##ably triggers calls for more action to be taken by the authorities that shoulder the responsibility to navigate the economy through these troubled waters. to address these calls, one needs to take a sober look at the root causes of this crisis. most of the stressed euro area economies – and certainly the ones that are finding it most difficult and painful to adjust – have suffered from a chronic loss of competitiveness while being members of the monetary union. the erosion of their competitiveness has meant that these economies started running large current account deficits and some of them have accumulated large external debt positions. in some cases the expanding external debt was driven by increasing public sector indebtedness. imprudent fiscal policies were masking the private sector ’ s lack of competitiveness in an effort to shield and even improve living standards. in other countries it was the banking sector ’ s leverage that increased fast. this in turn reflected a strong increase in lending to domestic firms and households. in these cases the lack of competitiveness was triggering a shift of the economies towards domestic consumption and activities shielded from international competition, such as the housing sector. on top of that, banking supervision and regulation did not always mitigate the destabilising tendencies. there were cases when banks were not induced to develop sufficient capital and loss buffers in good times. the way out is to restore competitiveness. and the way to do this in the context of a monetary union is to pursue with determination an ambitious structural reform agenda. such an agenda comprises a number of national measures to make sure that the functioning of product and labour markets is fully compatible with participation in monetary union. one specific aspect is to fight vested interests that hamper competition, structural weaknesses of productivity and to allow, where needed, the nominal adjustments to play out. based on a comparison of central banks ’ simplified balance sheets as defined in the article entitled “ recent developments in the balance sheets of the eurosystem, the federal reserve system and the bank of japan ”, ecb monthly bulletin october 2009, pp. 81 – 94. bis central bankers ’ speeches and such an agenda also comprises a number of european measures to fully complete the single market especially in the area of services and to allow for higher labour mobility within the euro area. since the crisis started considerable progress has been made in making structural reforms in euro area countries, particularly those under an eu / imf programme. and the painful measures taken are starting to bear fruit. in greece, ireland and portugal current account balances have improved

, april 8, 1989, www. nytimes. com / 1989 / 04 / 08 / business / the - new - look - to - bankers - hours. html. their employer. today, the ach operates with important roles for the private sector and the fed, is available nationwide, and constitutes a vital piece of infrastructure supporting earlier access to funds and reliable settlement of payments. 5 moving to 24 / 7 real - time settlement today, our payment system is again at a crossroads. there is a growing gap between the transaction capabilities we need and expect in the digital economy - - fast, convenient, and accessible to all - - and the underlying settlement capabilities. consumers and businesses increasingly expect to complete transactions with a simple keystroke, swipe, or tap. if i want to split a restaurant tab with my friends, i can use an app on my smartphone. but my friends have to be signed up for the same app to receive the payment, and they may have to wait for confirmation that the funds have moved from the app into their bank accounts before they can use the funds outside the app. similarly, if i want to make a purchase from a vendor online, all i have to do is upload my payment information and touch a screen to complete the purchase immediately. but that payment in turn may not be immediately available to the seller. while we are seeing a growing demand for payments to be as instantaneous as the apps on our smartphones, in reality, under the hood, these payments currently rely on a patchwork of systems that can result in inefficiencies and delays, as well as uneven access. to meet the expectations of our 24 / 7 app economy, there is a growing demand for broadly and nationally accessible faster payments that make funds available immediately. faster payments would allow according to the federal reserve payments study 2016, in 2015, the ach system was used for 23. 5 billion payments, totaling $ 145. 3 trillion in value. see www. federalreserve. gov / paymentsystems / files / 2016 - paymentsstudy - 20161222. pdf. consumers and businesses to send and immediately receive payments at any time of the day, any day of the year, and provide recipients the ability to use their funds anywhere they choose. 6 nascent faster payment services are emerging to address this demand from individuals and businesses for the capability to manage their finances more efficiently in real time. these faster payment innovations are striving to keep