a sensitive issue. according to their brexit white paper published last week, the uk government will strive for an ambitious free trade agreement with the eu as a long - term solution. but financial services are an especially tricky area. so far, the eu has never fully integrated finance in its free trade agreements with third countries. 2. 2 location decisions consequently, many banks are now considering moving some of their business to the eu. you can read reports about major firms taking new decisions daily – some are true, some are rumours. first, let me say that i expect london to remain an important financial centre. nevertheless, i also expect many uk - based market participants to move at least some business units to the eu in order to hedge against all possible outcomes of the negotiations. the question that is causing some excitement is : where will banks go? as a supervisor, my main concern is that banks are supervised according to standards that are both high and consistent. this is best ensured within the ssm area, which means i will not promote any particular financial centre. that said, i am open for dialogue with financial institutions in assessing the conditions for moving business units to germany. financial institutions are right to contact their potential future supervisors early on. and numerous market participants have already contacted the ecb, bafin and the bundesbank. we respond to such requests pragmatically. that is, we provide financial institutions with quick and reliable guidance and clarity on the requirements for establishing a licensed entity here in germany and aid a smooth transition. one important issue in this regard are the rules related to outsourcing. here, we explain that german law requires any subsidiary domiciled in this country to retain chief responsibility for its business. this means that we will not accept any empty shells or “ letterbox companies ". 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches 2. 3 future of clearing market access and location decisions are the primary point of interest. a close second is the future of clearing in the uk. will uk - based clearing houses be stripped of their ability to clear euro - denominated transactions? at present, the eurosystem does not have regulatory competence to restrict clearing in the uk. however, continuation of clearing strongly depends on the acceptance of the european court of justice, as mario draghi emphasised yesterday. and so far, the uk government has indicated that it would leave the european court of justice after brexit. furthermore, the eu has introduced clearing obligations for some interest rate

benoit cœure : interview with europe 1 interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, and europe 1, conducted by mr jean - pierre elkabbach on 9 december 2016. * * * so, the ecb has extended its large - scale purchases of private and public debt. a sum of €80 billion was being injected per month, and it will be €60 billion per month until december 2017, i. e. an extra nine months. the ecb is changing the amount and the pace. does that mean it ’ s a warning to member states to get ready to fend for themselves? first of all, it ’ s a sign of confidence in the euro area economy. the fact that we can reduce the quantity of purchases also shows our confidence in growth and in the ability of inflation to return towards 2 %, which is what we are aiming for. and how high will inflation be? it ’ s rising very slowly but it ’ s not at 2 %. it ’ s going to increase very slowly and we think it will reach around 1. 7 % by the end of our projection period, so it will be approaching 2 %. one way to sum up simply what the ecb ’ s governing council decided yesterday is to say that the euro area is recovering, it ’ s getting better but it still needs its medicine – an accommodative monetary policy with low rates. so we are reducing the dose because things are improving but we are extending the prescription for longer. the euro area is not cured, but... it ’ s not cured. but it ’ s doing less badly. it ’ s doing less badly. but it can ’ t take care of itself. it ’ s doing less badly but it ’ s not doing well enough and that ’ s why the prescription has been extended, and there is indeed, as you say, a kind of “ warning ” or let ’ s say... an alert. an alert, a message, which is as follows : all this won ’ t last forever, it can ’ t last forever, sources of growth have to be found that don ’ t depend on monetary policy. long - term interest rates are going to rise and economic actors must prepare themselves – governments in particular, which have benefited greatly from the decline in rates. they must prepare for an environment in which monetary policy will be less necessary and where growth will have to come from elsewhere.