daniel k tarullo : capital regulation across financial intermediaries speech by mr daniel k tarullo, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the bank of france conference “ financial regulation – stability versus uniformity ; a focus on non - bank actors ”, paris, 28 september 2015. * * * strengthening the quantity and quality of capital held by banks has been a central element of post - financial crisis regulatory reform. yet, as the topic of this conference reminds us, the crisis also exposed weaknesses in other financial intermediaries that carried systemic implications. in the united states, when bear stearns and lehman brothers failed, they were so - called freestanding investment banks, not subject even to the inadequate pre - crisis regulatory regime for bank holding companies. the stress at american international group ( aig ), an insurance company, and the vulnerability of money market funds to destabilizing runs contributed to a profound deepening of the crisis. hence the theme for this session of the conference : in light of this recent history and, more generally, of the steady growth of nonbank financial intermediaries, to what degree should they be subject to the capital regulations developed by the basel committee on banking supervision and applied to bank holding companies in the united states and to all commercial and investment banks in europe? at first glance, the answer to this question might seem intuitively obvious. after all, the risk of loss associated with a particular corporate loan or mortgage - backed security or, indeed, any other asset does not vary just because its legal owner is an insurance company or mutual fund, rather than a bank. yet we all know that regulatory capital requirements sometimes do vary with the nature of the firm. and i suspect that most people in this room believe there are good reasons why they should vary under at least some circumstances. in my remarks this morning, i will explain how the identification of those circumstances should proceed – by looking not at the asset side of a financial intermediary ’ s balance sheet, but at the liability side. the scope and nature of a firm ’ s liabilities provide the justifications for capital requirements regulation. differences in liabilities can, accordingly, sometimes warrant different capital requirements for portfolios of similar assets across firms. at the risk of packing too much into these introductory points, let me also note that an emphasis on a firm ’ s liabilities is related to, but not synonymous with, an emphasis on its activities. thus, for example,

peter praet : the euro area economic outlook and monetary policy intervention by mr peter praet, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at a panel discussion at the g - 20 conference " the g20 agenda under the german presidency ", organised by the institute of international finance, frankfurt am main, 15 march 2017. * * * the euro area recovery has been firming and broadening across sectors. gdp has posted 15 consecutive quarters of positive growth. the unemployment rate has reached its lowest level since 2009. the february composite output pmi stands at its maximum since april 2011. and consumer confidence, despite a slight decline in february, has so far remained undeterred by the elevated political uncertainty. overall, these indicators suggest that the cyclical recovery may be gaining momentum. the ecb ’ s monetary policy has been a key contributor to this positive track record. it has ensured supportive financial conditions and facilitated their pass - through to the borrowing costs of firms and households. as a consequence, euro area bank lending rates hover around their historical lows and have converged across countries. the resultant monetary stimulus has been indispensable to shield the recovery from an unsupportive global environment and strong deleveraging pressures in the private and public sectors. supported by monetary policy, the recovery is likely to continue and we have more confidence in the outlook. the latest ecb staff projections foresee a continued stable economic expansion over the next three years, with annual growth rates ranging between 1. 6 % and 1. 8 %. moreover, the downside risks around the growth outlook have become less pronounced, albeit remaining tilted to the downside. accordingly, we are no longer concerned about deflation risks. at the same time, the recovery has yet to translate into a durable and self - sustained pickup in inflation. the recent sharp uptick in headline inflation was mainly due to energy and food price inflation. our staff projections foresee that these price pressures will cause a hump on the inflation path that was projected in december, with the medium - term outlook for headline inflation largely unaltered. underlying inflation pressures continue to remain subdued as unutilised resources still weigh on wage and price formation. inflation rates excluding energy and unprocessed food, for instance, have remained below 1 % for almost a year. importantly, inflation dynamics continue to be conditional on a very substantial degree of monetary accommodation. looking through recent volatility, the inflation outlook does not