payment service providers alone. in some countries, best practices have emerged in the past few years. in addition to the coordination on the “ supply side ”, which is the role that the epc plays at the european level, national fora have emerged. these fora deal with the more social and political elements of the retail payment market, and we need to represent this to a certain extent at the european level. a new european forum could promote the goals of sepa in the context of the evolving landscape of the european retail payment market by : 1. firstly, ensuring appropriate coordination and dialogue with national structures during the migration process ; 2. secondly, promoting innovative solutions in line with the objectives of the lisbon agenda ; and 3. finally, being transparent as regards end - users and all relevant stakeholders and involving them as market partners. the creation of a european forum does not, however, dilute the continued importance of the epc, now or in the future. the european retail payment market will benefit considerably from a strong epc and an additional european forum dealing with the social, strategic and political aspects of the retail payment market. conclusion in conclusion, allow me to re - emphasise that the sepa ship has left the harbour destined for a fully integrated market for euro retail payments. the compass is set for a full single euro payments area. the eurosystem appreciates the efforts of those banks that are committed to launching sdd in november 2009 and we encourage all the others to follow suit as soon as possible. the projects for the introduction of an additional european card scheme are invited to increase their efforts and publish their concrete itineraries. payment services have stood solid as a rock throughout the turbulence of the recent months and it has been widely acknowledged that retail payments will be a cornerstone of banks ’ business in the years to come. therefore, it is even more important that our journey to sepa will succeed – despite the periods of nearly stand still and turbulences. competition, standardisation, innovation and the right level of regulation are the key factors contributing to a

unexpected ) aggravation of growth trends might expose the vulnerabilities and cyclical risks that have been building up. • third, the countercyclical capital buffer ( ccyb ) is an appropriate instrument to address cyclical systemic risks. on may 27, the german financial stability committee thus recommended activating the countercyclical capital buffer and raising it to 25 basis points. [ 1 ] the recommendation was based on analytical work by the bundesbank showing that expectations might be overly optimistic with regard to credit risk and the valuation of collateral going forward. in addition, the german banking system has been increasingly exposed to interest rate risk. 1 in europe, macroprudential policy is a national task that calls for close collaboration at the european level. macroprudential policy is a core element of the reform agenda initiated after the global financial crisis, and it plays a particularly important role in the european monetary union, which lacks a single sovereign. [ 2 ] the main objective of macroprudential policy is to prevent the build - up of systemic risk – i. e. the risk of destabilising negative externalities in the financial system – and mitigating excessive leverage of the private sector. macroprudential policy takes a macroeconomic perspective on the financial sector ’ s stability and resilience, and it complements other policy areas such as monetary policy, microprudential supervision, and – not least – fiscal policy. the global financial crisis and the european debt crisis showed that it is not sufficient to focus on the sustainability of public debt. rather, mechanisms that address private credit are needed to safeguard the stability of the financial system. such mechanisms ensure that excessive growth of private credit or a deterioration in the quality of credit does not pose a threat to financial stability. in germany, responsibility for macroprudential policy is shared by the members of the financial stability committee : the ministry of finance as the chair of the committee, the federal financial supervisory authority ( bafin ), and the bundesbank. this set - up institutionalizes a regular exchange of micro - and macroprudential authorities. the committee can issue warnings and recommendations when there are financial stability concerns. the committee submits an annual report to the bundestag on its activities and the stability of the german financial system. the last such report was published in may 2019. [ 3 ] the committee also communicates on important events through press briefings or press releases. in a number of countries