, by contrast, would have an advantage, not least because at1 coupons are tax - deductible in most member states. to sum up : banks would become less resilient and the playing field less even. but let me come back to basel. the reforms we agreed on in basel do make sense, and they strengthen the resilience of banks. a key feature of the reforms is their global nature. they are designed to ensure not only safer and sounder banks but also a level playing field. so if reforms are not implemented as agreed, the playing field will become uneven, opening the door to regulatory arbitrage. but regulation is not the only game in town, of course. supervision counts too. and although supervisors need rules to guide their work, they see that not everything can be or should be captured by rules. global reforms such as those devised in basel and their transposition into european law cannot be perfectly tailored to each and every business model that banks pursue. at best, rules can cover the average case. this is particularly true in a sector that is changing as quickly as banking. so it is up to the supervisor to adapt the capital requirements to a bank ’ s specific risk profile in order to cater for deviations from the average case. to this end, the rules should be principlebased and leave sufficient discretion to the supervisors. in the european context, this need is even greater, as nowadays, we often have to deal with 19 slightly different national rules applying to the same case. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches common principle - based regulation, applied to all 19 countries, would allow supervisors to cater for bank - specific risks in their national environment, thus ensuring a level playing field. so, let me conclude. the overarching question is : have the reforms so far helped to make the banking sector a safer place? my answer is : yes they have, but they still need to be finalised. the key point is to implement the reforms, to turn them into actual law. so, we cannot stand still ; we have to move on. and under no circumstances should we move backwards. thank you for your attention. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

stephen s poloz : opening statement before the standing senate committee on banking, trade and commerce opening statement by mr stephen s poloz, governor of the bank of canada, to the standing senate committee on banking, trade and commerce, ottawa, ontario, 13 april 2017. * * * good morning, mr. chairman and committee members. senior deputy governor wilkins and i are pleased to be back before you today to discuss the bank ’ s monetary policy report ( mpr ), which we published yesterday. at the time of our last appearance in october, i spoke about the factors that caused us to downgrade our outlook for the canadian economy. six months later, i ’ m pleased to say that i can discuss the factors that have led us to upgrade our forecast. for some time, we have been talking about how the oil price shock that began in 2014 set in motion a complex series of adjustments throughout the economy, including a significant restructuring in the oil and gas sector. what we are seeing now is that energy - related activity has stopped declining and is transitioning to a new level that is commensurate with the current level of oil prices. because that large negative force is now essentially past, it is no longer masking the sources of strength that have been at work for some time, particularly the growth in output and employment that is being driven by the service sector. the expansion over the past six months has exceeded our earlier forecasts, and we have revised up our outlook for average annual growth in 2017 to a bit over 2 1 / 2 per cent, one - half percentage point greater than we projected in the january mpr. we project growth of just under 2 per cent in 2018 and 2019. a crucial question for the bank now is whether the stronger economic data that we have been seeing are signalling increasing momentum. some of the strength is coming from factors that are unlikely to continue at the same pace. for example, the very strong growth in consumption in the first quarter was supported by a temporary boost from the canada child benefit. housing activity has also been stronger than expected. while we have incorporated some of this strength in a higher profile for residential investment, we still anticipate slowing over the projection horizon. the current pace of activity in the greater toronto area ( gta ) and parts of the golden horseshoe region is unlikely to be sustainable, given fundamentals. house price growth in the gta has accelerated sharply in recent months, suggesting that speculative forces are at work. in terms of