financial resilience and economic earthquakes speech given by alex brazier, executive director for financial stability strategy and risk, bank of england member of the financial policy committee university of warwick 13 june 2019 i am grateful to kiman bassi, jon bridges, jeremy franklin, andrew gimber, shahzad gitay, nick jackson, ben king, philip king, miriam kurtosiova, cian o ’ neill, rupal patel, simon pittaway, matt roberts - sklar, jamie semark, sagar shah, nick vause and danny walker for their assistance in preparing these remarks. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches in the aftermath of the financial crisis, a new buzz phrase emerged in economic policymaking : macroprudential policy. it tells you something about economic policymakers that this phrase qualified as buzz. but after a fragile financial system had sideswiped the economy, turning what could have been an economic downturn into a disaster, it was difficult to disagree with the aim : to promote a financial system that could serve households and businesses in bad times, as well as good. that means a financial system that is resilient to the bad times, but not so resilient as to be inefficient the rest of the time. in many respects, the idea of macroprudential policy was vintage wine in a new bottle. the term was used at least as far back as 19791 and the approach was set out in some depth in 2000 by andrew crockett, general manager of the bank for international settlements and previously an executive director at the bank of england. 2 the innovation after the crisis was to create a new independent committee in the bank of england – the financial policy committee ( fpc ) – to make the idea an operational reality. in just the six years of its official existence, the fpc has : boosted the resilience of the banking system, dealt with threats from pockets of credit growth, limited high loan - to - income mortgage lending, built greater resilience to cyber - attack, and ensured the core of the uk financial system is resilient and prepared for brexit, whatever form it takes. you may be relieved to know that will be my final mention of brexit today. we continue our work to ensure the financial system is prepared, but today i want to look beyond, to the future for macroprudential policy.

mario draghi : hearing at the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the european parliament introductory statement by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, at a hearing before the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the european parliament, brussels, 18 february 2013. * * * madam chair, honourable members of the committee on economic and monetary affairs, it is a pleasure to be back here in parliament and in front of your committee for our regular exchange of views. we enter 2013 in a more stable financial environment than in recent years. this has been achieved through concerted reforms by governments and parliaments and decisive actions by european institutions. but considerable further efforts are needed to ensure that europe continues emerging from the crisis, re - creates confidence among investors and citizens, and re - establishes stability and growth. this house has a key role to play in the reform agenda. i am thinking in particular of the adoption of the legislation for the single supervisory mechanism. this is of crucial importance for progress towards financial union. today, i will first review economic and monetary developments in the euro area since december. i will then address the two topics that you have selected for our discussion : the impact of a low interest rate environment ; and the establishment of a single resolution mechanism. economic and monetary developments since our last meeting, the governing council has left key ecb rates unchanged : the main refinancing rate currently stands at 0. 75 % ; the rate on the deposit facility stands at 0 % ; and the rate on the marginal lending facility stands at 1. 50 %. economic activity contracted for a third consecutive quarter in the fourth quarter of 2012. available indicators signal further weakness at the beginning of 2013, with domestic demand remaining dampened. this is due to weak consumer and investor sentiment and to the necessary balance sheet adjustments in both the public and private sectors. foreign demand also remains subdued. economic weakness in the early part of 2013 is expected to be followed by a very gradual recovery later in the year. strengthening global demand, our accommodative monetary policy stance and the improvement in financial market confidence across euro area countries should all work their way through to spending and investment decisions and support the recovery. even though we have yet to see sustained improvement in the real economy, survey indicators have confirmed earlier evidence of a stabilisation of business and consumer confidence, albeit at low levels. taking a somewhat longer view, the improvement in financial market confidence since last summer has been significant. as regards the exchange rate,