patrick honohan : recent economic developments in ireland and the outlook for the economy opening statement by mr patrick honohan, governor of the central bank & financial services authority of ireland, at the presentation of the annual report 2009, dublin, 16 july 2010. * * * we are today publishing the central bank ’ s 2009 annual report. the new central bank reform bill will formally create a new single unitary organisation. to reflect the reality of our new structures, this is the first such report to incorporate the annual reports of both the central bank and financial regulator in one publication. we are today also publishing our strategic plan, which i expect will also form the basis for our operations going forward under the new legislation, subject to the views of the new commission. i am joined by jim farrell, chairman of the financial regulator authority ; and mary sheehy, assistant director general and secretary of the bank. we will be happy to take your questions after our brief opening words. as we state in the annual report, the failures of the banking system here have rocked the economy and the public finances, with severe impacts on all members of society. to address this, the country is faced with three key policy issues : stabilisation and normalisation of the banking sector ; consolidation of the public finances ; and restoration of the economy ’ s competitiveness position. for our part in the central bank, the focus remains on restoring the health of the banking system. we have already taken action, in march of this year, to review and set new, higher capital requirements for our main banks. these new levels are based not just on expected loan losses but on potential losses in a stressed situation. we expect that the banks will meet the capital requirements set out by us, which we believe are sufficient to withstand future stress scenarios. a combination of capital raising and asset disposals, underpinned by government support, should ensure they meet those targets by december. we are also carrying out additional stress tests on aib and bank of ireland, as part of the european wide methodology set out by the committee of european banking supervisors ( cebs ). of course, we have already stress tested these banks in the earlier exercise i referred to. indeed, the severity of the tests we conducted earlier on loan losses exceeds that of the cebs version, although cebs has extended the test to reflect events in the sovereign debt markets. we will be providing details of this latest exercise on this day week. the new requirements we are imposing,

jean - claude trichet : financial integration, development and stability – lessons from the crisis ( introductory remarks ) speech by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, at the conference “ financial integration and stability : the legacy of the crisis ”, sponsored and organised by the european central bank and the european commission, frankfurt am main, 12 april 2010. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i would like to welcome you to this conference on financial integration and stability, jointly organised by the ecb and the european commission. i would like to thank in particular commissioner barnier for participating in this event, and his services for the smooth coorganisation of it. this joint conference is an illustration of the very good cooperation that exists since a long time between the two institutions. the european commission is in the driving seat on all what concerns financial integration. the ecb also a strong interest in this topic, because of the implications for the single monetary policy, our primary mandate, and also on financial stability and the operation of payment systems, areas where we have a statutory responsibility. the very good cooperation between our institutions has intensified in the wake of the financial crisis. let me just mention the recommendations and guidance we developed in the course of last year on support measures for banks in difficulties. this joint work limited the risk of unilateral and uncoordinated support measures by governments and was therefore crucial in maintaining a level playing field and in preserving the single market. it is a great pleasure for me to chair now the panel that will discuss some of key policy issues raised in the two reports presented to you earlier. we have the privilege of having four outstanding panellists with first hand experience in dealing with financial integration and stability at the highest level. michel barnier is since early this year european commissioner for internal market and services and before that he held various ministerial posts in french cabinets, including that of minister of foreign affairs and of european affairs. jaime caruana is since april last year general manager of the bank for international settlements. previously, he was counsellor to the managing director and director of the monetary and capital market department of the imf. jaime was also governor of the bank of spain, and in that capacity he served on the ecb ’ s governing council. vikram pandit is since end 2007 ceo of citigroup, a truly global financial player which has a history of being present in more than 100 countries worldwide. he took the helm of citi at a very difficult