er hub better data, to inform better policy - deputy governor sharon donnery 16 december 2019 speech opening remarks at the sixth conference on household finance and consumption good morning, and welcome to the sixth conference on household finance and consumption1. i would like to thank both my colleagues in the central bank of ireland and the ecb for all their hard work in organising what promises to be a fascinating network event. looking at the programme, and the range of topics ; from inflation, housing, credit, and business cycles, to inequality, demographic change, and of course, monetary policy, you ’ re in for a stimulating couple of days. what i see as a common thread across this diverse range of issues is ultimately, how better data informs better policy. like many policy institutions, a decade ago, the crisis, prompted us to reflect on the type of data we collect, how it is analysed, and, crucially, how the analysis feeds through to policy decisions. the work that you, the network, are doing and what we will discuss today, is critical to how we make policy, how we decide, and how what we do affects society. but it ’ s important we don ’ t just think about the gaps in data that emerged in the past. we also need to develop data in areas that have grown and changed recently, such as non - bank, or market based finance. finally, today, i wish to note how data can enhance debates and policy discussion where before it had been unavailable. for example, today the central bank of ireland is launching a report on the national claims information database ( ncid ), a report that will add important numbers and facts to a widely debated topic here in ireland. understanding household balance sheets through data, the irish household finance and consumption survey ( 2013 ), provided really important insights in to household finances in the wake of the crisis. we know that high - leverage households were twice as likely to face credit constraints, even after controlling for different income shocks faced by households ( leblanc & lydon 2019 ). the cross - country evidence paints a similar picture – amongst euro area households in 2013 / 14, irish households were the most indebted and the most likely to be credit constrained – almost one - in - five households at the time ( ibid ). heavily indebted households reduce their spending by significantly more in response to a given income shock. this partly explains why ireland experienced one of the largest drops in consumer spending during the

gabriel makhlouf : the changing landscape for financial services remarks by mr gabriel makhlouf, governor of the central bank of ireland, at the irish league credit unions conference, dublin, 11 november 2023. * * * good morning everyone1 i'm very pleased to be with you here today to talk about how the financial services landscape is changing, and how the credit union sector should respond to that change. everyone in this room will have heard of the maxim that " change is the only constant in life. " that maxim dates back to the f. ifth century bc, when the greek philosopher heraclitus observed that the natural world was in a constant state of movement. famously, he said " no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. " when a simple maxim like that has survived for centuries, it probably holds some truth. indeed, heraclitus'thoughts fed into the writings of many ancient greek philosophers plato famously noted heraclitus'teaching that " all things pass, and nothing stays. " some of us, though probably very few of us at this stage, will remember the highly manual nature of branch banking operations in the 1950s, through to the 1970s. cheques and cash were by far the most popular form of payment. believe it or not, as recently as 1978, a uk businessman called randell arnold filled out all the constituent parts of a cheque on a 150lb halibut – yes, a giant fish – and barclays bank accepted it as a legal bill of exchange. more of us might remember how the retail banking business model changed in the late 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s, as banks began to computerise their operations and provide services through non - branch channels such as telephone banking. since the noughties, following the global financial crisis and up until today, the number of traditional retail banks reduced significantly – most recently with the exits underway of ulster bank and kbc – and new entities, some of which are banks, but most of which are not – entered the market and gained market share. using data analytics and digital technologies, new entities are reaching and serving customers in their millions, and banks, as well as credit unions, are responding by investing in technology to ensure they satisfy changing customer preferences and achieve operational efficiencies. so with change in the financial services sector being a constant since at least the 1960s, why