that third - country banks establishing subsidiaries will benefit from the level - playing field in the euro area. this may possibly be even a competitive advantage compared to other financial centers such as the uk. concerning ratings, i really am curious whether the ssm will provide more confidence in the european banking sector and thereby lead to better ratings for ssm banks. these are only some of the topics i am looking forward to discussing in the following panel. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

structural policies on the global role of the euro. ii. the evolving international use of the euro the international importance of the euro can be measured and assessed by the role it plays in global financial markets and international trade, the extent of its use by authorities ( and official institutions ) as a reserve, intervention and anchor currency, and its possible use by the public or firms outside the euro area as a parallel currency. a bird ’ s eye view of the evolution of the international use of the euro over the past ten years is presented in chart 1 ( slide 3 ), which shows the share of the euro in international trade and in a number of financial markets for debt securities, derivatives, official foreign exchange reserves, foreign exchange, and bank loans and deposits. in all of these markets, except for the foreign exchange market, the use of the euro has increased over the past ten years, particularly in international debt security markets, global official foreign exchange reserves and as a trade invoicing and settlement currency. an examination of how the international use of the euro has evolved over time complements the abovementioned conclusions. this involves assessing the implications of valuation effects resulting from exchange rate movements on the measurement of its international use and identifying the geographic or regional character of the euro ’ s international use. chart 2 shows that the euro ’ s share in global official foreign reserves ( the currency composition of which is known ) reached around 25 % at the end of december 2007. this was considerably higher than the corresponding share of the sum of all legacy currencies at the end of 1998, which accounted for about 18 %. overall, the evolution has been gradual : the share of the euro increased during the first five years following the introduction of the euro and has since remained relatively stable. if we adjust for valuation effects stemming from exchange rate movements ( notably the significant depreciation of the us dollar against the euro ), we see that the overall increase in the euro ’ s share over the past ten years has been smaller, and its time profile smoother. 1 when interpreting these figures, it should be borne in mind that no official statistics are available on the currency composition of about one - third of global foreign exchange reserves, since a number of countries with large holdings of reserves – mostly in asia – do not disclose their composition by currency. it is interesting to note that the share of the euro in the total official foreign exchange reserves held by the emerging market economies that provide the relevant statistics rose from around 18 % in 1999 to