##f ’ s proposal of a ‘ financial stability exemption ’ must be further explored, guaranteeing the applicability of this exception to mid - sized institutions and not only to g - sibs. in the absence of a thorough and much - needed fine - tuning of the existing legal and institutional framework, consideration should be given on how to mitigate host countries ’ concerns. the european supervisory authorities must monitor closely cross border operations, not only from the point of view of the parent undertaking, but also of all subsidiaries and systemic branches established in the banking union, allowing, simultaneously, host country competent authorities to have an adequate oversight on their operations ( including from the operational, funding and governance perspectives ) and to react to strategic decisions of these subsidiaries / branches ’ parents, namely those that can affect the financial stability of host countries. vii for significant operations, there should be an adequate level of separability ( financial, operational, it systems, governance ), not only in mpe strategies but also when an spe strategy is envisaged in the resolution plan, in order to allow a subsidiary to be detached from a parent undertaking and thereby foster resolvability even in adverse scenarios, as the enforcement of pre - resolution intra - group parent support mechanisms ( e. g. guarantees ) may prove to be insufficient in a real crisis situation. moreover, the current framework makes it clear that banks that are failing or likely to fail but which are not resolved due to the absence of a public interest are to be wound up in an orderly manner in accordance with the applicable national law. in this context, a significant number of small and medium - sized banks in the banking union are contributing to the single resolution fund ( srf ) without having a reasonable expectation of being able to pass the public interest test to eventually benefit from it. this situation must not be ignored. obviously, solutions need to be found for the orderly exit of traditional medium - sized deposittaking banks without disrupting financial stability. the topic of harmonising eu banks ’ liquidation regimes has thus been put on the agenda and recognised as a priority by member states viii, as recent experiences have been perceived as exploiting existing loopholes. but what does bank liquidation mean? and do we have the tools to ensure its orderliness in the current context? liquidation might imply the immediate interruption of lending support, as well as the suspension of payments ; it may have disruptive effects for creditors, depositors and other www. bportugal. pt stakeholders,

more closely, is the link between competition and productivity. several economists, such as thomas philippon, are now saying that there is not enough competition and profit margins are too high in the united states, and that this has been bad for productivity gains. we need to look at this topic in europe ; and it may be that we reach different conclusions for different sectors. the link between competition and productivity isn ’ t the same for manufacturing and services. in the services sector, opening up regulated professions increases competition and improves productivity, while for the manufacturing sector, which is already very exposed to international competition, the question is a more open one. relatively little is known about these topics, but they have a significant bearing on the diagnosis for potential growth. on the same subject, there is a debate in france about whether reductions in the cost of unskilled labour need to have a limit. in the very short term, this would create more jobs, of course, but isn ’ t it just as important to lower the cost of high - skilled labour, which is a driver of economic growth? my view as an economist is that we need to support both types of employment, but with different instruments. we need a strong services sector because there is a social demand for low productivity services, in particular human services, and because there need to be jobs for lowskilled workers. but we also need to support the manufacturing sector, because it is manufacturing that creates productivity, exports, and so on. that doesn ’ t mean that we have to use the same instrument. empirical studies have shown that cutting payroll taxes is more effective at the lower end of the wage scale. that doesn ’ t mean that the manufacturing sector doesn ’ t need any support, but it ’ s better to target support towards research and development ( r & d ), as well as training, rather than lowering payroll taxes far above the minimum wage, which would push up wages instead of creating jobs. it isn ’ t the ecb ’ s responsibility, but why hasn ’ t there been enough employment and growth in the euro area? it ’ s a question of labour, linked to cutting costs. in all advanced economies, we have recently seen that the wave that hit low - skilled labour is starting to hit routine skilled jobs. and these routine skilled jobs are not at the minimum wage. in the 1990s, and up until china joined the world trade organization, there was a general 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches acceptance that the unche